Realme GT 7 Pro Review: Snapdragon 8 Elite on a Budget

For years, Realme has delivered some of the best bang-for-the-buck and flagship killer smartphones. But, I have always wondered what it would take for the company to make an actual flagship—and how it would turn out. Thankfully, I don’t have to wonder anymore, as Realme has just released its first true flagship, the Realme GT 7 Pro, and I’ve been testing it for the past month.

In this review, I will answer if the Realme GT 7 Pro is more than the cheapest 8 Elite smartphone and whether you should consider buying it. Let’s get started.

Realme GT 7 Pro Review: Design & Hardware

Realme has recently introduced some of the best smartphone designs, and this trend continues with the GT 7 Pro. The back is dark orange, inspired by Mars, and the matt wavy pattern is something I have never seen before. This design makes the GT 7 Pro fingerprint-resistant and gives the phone a unique identity. However, if this deep orange isn’t your vibe, Realme also offers a gray variant.

Similarly, I like how Realme has blended the camera module to the back, which makes it appear thinner than it is. Moving to the sides, Realme opted for an aviation-grade aluminum frame. This material improves heat dissipation (more on that later) and gives the phone a premium feel.

That said, I wish Realme had done a better job blending the frame with the curved front and back glass. The frame protrudes slightly on both sides, which, combined with its wide and bulky design, can make it uncomfortable to hold for extended periods. Nonetheless, the sides did offer decent durability when I accidentally dropped the phone from hip height.

Finally, the Realme GT 7 Pro has an IP68 and IP69 water and dust resistance rating, meaning it can survive high-pressure jet streams and be submerged in 1.5m of water for 30 minutes. In fact, Realme is the first company to actively encourage users to use their phones underwater. Plus, I was particularly impressed by the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, which registered my fingerprint in just four taps and unlocked the phone even underwater.

Realme GT 7 Pro Review: Display

The Realme GT 7 Pro houses a 6.78-inch FHD+ 120Hz LTPO AMOLED display. The panel covers 120% of the DCIP-3 color space, and as you may have guessed, the movie-watching experience is next level. The panel delivers vivid colors, inky-deep blacks, and exceptional HDR performance with over 6500 nits of peak brightness. However, it’s worth mentioning that I measured a peak brightness of over 2100 nits in outdoor scenarios.

But this is not all, as the display on the GT 7 Pro is curved on all four sides. Additionally, the panel is polarizer-free and uses DCT (Dynamic Color Tuning) technology for improved efficiency and color accuracy.

As for durability, I was concerned about the quad-curve design, which means the display makes direct contact with surfaces when placed face-down. But fortunately, it wasn’t that bad. In my testing, the Gorilla Glass 7i-protected display held up well, sustaining only minor scratches.

Realme GT 7 Pro Review: Performance

The Realme GT 7 Pro is the first smartphone with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite in India, and I was excited to test it out. But before we go ahead, the Snapdragon 8 Elite, built on the 3nm fabrication process, houses two Oryon (Phoenix L) cores clocked at 4320 MHz and six Oryon (Phoenix M) cores running at 3530 MHz, paired with an Adreno 830 GPU. My review unit also came equipped with 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB of UFS 4.0 internal storage.

Leaving the specs aside, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is a monster chip for everyday use. You simply cannot push it. Whether I was navigating through over 20 Chrome tabs or using the camera extensively, the GT 7 Pro showed no signs of lag or overheating.

Benchmarks & Gaming

Benchmarks, however, are a whole different story. If you have been keeping up with the news, then you might have heard about the 8 Elite reaching crazy temperatures when pushed to its limits. Sadly, this is also the case with the Realme GT 7 Pro.

During my first AnTuTu test, the device’s screen reached 54°C, and the back reached 53°C, making it almost too hot to handle. Subsequent runs showed slightly lower temperatures, but they also reduced scores. Thankfully, this heating issue didn’t follow in the Geekbench test, where the GT 7 Pro scored 2,993 in single-core and 9,157 in multi-core tests. Similarly, the device scored a stability score of 67% on 3D Mark’s Wild Life Stress test.

For comparison, I recently tested the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 chip in the new OPPO Find X8. While the Snapdragon 8 Elite outperforms the Dimensity 9400 by 5–10% in most benchmarks, the latter stays cooler and maintains more consistent performance across multiple runs.

These scores make the GT 7 Pro the fastest phone I have ever tested. If you are concerned about the heating, it’s not much of a problem. In games like BGMI, CODM, and Genshin Impact, the phone handled everything pretty well at the highest setting. The gameplay was smooth, and there was no extreme heating.

Battery & Charging

While battery technology has seen limited development in the past decade, Realme and several Chinese manufacturers are releasing the all-new silicon carbon battery technology. These batteries are more efficient, last longer, and charge much faster.

So, I was pretty excited when Realme announced that the GT 7 Pro has a massive 6,500 mAh battery globally. However, there are some differences. As confirmed by Realme, the GT 7 Pro comes with a 5,800 mAh silicon carbon battery in India due to some certification issues.

Nevertheless, the global unit I tested had amazing battery life. With medium to heavy usage—including gaming, YouTube streaming, and camera testing—the GT 7 Pro easily lasted a full day and still had enough juice to get me through the following morning.

When it came time to charge the GT 7 Pro, the included 120W charger charged the battery from 0% to 100% in just 30 minutes.

Realme GT 7 Pro Review: Cameras

As the Realme GT 7 Pro is the most affordable 8 Elite smartphone, I expected the company to cut some corners in the camera department. While this theory holds true to some extent, the cameras on the GT 7 Pro are far from disappointing. In fact, they perform pretty well.

However, before we proceed, the GT 7 Pro features a triple-camera setup, including a 50MP Sony IMX 906 f/1.8 primary sensor, an 8MP IMX355 f/2.2 16mm ultra-wide lens, and a 50MP IMX882 f/2.65 telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom.

Daylight & Portrait Shots

During the day, I loved the GT 7 Pro. The sensor can capture stunning photos with excellent dynamic range, sharpness, and vibrant yet natural colors. Moreover, I liked that Realme didn’t overdo the image processing.

Similarly, the portrait shots also looked solid. Realme’s mature processing resulted in photos with excellent edge detection, pleasing colors, and a natural shallow depth of field. However, the phone does apply a subtle brightening filter to faces, which some people don’t like.

Underwater Shots

Realme’s party trick for the GT 7 Pro is the camera’s underwater mode. This mode lets you capture photos underwater using the physical buttons while disabling the touchscreen. Although I couldn’t test this feature in a swimming pool during winter, the images captured in a controlled environment were surprisingly good. If you frequently take pool photos, this feature could be handy.

Nighttime Shots

Surprisingly, the GT 7 Pro’s primary lens also did a solid job in the night. Sure, it isn’t as capable as the OPPO Find X8 or the vivo X200, but the primary sensor does capture detailed photos with good color reproduction and dynamic range. Also, there wasn’t any shutter lag in artificial lighting scenarios.

Zoom & UltraWide Shots

The Realme GT 7 Pro’s zoom lens promises to capture photos up to 120x. While the shots at maximum zoom are predictably blurry and lack usable detail, the results between 3x and 10x zoom are excellent, with sharp details and accurate colors. Plus, the device also preserves the details when capturing zoomed photos in low light.

On the other hand, the 8MP UltraWide lens was less impressive. While it performs okayish in well-lit conditions, the quality suffers significantly in low light or artificial lighting, producing grainy and less detailed images.

Selfies & Video

The GT 7 Pro also impressed me with its selfie capabilities. The results were detailed enough, and the colors were pretty accurate. However, as with any other phone, the GT 7 Pro applies a beauty filter to faces even when turned off.

Video performance is solid, particularly with the main and telephoto lenses. Recording in 4K at 60fps, the GT 7 Pro delivers excellent detail, vibrant colors, and good dynamic range. However, the UltraWide angle lens was absent in most of the video settings, as it can only record in 1080p@30fps.

Realme GT 7 Pro Review: Software & AI

I was never a big fan of Realme UI. However, this opinion has changed with the release of Realme UI 6. The UI has gone from being just okay to becoming one of my favorites. I love the silky smooth app opening and closing animations, the customization options, and the software features.

The lack of bloatware and a hot apps folder were also welcome additions. Realme has promised three years of software updates and four years of security patches.

As you may have expected, the Realme GT 7 Pro includes several AI features, such as Object Eraser, Image Unblur, Remove Reflections, and 4K clarity. I tested them all, and I was particularly surprised by the object eraser tool, which now uses generative AI to fill in the removed objects. The results were amazing.

Similarly, the Remove Reflections and 4K Clarity tools proved pretty effective in removing unnecessary reflections and bringing out details in old photos.

Should you buy the Realme GT 7 Pro?

Starting at INR 59,999 (INR 56,999 during the first sale) or CNY 3,999, the Realme GT 7 Pro is more than the cheapest 8 Elite smartphone. It has an eye-catching design, a great quad curve display, and really capable main and telephoto cameras. That said, it does have its drawbacks. The phone suffers from overheating issues, and the ultra-wide camera performance is underwhelming compared to the rest of its setup. However, considering the value of the Realme GT 7 Pro, I give it a solid thumbs up. You can check out the GT 7 Pro on Realme’s website and Amazon.