realme GT Neo 3 Review

Last week, realme launched in the Philippines launched the realme GT Neo 3. It’s the brand’s newest flagship smartphone packing a 6.7-inch AMOLED screen with 120Hz refresh rate, MediaTek Dimensity 8100 chipset, triple rear cameras, and a 5,000mAh battery with 80W SuperDart Charge. For something priced under PHP 30K, is it worth getting? Find out in our review.

Design and Construction

The realme GT Neo 3 comes in two models, one has a 150W fast charging with a 4,500mAh battery, while the other has 80W fast charging with a larger 5,000mAh battery. What we have here is the latter.

The realme GT Neo 3 features a large screen at 6.7-inches with a Full HD+ resolution that equates to a pixel-packed 394ppi. The panel is AMOLED so it produces deep blacks with punchy colors. Protecting it is Gorilla Glass 5. Animations and transitions are smooth thanks to the 120H refresh rate. Placed above the screen is the hole for the 16MP selfie camera, then right above it, in the bezel is the earpiece.

Found on the right side are the volume keys, while on the right is the textured power button. The buttons are tactile yet firm and quiet, They’re also easy to reach as the buttons are placed right in the middle of the frame where your fingers naturally land when holding the device.

Looking up top, we have the secondary microphone and loudspeaker.

Down at the bottom is the card tray for dual nano SIM cards, main microphone, USB-C port, and loudspeaker.

At the back, we have the protruding camera module that houses the 50MP Sony IMX766 main camera, 8MP ultra-wide, the 2MP macro, and the LED flash.

The realme GT Neo 3 looks and feels like a flagship. It comes in Spring White and Nitro Blue. The design, highlighted by the racing stripes at the back, gives an impression that it is about performance.

The frame is metallic so it’s cool to the touch, while the back panel has this smooth ceramic finish that repels fingerprints and smudges very well. Despite the size, it’s comfortable to hold. Although you’ll likely use two hands for easier navigation. If you want to keep it protected, there’s a clear case included in the package.

Display and Multimedia

The realme GT Neo 3 sports a 6.7-inch display with Full HD+ resolution or equal to 394ppi, which is a sharp display even for its size. It uses an AMOLED panel so the colors are punchy with deep blacks. Viewing angles are great as well.

If you’re looking for a high refresh rate, this phone has 120Hz but you can lower it down to 60Hz to save battery, or just set it to Auto-select so it can pick the right refresh rate depending on the app.

If you want to tweak the display, there’s screen color mode so you can pick color profiles. There’s even Pro mode that uses cinematic Display P3 for more faithful color reproduction. It also supports HDR content using the 01 Ultra Vision Engine for its Bright HDR video mode. However, it will consume more power and can cause the phone to heat up, so use it sparingly.

When it comes to audio, it has two loudspeakers. It’s crips and immersive, but like most smartphones, it has a weak bass. It’s good enough for casually watching videos or playing games.

Cameras

The realme GT Neo 3 is equipped with triple-rear cameras consisting of a 50MP Sony IMX766 main with OIS, 8MP ultra-wide, and 2MP macro. For selfies, it has a 16MP shooter.

We like the quality it produces as the images are sharp, bright, has a high dynamic range, and have accurate colors. Even indoors, it was able able to bring out the details and still keep the scene bright. Low-light performance is also good and was able to preserve the colors and keep the subject illuminated but the details are less sharp. The same thing can be said with selfies. It’s sharp and has accurate skin tone as long as you’re shooting in a well-lit environment.

When it comes to videos, it can shoot up to 4K at 60fps. Quality is good, even in dim environments. The OIS is also effective in keeping our shots steady when panning. Watch the sample below.

https://youtu.be/hRSfchn6Ehc

OS and Apps

Software-wise, it runs on realme UI 3.0 based on Android 12. It’s an easy-to-navigate UI that uses multiple home screens for the apps. It has its own app market, Phone Manager with tools for device optimization, Game Center, Smart Sidebar, Kid Space, and Flexible windows (floating windows).

What we didn’t like, though, is that it comes with lots of pre-installed apps. We don’t mind realme’s own apps, but other apps like games, just makes the whole UI look messy, which is something you don’t want to see after setting up the device for the first time.

Performance and Benchmarks

Powering the realme GT Neo 3 is a MediaTek Dimensity 8100 chipset with an octa-core processor clocked at up to 2.85GHz and Mali-G610 GPU, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB UFS 3.1 storage. realme says that it also has a Dedicated Display Processor to sustain 120fps in applications.

Given the configuration, we didn’t encounter any problems with it using it as our primary device for social media, taking photos, and playing games. When playing games, you might want to activate GT mode inside Battery settings. Switching it on will optimize the CPU, GPU, and RAM for the game and switch the refresh rate to 120Hz. But in our case, we lower the refresh rate to 60Hz for an extra boost. We also didn’t encounter any heating issues, showing that its new Stainless Steel Vapor Cooling System works well.

Check out the benchmark scores below:
• AnTuTU v9 – 816,680
• AnTuTu v9 Storage – 71,581, 1,879.9 MB/s (Seq. Read), 1,261.3 MB/s (Seq. Write)
• 3D Mark – 5,024 (Wild Life), 1,528 (Wild Life Extreme)
• PC Mark – 14,743 (Work 3.0)
• Geekbench 5 – 965 (Single-Core), 4,041 (Multi-Core), 4,590 (OpenCL)

Connectivity and Battery Life

For the battery, it has a 5,000mAh capacity in a dual 2,500mAh cell setup, which is a good capacity for a smartphone of this caliber. PC Mark’s battery test rated it at 19 hours, while our video loop test got us 19 hours and 56 minutes of playback, which is good. The realme GT Neo 3 can definitely last a whole day of heavy use. When it comes to charging, it supports 80W SuperDart fast charge, capable of charging the battery from 0% to 50% in just 12 minutes.

Conclusion

realme has a solid flagship smartphone in the form of the realme GT Neo 3. It has a premium and sporty design, a nice display, powerful performance, good cameras, and long battery life with fast charging. The only grip we had was with the pre-installed apps. The price is competitive, too at PHP 29,999USD 511INR 43,337EUR 487CNY 3,723. However, it will encounter some resistance as there are other devices in the market that offer more if they’re willing to shell out some extra.

realme GT Neo 3 5G specs:
6.7-inch Full HD+ (2412 x 1080) AMOLED display, 394ppi
120Hz refresh rate
Corning Gorilla Glass 5
MediaTek Dimensity 8100 SoC
Mali-G610 MC6 GPU
8GB RAM
256GB UFS 3.1
Triple-rear cameras:
• 50MP F1.88 Sony IMX766 main, OIS
• 8MP F2.25 ultra-wide
• 2MP F2.4 macro
16MP F2.45 front camera
Dual-SIM
5G, 4G LTE
WiFi 6
Bluetooth 5.3
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS
NFC
USB-C
Stereo speakers
Fingerprint scanner (in-display)
realme UI 3.0 (Android 12)
5,000mAh (2x 2,500mAh) battery w/ 80W SuperDart Charge
163.3 x 75.6 x 8.2 mm
188 g
Spring White, Nitro Blue