Realme GT Neo 3 (150W) review: Smartphone built for speed?
Recently, Realme has launched its successor GT Neo 3. It has a main camera with OIS function and a new processor. It also comes with a special 150W fast charging model, which I am going to discuss today. Is the Realme GT Neo 3 (150W) a step ahead of its predecessor? Let us know in the review how it competes with the rest of the premium smartphones in this segment.
Realme GT Neo 3 (150W) PRICE IN INDIA
Realme GT Neo 3 (150W) The price in India is Rs 42,999. This model gets a 4,500mAh battery and comes with a 150W charger in the box. The 80W model gets a 5,000 mAh battery. This model is available in two variants. One gets 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage, the price is Rs 36,999. The second variant has 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The price is Rs 38,999. Both models come with three color options, including Asphalt Black, Nitro Blue and Spring White. Racing stripes are available on the rear panel in Nitro Blue and Spring White, while the black variant has a solid finish.
Realme GT Neo 3 (150W) design
The build of Realme GT Neo 3 is similar to GT Neo 2. The difference can be seen in the new finish, the layout of the rear camera and the cutout in the center of the perforation for selfies. Instead of the glossy two-tone back panel of the GT Neo 2, the company has now given a simple frosted AG glass, on which fingerprints fall very quickly.
GT Neo 3, OnePlus 10R Feels more premium than this and feels good in the hand. It weighs 188 grams, which isn’t too heavy, but isn’t better for one-handed use. The large display is protected by Gorilla Glass 5 and fingerprints are visible on it. But they can be cleaned easily. The hole punch AMOLED screen has slim bezels all around, adding more value to its premium look.
The middle frame of the phone is made of polycarbonate. Like the back panel, it also has a matte finish so it feels like it’s gliding in the hand. But the company has provided a transparent TPU case with the box that provides good grip and is easily visible to all even after applying the phone’s design.
Realme GT Neo 3 Specifications and Software
MediaTek Dimensity 8100 SoC has been given in Realme GT Neo 3. The company has put in it an image chipset called Dedicated Display Processor. The company says this will reduce power consumption and improve gaming performance. For connectivity, it supports Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC and Type-C port, as well as a satellite navigation system. The fingerprint scanner is placed in the display and works well.
Realme has created a better user interface by combining Material You and Realme UI with Android 12. The Realme UI 3.0 is similar to the stock phone and the icons are slightly different from the Pixel phones. All widgets in Android 12 work as expected and the theme engine changes the color of the keyboard, widgets and other icons depending on the installed wallpaper. The Personalization section in the Settings app is similar to OnePlus and Oppo. Here you can customize things like icon shape, quick settings icon, and system font.
Like other realme phones, it also gets pre-installed third-party apps from around the world. But this software does not spoil the experience and they can also be removed if necessary. But the notifications I got from Themes Store app really bothered me.
Realme GT Neo 3 (150W) Performance
Realme GT Neo 3 has a 6.7-inch FullHD+ AMOLED display with a refresh rate of 120Hz. It shines brightly even in direct sunlight and reading is no problem. Colors look quite punchy in the default Vivid Screen color mode. The refresh rate is adaptive, but can only switch between 60 Hz and 120 Hz depending on the app running. It ran at 60 Hz while watching a movie and at 120 Hz while navigating the user interface. In games, the screen closed at 60 Hz compared to what it normally should be 120 Hz, which disappointed me.
HDR10 video streaming certification is lacking for apps like Netflix, but standard content looks sharp, with decent black levels. The stereo speakers in the phone make loud and clear sound, which makes the video and gaming experience much better.
The performance of the software was also fine. The benchmark scores are close to a phone with a Snapdragon 888 chip. The phone scored 8,10,225 points on AnTuTu. It scored 969 and 4,065 points respectively in the single and multi-core tests on Geekbench. It hit 54 fps and 60 fps in GFXBench’s T-rex and Manhattan 3.1 gaming tests while powered by the Snapdragon 888 Xiaomi 11T Pro Here it runs at 121 fps and 100 fps.
The real world game performance also didn’t attract much attention until GT mode was turned on. In normal mode, games like Call of Duty: Mobile and Asphalt 9: Legends were seen skipping frames on the high graphics setting, but they ran fine in medium mode. In GT mode, the game ran well even on the highest possible setting, but didn’t feel as smooth as I’d like. Surprisingly, I also got a 60fps mode when playing Asphalt 9:Legends, which I’ve only noticed so far on a Snapdragon processor device.
The battery life of the phone is good. It lasted a day and a half on a single charge, while using heavy gaming and camera in it. The phone lasted 19 hours and 26 minutes in our HD video run test, which is pretty good for a premium smartphone.
The 150W charger charged the phone from zero to 100 percent in just 16 minutes. This is the fastest charging speed ever found in a phone. During this the phone got very hot which also made me a bit concerned. However, the company has claimed that many safety measures have been put in place to prevent any kind of accident. Like the OnePlus 10R Endurance Edition, it also gets a notification that warns the phone about overheating while charging.
Realme GT Neo 3 . Cameras
The primary camera (OIS) in the Realme GT Neo 3 is a 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 sensor. The second camera is an 8-megapixel ultra-wide angle lens and the third camera is a 2-megapixel macro shooter. The focus is fixed in both secondary cameras. A 16-megapixel camera is provided for selfies. In this, the company has used a Samsung sensor, whose aperture is larger and the field of view is also more.
Compared to GT Neo 2, the daytime performance of the phone turns out to be very good. The exposure was good in landscape shots and the dynamic range was good too. Photos taken with the primary camera had decent detail, but the photos looked a bit saturated, especially when compared to photos taken with the ultra-wide camera.
Photos taken with an ultra-wide camera gave a large field of view of 120 degrees, but these photos had a relatively limited dynamic range and the edges of the frame gave a slightly blurry effect. Sharpness was good in close-up photos of flowers taken with the primary camera, but the photo looked saturated. The 2X digital zoom works fine, but the details in the photo are slightly lost.
Photos taken in portrait mode managed the colors well. They were toned and natural looking. Edge detection was good and the dynamic range was good, along with the backlight. Selfies taken with the front camera were a bit over-sharp and looked saturated. The background seemed too bright. Selfies in portrait mode looked better quality, but the edge detection was average here.
The macro camera took average photos with a purple fringe-like effect on the edge. The focus system interfered a bit here. Photos taken in low light with the phone’s primary camera had good detail, and the dynamic range was better too. In the photos taken with Night Mode, the scene appeared brighter, making the bright areas of the original scene look more blown out. Selfies taken in low light were nothing special and felt soft with less detail. Low-light selfies with Portrait mode were captured with a lot of noise, with a lack of texture on the subject.
The quality of the videos recorded with the phone was quite good. Videos shot in daylight at 1080p were decent, but the detail wasn’t that great. Videos shot in 4K delivered good detail, but the dynamic range fell short here. They also lacked stabilization. The AI Highlight feature has improved dynamic range, but videos weren’t as smooth and sharp, and the resolution was limited to 1080p 30fps. Video recorded at 1080p in low light had limited dynamic range and looked soft. Images shot at 30 fps in 4K looked the best, but again there was a lack of stabilization.
Compared to Realme GT Neo 2, the image quality of the primary camera has become much better. The company has also used this sensor in low-cost smartphones such as Realme 9 Pro + 5G. I liked the quality of the picture but it is way behind the competing device like iQoo 9 SE.
our decision
As for the GT Neo 3 (150W), I agree with the company that it is a smartphone built for speed. It has a racing-inspired design, a 150W charging system, a bright 120Hz display and a high-performing processor. The camera is much improved over the old model.
Having more features does not make it a competitive smartphone. Other than the upgrade from the older model, it comes close to the rest of the rivals. The 150W charging system tends to overheat the phone, and the 120Hz refresh rate doesn’t work for most of the games I tried to play. The phone lags slightly behind its rivals with Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 in terms of performance. It doesn’t get features like IP rating and wireless charging, which: Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G And Apple iPhone (2022) I get it for the same price.
I’d even go so far as to say that the regular 80W model also seems a bit expensive, as the iQoo 9 SE offers a better camera and performance for a lower starting price. If you are a fan of Reality, then for the current price you can buy the Realme GT Neo 3 (150W), or you can also see it as the smartphone with the fastest charging speed at the moment.
