Realme GT 7 Pro review: Powerful performance, average cameras

Realme GT7 Pro

Realme, since its inception about six years ago, has always built its reputation for providing value-for-money phones. The company’s latest flagship smartphone, the Realme GT 7 Pro, wants to be on the same lines with powerful specs, including Qualcomm’s latest and most powerful chipset to date, the Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC.

Moreover, the GT 7 Pro spec sheet also grabs attention as the brand offers hardware that is hard to find in other smartphones, closer to its price range. But does the Realme GT 7 Pro deliver as an overall complete package? This in-depth review will provide you with the answer.

Realme GT 7 Pro review: Design and display

When it comes to design, the Realme GT 7 Pro has a minimalistic back design. However, it still exudes a premium feel with its aluminum frame and solid glass sandwich design. In this review, you can see the Galaxy Grey variant that has a soft matte finish and gives the phone a subtle and refined look. The matte texture also resists smudges and fingerprints while providing a smooth and grippy experience.

Realme GT7 Pro

Weighing close to 223 grams, the device feels slightly bulky and is hard to use with a single hand. Its big camera bump on the back also causes the device to wobble on flat surfaces. The volume rockers and power buttons are conveniently placed on the right side and are easily accessible. The bottom frame houses the speaker grille, SIM tray, and USB Type-C port. Moreover, the handset is IP69-rated, making it more durable against common water splashes or dust particles.

If we talk about its display, the Realme GT 7 Pro does impress in this department. Its 6.78-inch LTPO AMOLED screen offers vibrant colours, sharp visuals, and impressive brightness. Moreover, even under direct sunlight or in dimly lit environments, the screen remains vivid, and the text on it is easily visible.

The default colour profile is balanced, but the phone also provides the option to tweak it up and make it more punchy or with better readability from the settings app. With the DC dimming and HDR10+ support, it is surely one of the most immersive displays Realme has offered. The peak 120 Hz refresh rate also ensures ultra-smooth animations and responsiveness.

Realme GT 7 Pro review: Performance

The Realme GT 7 Pro offers impressive processing power and gaming performance, which has been taken care of by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset paired with up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB storage on board. This new 3nm SoC also ensures strong battery life with very little idle drain. Its speaker performance is also spot on, and while watching any type of multimedia, the dual speakers provide a loud and rich sound experience.

Realme GT7 Pro

Moreover, apps open instantly, multitasking is seamless, and heavy gaming is handled without breaking a sweat by the GT 7 Pro. The vapour cooling chamber inside also ensures peak performance without any signs of overheating, even during long hours of gaming or benchmarking. To push its limits, we played some demanding games such as BGMI and Call of Duty at the highest graphic and frame rate settings, and the device performed without any lag or stutters.

Running on Android 15 with Realme’s latest UI 6.0, the GT 7 Pro offers a polished software experience with loads of customization options. The UI is also fluid, and it closely resembles ColorOS and OxygenOS in both appearance and functionality. Unlike other budget and midrange Realme phones, we also have significantly fewer pre-installed third-party apps on the device, which is a bonus. Realme is notorious for packing a lot of bloatware in its phones.

However, the company promises three years of OS updates and four years of security patches, which feels underwhelming when compared to other smartphones or flagship devices in its price range. Realme has also packed multiple AI features with this device, but they aren’t that useful as such But, they’re a good bit of fun as features like AI Ultra Clarity, Sketch to Image, and Circle to Search do add some novice functionalities.

Realme GT 7 Pro review: Camera

The GT 7 Pro comes with a triple camera system, including a 50MP primary camera, a 50MP telephoto camera, and an 8MP ultra-wide camera. Daylight shots from the primary camera exhibit vibrant colours and decent dynamic range, while the telephoto lens provides sharp and detailed zoom shots up to 6x.

Realme GT7 Pro camera sample

The white balance and HDR performance are also generally accurate, though skin tones may appear slightly brighter than natural in artificially well-lit environments. Thankfully, the presence of optical image stabilisation (OIS) helps in delivering clear and vibrant shots, especially in low-light and fast-action conditions. For the ultra-ambitious, Realme has also provided 120X digital zoom support that helps in clicking far-off objects. However, the colours were a bit washed out at that level; the object remain unclear at full zoom, especially in artificial light. It’s not something we ended up using a lot as the images left a lot to be desired.

The 8MP ultra-wide and 16MP selfie camera lenses struggle under low light and offer poor details. The camera’s AI-powered enhancements, such as AI Snap Mode, can track fast-moving subjects seamlessly. We also liked the AI Eraser mode, which seamlessly removes any unwanted human face or objects from a photo. Portrait shots also stood out, with well-defined subject separation and a natural bokeh effect that enhances the depth and focus around the subject.

Realme GT 7 Pro review: Battery

The Indian variant of the GT 7 Pro features a 5800mAh cell, which is a noticeable downgrade from the 6,500 mAh battery pack included in our unit. For its size, the smartphone delivers impressive battery performance, dropping only about 15% after an hour of intensive gaming. It also easily provides close to two days of battery life on a single charge with heavy usage of all-day 5G internet and multiple sessions of gaming in between.

Realme GT7 Pro

With the smaller capacity in the Indian version, users can realistically expect just about a day of usage with this smartphone. Thankfully, Realme bundles a 120W charger in the GT 7 Pro box, that tops up the smartphone in less than 30 minutes. However, the phone comes without any wireless charging support.

Verdict

The Realme GT 7 Pro is a solid addition to Realme’s 2024 smartphone lineup, as it successfully blends powerful hardware with long battery life and a vibrant display. However, the phone still fumbles a bit when it comes to its cameras, especially in low-lighting conditions. One certainly expects better camera performance for what is being touted as a 'flagship' experience. The software is also smooth, though there are some unwanted app suggestions, which you can disable for the most part.

At a starting price of Rs 59,999, the Realme GT 7 Pro offers value to gamers and power users with great battery backup. It also serves as a great entertainment companion, thanks to its big and punchy display accompanied by loud dual speakers. However, for users who prioritise camera performance, there are better options in the market.