realme GT 7 Pro review – Snapdragon 8 Elite smartphone unleashed

On the 18th of November 2024, realme officially launched the realme GT 7 Pro smartphone in Malaysia. This event is significant in several ways. realme GT 7 Pro is the first Snapdragon 8 Elite smartphone launched globally outside of China. Malaysia was also chosen as the first country in the world to launch the realme GT 7 Pro outside of China.

This also marks the return of the numbered realme GT Pro series, as realme had skipped a generation from the realme GT 5 Pro to now the realme GT 7 Pro. Let’s have a very close look at this highly anticipated smartphone from realme.

The Packaging:

The containing box is wholly black, adorned with shiny silver lettering GT7 Pro featured prominently in the front. Inside we get the realme GT 7 Pro in the Galaxy Grey colourway. Other items inside the box include a solid black silicone case, a 120W Supervooc charger, a data charging cable, a sim eject tool, and documentation. No surprises here, which is a good thing.

The Phone itself:

realme markets the realme GT 7 Pro as a curved display, which it is not. It’s actually a 6.78-inch flat display, with rounded edges and corners that merge into the sides. The aluminium sides are finished in matt grey, and also rounded at the corners. The top locates small cutouts for the top speaker and a noise-canceling mic. The right edge houses the usual volume and power buttons, while the left edge has no buttons. Lastly the bottom places the sim tray, the USB-C port, and the bottom speaker cutouts.

The rear camera housing is of a new design, sporting a square dual-layer look. The top is covered in black glass, while the bottom layer is in matt silver. On the right edge, realme added a chamfered edge, with HYPERIMAGE + written on the slope. realme had added even more flourish to the camera housing, there is a shiny pink trim in the bottom layer that sparkles when it catches the light at a right angle.

The back of the realme GT 7 Pro is protected by Panda Glass, in the Star Grey colourway. This matt glass back has a brushed stainless steel appearance, reflective to light and is resistant to fingerprints, which is always a good thing.

Another layer of protection realme has added to the realme GT 7 Pro is the dual IP68 and IP69 dust and water protection, up to 2 meters deep. The IP69 rating means that the realme GT 7 Pro can even withstand water streams that are shot from a steam pressure jet.

Specifications at a glance:

Display and battery of the realme GT 7 Pro:

realme GT 7 Pro has a 6.78-inch screen with a 1264 x 2780 pixels resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. realme is using a Samsung Eco2 LTPO AMOLED display, previously only used in Samsung foldable devices. realme GT 7 Pro is the world’s first flat-screen smartphone to be using this Eco2 display.

The key feature of the Eco2 display is that it removes the polarizer layer found in all other OLED displays. The polarizer layer is used to prevent OLED screens from reflective external lights. By removing this polarizer layer, realme GT 7 Pro can output 2,000nits in the High Brightness Mode, and a peak brightness of 6,500nits, as well as improving contrast and visibility.

In daily use, realme GT 7 Pro shows off its display. Even outdoors, realme GT 7 Pro display is bright and legible. Colours are dazzling out of the box, during gaming, or while watching Dolby Vision videos on Netflix.

Another advantage of the Eco2 is that the display is more energy-efficient than other OLED screens, and the realme GT 7 Pro is not exactly lacking in the battery department either. It packs a whopping 6,500mAh Silicone Carbon Anode battery, one of the biggest battery capacities found in a smartphone. With normal daily usage of calls, WhatsApp, social media, surfing, and no gaming, I only had to charge the realme GT 7 Pro at the end of the second workday, something that I wasn’t able to get out of any modern smartphones in a very long time.

Charging up the massive battery with the provided 120W charger for 10 minutes took the realme GT 7 Pro from 10% to 40%, and continuous charging from 30 minutes fills it to 80%. Great news if you are ever suddenly in need to charge up the realme GT 7 Pro in a hurry, 30 minutes of fast charging gets you 70% battery topped up, enough to last through the whole work day. Charging the realme GT 7 Pro from 10% to full took 45 minutes as the last 20% uses a slower charge rate, to preserve the battery lifespan. Sadly though, the realme GT 7 Pro is without any wireless charging capabilities.

Gaming with realme GT 7 Pro:

With high expectations of the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, we start off the gaming and performance test of realme GT 7 Pro. realme has included some very nifty gamer-centric modes to enhance gaming experiences.

First up, realme GT 7 Pro is in the defacto Balance Mode, which it is always in by default. This mode balances the performance to maintain a better battery life and lifespan, and a cooler phone, by not pushing the CPU and GPU hard.

Impressively loading into Genshin Impact is very fast, taking about 13+ seconds. In comparison, previously the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 powered smartphones took about 20+ seconds. Upon entering the world of Tevyat, the framerates were maintained at very high levels, from 55FPS at load-in and 58-60FPS during traversal. I had then subjected the realme GT 7 Pro to the ultimate smartphone performance stress test, battles with plenty of elemental effects and damage numbers on the screen. realme GT 7 Pro and Snapdragon 8 Elite held the fort admirably, the framerates dipped occasionally to mid-50s FPS.

Next up is Zenless Zone Zero, with everything at the Highest and 60FPS. realme GT 7 Pro kept the framerates high, usually picking up from low-50s FPS immediately after load in, and maintaining visually stable 57 to 60FPS during world traversal. In the heat of battles, the frames were a bit more volatile, fluctuating from 55 to 60FPS.

Finally Honkai: Star Rail, the most demanding game in my choice of gaming performance tests. Loading was speedy, framerates held high starting from 55FPS at load-in and maintained the consistency of 57 to 60FPS during traversal. It is in the heat of battles with many graphical flourishes that the dips to the low 50s FPS occurred, mostly during ultimate animations, or when many enemies were struck at the same time.

I must point out that realme GT 7 Pro and Snapdragon 8 Elite performed much better than their predecessors. The dips and drops mentioned above happen far less frequently. In all of the instances where the dips occurred, realme GT 7 Pro was very quick to recover its footing and bounced back to close to 60FPS. The frame sequences would be as such, 58-60FPS constant, drops to 52-55FPS then the next instances bounce back to 58-60FPS, It is that quick that most players will probably not notice the dip when it manifests.

Next, I have set the realme GT 7 Pro to the GT Mode, where performance is the priority above all else. In this mode, the realme GT 7 Pro allows the Snapdragon 8 Elite and the Adreno 830 GPU to be unleased, with no restraints on heat or battery life. In all three games above, the framerates stay at 59-60FPS almost all the time. In battle scenarios, the lowest drop was to 57FPS, which was barely noticeable if I didn’t have the framerate counter telling me so. I am very impressed with the Snapdragon 8 Elite and realme GT 7 Pro’s real-life performances.

AI Gaming features in realme GT 7 Pro:

realme had also included a whole set of gaming enhancements found within its game engine. Found in the Performance Boost tab within the game engine setting, there are four new settings; Hyper HDR, UHD Graphics, AI Gaming Super Resolution, and AI Super Frames. Hyper HDR brings more vibrant colors to games, while UHD Graphics will upscale rendering resolution but will only work with Genshin Impact set to High. I very quickly tested these two modes, for me it didn’t add much to the Genshin Impact gaming experience as realme GT 7 Pro‘s brilliant display is already handling the game very well.

The other two modes are far more interesting. AI Gaming Super Resolution increases the in-game resolution to 1.5K resolution, though this feature will only work with Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. Having switched this feature on, I find that the aforementioned games do look a tad sharper. However, the downside to this is that realme GT 7 Pro got hot very fast, and it automatically shut off the feature in about 10+ minutes.

The most anticipated of these four is the AI Gaming Super Frame, which is oddly named Frame Plus within the Performance Boost tab. This mode brings 120FPS to five supported games: Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, Free Fire MAX, PUBG, and Honor of Kings. Activating Frame Plus in Genshin Impact made the game feel smoother and no additional lags were introduced. Load-in occurs at 100+ FPS, while intense battle would hover around the 110+ FPS. Most of the time though, the framerates will be well above the 115+ FPS. This mode also causes the realme GT 7 Pro to run hotter but it didn’t shut off even after playing it for 30+ minutes.

Honkai: Star Rail, being the most demanding game on mobile chipsets, pushed realme GT 7 Pro Frame Plus mode even harder. Honkai: Star Rail could only run at a maximum of 90FPS, while during the occasional hectic battle scenes would see drops to the mid-70s FPS. The framerates are mostly stable in the world traversal segments.

While the framerate dips as above seem drastic, the drops are not very noticeable as the framerates are well above 60FPS. Moreover that realme GT 7 Pro can recover the framerate to 90FPS or 120FPS ensuring that the visuals remain smooth.

realme GT 7 Pro speakers, heat, and battery management:

realme GT 7 Pro places two speakers at different positions on the top and bottom edges. These placements take into account hand placements when holding the phone in landscape orientation while gaming, ensuring that both speakers are not covered at the same time. The speakers are clear and loud, with some hints of bass. They produce good sound for gaming, watching videos, or listening to music.

Within the realme GT 7 Pro is a big 11,480mm² vapour cooling chamber. This big cooling is keeping realme GT 7 Pro cooler during long gaming periods. With continuous gaming for 2 hours, the highest recorded temperature of the back was at 39.5°C. realme GT 7 Pro also keeps itself cool during prolonged photography sessions, something that most smartphones are prone to when using the cameras for long sessions.

The other times realme GT 7 Pro got hotter was when the AI Gaming Super Resolution and Super Frame modes were running, at which the temperatures went up to 45°C. It is to be noted that both these modes can’t be sustained for long periods, as realme GT 7 Pro will shut off these modes in about 10-15 minutes when it detects the CPU and GPU gets too hot.

Battery management is handled very well too, given the powerful combo of a 6,500mAh silicone carbon anode battery and the efficiency of the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. A two-hour gaming session of the abovementioned games with the realme GT 7 Pro consumed about 40% of the battery. Good if you are a heavy gamer as the consumption is more efficient than the previous-gen chipset.

The Cameras:

realme GT 7 Pro features three rear cameras, two 50MP and one 8MP. The main camera is a 50MP Sony IMX 906 module with a 1/1.56” sensor, f/1.8 aperture, OIS, and 24mm focal length. This main camera performs very well in daylight. Colours are accurate, with good detail and clarity. Night shots are as exceptional too, bright and detailed with less noise. The in-camera 2x digital zoom is a crop of this main sensor, which produces good images too.

The telephoto camera is a 50MP Sony IMX 882 module with a 1/1.95’ sensor, f/2.65 aperture, OIS 3x optical zoom with 73mm focal length. Images taken with this telephoto camera are as good as the main camera, with good colour, details, and clarity. This sensor has OIS too, which helps a lot when taking zoom shots especially when going all the way to the 120x zoom. This camera is also the digital crop for the 6x zoom.

Both the main camera and telephoto camera have close-focus functionality. It can focus objects to as close as 10cm, and it adds much to the photographic abilities of realme GT 7 Pro. Incidentally, realme GT 7 Pro‘s macro and night modes will automatically be enabled when it detects the need to, which is very helpful.

realme GT 7 Pro can cover very long zoom distances, digitally up to 120x. Helping it at such long distances is the onboard AI processing, which automatically kicks in when the camera detects the zoom range is at 60x and more. The results look passable on the realme GT 7 Pro’s small screen or in social media, but with very evident signs of processing. I would stick to the 6x zoom as usual, 10x at max in a pinch.

The ultra-wide camera uses the same camera as the one in realme GT 5 Pro, the 8MP Sony IMX 355 module with a 1/4.0″ sensor, f/2.2 aperture, and 16mm fixed focus focal length. It works well as intended, but given the relatively small sensor size, images turn out less sharp than the other cameras.

Taking over selfie camera duties is now a 16MP Sony IMX 480 module with a 1/3.0″ sensor, f/2.45 aperture at 24mm with fixed focus, a step down from the previous model that had a 32MP sensor. The camera produces good images, with good details and great HDR when outdoors in the daytime. Indoor images get more processing and slightly more noise, still very usable without the need for touch-ups if posted to social media.

realme GT 7 Pro has dual IP68 and IP69 dust and water ratings, which were fully used to its advantage. realme GT 7 Pro can take pictures underwater, utilizing the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor as the camera shutter button, while the volume buttons control the zoom. The camera UI changes automatically when it detects that it’s underwater, to a more simplified interface making it easier to see the screen underwater. I had no access to a pool, so I didn’t test the underwater photography functions.

realme GT 7 Pro software:

realme GT 7 Pro runs on realme UI 6.0, based on Android 15. As for most flagship and even mid-ranger smartphones launched towards the end of 2024 and well into 2025, AI is featured prominently within realme UI 6.0. For example, the Gemini chatbox is easily launched with a short hold of the power button.

AI Screen Recognition is the realme version of Circle-to-Search, where you can copy text, images, or screenshot everything on the screen to be dragged and dropped into apps found in the AI Smart Loop carousel window on the side for further action. The apps within the AI Smart Loop is customizable to each user’s own preferences and usage behaviour. I found that realme’s AI Screen Recognition is less intuitive to launch as it requires a 2 finger touch, takes more steps to copy, drag, and drop the items, as well as works only within 13 apps within the realme GT 7 Pro, unlike Android’s much easier Circle-to-Search function.

More AI functionality is found within the Photos app. AI Eraser is present to help remove unwanted people or objects from images taken by the camera and AI Ultra Clarity where the AI attempts to improve the clarity of images taken. Two new additions are AI Motion Deblur (but is named Unblur in the photo app) which attempts to remove action blurs of fast-moving objects in the images, and AI Sketch to Image which u can add AI-generated images to existing images by simply sketching in the item you wish to add.

This AI Sketch to Image is also an app on its own, found within the File Dock by swiping from the top right edge, that consumes credits for each use. The same credit system is also used in AI Studio, where hyper-stylized AI-generated images are generated from any selfie images in the photo gallery. It must be noted that to use these AI generative functionalities, internet or data connectivity is required and the images are sent to realme servers for processing.

As for the rest, the screen animations and fluidity of realme UI 6.0 is very smooth, with no lag or stutters noticed throughout the review process. Notifications are swiped down from the top left edge, while the control center is swiped down from the right edge, both separated.

In summary:

What I Liked About realme GT 7 Pro:

• Price
• Very exceptional gaming performance out of the box
• AI Gaming Super Frame – Genshin Impact at 120FPS
• Brilliant display
• Cooler temperatures when gaming and photography
• Massive 6,500mAh battery with 120W wired fast charging

What I Wished Was Better

• AI Gaming Super Resolution and Super Frame only works with a handful of games
• Lacks some AI functions, such as AI interpretation and composing
• AI Screen Recognition is not as intuitive as Circle-to-Search
• Better ultra-wide and selfie cameras
• No wireless charging
• Confusing naming of features (for example AI Motion Deblur is called Unblur in the menu)

Verdict

As the world’s first smartphone using the new Snapdragon 8 Elite, realme GT 7 Pro is showing the world how this chipset is to be used in gaming by tapping on the more powerful and efficient Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset and adding gaming dedicated features such as AI Gaming Super Resolution which bumps up the in-game resolution from 720p to 1.5K, and AI Gaming Super Frame which boosts framerates up to 120FPS.

Priced at RM3,699 for a 12GB + 512GB model, realme GT 7 Pro is proving to be a very good deal for gamers looking for new smartphones to play games on. At that price, realme GT 7 Pro is also priced right for consumers who want the latest and most powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, just with a few compromises such as a weaker camera system and no wireless charging.