The “GT” in Realme GT Series symbolises Gran Turismo, mirroring the speed and luxury of sports cars. What that means is that the series offer a premium design, flagship performance, fast charging, and a large battery; offering an experience akin to owning a GT car. The latest member of the GT series is the Realme GT5 Pro. It has been launched globally, though the brand has not divulged its plans for the Indian market. But we at MySmartPrice managed to spend some time with the flagship device. Considering the Realme GT5 Pro is one of the few phones in the world to feature Qualcomm’s latest and greatest, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, we are surely excited for its impending launch. So let’s take a closer look at what the Realme GT5 Pro brings to the table as per our initial experience.
Realme GT5 Pro First impressions: The unboxing experience
The package includes standard items: paperwork, a TPU case, a SIM ejector tool, the phone positioned with the display facing downward, and a Type-A to Type-C charging cable.
Additionally, there’s a 100W charging adapter. Nothing fancy, just the regular contents that come bundled with any other Realme smartphone, except that the packaging of the box is slightly different.
Realme GT5 Pro First impressions: Design
First thing we noticed with Realme’s latest is the huge camera bump on the rear – kinda similar to the Vivo X100 and X100 Pro with center-circle design – but the module on this one protrudes a bit more than them. It seems that this design language will become more prominent in phones launching in 2024.
The frames of the Realme GT5 Pro are made of exclusive ultra-hard aluminum metal that the phonemaker claims are even stronger than titanium alloy. The rear panel is coated with advanced nano leather for a skin-friendly and durable feel, offering a very premium in-hand feel. We received the Red Rock variant, which looks bronze more than red, but since the colour tone is fresh, we liked it. Other than Red rock, there are also Bright Moon (white) and Starry Night (black) colour options.
Realme GT5 Pro First impressions: Cameras
The GT5 Pro’s hefty camera module packs a punch with triple lenses: a 50MP Sony LYT-808 with OIS as primary camera, a 50 MP Sony IMX890 with 2.7x optical zoom and OIS as periscope telephoto lens, and an 8 MP Sony IMX355 ultrawide lens offering a wide 112-degree field of view. You also get a 32 MP camera on the front to make your Instagram live sessions a little crispier.
Realme GT5 Pro First Impressions: Display
On the front, there’s a gorgeous 6.78-inch display with 1.5K resolution, and a jaw-dropping 4500 nits peak brightness – making it one of the most luminous panels we’ve ever tested on a smartphone!
The 144Hz refresh rate and 360Hz touch sampling rate works perfectly to offer a buttery-smooth responsiveness. In our time with the handset, the display is offering sharp, vivid and slightly contrast colours, just as a cinephile would prefer.
Realme GT5 Pro First Impressions: Hardware and Software
The Realme GT5 Pro is equipped with the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset which features TSMC’s advanced 4nm processing technology, a new 8-core 64-bit architecture, and a maximum frequency of 3.3 GHz. There’s also a 3VC Iceberg Cooling System to keep things cool on the inside, during your heated gaming sessions. In the global market, you only get a single variant of this device with 16GB RAM and 1TB internal storage.
On the software side of things, it came preinstalled with Realme UI 5.0, running on Android 14. It has a lot of apps pre-installed; that too in chinese, so it was pretty complex and resulted in a very confusing experience. But thankfully, the software experience on a global unit can be very different from the one that will be dedicated to the Indian market. So, we are not really worried about that part.
What stood out in the software is a new feature called Palm Unlock, which we do not want Realme to tweak at all. As the name indicates, it unlocks the phone just by showing palm to the front camera. In our brief usage, it worked like a breeze. However, we have not tested the feature in depth, so we can not really comment on how secure it is at this point. Not to mention that it may look a little weird at first but hey, kudos to the brand for trying something new.
Realme GT5 Pro First impressions: Battery
Lastly, there’s a 5400mAh battery which supports 100W fast charging with the in-box charger, and 50W wireless charging. Additionally, you also get a dual SIM slot, USB-C 3.2, NFC, stereo speakers and an infrared port to make the best use of your device, even if it means turning it into a remote.
Realme GT5 Pro First impressions: Final Thoughts
Globally, the Realme GT5 Pro is launched for 4,198 yuan or $590, roughly converting to Rs 50k in Indian currency. However, we will have to wait for the official launch before passing any comments on its pricing.
It is evident that the Realme GT5 Pro is quite impressive. The 50MP Telephoto camera took some amazing shots in the short duration that we tested it, and the device also offered superb performance while gaming. Even going beyond the hardware specs, it is one of those smartphones that you would want to own, once you hold it in your hand, as its in-hand feel is amazing.
But more than that, we also want to see the performance and the battery life of the device when we put it through daily rigour and compare it with other flagships of 2023.
