Realme GT Neo 3T Evaluate: Speedy however Samey

The Realme GT Neo 3T offers a considerably extra inexpensive mid-range smartphone various to the common Realme GT Neo 3. Priced at £369, its nearest rivals are the OnePlus Nord 2T and, considerably awkwardly, the Realme 9 Professional+.

Often called the Realme Q5 Professional in different markets (to not point out my take a look at mannequin’s ‘About gadget’ display screen), and with rather more in frequent with final yr’s Realme GT Neo 2 than this yr’s Realme GT Neo 3, there’s the particular whiff of {hardware} repurposing within the air.

With an eye catching racy design (relying on the color you go for), succesful efficiency and fast charging, it’s one other speedy addition to the GT line. However is velocity all you want at this finish of the market in 2022?

Design & Construct

Divisive design
8.7mm, 195g
No IP ranking

Realme has made fairly the identify for itself in the case of considering outdoors of the field with its designs. Following on from the chameleon-like end of the Realme 9 Professional+ and the go-faster stripes of the common Realme GT Neo Three we have now the ‘offended bee in System 1 livery’ seems of the Realme GT Neo 3T.

Supplied you go for Sprint Yellow shade slightly than the Drifting White or Shade Black choices, that’s. Happily, Realme did certainly ship me a Sprint Yellow unit. Or ought to that be, sadly?

The waxy yellow plastic look of the rear cowl is definitely an acquired style. Maintain the telephone at an angle and also you’ll discover a chequer boarding impact throughout that rear panel, which is mirrored in a bit of strip between the 2 major digicam modules.

That digicam module, along with the plastic body, are rendered in deep black. The distinction makes fairly a press release, although whether or not that’s a constructive factor or a reason for embarrassment will come down to non-public style. This being a evaluate, I’ll come out and admit that I don’t prefer it, however I respect Realme for attempting one thing totally different.

In any other case, it is a deeply generic smartphone design, with a really comparable form and proportions to the Realme GT Neo 3, which I needed to hand throughout my evaluate interval. I weighed the GT Neo 3T at 195g, which is 5g greater than the OnePlus Nord 2T and 13g greater than the Realme 9 Professional+.

There is not any IP ranking right here for mud or waterproofing.

Display & Audio system

6.62in AMOLED
Full HD+
120Hz

The Realme GT Neo 3T packs a 6.62in AMOLED show with a Full HD+ decision and most refresh fee of 120Hz. That makes it greater and smoother than each the Realme 9 Professional+ and the OnePlus Nord 2T, and only a smidgen smaller than the complete Realme GT Neo 3.

It’s claimed that this display screen will get to a peak brightness of 1300 nits, presumably underneath auto brightness and direct daylight circumstances making it tough to check. With auto brightness turned off, I recorded a most brightness of 468 nits, which is respectable.

When it comes to color accuracy, I discovered the Pure show setting to be preferable for its much less gaudy output. Underneath these circumstances, I recorded a gamut protection of 100% sRGB in opposition to a gamut quantity of 107%, with a Delta E rating of 1.35 (with 1 being the best).

It’s not a prime tier AMOLED, then, nor even pretty much as good a panel as that of the Realme GT Neo 3, however it’s a stable effort that competes properly with the remainder of the £400-ish crowd.

You additionally get a speedy, dependable in-display optical fingerprint sensor. That’s to be anticipated for this kind of cash, but it surely’s price mentioning nonetheless.

There are stereo audio system right here, although they provide a noticeably asymmetrical output, with the bottom-firing speaker far more distinguished than the weedy earpiece speaker. There’s no headphone jack right here both, not like with the Realme 9 Professional+.

Specs & Efficiency

Snapdragon 870
8GB RAM
128/256GB storage

Realme has outfitted its new mid-ranger with a Snapdragon 870 from Qualcomm. Whereas it is a barely older mid-range chip that first appeared in early 2021, it completely blitzed the competitors on the time.

Most notably, the Poco F3 used this chip to embarrass plenty of pricier fashions. It’s additionally the chip that powered final yr’s Realme GT Neo 2 to nice impact. Like I mentioned within the intro, there are lots of similarities between these two telephones.

Whereas it’s not fairly the disruptive tearaway it was, the Snapdragon 870 stays a really succesful mid-range chip. Basically an overclocked Snapdragon 865 (the go-to flagship chip of 2020), it right here produces common Geekbench 5 scores of 996 single core and 2881 multi-core.

These single-core scores stay aggressive with 2022 flagships, and positively thrash the OnePlus Nord 2T with its newer Dimensity 1300. It topped the OnePlus Nord 2T in every of our GFXBench GPU assessments, too.

Backed by Realme’s Stainless Metal Vapor Cooling System Plus, which ensures that the chip stays cool underneath sustained load, the Realme GT Neo 3T is a stable alternative for avid gamers on a price range. I used to be in a position to run Genshin Impression on Excessive graphical settings and 60fps with playable outcomes.

Within the UK, you will get 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage – though my evaluate pattern had 256GB which is reserved for the Europe-only Dragon Ball Z Version (which this isn’t).

Cameras

64Mp major digicam
8Mp ultrawide
2Mp macro
16Mp selfie

I’ve already touched upon the Realme GT Neo 3T’s inherent similarity to the Realme GT Neo 2, and that carries by means of to the digicam system. It appears to be an identical, with a 64Mp broad sensor with 8Mp ultrawide and a 2Mp macro.

For sure, the picture high quality falls properly behind that of the pricier Realme GT Neo Three with its flagship-standard Sony IMX766 sensor. The difficulty is, each the OnePlus Nord 2T and the Realme 9 Professional+ run this identical sensor, and so they price the identical kind of cash because the GT Neo 3T.

This high quality shortfall isn’t at all times obvious in good lighting, the place the Realme GT Neo 3T’s major sensor can seize sharp, vibrant pictures. I used to be genuinely happy with most of the outcomes I received.

I’d advocate steering away from Realme’s AI assistant for essentially the most half, although. Whereas it served to brighten up among the dingier daytime pictures I took, and efficiently compensated for some difficult HDR eventualities in others, it additionally threw the colors out of whack in additional regular pictures. We’re speaking nuclear greens and glowing reds right here.

These aforementioned rival telephones open out an enormous lead in the case of low mild efficiency, particularly when the Night time mode comes into play. The GT Neo 3T’s night time snaps turned out murky and missing intimately by comparability.

Realme’s 8Mp ultrawide doesn’t provide a lot to shout about, with inferior element, edge constancy, and hues. There’s no telephoto lens to name upon for zoomed pictures both, so that you’ll should depend on crops from the principle sensor.

After all, each of these final two criticisms will be levelled on the Realme GT Neo 3T’s major rivals, and the overwhelming majority of sub-flagship telephones for that matter.

The much less mentioned concerning the 2Mp macro digicam the higher however if you happen to insist, it’s predictably ineffective. There is a devoted Extremely Macro mode within the digicam app, however the outcomes are so smooth and low-res that they utterly defeat the aim, which is in fact to intensify element on excessive close-ups.

The 16Mp selfie digicam isn’t of nice high quality. In comparison with the GT Neo Three equal it’s badly missing in positive element, and it struggles to rein in highlights.

Battery Life & Charging

5000mAh cell
80W quick charging
Adapter included

The Realme GT Neo 3T comes with a 5000mAh battery. That makes it similar to the Realme GT Neo 2, and provides a uncommon benefit over the 4500mAh GT Neo 3. It additionally one-ups the OnePlus Nord 2T and the Realme 9 Professional+, each of which additionally include 4500mAh cells.

I discovered {that a} full day of average utilization (round Three hours of display screen on time) would nonetheless go away me with properly over half a tank full, which is robust going.

Elsewhere, a PCMark Work 3.Zero battery life rating of 13 hours 52 minutes is a bit of higher than the Realme 9 Professional+, and a couple of hours 30 minutes higher than the OnePlus Nord 2 (we have been unable to get the OnePlus Nord 2T to run this take a look at in our evaluate).

It falls a great Three hours wanting the iQoo Neo 6, nevertheless, which exhibits that it’s doable to optimise higher with comparable parts.

Realme has bundled its telephone with an 80W charger, which in my expertise is able to getting you from Zero to 60% in simply 15 minutes, and to 100% in round 32 minutes. That’s just a few minutes wanting the OnePlus Nord 2T in each circumstances.

Software program

Android 12
Realme UI 3.0
Two years of OS updates

The Realme GT Neo 3T launches with Realme UI 3.Zero based mostly on Android 12, similar to the Realme GT Neo Three and the Realme 9 Professional+. It sports activities the identical cohesive if considerably charmless structure, with Google Feed to the left and a full app tray an upwards drag away.

You additionally should put up with an identical degree of bloatware, together with obligatory preinstallations of Fb, Amazon Purchasing, TikTok and LinkedIn. Not less than there’s no Reserving.com this time round.

Realme retains its UI gildings comparatively low key, definitely in comparison with the likes of Xiaomi’s MIUI. Its menus are clean and uncluttered, and it’s a usually nice OS to navigate by means of, even because it loses type factors to these skins that adhere nearer to inventory Android (and OnePlus’s sharp OxygenOS).

As with different current Realme telephones, the Realme Lab Settings menu lets you use the fingerprint sensor to take your coronary heart fee measurement, if such a factor is of curiosity. This display screen additionally consists of such fascinating experimental options as the flexibility to make use of a pair of wired headphones and a pair of Bluetooth headphones concurrently.

The latter may need really been fairly helpful had Realme opted to incorporate a 3.5mm headphone jack. Get away these USB-C-to–3.5mm adaptors if you happen to’ve received them.

When it comes to future help, you get two years of OS updates and three years of Realme UI safety help which is fairly normal for mid-range telephones.

Value & Availability

The Realme GT Neo 3T is priced at £369 getting you 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The telephone will go on-sale on 15 June from Realme.com and Amazon.

At this worth, it competes straight with the OnePlus Nord 2T and Realme’s personal Realme 9 Professional+, in addition to the likes of the Oppo Discover X5 Lite for just a bit over the £400 mark.

If you happen to do need extra storage you then’ll should get the Dragon Ball Z Version for €499.99 – additionally with 8GB of RAM – which is able to launch in chosen European markets on Eight July.

Try our listing of the very best mid-range telephones to see extra choices.

Verdict

The Realme GT Neo 3T is a curiously positioned gadget, with a price ticket that encroaches on the Realme 9 Professional+’s territory and a spec listing that carefully resembles the Realme GT Neo 2.

The digicam is nothing to put in writing residence about, particularly when in comparison with rivals such because the OnePlus Nord 2T and the Realme 9 Professional+, and the intense yellow livery of my take a look at mannequin received’t be to everybody’s style.

It’s an undeniably speedy telephone, nevertheless, whether or not you’re speaking about its classic Snapdragon 870 engine, its 120Hz AMOLED show, or its decidedly fashionable 80W charger.

If you happen to’re a stickler for efficiency or an avid gamer with a sub-£400 price range, it’s worthy of being added to your shortlist however undoubtedly take a look at the competitors – even Realme’s different handsets – earlier than pulling the set off.

Specs
Realme GT Neo 3T: Specs

Android 12, Realme UI 3.0

6.62in, FHD+, AMOLED, 120Hz, flat show

In-display fingerprint sensor

Qualcomm Snapdragon 870

8GB RAM

128/256GB storage

64Mp, f/1.Eight major digicam

8Mp ultra-wide digicam

2Mp macro digicam

As much as 4K @ 60fps rear video

16Mp front-facing digicam