realme’s GT Series has been a reflection of how the brand sees itself. The realme GT 5G clearly went for that flagship killer mentality that appealed to that hardcore realme fan. It felt odd when realme didn’t do much after the realme GT 3 launched back in 2023. We only got two GT Series phones officially in PH before this year. Those are the GT Master Edition in 2021, the GT NEO 3 in 2022. It’s a good thing realme started its “brand-oriented” approach this year because we FINALLY got a new GT series phone! Does it still appeal to that same fan that valued the first GT? Find out in my realme GT 6 review.
Disclaimer: I purchased the realme GT 6 in Razor Green on June 28, 2024, from realme’s Official Store on Shopee. It arrived on July 2, 2024, and I’ve been using it for three months. However, I used the GT 6 as my main Android phone for almost two months.
Unboxing Experience
While previous GT series phones had their boxes in the landscape orientation, the GT 6 went for the usual portrait-style box. At least we have a black box and it’s a thick one too. We’re not getting a lot more inside for that thick box though, as we just get the usual TPU case, USB-A to USB-C cable, and a 120W SUPERVOOC power adapter.
Design and Build
The realme GT 6 rocks a Nano Mirror Design with a glass back and a plastic frame. While the plastic frame may make the phone seem less premium, the overall look and feel certainly made up for it. This phone comes in two colors: Fluid Silver, and Razor Green (the one I have). I’ve talked to many of my peers and they mostly prefer the silver color. There’s just something about the green color that hits different for me.
We get a dual SIM card tray, a USB-C port, a microphone, and one of the two speakers on the bottom. The power button and volume rocker are on the right side, while the top of the phone has the second speaker, an IR blaster, and another microphone.
My Main Qualm with the Design
While I did say that I like the overall look and feel, I just can’t stand the glossy back. This back gets fingerprints all the time and can be slippery when holding the phone with no case. Sure, realme used Gorilla Glass Victus 2 for the display glass on this phone, but I can’t say the same for the back. I got the back scratched within the 2nd month of using the GT 6. While a case would have avoided it altogether, I don’t like the included gray TPU case in the box.
Despite my qualms with the glossy back, it’s been a joy to hold the GT 6 on the daily. It provides that contrast to the boxier feel that my other daily driver phone has.
Display
If there’s one thing I LOVE about the realme GT 6, it’s the display. While most smartphones have OLED or AMOLED displays, not a lot of them use LTPO technology. Said technology is what allows for variable refresh rate. Since the display of the GT 6 supports up to 120Hz refresh rate, the display can go up to that max amount or down to 1Hz to enable its always-on display.
How’s the Curved Display?
While the GT 6 does have a curved display, the curve isn’t as drastic and it contributes to the good feel in the hand. This display is plenty bright that I don’t even turn off auto brightness. I also didn’t need to turn on the Extra brightness setting to boost that brightness even further for up to 6000 nits! I’m pretty sure that the display doesn’t go that bright all the time though. For some weeks of those 2 months, I was using the GT 6 without a screen protector! Unlike the back of the phone, the display has Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection. I didn’t need to worry too much about getting scratches on the screen.
The Other Things…
I tend to go back and forth between the iPhone and the GT 6 when watching YouTube and Netflix. The display quality is just one of the best I’ve seen in a phone to the point that I don’t think about it. Its in-display fingerprint sensor is fast and reliable enough as well. For me, this phone has a great display and there’s not much else you can say.
Speakers
The GT 6 has dual stereo speakers and they sound good for phone speakers! I’ve only ever experienced two other phones with better speakers, and one of them is a gaming phone. The speakers on this phone are definitely better than what realme uses in its Number Series phones. While these don’t sound as good at maximum volume, you mostly don’t need to go there. I generally use the GT 6 speakers for when I’m in the car and don’t wanna bother with the car’s sound system. Usually, the speaker volume is just around 50 or 60% when listening to music.
Performance
The realme GT 6 uses a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage. A lot of phones competing in its price segment already have 512GB of storage though, and it would have been nice for realme to just put 512GB here as well. That being said, the overall performance of this phone is just really good, even with my more demanding social media, video watching, photo and video taking, and some gaming.
Playing graphics-intensive games like Zenless Zone Zero and Honkai: Star Rail are a blast on the GT 6! I rarely encounter any dropped frames, especially with a recent game I picked up for reviews: Honor of Kings. Of course, the phone runs my favorite mobile game Pokemon UNITE pretty well.
One neat feature that the GT 6 has is called Geek Power Tuning where you can adjust the clock speed for both the CPU and GPU of the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chip. While I personally don’t use this, you can take advantage of this feature for even better performance at the cost of battery life and heat.
Benchmark Results
While I don’t put much weight in benchmarks these days, there might be those who want to know some details based off them. For those looking for benchmark results, here they are:
I only have one concern: the GT 6 cannot maintain peak performance for long. Note that the benchmarks were tested using a balanced profile, but even GT Mode wouldn’t help with the 58% stability when running the PCMark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test.
Software
The realme GT 6 runs realme UI 5.0 based on Android 14. Unlike the previous realme phones I’ve reviewed, this phone gets realme’s suite of AI features called NEXT AI. Initial features that came with the phone include: AI Smart Loop, AI Smart Removal, and AI Night Vision Mode. Throughout my three-month use of the GT 6, I got at least three software updates. The latest one I got brought these additional NEXT AI features: AI Recording Summary, and AI Ultra Clarity (a feature first introduced in the realme 13 Pro Series).
I have to admit something though: I barely used any of these AI features. There are some camera-centric AI features that I tried such as AI Smart Removal, AI Ultra Clarity, and AI Night Vision Mode. Out of the three, I find the AI Smart Removal feature most useful especially when you need to remove distracting elements of a photo.
One creepy thing I found when using AI Ultra Clarity is how it definitely changes how you look when doing a selfie. The feature made my face look way smoother, my eyes lacked eyelashes, and the eyeglasses looked cleaner. I also somehow got slightly longer hair on the right! Haha.
Besides all the AI features, the overall user interface and user experience of the GT 6 is just great. Other than the occasional app hiccups, the phone never slowed me down. realme UI is my favorite Android skin and the GT 6 reinforces that to the highest degree.
Battery Experience
If I had to pick two of the best features of this phone, it would have to be its display and battery life. The realme GT 6 is one of the few upper-midrange phones to carry a 5500 mAh battery. Coupled with its 120W SUPERVOOC fast charging support, then you have an amazing battery experience on paper. The good news here is that realme nailed the battery experience with flying colors.
PCMark Work 3.0 Battery Life Test Results
When I saw the results of the PCMark test, it bode well for what I expected the real-world battery life of the GT 6 would be. While it isn’t the best result I’ve seen, this is already great for an upper-midrange or flagship killer phone. So, how’s the real-world battery life?
My Honest Real-World Battery Experience
The GT 6 is one of the few phones that exceeded my expectations in terms of battery experience. Not only do I get 4.5 to 5 hours of screen-on time with around 25% remaining, but this behavior has been consistent within the 3 months I used the phone! The best part about missing that screen-on time? I can charge the GT 6 to full in less than 30 minutes! This is a very convenient feature that I would like on future phones that I own.
Overall, the combination of a 5500 mAh battery and 120W SUPERVOOC fast charging makes the GT 6 a battery champ in my book.
Cameras
The one aspect where smartphone makers seem to focus on these days is the camera. From making smartphone cameras more capable of doing zoom to supplementing them with AI features, the camera remains one of the most important selling points of a phone. While the realme GT 6 is more of a performance-centric smartphone, I was genuinely curious whether this phone can keep up in terms of its cameras. Why don’t we find out together in this realme GT 6 review?
Click on the photos for full-resolution versions!
What surprised me with the GT 6 is how balanced two of the three rear cameras are. Both the 50MP Sony LYT-808 main camera and the 50MP Samsung ISOCELL JN5 telephoto camera have similar color reproduction, even at 4x In-sensor Zoom. While the GT 6 leans more on the main camera when taking zoom photos in low light, just having this flexibility is great.
The Odd One Out: Its 8MP Ultrawide Camera
Do you know what’s not great? The 8MP Sony IMX355 ultrawide camera. It’s pretty clear that even realme’s image processing can’t save this camera. There’s not much detail, and I would rather see realme ditch the ultrawide camera altogether to use better main and telephoto cameras. If you look at the leaves on the left of the ultrawide photo, the detail straight up disappears compared to the 50MP main camera photo.
Get Ready to Be Hungry!
realme has improved in its image processing to the point that I sometimes prefer the food photos I took with the GT 6 compared to my iPhone 14 Pro. When I did some photo comparisons between those two phones, there would be results where either it would be a tie or people preferred the GT 6. Even getting some wins in favor of realme is definitely impressive.
Product Photography
Another sign that a phone is worthy of being my daily driver is when I use it for content on this very blog. While not all photos make it, I would tend to reach the GT 6 as my backup phone for social media photos. I can especially rely on it on close-up shots of products like the one below of the Nothing ear (2). You can also see
Low-Light Prowess
The star out of all of the realme GT 6’s cameras is definitely that 50MP Sony LYT-808 main camera. Low-light photos coming out of the main camera impressed me. (I shouldn’t be surprised though: another phone maker used this sensor for its flagship phone.) While this sensor isn’t the absolute best in the market, this camera is probably up there when comparing to phones of its price range.
Faces, Faces, Faces
If you know realme’s roots, then expecting good to great things from the brand when it comes to faces is normal. The realme GT 6 delivers in this front, especially its 32MP Sony IMX615 front camera. I pretty much don’t have to think about what setting to use when taking selfies in general. Photos in low light were still a struggle at times as the phone’s display would act as a fill light. For most cases though, I can count on this phone to get the shot right.
Should You Buy the realme GT 6?
I’ve been using realme phones ever since the first one officially arrived in the Philippines with the realme C1. Since then, I’ve used realme phones in every lineup made available by the brand (C Series, Number Series, GT Series, and even the Note Series). The longer I’ve used them, the more I value a balanced phone. I tend to gravitate to the GT Series because of that.
The realme GT 6 may feel like the brand rushed it out for that AI push, but don’t let that fool you. It’s a well-balanced phone that nails the fundamentals of what a phone should offer in 2024. Standout features are its LTPO AMOLED display and the 5500 mAh battery + 120W SUPERVOOC combo. While it’s not the best at handling all the power from the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, none of the other aspects of the GT 6 detract to the standout features.
I would definitely buy the realme GT 6 if you asked me again. Oh wait, I did buy it. And maybe you should too if you value a well-balanced phone like I do.
Pros
- A well-refined Nano Mirror Design with a great look and hand feel
- Having a flagship-level 120Hz LTPO AMOLED display on a sub-P40,000 phone is impressive
- Surprisingly the best speakers in realme’s current phone lineup
- Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 + 12GB LPDDR5X RAM + 256GB UFS 4.0 storage combo makes it great for performance
- Excellent battery experience thanks to its 5500 mAh battery and 120W SUPERVOOC Charge
- AI Smart Removal and AI Smart Loop are the only useful NEXT AI features
- Software updates made the GT 6 a better phone long term
- Good 50MP main and telephoto rear cameras, as well as its 32MP front camera
- 4K 60fps video recording is good
Cons
- Glossy back leaves a lot of fingerprints
- Its curved display may not be good for random touches
- Other phones in its price range offer 512GB storage
- The phone can’t keep its peak performance for longer despite its Iceberg Vapor Cooling System
- The other NEXT AI features feel pointless?
- realme UI on the realme GT 6 felt rushed and had lots of problems in the beginning
- Definitely a subpar 8MP ultrawide camera
The realme GT 6 retails for P34,999 in Fluid Silver and Razor Green colorways. You can buy one at selected realme physical stores and authorized retailers nationwide. It is also available online via realme’s e-commerce partners Lazada, Shopee, and TikTok Shop.