Realme GT 6 review: good gets better and costs more

After testing the waters with the Realme GT 6T, Realme has launched the Realme GT 6 smartphone in India. The handset is significantly more powerful than its younger sibling, thanks to the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 SoC. The camera configuration also features a new 50MP Sony LYT-808 OIS main sensor and a 2x 50MP telephoto lens.

The Realme GT 6 is set to take on the OnePlus 12R (review) and iQOO Neo 9 Pro (review). The phone provides excellent budget performance, a few AI capabilities, and a nice viewing experience even in bright sunshine. The smartphone also has an amazing battery life and fast charging features. Although its look is unattractive, the device exceeds its nearest competitors in daylight photography.

REALME GT 6 KEY FEATURES

The global edition of the Realme GT 6 has arrived, and it looks promising. The phone has a smart and attractive appearance, a premium Dolby Vision OLED, one of the quickest processors, high-quality cameras, a long battery life, and rapid charging!

Realme’s GT range has returned to worldwide markets, and it features a fresh design that stands out with its two-tone back, which combines glossy portions with a silver mirror finish.

Realme is promoting the 6.78-inch OLED screen on the GT 6 as an LTPO OLED display with high resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, 10-bit color depth, and Dolby Vision support. It has the highest peak brightness on the market, up to 6,000 nits.

The GT 6 uses the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset, which has been a popular platform among manufacturers due to its flagship-grade performance at a lower price. Realme offers top-tier vapor-chamber cooling, fast LPDDR5X RAM, and UFS4 storage.

The GT 6 features a 50MP primary camera with a high-quality Sony LYT-808 sensor, a 50MP telephoto for 2x optical and 4x lossless zoom, and an 8MP ultrawide camera. There is also a 32MP camera for selfies.

Finally, the Realme GT 6 features a massive 5,500 mAh battery and enables blazing-fast 120W SuperVOOC charging. Realme offers a 50% charge in just 10 minutes!

REALME GT 6 KEY UNBOXING

The Realme GT 6 comes in a standard paper box and includes a 120W charger with a USB-A connector, a 12A USB-C-A cable, and a dark gray silicone casing.

The GT 6 comes with a protective screen protector attached to the screen, which helps to prevent scratches.

CAMERA

The Realme GT 6 features three rear cameras: a 50-megapixel primary camera with a Sony LYT-808 sensor, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide angle camera with a Sony IMX355 sensor, and a 50-megapixel telephoto camera with a Samsung JN5 sensor. The phone also includes a 32-megapixel selfie camera on the front with an unidentified sensor.

The primary camera sensor on the device captures clear, color-accurate photos. Zooming in on these photographs reveals that there is sufficient detail, provided there is enough light. In low-light situations, the camera still produces fine shots in the regular setting, but you can switch to a dedicated Night mode, which takes brighter images in just a second.

The ultra-wide angle camera produces photographs with significantly lower quality and slightly darker than the primary camera, although it is useful for photographing larger subjects that are not too far away. There is also no obvious warping at the corners. In low-light situations, the camera takes images with less detail than the primary camera, and I found myself using the latter when there was insufficient lighting.

If you have far-away subjects, the Realme GT 6’s telephoto camera can capture clear shots at 2x optical zoom, with an extra 4x zoom option. The telephoto camera’s photographs have slightly less brilliant colors than the primary camera’s. Zooming in on distant subjects in low-light conditions results in photographs with some noise and softness. If you zoom past 15x, the camera interface will provide an indicator that alerts you when to press the capture button.

The primary and telephoto cameras can take video at up to 4K/60fps, but if you want to use the built-in super steady mode, you must record at 1080p/60fps with the primary camera – this is the ideal option for filming films while walking around. The ultra-wide angle camera captures films at up to 1080p/30fps.

After turning off the ‘beautification’ features, the front-facing camera may produce detailed selfies. The selfie camera’s photographs are clear when there is enough light, but slightly grainy in low-light situations.

You can now utilize the primary and telephoto cameras to record films in Dolby Vision at up to 4K/30fps. These videos are brighter and have higher contrast, but they can only be seen on Dolby Vision-compatible televisions. Meanwhile, films shot with the front-facing camera are fine during the day, but the quality suffers significantly at night.

DESIGN AND SCREEN

The Realme GT 6 and GT 6T have a similar design language, with one notable exception: the little camera ring on the back. Unlike the GT 6T, where this ring is flush with the surface and incorporates a twin LED flash, the Realme GT 6 protrudes like other camera rings to fit a camera lens. Every other aspect of the gadget remains identical. The device has a glass design with a glossy surface that is prone to smudges and scratches if not protected with a case. Overall, while the design may not be as elegant as contemporary vegan leather-backed phones if you value structural integrity, this phone should satisfy your needs.

While the device is not particularly small, its relatively lightweight form factor and curved screen design make it easy to operate and carry for extended periods. The Realme GT 6 features a 6.73-inch AMOLED display with 1.5k resolution, DCI-P3 color gamut, up to 120Hz refresh rate, and an impressive 6,000 nits brightness. That 6,000 nits is only feasible for a brief time. Typically, the brightness would be around 1,000 nits, with high brightness approaching 1,600 nits. This ensures exceptional legibility, even in direct sunshine.

To save battery life, the phone has an LTPO display that can dynamically alter its refresh rate between 1Hz and 120Hz depending on the on-screen content. Aside from that, the device provides bright and crisp graphics, with good color calibration and a high contrast ratio. The viewing angles are also remarkable, and the handset is Widevine L1 certified, which ensures FHD streaming from Netflix and other OTT sites.

HOW’S THE PERFORMANCE?

The Realme GT 6 software features a few new AI techniques. While it lacks AI-generative capabilities like the Pixel or Samsung Galaxy phones, it does have AI Smart Loop and Breeno-powered AI Screen Recognition. An AI smart loop allows you to choose anything on your screen and transmit it directly to other apps, whereas AI Screen recognition can evaluate what’s on your screen and is intelligent enough to read English and capture photographs.

Aside from these features, Realme has implemented AI Night Vision in video, which increases video quality in low-light circumstances. It also has AI Smart Removal in the Albums app, which performs a nice trick of removing undesired objects or people from images.

Realme UI 5.0, based on Android 14, comes pre-installed with various apps such as Snapchat, Amazon, Facebook, and Myntra. Fortunately, you can delete the majority of the apps you don’t need. The ColorOS-based Realme UI now has File Dock and Floating Windows, both of which I have yet to utilize on the phone.

Realme offers three years of major software upgrades and an additional year of security updates, implying that you will receive at least Android 17 via OTA and security patches until at least 2028.

Realme chose a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 CPU to power the GT6. It’s manufactured on a 4nm technology and has a 1+4+3 CPU configuration. The primary Cortex-X4 core is clocked at 3.0 GHz, while the four Cortex-A720 cores operate at 2.8 GHz. The three high-efficiency Cortex-A520 cores are operating at 2.0 GHz. The GPU is the Adreno 735, which is a downgrade from the Adreno 740 in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.

Buy it if...

• 120Hz LTPO OLED screen with class-leading brightness.
• Excellent battery life.
• The charging speed is extremely rapid.
• Snappy and modern chipset with high sustained performance.
• On-board infrared blaster.

Don't buy it if…

• Selfie and ultrawide cameras are not particularly impressive.
• Telephoto cameras only have 2x optical zoom.

FULL SPECIFICATION