Realme already has a strong presence in the budget and mid-range segment of the Indian smartphone market and now, it has launched the new Realme GT 6, which is directed towards the premium segment buyers. Starting at a price of ₹35,999, the phone comes with the latest Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset, a 5,500mAh battery, fast charging and of course, AI features.
Let’s find out more about the phone and see what it offers to its target group!
Design
The Realme GT 6 bears a striking resemblance to its more affordable sibling - the GT 6T, sharing similar curved edges on the display and a familiar rear camera module arrangement. However, Realme has made subtle yet significant upgrades that elevate the GT 6’s premium feel.
The new GT 6 comes with a glass body that not only enhances the visual appeal but also contributes to a more luxurious in-hand feel. The rear panel is divided into two distinct sections: a mirror-like area housing the camera module and a larger portion with a cloudy finish. While the mirror section serves a dual purpose as a handy pocket mirror, it’s also a magnet for fingerprints and smudges. The cloudy finish on the rest of the panel does a better job of hiding these marks, but regular cleaning will still be necessary if you want a pristine look.
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On the front, the curved display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2, offering robust protection against scratches and accidental drops. It also has IP65 water and dust resistance, for users concerned about accidental splashes or dusty environments. An under-display fingerprint scanner is conveniently placed towards the bottom of the screen. In testing, it proved to be both fast and reliable, rarely failing to recognize registered fingerprints.
In ports and buttons, you can find the power and volume buttons on the right side of the frame. The bottom edge houses a speaker grille and a USB Type-C port, while an infrared transmitter sits at the top, allowing the phone to double as a remote control for various household appliances.
Display
Realme GT 6 comes with a 6.78-inch Full-HD+ LTPO AMOLED panel with a resolution of 1,264x2,780 pixels and a peak brightness of 6,000 nits. It has an adaptive refresh rate that ranges from 1Hz to 120Hz. Complementing this is a 360Hz touch sampling rate, which translates to highly responsive touch inputs – a feature that gamers and power users will particularly appreciate.
Brightness is another area where the GT 6’s display shines but having this vast range as 6,000 nits can cause pixel burn out in the display. The screen gets remarkably bright when automatic brightness is enabled, ensuring excellent visibility even under direct sunlight. Color reproduction on the Realme GT 6 is vibrant and punchy. The display supports both Dolby Vision and HDR10, enhancing the viewing experience for compatible content.
OS
The Realme GT 6 runs on Android 14 out of the box, overlaid with the company’s custom Realme UI 5 skin. Realme UI 5 brings several useful additions and smart features to the table.
This iteration of the GT series also marks Realme’s foray into AI-enhanced smartphones. The GT 6 comes equipped with ‘Next AI’, a suite of artificial intelligence features designed to improve various aspects of the user experience.
Realme has committed to providing three major Android OS updates and security patches, followed by an additional year of security updates.
Processor and Performance
Realme GT 6 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset, a recent addition to Qualcomm’s lineup that sits just below their flagship processors. This 4nm octa-core processor features one Arm Cortex X4 core clocked at 3.0GHz, four Cortex-A720 cores at 2.8GHz, and three Cortex-A520 efficiency cores at 2.0GHz. Paired with this is the Adreno 735 GPU, promising solid graphics performance.
The chipset is complemented by up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB of internal storage, ensuring smooth multitasking and ample space for apps, media, and files. The combination of high-speed RAM and storage contributes significantly to the phone’s snappy performance in day-to-day use.
In real-world usage, the Realme GT 6 handles both everyday tasks and demanding workloads with ease. App launches are quick, and switching between multiple apps is seamless. The phone shows no signs of lag or stuttering, even when juggling numerous background processes.
Gaming performance on the GT 6 is particularly impressive. Popular titles like Asphalt and Call of Duty run smoothly on the highest supported settings. Even after extended gaming sessions of an hour or more, there were no noticeable issues with lag, throttling, or overheating. The built-in gaming mode allows users to further optimize their gaming experience, offering options to enhance HDR content, improve touch response, and choose between battery-saving or performance-focused modes.
In the benchmark tests, the phone managed a score of 1965 for its single-core processor, while in the multicore, it scored 4981. On the other hand, in the GPU test, the phone recorded an impressive figure of 9196.
Camera
The camera system on the Realme GT 6 is a versatile triple-lens setup that aims to cover a wide range of photography needs. The primary camera boasts a 50MP Sony LYT-808 sensor, which is complemented by an 8MP ultra-wide camera with a Sony IMX355 sensor and a 50MP telephoto camera utilizing a Samsung JN5 sensor. On the front, a 32MP selfie camera handles self-portraits and video calls.
The star of the show is undoubtedly the main 50MP camera. In daylight conditions, it captures images that can rival those from more expensive flagship devices. Photos exhibit excellent sharpness and detail, with accurate color reproduction and impressive dynamic range. The camera software seems to favor a slightly higher contrast in some scenes, resulting in images with a distinct and appealing look. However, this can occasionally lead to slightly clipped highlights in high-contrast scenarios.
Realme GT 6 sample image | Photo Credit: Haider Ali Khan
The low-light performance of the main camera is also noteworthy. Even in the default mode, the camera manages to capture good photos in dimly lit environments. Switching to the dedicated Night mode results in brighter images with enhanced detail, although some users might find that this mode can sometimes make night scenes appear overly bright, potentially sacrificing some of the natural ambiance.
The ultra-wide angle camera, while offering a broader field of view, does show a noticeable drop in image quality compared to the main sensor. Images from this camera tend to be darker and less detailed, particularly in low-light conditions. However, it still proves useful for capturing larger scenes or subjects that are close to the camera, and impressively, there’s minimal warping around the edges of ultra-wide shots.
The telephoto camera is a pleasant surprise, offering good quality images at 2x optical zoom. Colors from the telephoto lens are slightly less vibrant than those from the main camera, but the level of detail remains impressive. The phone also offers a 4x zoom option, which, while not optical, still produces respectable results. In darker conditions, zoomed shots do exhibit some noise and softening, but this is to be expected.
Realme GT 6 sample image | Photo Credit: Haider Ali Khan
For selfie enthusiasts, the 32MP front-facing camera delivers detailed self-portraits, especially when the default beautification features are disabled. The camera performs well in good lighting conditions, producing clear and natural-looking selfies. However, in low-light scenarios, there is a noticeable drop in quality, with images becoming somewhat blurry.
One of the standout features of the camera system is the AI enhancement provided by Realme’s ‘Next AI’. This is particularly evident in low-light photography and in features like object removal from photos. While not revolutionary, these AI enhancements do contribute to an overall improved photography experience.
Battery
The Realme GT 6 is equipped with a substantial 5,500mAh battery, which proves more than capable of powering the device through a full day of use. The phone is supported by a 120W SuperVOOC charging brick capable of fully charging the device in just 29 minutes on average.
It’s worth noting that while the phone features a glass back, it does not support wireless charging. This omission might disappoint some users, especially considering that wireless charging is becoming increasingly common in this price range. However, given the extremely fast wired charging speeds, the lack of wireless charging may not seem like a deal-breaker.
Verdict
The Realme GT 6 emerges as a very good option in the premium smartphone category. It successfully combines several high-end features at a competitive price point. The phone should satisfy both tech enthusiasts looking for the latest features and everyday users seeking a reliable, high-performing smartphone. While the phone may not attract everyone, it gets things far more right than wrong, cementing its position as a strong contender in the premium segment.
