Realme GT Review: a worthy rival of the Redmi K40 Pro

After our Redmi K40 and K40 Pro reviews last week, today we bring another flagship killer, the Realme GT. If you’ve been tracking the brand and this phone over the past few weeks, you should already know what model this phone is for. The placement of the Realme GT is like the brand making a bold announcement – “we’re coming for the Redmi K40 Pro”.

Even when Redmi announced the price of the K40 Pro, Realme just stepped forward and said the GT was going to be priced lower. And the brand did not go back on its word. The 8 + 128GB version only sells for 2799RMB, which is 200RMB cheaper than the same version of the K40 Pro.

So how does this flagship killer stack up against an already awesome smartphone – the Redmi K40 Pro?

Let’s find out!

Realme GT Review: Design

At first glance, we realized that the Realme GT was unlikely to beat the K40 Pro in the design department. But the good news is that the Realme GT is even more compact than the K40 Pro, which had already surprised us with its thin and light body. The GT weighs only 186g but at the same time has a slightly smaller 6.43-inch screen.

Thanks to its smaller screen, the Realme GT is easier to hold than the K40 Pro.

Perhaps due to the cost limitations on such an aggressively priced model, the Realme GT’s camera module is still a matrix design. This design is shared by almost all of Realme’s smartphones. And after reviewing so many models using this style of camera module, it’s hard not to feel a little bored with this design. The blue and silver color versions are also the same color schemes that were used before. The yellow leather version is quite nice, however, it is only available for the 12GB RAM + 256GB ROM variant.

The Realme GT has the now rare 3.5mm headphone jack, which is almost barely visible on smartphones these days. I have to give the brand the credit for including this dedicated port. But overall, I don’t think the Realme GT looks good enough to appeal to most people.

The 6.43-inch Super AMOLED display features 2400 x 1080 resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, but it doesn’t use the latest E4 electroluminescent display. The perforation area is also relatively larger if we compare it to the K40 series. This screen is still one of the most popular options for a 2021 mainstream model, however, nothing stands out. One thing to note here is that the Realme GT’s overall maximum screen brightness is only around 600 nits, while the K40 Pro has an overall maximum brightness of 900 nits. So when using the GT under direct sunlight, the insufficient brightness makes it a bit difficult to view the screen, especially compared to the K40 series.

Realme GT Review: Benchmarks and Hardware

Since the phone comes with the letters GT in its name, Snapdragon 888, LPDDR5, and UFS 3.1 are naturally not absent. All of these performance-related hardware are the best options for an Android phone in 2021. With GT mode enabled, in Antutu Benchmark the Realme GT gets over 740,000 points and in 3D Mark it gets around 5800 points.

In another benchmark, the Geekbench 5, we obtained a result of 1142 points in the single-core test and 3703 points in the multi-core test. So from all the results we mentioned, the GT achieved a similar level of performance to other Snapdragon 888 phones and was even a bit better than most Android phones we’ve ever tested.

Realme GT Review: Games

In the actual play test, the results are also excellent. In Genshin Impact’s thirty-minute test, the GT achieved an average frame rate of 55.03 fps. It started slowing down the processor clock speed after three and a half minutes, but still managed to maintain a good gaming experience.

And in another game, the Nimian Legends, the Realme GT surprised us with an average frame rate of 51.75 fps, given that this game particularly tested the cooling effects of the phone. Like Genshin Impact, it experienced a slight decrease in performance while still maintaining a good gaming experience due to the excellent cooling effect.

And the hottest was around 51 ℃. I wouldn’t say this temperature is low, but at least it’s better than many Snapdragon 888 models that have struggled to maintain such high performance. Based on our testing, it looks like the Realme GT lives up to its GT name.

Realme GT Review: Camera

Like the K40Pro, the camera system is GT’s weak spot as well, so let’s talk briefly about its camera performance. The Realme GT comes with a 64MP main camera, 8MP ultra wide angle lens, and another 2MP macro lens.

Just to be clear, the general photo examples are taken with AI color enabled, auto HDR and the rest is left as default except for special scenes.

Primary Camera

The main camera produces strong, vivid colors with good dynamic range. The color contrast is high and the color gradation is relatively natural. The general images often showed a style pleasing to the eye.

Night – Main camera

At night, the Realme GT’s Auto mode works great, with good exposure and accurate colors. Compared to the K40 Pro, the GT also performs much better in the dynamic range and image detail departments. And since Realme GT’s night scene algorithm was automatically enabled in its automatic mode, there was little difference in nighttime footage when we manually enabled night mode.

Ultra wide angle camera

The images taken on the Realme GT’s wide-angle camera are basically the same as what we had on the main camera. But the purple fringing problem is a bit noticeable for wide angle samples. In normal night scenes, except for the dynamic range which is slightly better on the Realme GT, there is no obvious difference between GT and K40 Pro. Because the K40’s wide-angle camera doesn’t incorporate the nighttime algorithm for automatic mode, it suffers in extremely dark conditions.

Macro camera

For macro shooting, samples taken with the Realme GT’s macro lens cannot even be compared to cropped images from the original main camera samples. And the closest focus point of this macro camera is limited to 4cm, so this sensor is pretty much useless and you can even assume it doesn’t exist.

Realme GT Review: Loading

If there is anything really well done about the Realme GT to be pointed out, it is the 65W charging technology. The phone charges to 21% in just five minutes, to 61% in 15 minutes, and it only took 31 minutes to charge to 100%. While this isn’t the fastest charging speed we’ve ever seen, it’s still the best in its price segment when you compare it to its rivals. Despite its high charging power, it does not sacrifice battery capacity. With a 4,500mAh battery, it consumed 6% power each for 30 minutes of tiktok and 30 minutes of web video playback, 19% for 30-minute Genshin Impact games, and 16% for 20-minute Nimian Legend games. .

Considering its excellent gaming performance, the battery life is truly impressive.

Realme GT Review: Verdict

So that’s what you should expect from the Realme GT. The phone has really done a great job in the performance and gaming departments. Even compared to the K40 Pro which was released around at the same time, the Realme GT seems to have been able to optimize the 888 chipset better.

As a challenger trying to win the competition against the K40 Pro, Realme knows it needs solid features to make the GT more value for money. And they have succeeded in doing so to a large extent. But it’s a bit disappointing that its design and camera module didn’t surprise us much. While, at least on the K40 series, we were excited about its new design profile.

So which model will you choose between the K40 Pro and the Realme GT? And for what reason? Please leave your comments below and share your views with us.

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