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Realme Book Slim Review | Gadgets 360

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Not many new tech brands manage to stick around, especially in India, but Realme has come a long way in a short time. Its portfolio has expanded from smartphones to audio products, TVs, wearables, accessories, and personal care products. Earlier this year, the company branched out even further, launching a new tablet and a laptop. The target market is the same in nearly all cases – young, tech-savvy Indians who like a bit of style but love a good price even more. It will be interesting to see whether Realme can replicate its success with smartphones in the far more cost-sensitive laptop market in India.

The Realme Book Slim is obviously positioned as an ultraportable laptop. As with many of its phones, Realme has chosen a few features and specifications to focus on, allowing it to grab potential buyers’ attention. We’re going to talk about all of them, and what they mean for overall usability. Read on to see whether the Realme Book Slim should be on your radar the next time you go shopping for a laptop.

 

Realme Book Slim price in India

The starting price for the Realme Book Slim in India is Rs. 46,999. This gets you an 11th Gen Intel Core i3 CPU and 256GB SSD. If you want to step up, there’s another option with a Core i5 CPU and 512GB SSD, priced at Rs. 59,999. There are a few other subtle differences between these variants too, which we’ll get into detail about in this review.

You also have a choice between Real Blue and Real Grey body colours. This laptop is available from Realme’s website as well as Flipkart and offline retail stores.

Realme Book Slim design

The body of the Realme Book Slim is made entirely of aluminium. The Real Blue unit I received for this review looks quite striking. The colour is a rich jewel tone, and is spread all across the inner and outer surfaces of this laptop, except for the frame around the screen. As its name suggests, this laptop is 15.5mm thick at its thickest point, and weighs 1.38kg. It isn’t the most compact 14-inch laptop around, but it fits well within the ultraportable segment.

The lid has a sandblasted texture, and there’s a reflective but relatively subtle off-centre Realme logo. We’ve seen some over-the-top designs from this company recently, and luckily the Realme Book Slim does not have any such flair. The Real Blue finish might stand out a little in a conference room or lecture hall, but there’s always the Real Grey option if you prefer subtlety.

The hinge opens to nearly 180 degrees so you can adjust the screen angle to your comfort

 

You can’t easily raise the lid with one finger, but the hinge does feel solid, and the screen can be pushed back to a little less than 180 degrees. The side borders are quite narrow and there’s only just enough space at the top for a webcam. There is some minor flex to the lid but the screen only distorts if a lot of pressure is applied deliberately.

One result of the unusual 3:2 display aspect ratio is a squarish overall body, which means there’s enough room on the lower deck for a large keyboard and trackpad. In terms of keyboard layout, Realme has done well enough. There aren’t any dedicated paging keys (or even markings for Fn key combos), and the arrow key cluster is cramped but usable. White backlighting is good to have, but there are only two brightness levels. The power button in the upper right corner has an integrated fingerprint sensor.

On the left, you’ll find two Type-C ports (the exact specifications vary based on which variant you choose) and a charging indicator. Both ports can be used for fast charging at up to 65W, and DisplayPort video output is supported. On the right, there’s one more USB 3.1 Type-A port and a 3.5mm audio output. That isn’t a lot of ports, but it’s alright for ultraportables today. An SD card slot and HDMI video output would have been nice.

Once nice touch on my review unit was a lack of visible stickers. These are on the bottom, along with down-firing speakers and a large air intake vent. There are two cooling fans, and warm air is exhausted through the hinge barrel.

The keyboard has a few quirks but is overall comfortable to use

 

Realme Book Slim specifications

Realme offers two variants, and as stated earlier, there are some obvious as well as some subtle differences. The lower priced one features an Intel Core i3-1115G4 CPU while the more premium offering has a Core i5-1135G7. Both are based on the 11th Gen 10nm ‘Tiger Lake’ architecture, but while the former has only two cores and features the older Intel UHD integrated GPU, the latter has four cores and benefits from Intel’s higher-tier Iris Xe graphics.

You get 256GB and 512GB of storage with these two variants, respectively, both in the form of NVMe SSDs, and Realme has shared different performance targets for the two: 2400MBps and 950MBps sequential reads and writes respectively for the former, versus 3100MBps and 1800MBps respectively for the latter. In real-world use, these numbers won’t matter so much except in rare situations.

Beyond that, the Core i5 version of this laptop features LPDDR4X-4266 RAM, a Thunderbolt 4 port, and a Wi-Fi 6/Bluetooth 5.2 module, while the Core i3 version makes do with LPDDR4X-3733, USB 3.2×2 Gen2, Wi-Fi 5, and Bluetooth 5.1. Interestingly, only the higher-end variant qualifies for an Intel Evo badge – you can read all about what that means here.

Realme makes most of this information clear on its website, and the rest, particularly the SSD performance information, was shared with Gadgets 360 for the purpose of this review. Not all companies are so forthcoming with such details.

The Realme Book Slim has a somewhat limited array of ports

 

Both versions have 8GB of RAM which is unfortunately soldered and not upgradeable. The webcam has a 720p resolution. You get a 54Wh battery and 65W fast charging support. Realme ships a relatively compact 65W USB-PD charger in the box, which is also capable of 30W Dash Charging if you use it with a compatible phone.

But the main attraction for the Realme Book Slim is its display. It’s an unusual panel, especially at this price level, with a 3:2 aspect ratio that’s more square than rectangular, and a pretty high resolution of 2160×1440 (which qualifies as “2K”). The 3:2 aspect ratio is useful for work, especially if that involves a lot of vertical scrolling. On the downside, you’ll see thick black bars above and below any widescreen video that plays. The company claims 100 percent sRGB colour gamut coverage and 330nits typical brightness.

You get Windows 10 Home, which can be updated to Windows 11 Home for free as and when Microsoft rolls it out. You also get a full license for Microsoft Office Home & Student 2019. Realme preinstalls an app of its own called PC Connect, which is meant to let you copy data wirelessly as well as sync clipboards and notifications with a Realme or Oppo smartphone. As of now, it’s only officially compatible with a few phones in the Realme GT series, though some users have reported getting it to work with older models as well.

The power button doubles as a fingerprint sensor for quick Windows Hello authentication

 

Realme Book Slim performance and usage

Realme sent me the lower-end version of this laptop, with the weaker 11th Gen Core i3 CPU for this review. Despite having only two cores (plus Hyper-Threading), performance was actually quite snappy. I managed to get my work done with a dozen or more browser tabs open, some of which were fairly heavy Web-based apps.

Videos look pretty good, and I didn’t mind the letterboxing because there’s still enough screen space, and it’s well worth the tradeoff when it comes to getting work done. Realme has gone with a glossy panel which is fairly reflective, especially under overhead lighting, and I had to bump up the brightness to work comfortably sometimes. Colours look fairly natural and everything is crisp, but this panel isn’t especially vivid. I reduced Windows’ default 150 percent scaling to 125 percent, which allowed me to more comfortably fit two Web pages or documents side by side. The stereo speakers are fairly loud and produce a surprisingly deep, roomy sound, though the treble is still a bit harsh.

The keyboard has a crisp action and travel is reasonable for an ultra-slim laptop. I found it fairly easy to type on for long stretches, and accuracy wasn’t a problem. On the downside, the Fn row is set to prioritise shortcuts by default and there’s no way to swap or lock, so you need to use Fn key combos to use their intended functionality. Some manufacturers can sense common shortcuts such as Alt+F4 no matter what your default is, but not Realme. Another little quirk is that the PrtSc button doesn’t actually send a Print Screen command – it’s a shortcut to the Windows 10 Snipping Tool. This means you can’t use keyboard combos to automatically save a screenshot or capture one to the clipboard without additional clicks. This can be verified by simply checking keypresses against what registers on the Windows On-Screen Keyboard. It isn’t a huge problem but it can be irritating.

The trackpad is large but doesn’t get in the way. It supports Windows’ multi-touch gestures. I wasn’t too impressed with its physical click mechanism but tapping works fine. There’s almost no flex when pressing down hard on the keyboard.

This laptop is 15.5mm thick at its thickest point and weighs 1.38kg

 

I did notice the upper middle of the keyboard get a bit warm when anything even slightly stressful was running. Under heavy load, the metal above the keyboard got quite hot but thankfully the wrist rest areas stayed cool. Also, I could feel the whole body vibrating when the fans were spinning.

Speaking of heavy load, let’s talk about benchmarks. PCMark 10 gives us a general overview of performance, and the Realme Book Slim scored 4,213 and 3,677 in the standard and Extended runs respectively, which is not bad at all. Cinebench R20 reported scores of 497 and 1,273 points respectively which shows the limited scaling you get with only two cores in heavily threaded applications such as content creation. POVRay took 4 minutes, 13 seconds which is a bit above average for the same reason. As for the integrated GPU, 3DMark’s Fire Strike Extreme test produced a score of 1,412, while the Time Spy score was 1,019.

Even somewhat dated games ran poorly on the Core i3 variant of the Realme Book Slim. Many games won’t recognise the 3:2 aspect ratio, but can work at 4:3 or 16:10 which minimises letterboxing. I kept the resolution at 1280×960 for game tests. Shadow of the Tomb Raider only managed to average 21fps at this resolution using the Low preset, and Far Cry didn’t do much better, with an average of 25fps. The Unigine Superimposition test averaged 14.02fps at 1920×1080 using the Medium preset.

We also saw better SSD performance than Realme has indicated for this variant – 3113.7MBps and 1239.7MBps sequential reads and writes respectively, measured using CrystalDiskMark. Random reads and writes were also respectable at 900.3MBps and 476.3MBps respectively. The 256GB of storage space on my unit was for some reason partitioned into two logical drives, which is unnecessary.

I was able to get between six and eight hours of ordinary use including a little video streaming, before this laptop needed to be plugged in. The intense Battery Eater Pro benchmark ran for just over two hours. I was able to charge the Realme Book Slim to about 30 percent in half an hour when it wasn’t being used, and it took almost two hours to fill completely when it was running.

Realme offers its first laptop in a distinctive colour, and a grey version is also available.

 

Verdict

Realme clearly has the current-gen MacBook Air in its sights. The Realme Book Slim comes in at a much lower price but has a lot of the same appeal. It’s highly portable and has a crisp, high-resolution screen, which is something you don’t usually see in this segment. Established Windows laptop makers should also take notice – there aren’t many competitors with this combination of features in an ultraportable at this price. Even recent entrant Xiaomi doesn’t quite target this market, though the 2021 Mi Notebook Pro will compete with the Core i5 variant of this laptop.

The large, crisp display is the main attraction here. Battery life is good, and even the seemingly modest specifications of the lower-priced variant should be enough for most students, office workers, and home users. However, the overall usage experience lacks a little polish, and Realme…

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Realme 9 Pro+ Review: Excellent Value for Money

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The Realme 9 Pro+ is a new addition to the company’s vast and already confusing lineup of smartphones. Traditionally, Realme has always led with the core models in its number series together, but this year we got the Realme 9i first, in January. With this latest launch, instead of the expected Realme 9 and 9 Pro, we’re getting the Realme 9 Pro and a new Realme 9 Pro+.

The Realme 9 Pro+ is meant to take on the new Xiaomi 11 series and the OnePlus Nord series of mid-range smartphones. So, what’s new about the Realme 9 Pro+, and is it worth the premium over the Realme 9 Pro?

Realme 9 Pro+ price in India

The Realme 9 Pro+ is available in three variants. There’s a base variant with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, priced at Rs. 24,999 in India. The second variant has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and is priced at Rs. 26,999. The top-of-the-line option with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage is priced at Rs. 28,999. I received the top-end version for this review.

Going by the launch prices of the Realme 9 Pro+, there seems to be an overlap with Realme’s own GT Master Edition (Review), which starts at Rs. 25,999. This phone offers slightly better core specifications such as a 120Hz refresh-rate display, but lacks the superior primary camera sensor and optical image stabilisation (OIS) offered by the new Realme 9 Pro+. It’s great to have more options, but this does nothing to make the lineup less confusing for buyers. Your choice will ultimately boil down to what you prioritise more, a better camera or display.

Realme 9 Pro+ design

The Realme 9 Pro+ seems to have caught up with the new fad of colour-changing smartphones rather quickly. This phone is available in three finishes: Midnight Black, Aurora Green, and Sunrise Blue. Of these, only the Sunrise Blue finish changes colour when exposed to sunlight, just like the Vivo V23 Pro (Review).

The rear panel of the Sunrise Blue finish switches from blue to maroon when exposed to sunlight

 

Realme’s version of the same colour-changing process enables the 9 Pro+ to switch from a glossy sky-blue colour indoors to a shade of maroon under sunlight. I didn’t find this as appealing as Vivo’s gold-to-green transition on the V23 Pro. The overall look doesn’t feel very premium either, mainly because of the fingerprint-prone rear glass panel.

This colour-changing bit aside, the Realme 9 Pro+’s design looks like that of any Realme smartphone. It has a polycarbonate frame with flat sides sandwiched between two sheets of glass. The phone is quite slim, measuring just 7.99mm, and it feels comfortable for one-handed use mainly because of its low 184g weight.

The Realme 9 Pro+ has an in-display fingerprint reader, and is also capable of measuring heart rate

 

The display is flat and has a hole-punch front-facing selfie camera. There’s an in-display fingerprint reader and you can also measure your heart rate, which according to Realme is still an experimental feature. This is only usable if enabled in the Realme Lab section of the Settings app. One design detail I did not like was the noticeably thick chin below the display.

Realme 9 Pro+ specifications and software

Realme has gone with the MediaTek Dimensity 920 SoC, which is also found in the recently launched Xiaomi 11i series. This SoC runs at a maximum clock speed of 2.5GHz and is manufactured using a 6nm fabrication process. The phone supports several 5G bands along with dual-5G standby. It also has Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, and the usual satellite navigation systems. The device is powered by a 4,500mAh battery which can be charged quickly using the 60W charger that comes in the box.

The new Realme 9 Pro and 9 Pro+ are some of the first phones to run the Realme UI 3.0 software, which is based on Android 12. There are tonnes of preinstalled third-party apps that can be uninstalled and some Realme-branded ones that cannot be.

Realme UI 3.0 is not as heavily customised as Vivo’s Funtouch OS, for example, and is more similar to stock Android. This makes it gel well with the new Material You design of Android 12. While certain features of Android 12 such as the powerful new search get the boot, the privacy dashboard and related features have made it. Unlike Vivo or Samsung, Realme’s selection of UI widgets has always been quite limited, so the new Android 12 widgets do not feel out of place on the home screen.

The Realme 9 Pro+ comes with Android 12 and there are some new customisation options

 

Realme UI 3.0 still looks like Realme’s take on Android. Its design and fonts appear quite consistent, until you jump into the Privacy Dashboard in the Settings, where you are greeted with a stock Material You UI that clearly looks very different. According to Realme, certain sections of Android 12 (Privacy Dashboard, Permissions Manager, Digital Wellbeing) are required to have the stock appearance, regardless of the custom skin applied to the OS. I also came across some minor theming glitches such as greyed-out text in collapsed notifications in the pull-down tray when using dark mode.

The Realme 9 Pro+ has a dynamic theming system similar what you’d get with Android 12 running on a Pixel device. This feature picks colours from the wallpaper you choose and then applies them to interface elements such as the notification tray toggles, Settings menu icons, and so on. You can also pick the colours you want from your wallpaper and let the theme engine create a complementary palette from them. However, the implementation is a bit buggy. The revamped Android 12 widgets from Google apps and the Google keyboard don’t seem to change colour along with the rest of the UI, as they do on Pixel devices. In short, a bit of fine-tuning is still needed.

Realme 9 Pro+ performance

The Realme 9 Pro+ features a 6.4-inch AMOLED display with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protecting it. Colours looked a bit oversaturated at the default ‘Vivid’ colour setting, and I preferred the toned-down ‘Natural’ mode. Sunlight legibility was quite good, and text and images looked sharp. Unfortunately, the Netflix app was not available because I had a pre-production unit, but I was able to test streaming video using Amazon Prime, which worked well. The phone had some trouble representing accurate colours when viewing HDR shows, and they were pale and muted; nothing like how they should have looked. Realme has said that a fix for this issue should be rolled out soon. Standard definition content appeared just fine, with deep blacks. The experience came together well thanks to this phone’s stereo speakers, which sounded loud and clear.

The Realme 9 Pro+ has 6.4-inch AMOLED display with a 90Hz maximum refresh rate

 

The display refresh rate can only switch between 60Hz and 90Hz. Even when set to the latter, it stays at 60Hz when playing games but goes to 90Hz when browsing through the phone’s interface. Opening the YouTube app also made the screen’s refresh rate lock at 60Hz, even though the video playing on screen was running at 30fps. This means that the display’s optimum refresh rate is only available when interacting with the phone’s software, and not when playing games, as of now.

When it came to benchmarks, the Realme 9 Pro+ did not disappoint, and performed on par with the competition. It scored 5,07,258 points in AnTuTu and 818 and 2,316 points in Geekbench’s single- and multi-core tests, respectively. Despite the bloatware, Realme UI 3.0 ran buttery smooth, and the 90Hz refresh rate display made UI interactions feel quite fluid.

Gaming performance was also quite good. The phone ran Call of Duty: Mobile at the default, ‘Medium’ graphics and ‘Very High’ frame rate without any issues. I didn’t notice any drop in performance when the graphics settings were bumped up further. For some reason, Asphalt 9: Legends kept crashing on startup, so I tried Real Racing 3 instead. It worked smoothly without any hiccups.

The Realme 9 Pro+ has three rear-facing cameras

 

The Realme 9 Pro+ managed an impressive 23 hours and 36 minutes in our HD video loop battery life test. I managed to get a day and half of regular use which involved some gaming and camera usage. This is good for a mid-range device. Charging was also quite fast. The phone charged from zero to 80 percent in 30 minutes and was fully charged in 50 minutes using the bundled 60W charger.

Realme 9 Pro+ cameras

The Realme 9 Pro+ ditches the 108-megapixel camera of its predecessor in favour of a 50-megapixel primary camera, which also happens to have optical image stabilisation (OIS). It’s not just any sensor either, but a Sony IMX766, which we’ve only seen in more expensive phones such as the Oppo Reno 7 Pro (Review) and the OnePlus 9RT (Review) so far. There’s also an 8-megapixel ultra-wide angle camera and a 2-megapixel macro camera. Selfie duties are handled by a 16-megapixel front-facing camera.

The camera app is similar to what we’ve seen on recent Realme phones, but has a few changes. For instance, some of the controls such as the timer for photos and frame rate selector for videos are now moved under the three-dot button menu. As with all smartphones running Android 12, you will also notice a green dot appearing near the status icons to indicate that the camera is being used, which is a privacy protection feature.

Realme 9 Pro+ daylight camera samples. (Tap to see full size)

 

Daylight photos looked clean and sharp with good dynamic range and details. HDR was a bit aggressive, and colours were a bit oversaturated. I ended up turning the ‘AI’ toggle off as it tended to bump the saturation up even further. Portrait photos taken with the front as well as rear cameras came out sharp and quite detailed, with good dynamic range. Edge detection was also quite good.

Realme 9 Pro+ daylight camera samples. Top: Primary camera, bottom: Ultra-wide-angle camera (tap to see full size)

 

Photos taken with the ultra-wide-angle camera were surprisingly usable. They were not as sharp as ones shot with the primary camera, but had good dynamic range along with minimal barrel distortion thanks to software correction. The macro camera was useful even though the results appeared a bit oversharpened.

In low light, the Realme 9 Pro+ would automatically keep its shutter open for a second longer to gather more light. This was without turning on the AI mode. Images shot in low light, even in Auto mode, came out quite sharp and dynamic range was also good thanks to OIS. Switching to Night mode brought out even more detail.

Realme 9 Pro+ low-light camera samples. Top: Night mode, bottom: Street mode (tap to see full size)

 

There’s a ‘Street’ mode in the camera app which automatically sets up the exposure so you can capture things such as light trails. While these features have been present in previous Realme devices (and some from other brands too), I was impressed with how easily the Realme 9 Pro+ allowed me to capture such long-exposure shots without the need to stabilise it or mount it on a tripod.

Videos recorded at 1080p looked fine and were stabilised well, but were not as sharp as I expected. 4K footage (limited to 30fps) showed good detail and sharpness but was quite shaky and looked a bit choppy. The results were similar in low light as well.

Verdict

While the Realme 9 Pro+ and the 9 Pro might seem as though they have overlapping specifications, they clearly belong in different categories, given the brand’s hardware choices for both these smartphones.

The Realme 9 Pro is priced starting from Rs. 17,999 offers a 120Hz refresh rate display, a 5,000mAh battery, and a 64-megapixel primary camera, which actually make it seem better than the 9 Pro+ on paper. However, the Realme 9 Pro+ has an AMOLED display that can reproduce deeper blacks, 60W charging support, and a more advanced primary camera sensor plus OIS. So, despite their similar pricing, the audiences for these two phones should be quite different. The Realme 9 Pro will appeal to gamers who want a higher screen refresh rate, while the 9 Pro+ is clearly aimed at those looking to shoot better photos.

As for the competition, the Xiaomi 11i seems to offer the best value at this price point with similar or slightly better hardware. There’s also the Xiaomi 11i Hypercharge (Review) which is capable of 120W charging. The OnePlus Nord CE (Review) is another option in this price range, and offers a capable camera plus a clean software experience. As we already know, the OnePlus Nord CE is soon to be replaced by the Nord CE 2.

The Realme 9 Pro+ might not have very aggressive specs,…

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Realme GT Neo 3 (150W) Review: All About Speed?

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The Realme GT Neo 2 (Review) was a brand-new smartphone and the first to launch in the Neo series in India. Despite its lacklustre camera performance, it still made for an excellent mid-range gaming smartphone with its 800-series Snapdragon SoC, beefy cooling system and an attractive price tag which started at just Rs. 31,999.

Recently, Realme launched its successor called the GT Neo 3. It boasts of a better OIS-driven main camera and a new processor. There’s also a special 150W fast charging model which is what we’ll be reviewing today. Is the Realme GT Neo 3 (150W) a step forward for the GT Neo series and does it offer good value like its predecessor? It’s time to find out how well it competes with the other premium smartphones in this segment.

Realme GT Neo 3 (150W) price in India

Realme’s GT Neo 3 (150W) is priced at Rs. 42,999. This model has a 4,500mAh battery and comes with a 150W charger in the box. The 80W model of the phone features a 5,000mAh battery and ships with an 80W charger. This model is available in two variants, one with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for Rs. 36,999 and the other with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for Rs. 38,999. Both models are available in three colours, Asphalt Black, Nitro blue, and Spring White. The latter two have racing stripes on the rear panel while black variant has a plain finish, for those that don’t want to attract too much attention.

Realme GT Neo 3 (150W) design

The Realme GT Neo 3 has a similar form to the GT Neo 2. Some of the changes include a new finish for the back panel, a different layout of the rear cameras, and a centred hole-punch cutout for the selfie camera. Realme has swapped the flashy dual-tone rear glass panel of the GT Neo 2 for a simpler matte-finished AG glass, which turned out to be a big fingerprint magnet.

The Realme GT Neo 3 (left) looks and feels very similar to the GT Neo 2 (right)

 

The GT Neo 3 sure feels a lot more premium than the OnePlus 10R, the Neo 3’s twin that I reviewed earlier, and also has a nicer in-hand feel. At 188g, it’s not too heavy but still isn’t the ideal size for one-handed use. Its large display has Gorilla Glass 5 protection and does attract fingerprints, but these can be wiped off easily. The hole-punch AMOLED display has thin bezels all around, which adds to the premium look.

The Realme GT Neo 3 has a smooth matte-finished glass back which feels quite premium

 

The Realme GT Neo 3’s mid-frame is made from polycarbonate. Just like the back panel, it too has a matte finish, which makes the phone quite slippery in the hand. Thankfully, Realme has included a tinted, transparent TPU case in the box, that offers plenty of grip and also lets you show off the striking design.

Realme GT Neo 3 specifications and software

The Realme GT Neo 3 uses a MediaTek Dimensity 8100 SoC. Realme has also included an imaging chipset in the phone called the Dedicated Display Processor, which according to the brand, should help achieve better gaming performance and reduce power consumption. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, a Type-C Port and support for the usual satellite navigation systems. The fingerprint reader is embedded in the display and it worked reliably.

Realme has done a good job of merging Android 12 and all of its Material You goodness with Realme UI. Realme UI 3.0 on the GT Neo 3 looks quite stock in appearance, with only slightly different looking icons compared to what you get on a Pixel phone. All of the Android 12 widgets worked as expected and the theming engine also changed the colour of the keyboard, widgets and other icons depending on the applied wallpaper. The Personalisation section in the Settings app looks very similar to the one found in OnePlus and Oppo smartphones and lets you customise the icon shapes, quick settings icons, accent colours and the system font.

The Realme GT Neo 3 runs Realme UI 3.0 which is based on Android 12

 

As with every Realme smartphone, there are plenty of preinstalled third-party apps. However, these did not get in the way of my software experience and could be uninstalled if needed. What did annoy me was the intermittent notifications from the Themes Store app about new wallpapers and themes.

Realme GT Neo 3 (150W) performance

The Realme GT Neo 3 has a 6.7-inch full-HD+ AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The display got sufficiently bright when viewed under direct sunlight and content appeared sharp and legible. Colours looked very punchy in the default Vivid screen colour mode, but this could be tweaked. The refresh rate is adaptive but it only switches between 60Hz and 120Hz depending on the running app. While this worked fine when watching movies (at 60Hz) or browsing through the user interface (at 120Hz), the display was locked to 60Hz even in games that typically support 120Hz, which I found a bit disappointing.

The Realme GT Neo 3 offers a quality 120Hz AMOLED display

 

Also missing is an HDR10 video streaming certification for apps such as Netflix, but standard content looked sharp with decent black levels. The phone also has stereo speakers, which sounded loud and clear and made the video consumption and gaming experience quite immersive.

While the software performance of the Realme GT Neo 3 felt fluid and responsive, benchmark scores came close to smartphones running Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 SoC. In AnTuTu, the phone scored 8,10,225 points. It also achieved 969 and 4,065 points in Geekbench’s single and multi-core tests respectively. Graphics benchmarks is where the Dimensity 8100 SoC didn’t get to stretch its legs, possibly due to the frame rate cap in games. The GT Neo 3 managed 54fps and 60fps in GFXBench’s T-rex and Manhattan 3.1 gaming tests, where the Snapdragon 888-powered Xiaomi 11T Pro (Review) managed 121fps and 100fps.

Sadly, the weak graphics scores were not limited to synthetic benchmarks since real-world gaming performance was not great either, unless GT Mode was enabled. In regular mode, both Call of Duty: Mobile and Asphalt 9: Legends would stutter and skip frames when running at the high graphics settings, but ran better at medium settings. In GT Mode, these games ran better at the highest settings possible although it still wasn’t as fluid or lag-free as I would have liked. Surprisingly, there was even a 60fps mode when playing Asphalt 9:Legends, which I’ve only noticed on Snapdragon-powered devices till now.

Games like Asphalt 9: Legends performed well provided the GT mode was switched on

 

Battery life was quite good. The Realme GT Neo 3 lasted for about a day and a half on a single charge, even with heavy gaming and camera usage. In our HD video loop test, the phone lasted for 19 hours and 26 minutes which was quite good for a premium smartphone.

The 150W charger managed to charge the phone from zero to a 100 percent in just 16 minutes, when using the Rapid charging mode. While this is one of the fastest charging speeds we have seen till date, the GT Neo 3 did get quite hot in the process which worried me a little. However, Realme claims that there are several safety measures in place to avoid any mishaps. Just like on the OnePlus 10R Endurance Edition, the GT Neo 3 also displays a pop-notification on the screen to warn you that the phone will get hot when using the Rapid charging mode.

Realme GT Neo 3 cameras

The primary camera on the Realme GT Neo 3 gets optical image stabilisation (OIS) and a higher-quality 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 sensor, compared to the 64-megapixel sensor on the GT Neo 2. There’s an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera and a 2-megapixel macro camera, both of which have fixed-focus systems. A 16-megapixel front-facing camera is in charge of selfies and Realme has used a Samsung sensor this time with a slightly wider aperture and field of view compared to its predecessor.

The Realme GT Neo 3 has three rear cameras, one of which now comes with OIS

 

As a result, daylight performance from the main camera has surely improved over the GT Neo 2. Landscape photos were well exposed and had good dynamic range. Details in the images taken from the primary camera were good but the photos appeared a bit saturated, especially when compared to those taken from the ultra-wide camera.

The latter offers a wide 120-degree field of view, but these photos have comparatively limited dynamic range and objects appear blurry towards the edges of the frame. Close-ups of flowers taken with the primary camera came out sharp but looked quite saturated. The 2X digital zoom was also useful but such photos had slightly lesser detail.

Realme GT Neo 3 daylight camera samples: (Top to bottom) Ultra-wide-angle camera, primary camera, close-up from primary camera (tap to see full size)

 

Colours were handled better when using the phone’s Portrait mode as it was a bit toned down and natural-looking in comparison. Edge detection was good and so was the dynamic range with well-exposed backgrounds. Selfies came out looking a bit oversharpened and saturated, with brighter backgrounds getting blown out. Switching to Portrait mode for selfies improved dynamic range drastically, but edge detection was strictly average. The macro camera captured average looking photos with noticeable purple fringing around the edges of objects but its fixed-focus system was annoying and difficult to use, more so than usual.

In low light, photos taken from the primary camera packed good detail and dynamic range. The camera automatically took longer exposures when needed in the Auto mode and these photos had equally good detail as the dedicated Night mode photos. Pictures shot with Night mode tended to brighten up the scene a bit too much and ended up overexposing the brighter areas. Selfies in low light did not look great and looked quite soft with weak details. Portrait mode selfies looked extremely noisy while Night mode selfies lacked good textures on subjects.

Realme GT Neo 3 low-light camera samples: (top) Night mode, (bottom) Low-light selfie portrait (tap to see full size)

 

The quality of recorded video was quite decent overall. Videos shot at 1080p in daylight looked fine but it did not have good enough detail. Videos shot in 4K had better details but with limited dynamic range. 4K videos were not stabilised well and appeared jerky. Using the AI highlight feature did improve the dynamic range, but videos were not as smooth or sharp as videos taken without it and the resolution was also limited to 1080p 30fps. In low light, videos recorded at 1080p had limited dynamic range and appeared soft. 4K 30fps footage looked the best, but again, lacked proper stabilisation.

While the image quality from the main camera is a solid improvement over the Realme GT Neo 2, it’s worth noting that Realme has used this sensor in a much lower-priced phone too such as the Realme 9 Pro+ 5G (Review). As much as I liked the quality of the photos, it’s far from what I’ve seen on competing devices such as iQoo’s 9 SE (Review).

Verdict

I would agree with Realme that the GT Neo 3 (150W) is all about speed. There’s the race car inspired design, 150W charging system, crisp 120Hz display and a processor that offers good performance. Its cameras have also received plenty of improvement over the GT Neo 2.

Unfortunately for the GT Neo 3, having more features does not translate to a very competitive smartphone. Despite its upgrades over its predecessor, the GT Neo 3 is only playing catch-up with the competition, unless you are comparing it with the OnePlus 10R Endurance Edition (Review), which is basically the same phone with a different design and name.

The Realme GT Neo 3’s 150W fast charging system does make the phone worryingly hot and the display’s 120Hz refresh rate isn’t usable in most games that I tried. The SoC also falls a bit short in terms of raw performance compared to the competition, most of which pack a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC. Meanwhile, the phone also lacks a few hardware features like an IP rating or wireless charging, which are available on competing devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G (Review) and the Apple iPhone (2022) (Review) in the similar priced range.

Even the regular 80W model of the Realme GT Neo 3 feels a bit expensive, since iQoo’s 9 SE (Review) offers better core hardware and camera performance at a lower starting price. There’s little reason to take the Realme GT Neo 3 (150W) seriously at its existing price, unless you are a Realme fan or simply crave the fastest charging speed currently available.

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