Reviewers measure the quality of smartphones with cameras, but people often vote for another concept - “racing”
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9/10Rated by FerraRealme GT Neo 3T
Table of contents
- Appearance
- Screen
- Performance and autonomy
- Camera
- Competitors
- Poco F4
- Samsung Galaxy S21FE
- Total
In general, I don’t want to play around and pretend, they say, “we are reviewing the latest novelty”, because Realme GT Neo 3T is, in fact, a re-release of last year’s Realme GT Neo 2.
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Not that Realme has never beforere-released old smartphones under new names (remember at least Narzo 50i), but such that the direct successor turned out to be an almost exact copy of its predecessor - I don’t remember that. Either because of the shortage of semiconductors in 2021, copies of the old model were sold less than we would like, so it was “dressed up” in a new case and continued to be sold with a new name. Is it just that marketers are trying to imitate "violent activity" in this way - they say, this is not the old VAZ-2101, but the all-new VAZ-21011!
In general, today we will talk about the differences between Neo 3T and Neo 2, and also recall what kind of smartphone it is in general, and whether it is worth buying.
Appearance
The dimensions of the Realme GT Neo 3T case, up to tenths of a millimeter, repeat the GT Neo 2, except for the thickness. The new smartphone has become thinner by 0.3 mm, and even a little lighter by 5 grams.
But in general, this is one of the most compactsmartphones on Snapdragon 870, if we talk about height and width. It’s not the most compact in terms of thickness, but this is because competitors like to put 4200-4500 mAh in smartphones so that you can show off “Oh, look how we fit a powerful stuffing into minimal dimensions!”. Smaller than the GT Neo 3T, except perhaps the Xiaomi 12X, it's a pity that it is more expensive and yes, it only offers 4500 mAh in battery instead of 5000 mAh like Realme.
Smartphone based on SD870Case dimensionsBattery capacityCharging powerRealme GT Neo 3T162.9×75.8×8.7mm5000mAh80WXiaomi Poco F4163.2x76x7.7 mm 4500 mAh 67 WZTE Axon 30S170.2×77.8×7.8 mm4200 mAh55 WXiaomi Black Shark 4163.8×76.4×9.9 mm4500 mAh120 WOnePlus 9R161×74.1×8.4 mm4500 mAh65 WOppo Find X3163.6x74x8.3 mm 4500 mAh 65 WXiaomi 12X152.7×69.9×8.2 mm4500 mAh67 W
Realme GT Neo 3T
Plus, of course, a new back design - this time in the style of a checkerboard pattern. It's beautiful in its own way, but I personally like the colors of the GT Neo2 more.
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This is what the back color looks like in Realme GT Neo 3T
In general, if we recall the "sports and racing"smartphones with a no less “sporty” appearance, of the latter, Realme GT comes to mind (get ready, there will be a lot of comparisons with it in this text). At the time of release, I scolded him for throttling and an exorbitant price, but now I think that this is perhaps one of the best Realme flagships. At least the ones I have used. It had just perfect ergonomics (it was smaller and lighter than the Realme GT Neo2/Neo 3T), there was a 3.5 mm jack, and there was a top-end Snapdragon 888 processor. Which is generally considered to be voracious hot trash, and even with a cool system cooling in Realme slightly trottle. But we'll talk about this a little later.
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Realme GT Neo 3T
Like all decent smartphones, the GT Neo 3Tthere is a fingerprint scanner under the screen (optical), but, unfortunately, there is no microSD card slot. The 8/256 GB model came to my test - so it's not as scary as the cheaper 8/128 GB.
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Realme GT Neo 3T
Screen
In terms of bare specs, the GT Neo's screen3T is one to one like the GT Neo2, even the peak brightness is the same - 1300 cd / m2. This, by the way, is so much (in a good way) that of the competitors only the most expensive Apple and Samsung smartphones, and some from Xiaomi, are capable of this. Considering that the Realme smartphone is cheaper and is not even positioned as a super-duper-uber-flagship, you can consider that it has the coolest screen among older mid-range smartphones. Not only near-game or powerful, but in general any.
Realme GT Neo 3T Maximum brightness level(max./min.) 526/1.8 cd/m2 )2.3Color temperature (Ideal=6500K)7500K
But Realme generally has some of the best screens on the market.market. And what they are in terms of characteristics, and how the company “prepares” them. But here's our editorial colorimeter showing that the same screen from the GT Neo2 is "cooked" even better here. In manual mode, the brightness is higher (526 cd / m2 versus 477 cd / m2), more accurate color reproduction. In short, a chic screen in every sense. It's hard to get over him. If you choose a smartphone based on the screen, and do not want to overpay for Samsung and apples, then take Realme without hesitation.
Below 8000K color temperature is today the sign by which you can distinguish "crooked" smartphone manufacturers from competent
Performance and autonomy
After the laudatory (deservedly) paragraph about the screenLet's move on to criticism. No, of course, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 processor installed in the Realme GT Neo 3T is very good. And in terms of performance, and autonomy, and in general.
There are two problems.The first is that last year's GT Neo2, from which the Neo 3T was "copied-pasted", had exactly the same processor. The second problem is that in benchmarks, he knocked out more “parrots”. Those. the new GT Neo 3T is slightly slower. How did it happen?
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Smartphone performance in the Geekbench 5 benchmark
And it's very simple.The GT Neo 3T uses LPDDR4X instead of LPDDR5 like the GT Neo2. Those. again: a newer smartphone has an older and slower memory. Considering that the GT Neo 3T is almost an exact copy of the GT Neo2, this is rather annoying.
Well, i.e.if the smartphone had a much cooler camera than GT Neo2, or a cooler processor, or something else that was straight cooler, while the memory is older - well, this could be somehow understood - they say, they tried to get into the same price. Moreover, LPDDR4X is not that directly worse than LPDDR5 (just a little slower). But in return, they don’t offer any advantages, so it’s unpleasant.
The second point that affects the resultsbenchmarks - throttling. But with this, the devil will break his leg. I ran the CPU Throtling Test three times (at different times, with huge pauses between runs), and got three different pictures. I'll just take it and post it here:
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CPU Throttling Test, 1st Run
How to comment on such different results?I myself can’t imagine this test - the results seem to be from different smartphones (perhaps our chief editor has already written something in this place, but if you see this text in brackets, it means that even he did not have a suitable explanation). The only thing that comes to mind is “liquid cooling” (more precisely, Vapour Chamber), which was advertised in the GT Neo2. As we remember, Nokia had a model with such cooling, but the cooling itself was more of a sham. Who knows, maybe it really works in GT Neo 3T, but in some conditions (temperatures are too low/high) it works worse than in others.
At the same time, we are not finished with performance.Yes, the GT Neo 3T is slightly slower than the GT Neo2 with the same processor, and both of them are, of course, inferior to the Snapdragon 888-powered Realme GT. no problem: to remind them of their results, I bring the old charts from the GT Neo2 review. Notice something strange?
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Realme GT Neo2 performance in Geekbench 5 benchmark
Yes, it seems that in 2022 smartphones on Snapdragon 888 from the same Sony or Samsung began to work worse. Trotting? Accident? Reptilian conspiracy? CPU limit on TDP "in cabbage soup"?
Doesn't matter. Just know that even with a Snapdragon 870, Realme's smartphone will be faster than Sony's uber-mega-flagship.
But further - more. Let's move on to autonomy.
The GT Neo 3T comes with a power supplyas much as 80 watts, while it used to be 65 watts - this was put in the kit with GT Neo2 and Realme GT. The new PSU, according to the manufacturer, charges the smartphone from 0% to 100% in 33 minutes. And they didn’t lie, my test confirms this - yes, exactly 33 minutes. But even here there are many nuances.
Time of full discharge of smartphones in minutes (reading, video, games)
First, Realme GT with 65W chargercharges in 35 minutes. But yes, there is only 4500 mAh instead of 5000 mAh for the GT Neo 3T. But the GT Neo2 also charged, according to various estimates, from 33 to 37 minutes. In my test, it was about 37 minutes, but our colleagues from Mobile-Review set the same 33 minutes.
Already interested? Wait, that's not all!
I tried charging the GT Neo 3T with an old 65W charger. Guess the first time what the result is? Yes, yes, the same 33 minutes.
"So what's the catch?" - you ask?
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Perhaps the new smartphone charges faster up to50% or shows more charge after 5 minutes of charging. Unfortunately, now I can’t double-check all this for the old GT Neo2 (I haven’t had a smartphone in my hands for a long time). But if you keep in mind that all these “multi-watt” charges can slightly (or even not slightly) deceive you. In fact, I did not see much difference between 65W and 80W. However, the same Xiaomi has a 120W charger, which really charges a 5000 mAh smartphone in 17 minutes.
Camera
Did you catch your breath from the previous paragraph? Prepare for new “revelations” ¯_(ツ)_/¯
As you may have guessed, the camera in the GT Neo3T also completely repeats the GT Neo2. This applies to all working modules: standard width, super wide, selfie camera. And, in general, do not forget that the GT Neo 2 and Neo 3T are smartphones about powerful processors and autonomy, in which the camera was installed “for change”. Therefore, about the same price in gray retail, and a much less powerful Realme 9 Pro + with its 50 megapixels, with optical stabilization, “does” the GT Neo model clean in photo mode (the iron doesn’t pull it out there in the video). At the same time, I once complained about the not very high-quality super-wide in Realme 9 Pro +, but in GT / GT Neo it is still weaker.
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Realme GT Neo 3T main camera
Look, Realme GT Neo2/Neo 3T hasthe main module is Samsung Bright S5KGW1 ISOCELL, which, by the way, gives plus or minus the same quality as Sony IMX682 Exmor RS in Realme GT. But the Realme 9 Pro+ costs the Sony IMX766, which is radically better.
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Realme GT Neo 3T main camera
Yes, it is silly to compare smartphones with a focus on the processor with a smartphone with a focus on the camera. But I consider it important to show you how and in what direction similarly priced smartphones can differ.
If you take, for example, a photo with a zoom (atRealme has traditionally only digital zoom on a multi-megapixel sensor), then the picture with Realme 9 Pro + will be noticeably sharper, sometimes it feels like an optical zoom was used. While all the mentioned GT smartphones do not, any attempt to zoom in on the picture will lose the quality of the frame.
During the day, the picture from Realme GT/GT Neo 3T/Neo2 will beoversaturated. It's not that it's bad, it just smacks of the era of Huawei P30 Pro and the like. At the same time, Realme 9 Pro + in all daytime scenes (plus shooting indoors) shows more natural and natural colors, and even the detail of the pictures is generally higher.
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Realme GT Neo 3T main camera
At night, Realme 9 Pro + slightly overexposed shots,but keeping all the details. I would not say that he turns night into day (which Xiaomi models sometimes suffer from), rather, he makes such a night, as on all kinds of postcards and in photographs from blogs of fashionable urbanists. At the same time, GT Neo 3T does not highlight anything at all, which, on the one hand, may seem more natural, only a shot from Realme 9 Pro + can be easily turned into a shot from GT Neo 3T, but vice versa - nothing.
Well, the over-width of the GT Neo 3T is inferior to that of the Realme 9 Pro+. But when compared with Realme GT, almost the same thing comes out.
There are no differences in the selfie camera, simply becausethat all four mentioned smartphones (9 Pro+, GT, GT Neo2, GT Neo 3T) have the same Sony IMX471 Exmor RS module. In sufficient light it takes very decent pictures, but not at night…
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Realme GT Neo 3T Selfie Camera
But the bottom line, if you do not touch the video, then Realme 9 Pro + comes out simply the best camera phone from Realme. The rest are no match for him.
Although, according to the video, the GT Neo 3T turns out to be better than the Realme 9 Pro+. Unless, at night it is better to shoot at 30 fps, otherwise you won’t see anything in the frame.
But, of course, you are interested not only in comparison with other Realme smartphones, but also with competitors?
In short, the Xiaomi 12X, which has the same camera as the Realme 9 Pro +, beats the Realme GT Neo 3T in all respects. Although, of course, Xiaomi asks for much more money for its smartphone.
But when compared with those close in concept and priceXiaomi Poco F4, the Xiaomi smartphone turns out to be much worse in terms of shooting quality: it mainly takes photos with a “cold” color rendition (slightly bluish muzzles, not very green grass, even if it’s very green live, etc.), much worse in range (if you take a picture of a person on a sunny day, then the Realme GT Neo 3T in the photo will normally depict both the person and, in a slight blur, what is behind him. And Xiaomi in the same case will grab only individual details in the background, while almost everything will be flooded with white from behind due to the impotence of the camera).
And the video in 1080p Poco F4 shoots for some reason muchworse (worse stabilization, some strange colors), while in 4K - everything is in order, as if you are shooting on another smartphone. While both the GT Neo 3T and Poco F4 produce sharp but very bouncy images in 4K, shooting on the go becomes problematic.
Competitors
Realme GT Neo 3TPoco F4Samsung Galaxy S21FEOperating systemAndroid 12 + Realme UI 3.0Android 12 + MIUI 13Android 12 + One UI 4 Screen6.62", 1080" 2400 pixels, 20:9, AMOLED, 120 Hz, 398 ppi 6.67", 1080" 2400 pixels ., 20:9, AMOLED, 120 Hz, 395 ppi6.4", 1080×2400 pixels, 20:9, AMOLED, 120 Hz, 401 ppiProcessor Qualcomm Snapdragon 870, Cortex-A77 3.2 GHz + 3x Cortex- A77 2.42 GHz + 4x Cortex-A55 1.8 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 870, Cortex-A77 3.2 GHz + 3x Cortex-A77 2.42 GHz + 4x Cortex-A55 1.8 GHz Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888, Cortex-X1 2 ,84 GHz + 3x Cortex-A78 2.42 GHz + 4x Cortex-A55 1.8 GHz Graphics Adreno 650 Adreno 650 Adreno 660 RAM 8 GB 8 GB 8 GB Storage 128 GB 256 GB 128 GB Communications NFC, LTE, Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11ac/6), Bluetooth 5.2, GPS, GLONASS, BeiDouNFC, LTE, Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11ac/6), Bluetooth 5.2, GPS, GLONASS, BeiDouNFC, LTE, Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11ac/6), Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, GLONASS, BeiDouCamerasMain triple: 64 MP f/1.8 + 8 MP f/2.3 (ultra-wide) + 2 MP f/2.4 (macro), video quality: up to 2160@60 FPS, front 16 MP f/2.5 Main triple: 64 MP f/1.8 + 8 MP f/2.2 (ultra-wide) + 2 MP f/2.4 (macro), video quality: up to 2160@60 FPS, front 20 MP f/2.5 Main triple: 12 MP f /1.8 + 8 MP f/2.4 (3x zoom) + 12 MP f/2.2 (ultra-wide), video quality: up to 2160@60 FPS, front 32 MP f/2.2 Battery 5000 mAh 4500 mAh 4500 mAh Dimensions 162.9& #215;75.8×8.7 mm163.2x76x7.7 mm155.7×74.5×7.9 mmWeight194.5 g195 g177 gProtection classnoIP53IP68Pricefrom 35 thousand rubles38 thousand rubles38.6 thousand rubles
Poco F4
Poco F4
Almost for the same money as Realme GT Neo3T you can take Poco F4 from Xiaomi. It will really be almost the same here, even the processor is the same, but Poco traditionally has trouble with the camera. Plus, the battery in Poco is weaker, but otherwise: charging in 38 minutes to 100%, and the lack of a memory card slot - everything is almost like Realme.
Samsung Galaxy S21FE
Samsung Galaxy S21FE
The option from Samsung (from the "gray" retail) is interestingtwo things. First, Samsung is Apple's only real competitor when it comes to smartphone video capture (ok, Google Pixel and in some cases OnePlus, maybe). Secondly, Samsung has IP68 water resistance - and this is really cool, and not the imaginary “IP53” of the Poco F4, which should be understood as a “stupidly ordinary case”. Well, and also a smartphone from Samsung - compact, neat and light, in design there are no frills with colors or patterns at all, so those who are tired of Chinese arts will like it. And the processor - Snapdragon 888, although "strangled" compared to the Realme GT, but still faster than the GT Neo 3T. This, however, has a negative impact on autonomy (scroll above and look at the difference in graphics in the “Performance and autonomy” paragraph).
Total
So, Realme GT Neo 3T is the spitting image of Realme GT Neo2, only the screen is a little better, and the RAM is a little worse. Is it worth taking it at all?
Look, the new Realme GT Neo 3T will be officiallysold at a price of 35 thousand rubles for 8/128 GB and 38 thousand for 8/256 GB. At the same time, if you go to the same DNS, then there GT Neo2 in the 8/128 configuration costs 45 thousand rubles, and for 32-35 thousand GT Neo2 today (October 2022) you can buy only in gray retail. And at the start GT Neo2 cost 38 thousand for the 8/128 GB model.
In short, the default is the new official GTNeo 3T will cost the same as the gray GT Neo2, which in itself is not bad. The price has dropped slightly - and this is perhaps the main reason to buy a new smartphone. And the “most likely opponent”, Xiaomi Poco F4, has almost the same screen and performance, but worse battery life and camera, and costs the same. And if so, it means that with the price of the GT Neo 3T, no matter how “biting” it may be, For ordinary workers, everything is more or less normal.
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Seems a little expensive…
Well, as for the assessment.I just went to the Realme GT Neo2 review, looked at how many points I gave it then, and copied the rating. It seems to me that this is fair. I don’t see any point in lowering the rating because it’s “the same thing” - it’s a good smartphone in any case.