Realme GT Neo 3 150W review

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Realme has launched the Realme GT Neo 3 150W globally and is joined by the new, more affordable GT Neo 3T.

Realme GT Neo 3 150W has two notable features. The first is 150W charging, which claims to charge 50% in 5 minutes. As far as I know, this is the fastest charging mobile phone on the market.

It was also the first phone to be launched in the EU/UK and featured the Mediatek Dimensity 8100. It’s a high-end chipset that delivers flagship-level performance at no cost. The MediaTek Dimensity 9000 sits on top of this, but currently only the Chinese version of the Oppo Find X5 Pro has this feature.

The more affordable Realme GT Neo 3T uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870, which did quite well in my tests, and it charges slower and has a slightly inferior main camera.

Realme GT Neo 3 and Realme GT Neo 3T Specifications

Design and Display

Realme has been experimenting with a lot of different colors and textures for the back panels of their phones lately. However, my Realme GT Neo 3 150W sample was surprisingly soft with solid blacks. The matte finish gives it a slightly grey-black appearance; it almost looks like it has some green in it. Then you’ll have minimal branding, no annoying CE markings or other ugly letters (unlike the OPPO Find X5 Pro). The overall look is basic but smart.

For the display, you have a 6.7-inch display running at 1080 x 2412 pixels and 120Hz with a central punch hole. Oddly the GT Neo 3T and GT2 seem to have the same display, so I’m not sure why the Neo 3 uses something slightly different. It doesn’t really matter, placing all three phones side by side, I can barely see a difference.

Aside from the back panel and display, there’s little difference between all the Realme phones I’ve owned.

camera

This year, the 50MP Sony IMX766 has been used on a large number of phones. Realme has used it on the 9 Pro+, GT2, GT2 Pro and now GT Neo 3. Both OnePlus and OPPO use it extensively, as does the Honor Magic4 Pro.

It’s an excellent camera sensor that really improves the photography quality of a phone in a more affordable price range.

The IMX766 primary sensor on this phone gives the same overall experience as the GT2 and 9 Pro+ I reviewed before. It has great shooting ability, and I think most people will be happy with that.

One thing worth noting is that Realme tends to over exaggerate colors, especially with AI enabled. I personally don’t mind, it will give you more visually impressive results, but people who want a more natural look will want to turn off the AI.

The comparison below is an extreme example where you can see how the Realme handles things differently compared to the Honor which uses the same camera sensor.

As for the other camera sensors, they are your typical general purpose camera. The 8MP ultrawide is acceptable when you’re short on space, while the macro camera isn’t stunning.

The front-facing camera is also mediocre, acceptable to me, and the selfie camera is rarely used, but others may want me to.

Photo booth

Performance and Thermal Throttling

I dug deeper into the performance of the Realme GT Neo 3 and Realme GT Neo 3T, showing how the MediaTek Dimensity 8100 compares to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870.

Benchmarks show that the Dimensity 8100 offers a similar level of performance to last year’s (and this year’s Realme GT2) flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, without the associated issues of thermal throttling and poor battery life.

Everyday performance is excellent. The combination of a high refresh rate screen and a powerful chipset means everything feels instantaneous.

Battery

With the 150W model, you lose a 500mAh battery and only 4500mAh. During my time with the phone, I was very happy with the battery life, it easily got through the day without any issues.

The PCMark 2.0 battery test yielded admirable results, but fell short of the GT Neo 3T. However, I can’t tell if this is a case of user error and I may have calibrated the screen brightness incorrectly.

The results of testing 150W charging were surprisingly impressive. When I tested it, my phone was dead, so I had to wait a minute for it to have enough power to boot.

I think when I start the stopwatch and note the percentage charge at different times, it says 2%:

• 3 minutes 25%
• 30% in 3 minutes 35 seconds
• 50% at 6m 30s
• 66% in 10 minutes
• 75% at 11m 50s
• 13 minutes 80%
• 91% in 16 minutes
• 95% at 17m 20s
• 99% at 18m 40s
• 100% in 19 minutes

Technically, that’s a bit slower than the official numbers I’ve seen, but I’m not particularly concerned with exact times or percentages. It’s close enough, and it’s very fast.

I know a lot of people are concerned about these charging speeds and the effect on the battery. For me, I usually slow down the charge overnight and use a faster charge when I need to.

In particular, these charging speeds are amazing when you travel. I took the charger with me on a recent trip, I took dozens of photos and used Google Maps a lot, which would quickly drain the battery of any phone. Before heading out at night, I usually make a short layover at a hotel; being able to go from depleted to fully charged in under 20 minutes is very convenient, especially for those worried about running out of battery.

As of this writing, I’m not sure about the price difference between the 80W and 150W models. I guess it’s hard for me to choose between the two. The 80w charge is still pretty fast, so I’m not sure if I’d prefer the extra 10% battery life.

software

This is the fourth Realme phone I’ve reviewed this year. At this point, the software experience is well documented and largely the same as ColorOS and OxygenOS.

I really like Realme UI, but I think it’s more because I’m familiar with it.

Like my previous review, there’s a lot of nasty bloatware installed, but most of it can be removed.

I’ve found that Realme does pretty well with regular updates, but long-term OS upgrades may not be as good as others.

Price and Alternatives

The 150W version of the Realme GT NEO 3 is priced at £599.99 (12GB+256GB).

Realme GT NEO 3T £369.00 (8GB+128GB). In addition, in some European markets, the highly anticipated GT NEO 3T Dragon Ball Z version is priced at 499.99 euros (8GB+256GB), equipped with 80W charging and the flagship Snapdragon 870 processor, as well as a new variant of the Buds Air 3. New Nitro Blue design for €79.99.

The Realme GT Neo 3T chipset performs similarly, but isn’t as good at gaming, the camera isn’t as good, and the charging is slower. Notably, the Realme GT Neo 2 is almost identical to the Neo 2. Not that it’s particularly important, but it doesn’t bring much new.

The closest alternative is the Realme GT2, which is £500 on Amazon for the 12GB/256GB model (RRP £550). The overall experience on this phone is pretty much the same, with slight differences in chipset performance, battery, and charging.

The superb Realme GT 2 Pro is £699 and has a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, a better display and a superb ultra-wide camera.

Starting at £369, the new OnePlus Nord 2T is inferior in most respects, but probably more affordable and still worth considering.

The Pixel 6 has an MSRP of £599, but it’s currently £499. The Pixel has better brand recognition, no bloatware and a better main camera (if you want something more natural), but it can’t compete anywhere else.

comprehensive

When I checked out the Realme GT2 in February, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t all that different from the original Realme GT, but the improved camera performance made it a well-rounded phone.

I would say the Realme GT Neo 3 150W is easily the better phone, I think the Dimensity 8100 is a better chipset than the SD888 and you also have 150W fast charging.

The launch price was a bit disappointing, but I think it makes sense for Realme to price it this way to avoid cannibalizing sales of the Realme GT2. Based on this launch price of the GT Neo 3 150W, I think it’s hard to decide which phone to buy.