Realme GT 7 Pro Review: Does (Almost) Everything

It’s been quite a while since Realme has treated us to a flagship “Pro” phone, with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-powered Realme GT Pro 2 being the last such offering back in 2022. Now, the brand is seemingly back with a bang with the Realme GT 7 Pro which carries Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Elite. On paper, this chipset is a titan that not only outshines the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 but also dares to challenge Apple’s mighty A18 Pro.

But, is Realme’s latest GT only about raw performance or there’s more to this sleek device? I’ve been lucky enough to spend a week with the phone, putting its capabilities to the test. Does it live up to the hype? Find out in this detailed Realme GT 7 Pro review of mine!

As Future-Proof as Performance Can Get

I think we all expected the Realme GT 7 Pro to be an absolute performance monster. And it is, courtesy of the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Also, I have with me the top model packing 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage.

Now, as soon as I took the device out of the box and set it up, I went straight for the real deal and ran the benchmarks. Although I wasn’t able to hit 3 million on AnTuTu, 2,759,190 points is quite the mind-boggling peak. After running five different instances of AnTuTu, the score averaged out at 2,641,387 points.

For your reference, the Apple A18 Pro hits about 1.8 million on average, which is almost a million-point difference. Meanwhile, the Dimensity 9400 peaks in at 2,701,004 points, which is not too far behind but less nevertheless.

The custom Oryon core of the Snapdragon 8 Elite is a superstar indeed. And that shows in the Geekbench 6 test as well. While the A18 Pro still manages to stay ahead in the single-core test, the Snapdragon 8 Elite annihilates everyone in the multi-core test, with an average of 9116 points drawn from four Geekbench runs. That’s higher than the Dimensity 9400 as well, which can’t hit the 9000 mark.

However, do note that the Dimensity 9400’s Immortalis-G925 GPU reigns supreme by a margin over the 8 Elite’s Adreno 830 GPU. I also noticed how the Snapdragon 8 Elite maintains steady thermals throughout, while the Dimensity 9400 graph is rather unstable. But, that could also be due to the Vivo X200 Pro Mini’s (first impressions) smaller body. That’s all I have to go on for now. With that said, here’s a quick rundown of the benchmarks:

As expected, the gaming experience on the Realme GT 7 Pro is top-notch as well. I did my CoD Mobile rank push on it and I have grown a little too fond of the experience. After about 2.5 hours of playing CoDm, the phone barely even got warm in an AC room, lingering around the 38-degree temperature.

There are quite a few performance-boosting features as well with the new GT Mode 2.0. I used frame interpolation with the new Frame Plus feature. It delivered a very stable 120FPS in not just CoD Mobile, but BGMI as well as Genshin Impact. There’s also the option to use an AI Super Resolution or UHD Graphics in Genshin Impact. This makes the details sharper and the game is a lot more enjoyable this way. It didn’t cause any frame drops either, which is great.

I’ve never really been into Genshin Impact and always end up testing it for not more than 30 minutes. But, I started having a little too much fun and finally got a lot of it in. Thanks to all the game tech this title supports, this is easily the smoothest experience I’ve had with it on any phone so far. Can’t wait to play it on the iQOO 13 though.

Additionally, there’s Hyper HDR which is supported by only CoD Mobile and Genshin Impact, at the time of writing. It slightly enhances the light reflections, much like Ray Tracing. That’s about it. On top of all that, there’s also Network Optimization as well as Dark Enhancement and Visual Beautification at your disposal. It was all good till I noticed some game ads at the top of the features, tapping on which only displays more ads. Humph.

I also got some Warzone Mobile in and it ran ever so smoothly, delivering a consistent 60FPS. With that said, here’s a look at the maximum settings I got out of the games:

This is my first hands-on experience with a Snapdragon 8 Elite phone. And I feel both blessed and cursed at the same time. The Realme GT 7 Pro has bewitched and left me spoiled to the point that I don’t know how I’ll go back to using my humble OnePlus 11R. A phone this powerful obviously didn’t leave any room for complaints in daily usage either. I have gone high and low to push it to its limits but to no avail.

The Realme GT 7 Pro has one of the best RAM management I have seen on any phone. CoD Mobile has nasty restart issues, and that’s where only phones with the best RAM management truly shine. I have tested phones out where even a quick in and out of the game to reply to a text has it restart and me getting a ranked match penalty.

But, there was an instance where I had over 20 apps running in the background alongside CoD Mobile and when I got into the game 10 or so hours later, it resumed right from the lobby. Almost 15 or so apps didn’t restart either, which is incredible.

Martian Design Meets Stellar Display

Realme doesn’t have to go above and beyond on box contents because they’ve always been pretty generous about it. The Realme GT 7 Pro is no different and you get it all in the box, from a 120W brick and USB Type-C-to-C, to a good quality silicone case and the SIM ejector tool. Oh, of course, also the obligatory paperwork that inevitably goes unread.

As for the unit itself, I have with me the Mars Explorer Edition and it looks exactly how it sounds. It’s somewhere in between bronze and orange and features flowing patterns that resemble the red planet. While the back panel is a lighter shade, the sides are darker and have this chocolaty look that I really adore.

The volume button and power rockers are quite clicky and premium with barely any wobbling. Everything’s matted out as well and the phone feels as velvety as a tuxedo. And, yes, it’s slippery, and I had some near-drop experiences that made me slap on the cover and keep it that way.

The phone is also the right amount of both boxy and curved. Bonus points to the camera module placement at the back for keeping the phone steady on a table. This module itself adheres to the theme and reminds me of a Mars Rover’s head. The Hyperimage+ branding could have been gotten rid of though.

Overall, the in-hand feel is quite something, which is only further complimented by the quad-curved display at the front. Besides, the Realme GT 7 Pro’s 6.78-inch LTPO 120Hz OLED display is pretty and bright. Also, this is Samsung’s Eco2 panel that flagships like the Galaxy Z Fold 6 use. Moreover, what I like about this display is that it doesn’t go all out on the curvature.

However, out of the box, I wasn’t particularly fond of the default color scheme and could instantly tell that it needed a little more color. So, I went into settings and set up a Custom color scheme. That’s because I’m very particular about my display tuning, but if you don’t want to get into all that, the Vivid mode is good too.

Anyway, talking about the display quality itself, being the Dolby Vision and HDR10+ tuned panel that it is, the color reproduction is solid. Apparently, there’s DCI-P3 and DC Dimming too, as per some marketing materials. You don’t see much saturation here either, and every shade is mostly true to life. I finally gave in to the peer pressure and binge-watched Chainsaw Man on this display and it’s honestly not that big a cut above the Realme GT 6 (review) or 6T (review), and that’s great because those two phones have the best displays in their respective segments.

Realme claims the same 6000 nits of peak brightness as well, and the Lux Meter we have at the office gave us an impressive 2,750 nits, which is again similar to the GT 6 series. Although that already translates to amazing visibility both indoors and outdoors, you can also toggle on Extra brightness in the Display & brightness settings to unlock a new level of peak.

That further pushes the brightness levels in manual mode to a new height for when you really need that extra boost. However, I never found the need to toggle it on, probably due to foggy Winters here in Noida. I did come across this bug with the auto brightness mode where it would have a tough time setting itself, which was fixed via a software update (more on this later). The screen is not that reflective either and while I could still manage to set my hair when needed, it doesn’t interfere with the viewing experience.

Now comes the small complaint I have with the multimedia experience. While it’s a solid display accompanied by dual stereo speakers, the latter could have been better. The audio separation and slight crackling in the highest volume are the issues here. Nothing too major though, and I still didn’t find the need to use earphones.

Also, the display uses Gorilla Glass 7i, which is a 7th-generation glass protection like the Victus. Meanwhile, the rear panel takes to Panda Glass protection. So, I wouldn’t mind dropping it a few times, although you may not want to try it at home. Realme has also thrown an IP68/IP69 rating into the mix, making it quite the durable device altogether.

Software Experience

The Realme GT 7 Pro runs on Android 15-based Realme UI 6.0 with the RMX5011_15.0.0.15(EX01) build number. It received two updates post that, with the latest one bringing it to RMX5011_15.0.0.240(EX01). Now, if you’re already on a phone running on the Realme UI 5.0, you will feel right at home because there’s honestly no radical change here.

Yes, the UI feels smoother and the parallel animations make it a more continuous experience, but nothing to make you learn things all over again. Oh, and the new “About Phone” page looks nice. If you’re a new user, you will appreciate the UI anyway, because it’s quite clean. In terms of bloat, apart from Realme’s own App Market, Music app, ORoaming, and those two Game centers, you see Netflix and Zen Space, both of which can be uninstalled.

Also, as always, Realme UI 6.0 borrows most of the Oxygen OS 15’s features, and it’s the Lock Screen customizations that won me over. I love the new depth effect coupled with a variety of new clock styles as well as the transition into the AOD which sure does look cool.

The Quick Setting toggles are more rounded off this time around, making it resemble iOS 18’s toggles, big time. Then there’s the Realme-centric AI Smart Loop which recognizes a screenshot and lets you share it to relevant platforms, which is very helpful. Additionally, there’s the OxygenOS borrowed File Dock and Recent Files in the Sidebar which I’ve gotten a little too used to.

However, the sidebar now also features a AI Doodle toggle which takes you to the AI Sketch to Image feature. Yep, very similar to the one found on Samsung’s latest flagships. I gave it a try and found out that you get 10 AI credits to make use of. You can also use the feature in AI Editor to further alter images, much like I did with the Pixel’s Reimagine in the Magic Editor. Albeit, not nearly as scary. Anyway, behold my masterpiece:

In addition to that, there’s also the new AI Studio. It offers a bunch of different templates like those AI headshot generators which give you cool new looks. I ended up having a little too much fun with it, going from a very corporate Sagnik that made me want to complete my deadlines to a ripped Sagnik which inspired me to work out.

Then there are the existing AI Eraser and AI Ultra Clarity features paired up with a new option to Unblur or remove motion blur from images, and it all works pretty well.

Overall, my daily experience with the Realme GT 7 Pro was phenomenal with the new Realme UI 6.0, thanks to encountering barely any bugs. The new features, subtle changes in aesthetics as well as parallel animations just make it a very pleasant experience.

Also, the phone is backed by 3 years of major OS updates and 4 years of security patches.

A Bit of a Camera Catch-22

The Realme GT 7 Pro’s cameras won’t take you aback for it’s quite the normal setup. There’s the primary 50MP Sony IMX 906 followed by a 50MP Sony IMX 882 telephoto, as well as an 8MP Sony IMX 355 ultrawide.

Talking about the daytime shots first, the primary sensor is quite capable and captures a high level of detail. For example, if you take a look at the shots of foliage and branches of the trees down below, you will see how well-defined they are. However, I did feel that the sharpness wasn’t consistent throughout and some areas could use some more.

The colors, although natural, seem slightly muted for some reason. Now, this could either be due to the overcast sky here these days or simply a case of dull color vibrancy. Dynamic range is decent as well and details in both shadows and highlights are captured well. However, when I tried manually boosting the contrast, they came to life. Also, the foreground and background separation is good as well.

Human subjects are captured better, and the skin tones are natural enough. The primary and telephoto can preserve a lot of details. You can zoom in to view finer details like skin and hair texture.

Meanwhile, the telephoto could use some optimization as I have noticed it smudging out the details at times. While other times, it captures them well. And, I think we can leave the ultrawide out of this conversation for it’s about as good as a dummy sensor. But, that’s expected from such ultrawide sensors.

What I did like, however, is that there’s little to no color disparity between the sensors. It’s the same at night as well, and you can see all three sensors even capturing light sources well, keeping ambient occlusion at bay. Details take a bit of a hit, but there’s no distracting noise as such.

The front 16MP Sony IMX 480 is quite nice and doesn’t disappoint. Selfies turn up great and the skin tones are mostly natural. However, just like the primary setup, at times I couldn’t help but feel that colors could really use a push. Apart from that, depth mapping and edge detection are very good too.

As for videos, the Realme GT 7 Pro’s primary and telephoto sensors can shoot up to 4K 60FPS videos. On the other hand, the ultrawide is limited to 1080p 30FPS. The front sensor, on the contrary, is limited to 1080p 60FPS. But, I’m guessing that 4K 60FPS could arrive to the selfie shooter later on, especially since the Realme GT 6 series sports that as well.

The videos are nice and not as shaky, thanks to OIS. However, there’s definitely some fine-tuning required here, which I’m guessing Realme will fix with future updates.

Battery That Outlasts Your Day

I will not ponder on the battery performance for too long. That’s because we’ve received a very early global unit of the phone which comes with a 6,500mAh battery. Meanwhile, some markets like India will see the phone launch with a much smaller 5,800mAh unit. So, my findings will understandably not reflect across all the variants.

However, speaking for this variant solely, it’s an absolute monster. I easily got around 1.5 days of backup on heavy usage. To give you a good sense of what I mean by heavy usage, I’m mostly on social media, binging on Netflix or Crunchyroll, watching some YouTube videos, and topping it off with around 3 hours of CoD Mobile.

And, using the in-the-box 120W adapter, I was able to charge the device fully from 13% in just 35 minutes.

Off to a Great Start?

The Realme GT 7 Pro is not just an incredible performer but also looks good while doing so. From the Snapdragon 8 Elite being one of the best (if not the best) mobile chipsets in the world right now, to the vibrant and bright display and a battery that just doesn’t die, it’s the perfect all-rounder you can ask for. While the camera sure does require improvements, it’s still more than enough for the casual shutterbug to get by.

Right now, this is a solid Snapdragon 8 Elite phone that you can get at this price point. While I’m guessing that the iQOO 13 will still be the cheapest 8 Elite device out there, so far, the Realme GT 7 Pro does seem like the better device, given the on-paper specs and my experience with it. Meanwhile, the OnePlus 13 is also incoming, and I can’t wait to get my hands on that.

All-in-all, we are entering a new era of mobile performance, and going by my experience with the Realme GT 7 Pro, we’re off to a great start!