Another review time. We will be looking at the Realme GT Neo 3 150W.
This is one of the latest devices from Realme and is a device that kind of sits in between the Realme GT 5G that was reviewed recently and the Realme GT 2 Pro in terms of pricing. In terms of hardware, some subtle differences separate from the GT 2 series. One of the key hardware differentiators is the fact that this phone is capable of charging at a massive 150W via the UltraDart Charge technology. This is a significant step up from the charging speed on the GT 2 which was a paltry 65W SuperDart charging. there are of course few more differences which we will uncover during the full course of the review.
Design
If we start from the top we have got very little on the top end of the phone but we do have a pinhole microphone. and the edge of the phone is slightly inset making it feel quite comfortable in the hand. We also find one of the two speaker grills that work to create a limited stereo effect of the speakers which is a nice touch to see on this grade of the phone.
Moving down to the right-hand side we find the power key which has some nice texture on it making it a bit easier to find by feel.
The base of the phone shares the same slight inset as can be found at the top. There is a lot going on here and it is quite busy. Down here we also find the bottom-firing speaker which does produce pretty good sound. Next, we have got a USB Type C port which allows very fast charging via the Superdart Charger technology more on this later though. Next up is another pinhole microphone for voice pickup which works well. Lastly, we have got the Dual Nano sim cardholder which does have a waterproof gasket around it for some waterproofing.
The left-hand side has the individually mounted volume buttons which have a nice positive clicking action and fall nicely below the thumb when being used in the right hand, it might be a bit more awkward to use if you are left-handed but I like the separation of the buttons as it avoids you mistaking the volume for the power button.
Around the front at the top, we have got the front earpiece/speaker which is clear and gives the effect of stereo separation the volume of this speaker is a bit lower than the one found on the base but this is normal for this sort of setup as my Oneplus Nord 2 5G uses the exact same setup. The speaker is hidden behind a very small and skinny grill and it is situated between the top of the phone and the top of the screen. It would be a fair assumption that this earpiece is the same component used for the speaker grill I mentioned on the top of the phone as they do line pretty well.
We also have the front-facing camera which is a 16 MP, f/2.45 24mm (wide), 1/3.09″, 1.0µm unit so works well for selfies whilst also not obliterating the background due to it being a wideish angle. It can also work at 1080p at 30fps for video recording so would be fine for use for video calls on Zoom etc. Unlike the GT 2, this one is mounted in the centre of the screen which is the more common placement for this type of speaker.
Moving down from the speaker and camera we have the 6.7″ display which has a resolution of 1080 x 2412 and a PPI of 394. The aspect ratio is 20.1:9 which is a nice size not being too skinny but still having enough width to display content. Lastly, this screen can have a refresh rate that will dynamically switch between 60HZ and 120HZ. You can leave this to be adaptive which is what I did or you can manually set it at either mode depending on your requirements. I found the refresh rate to be satisfactory in normal use and it was plenty fast enough for my liking. The last thing of note is the brightness for the screen will purportedly reach near 500 nits, whilst I have not been able to confirm this as I don’t have the correct equipment to test, I can confirm that the screen does get really bright, I had no issues reading the screen under direct sunlight!
Around the back, we have got two main points of interest for the phone. The first is the paint job and then the second is the camera module that has been used. I have the Sprint White and I just love the way that this looks. That twin racing stripe design that has drawn its inspiration from the likes of “Le Mans” racing cars from the 60s is just such a cool detail. I particularly like the way that the camera module interrupts the “stripes” and then a little further down you get the same effect from the Realme Logo. I would recommend this with the colour Sprint White or the Nitro Blue version. I have not seen the other variant which is more sedate Asphalt Black but I presume this has a more textured and roughened finish to it than on the other two more akin to what was seen on the original Realme 8 Pro that I reviewed a while ago.
The next bit for the back panel is the other big selling point that you can see the Camera modules. On the back panel, we have got a module made up of three lenses that have the following sensors: 50MP main, 8MP ultrawide and 2MP macro. I will cover these cameras in a bit more detail further down in the review.
In terms of the actual external dimensions and weight we are again in very familiar territory with the GT 2 with the Lenght being 163.3mm Width being 75.6mm the depth being 8.2mm and finally weight being 188g which does make 1o grams. In the hand, you will not notice these differences at all. It does feel great in the hand and I like that I am not faced with a design that loves fingerprints like most other high-end flagships. I have not felt the need to put a case on this phone which I would normally do with all my phones either that or a skin which I ended up doing with my daily driver the Pixel 6 Pro. incidentally, as I have mentioned the phone the Realme GT 3 Neo 150W is so much lighter than the P6Pro that it is refreshing to use a lighter phone after having spent so long with the heavier phone.
In the box you do of course get your usual Realme goodies like a case the sim eject pin, a beefy USB to USB Type C cable and the beast of a charger which i am going to talk more about very soon, Honestly I think the charger is heavier than the phone!!
Next up it is time to look at the specifications of the phone so here comes the table.
Specifications
| NAME | Realme GT Neo 3 150W |
|---|---|
| COLOR | Asphalt B
lack, Sprint White, Nitro Blue |
| DIMENSIONS | Height 163.3mm Width 75.6mm Depth 8.2mm Weight 188 grams |
| DISPLAY PARAMETERS | Size: 6.7 inches Resolution: 1080 x 2412 PPI 394 Aspect Ratio: 20.1:9 Refresh Rate: Variable between 1Hz to 120Hz Type: AMOLED Display |
| PERFORMANCE | Operating System: Realme UI 3.0 based on Android 12
CPU: Mediatek Dimensity 8100 (5nm) RAM: 8 or 12GB |
| MAIN CAMERA – REAR | 50 MP, f/1.9, 24mm (wide), 1/1.56″, 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS |
| ULTRA WIDE CAMERA -REAR | 8 MP, f/2.3, 15mm, 120˚ (ultrawide), 1/4.0″, 1.12µm |
| MACRO CAMERA -REAR | 2 MP, f/2.4, (macro) |
| FLASH | Dual-LED dual-tone flash, |
| VIDEO | 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps, gyro-EIS |
| FEATURES | Super Nightscape, 50MP Mode, Professional Mode, Panoramic View, Portrait Mode, HDR, Ultra Wide-angle, Text Scanner, Ultra Macro, Street Photography Mode, AI Beauty, Filters, AI Scene Recognition, Tilt-Shift |
| FRONT CAMERA | 16 MP, f/2.5, 26mm (wide), 1/3.09″, 1.0µm |
| VIDEO | 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS |
| FEATURES | Panoramic View, Portrait Mode, Super Nightscape, Time-lapse |
| CONNECTIVITY BAND | 2G Bands GSM: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 CDMA: 800 3G Bands HSDPA 800 / 850 / 900 / 1700(AWS) / 1900 / 2100 CDMA2000 1xEV-DO 4G Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 26, 28, 34, 38, 39, 40, 415G Bands 1, 3, 5, 8, 28, 38, 41, 77, 78, 79 SA/NSA Speed HSPA 42.2/5.76 Mbps, LTE-A, 5G |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot |
| BLUETOOTH | 5.3, A2DP, LE, aptX HD |
| GPS | Yes, with dual-band A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS |
| NFC | NFC enabled DUAL SIDE |
| SENSORS | Fingerprint (under display, optical), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass |
| PORTS | USB 2.0, Type-C, Dual nano-SIM slot |
| BUTTONS | Gestures and on-screen navigation support Volume key Power key |
| AUDIO | Dual stereo speaker Noise cancellation support |
Now that we have seen the raw specs let’s have a closer look at some of the key hardware features
Hardware
I want to start with the headline feature for this phone the charging speed. It is such a big feature Realme decided to include it in the phone’s name! So it seems that charging speeds has become one of the new smartphone battlegrounds, especially with the onset of GAN technology which is allowing chargers to become much smaller whilst still maintaining the ability to push high amounts of power. Another area where this technology has developed is the use of split cell battery packs. Add to this the propriety charging technology and software that each manufacturer seems to be developing (or renaming) and we have a hotly contested bed of development.
Realme’s Solution is to use their own UDCA Charging Architecture to power the 150W UltraDart charger allowing the phone to fully recharge in record time. All this is kept safe by the TUV Rheinland certified process that includes 38 Levels of Safety protection and a Smart MCU chip for management of the two battery cells. The eagle-eyed of you may have noticed that the Realme GT Neo 3 also comes in another flavour albeit with a slightly bigger battery. This one uses a single cell battery of the more traditional design and charging speed of 80W! having the slower charger speed does allow for an Extra 500mAh to be crammed into the battery giving a 5000mAH pack instead of the 150W’s 4500mHA.
I have only used the faster-charging version of the 2 devices and I have found that in terms of battery I have not been left lacking during a normal day even with that slightly smaller pack size. This in turn down to the fantastically efficient but still power full chipset.
The Chipset is the brain of any mobile tech these days and this is another example of the ladies and gents of Mediatek smashing it. I have not had any performance issues or excessive heat build-up on the new Mediatek 8100 5G processor. Like the processor in the Oneplus Nord 2 5G that I reviewed near the end of last year, this chipset really impresses. I used to be a bit of a Snapdragon snob back in the early days of the super processor. The phone loads apps quickly and cuts through most tasks like a knife through hot butter. All this being said the processor is only as good as the other components that it is supported by and again Realme have brought the A -Game, we find that we have UFS 3.1 Storage and also 6400Mhz of LPDDR5 RAM a massive 12GB of the stuff.
The Mediatek chipset isn’t the only processer present on the Realme GT Neo 3 150W though as there is also a dedicated display processor to allow the 120fps framerate. Now whilst it is not as granular a framerate as that seen on the Pixel 6 Pro I have been using it on Auto mode for the adaptive rate and I have found that it performs smoothly with very little evidence of it stitching between the standard 60hz to the 120hz max rate that can be achieved. Scrolling through text-based lists and the like is smooth and flow really well. When I have been playing games I found the screen to be pleasing to the eye and the framerates were what I expected them to be. I will admit that unlike some testers my gaming choices don’t tend to push the phone to its limits but i was happy with the result. I also found that when watching videos the playback was also buttery smooth with many an hour spent watching videos on either Netflix or YouTube.
Cooling is another very important part of the hardware puzzle and again we see some time-tested technology on this phone in the form of a Stainless Steel Vapor Cooling System Max which is 7% larger than the one found on the GT 2 Pro which is really nice to see given that the phone sizes are extremely comparable. It was very rare for the exterior of the phone to get uncomfortably hot. I did notice the normal heat build-up that comes with using services like Google Maps for a prolonged time period and when using the camera intensively a bit of heat can be felt. This is pretty much par for the course with a modern smartphone these days though so I can forgive the phone for this.
Moving on from the hardware the call performance and connectivity of this phone were as you would expect from a modern smartphone pretty much on par. I have found that my calls were crystal clear and I had no issues with the signal when making those calls. As I found when I was testing the Relame GT 2 5G, this was ever so slightly better than what I had seen on my Pixel 6 Pro. this is partially due to the extensive use of the integrated antennas and the fact that the central core to the phone is actually a plastic component allowing for seamless transmission from the antennas located around the body of the phone. I also found that Wi-fi performance was excellent with it consistently getting about the same as I found on my Pixel 6 Pro. I was also suitably impressed with the Bluetooth capability of the device with a very good connection to my car for use when driving and unlike some other phones, I have tried recently it was always fast to regain the connection when I asked it to do so.
Last but not least the biometrics of the phone ie the Fingerprint Scanner was quick and responsive with very few misreads of my digits when in use. The face unlock was good as you would expect it to be with a 16mp camera behind it but as always this is more a convenience factor and not something I would recommend using for actually securing your phone as a primary solution as like and 2D scan it can easily be fooled into unlocking your device.
That pretty much covers the Hardware elements of the phone, next up is the camera performance.
Camera
The camera on this phone is very similar to the one found on Realme GT 2 5G. I found it more than capable of keeping up with the task of taking day to day photos and the software was a pleasure to use. While I am by no means a photographer I can appreciate a good photo when I see one, especially if the colours are accurate and vibrant. Fortunately, the Realme GT 3 Neo 150w stands proud in the section. Below are a selection of photos taken with the phone during my review period and I hope this shows the abilities of the camera.
The main sensor is not too bad and produces pretty good quality images from the 50mp and f/1.9 sensor with vibrant colours and good levels of contrast. The night mode works well and does create some good photos in tricky conditions. I was more than happy to use it for capturing the antic of some grown men playing with Radio Controlled trucks!
The Zoom is not really anything massively impressive but as long as you don’t push it too hard you will get some useable results. However, once you go into the higher levels expect to start seeing some noticeable distortion and cropping as this is only a digital zoom after all.
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- 0.6 x Zoom
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- O X Zoom
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- 2 X Zoom
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- 5 x Zoom
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- 10 x Zoom
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- 20 x Zoom
I found that the night shots were surprisingly colour accurate, especially when compared to the likes of the Honor Magic 4 Pro, recently reviewed here.
When working with the ultrawide camera things were okay as long as you were not trying to get the subject of the image too close as you do start to get a bit of degradation in this instance.
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- Ultra Wide
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- Normal
The selfie camera is fine and it does what it says on the tin just be aware of the rather aggressive Ai that is the Norm for phones designed with the Asian market in mind as i found that the Beauty mode, even when turned off, could still be quite intrusive.
The video was serviceable and I have recorded a clip here again of grown men and RC trucks! It will of course support up to 4 K recording if you wish to use it but to be honest, if you are wishing to get good quality 4K footage then this is not really your best option. For the impromptu video of memorable events then this will do the job but you won’t be recording a Cannes film Festival feature on this phone.
I did find the camera software intuitive and easy to navigate through and the heat build-up when using the camera was within the acceptable parameters for a smartphone these days with it only getting a tad warm when I was using it for video over prolonged periods.
Here are a few more general images for you to look at to make your own judgement of the camera.
Software
The software on the Realme Gt Neo 3 150w is pretty much identical to that of the Realme GT 2 5G, which is a good thing as the latest Realme Ui is pretty good especially as they have fixed my biggest annoyance with the previous version. I still am somewhat confused by the way in which you have to interact with the notifications, these require a double press to actually see the content. And the permissions prompt every time you open a core app for the first time is a bit annoying for the first few days. All that being said though if i had to use this as my daily driver I could certainly live with it as it does have enough niceties to keep my interest. I also received at least 2 minor software updates during my time with the device which is nice to see.
It is a bit early to say how well the software will continue to be supported but there is a sign of some light on the horizon. One of my first reviews of a Realme device the Realme 8 Pro is still being used in the house by my wife and I have read that it is due to get the update to Realme UI 3 in the next few weeks to months. Now while my unit does not have it yet it gives me hope about how Realme will address future updates to this and their other devices going forward. Only time will tell if that hope is dashed or delivered upon.
Conclusion
So why should you care about the Realme GT Neo 3 150W phone and choose it over others in this crowded mid-tier high-end segment? Well, there is one big reason and that is of course the stupendously quick charging speed. if you are the type of person who needs their phone charged in less time than it takes to have a shower then this phone will suit you very well as long as that is one of the main features you are drawn to.
The reason for that previous statement is that if you don’t need the phone to charge in an Ultrafast time then there are other options from both Realme and its sister brands in the form of the OnePlus 10R (not available in the UK) and the Realme GT2 5G or GT 2 Pro 5g both of which incidentally are currently cheaper. Looking to outwith the BBK brand family you also have the likes of the upcoming Pixel 6A to consider and the A series line up from Samsung which has always served the market well in this section.
The Realme GT Neo 3 150W is a great fone and is one that I have been very happy to use for the time I have had it. But with so many similarities in terms of functionality, camera and performance I have to bring its reason for existing into question. Yes if you want an Ultrafast charging Phone with the familiarity presented within the very good Realme UI (ie Colour OS/ Oxygen OS) and you are in the UK then this is the only way to currently get it without importing a device. if not then look to the other stablemates in the form of the Realme GT2 5G and the GT2 Pro 5G and save yourself a bit of cash.
Oh if you like racing stripes “Le Mans style” then that is another good reason to go for this phone too!
The Realme GT Neo 150W is available now from Realme’s website for £599
EXTRA EXTRA!!!
What if you like Japanese Superhero Animation then don’t Worry cos Realme of got you covered there as well, keep it on Coolsmartphone.com for the review of the other phone in the GT Neo 3 line up…..