realme has officially launched the much-anticipated GT3 smartphone at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023 in Barcelona, Spain.
As we had speculated, the device is just rebadged GT Neo 5 meant for the international market.
The realme GT Neo 5, officially launched last month, is meant for the Chinese market. For everyone else, we get the realme GT3.
As such, the two devices share pretty much everything that we have already highlighted (read this for the GT3’s specs). Top on the list is the 240W fast charging which, at this point, is the fastest that we have on a production smartphone in the global market that consumers can buy.
“With a ground-breaking 240W, the realme GT3 offers not only the fastest charging power ever, but it will also be the fastest charging power for years to come, as it has reached the maximum charging power possible under USB-C standards,” a statement from realme reads.
Well, Xiaomi sub-brand Redmi has just showcased 300W fast charging so, when that hits the market, realme’s achievement will be yesterday’s news.
The GT series is realme’s flagship smartphone series with its Neo lineup being reserved for its mid-range offerings. realme has an expanded mid-range smartphone offering whose models are identified using a mix of single numbers and, in some cases, letters as well. For example, we’ve had the realme 7 and the realme 7i.
realme says that the GT3 has a large liquid cooling system covering over 60% of the large to ensure efficient heat dissipation. A fireproof dissipation, over a dozen temperature sensors and 60 layers of charging protection ensure maximum safety as the device achieves the 240W fast charging.
“TÜV Rheinland has also certified the realme GT3 for a safe fast-charging system, making it the first product with 200W fast charging or higher to receive the certification,” realme says.
Fast charging is also often associated with faster battery degradation. To that, realme says:
“According to internal lab testing, the realme GT3 has an 80% lifespan after over 1600 charging cycles with 240W enabled, which is more than double the industry standard of 80% battery health after 800 charging cycles.”
A “Pulse Interface Design” which incorporates a C-shaped RGB lighting ring inside that’s visible from the outside through a translucent window next to the camera module keeps the user abreast of the phone’s charging level. When the phone has just a fifth of the charge, it will display a red breathing light effect. That will change to purple when the charge is anywhere between 21% and 100%.
The functionality of the RGB light doesn’t end there. It will also come to life and flash quickly when there is an incoming call and will turn white in colour when there are new notifications, something like what we had on the Reno7 4G from Oppo. As we noted when dissecting the GT Neo 5, the Nothing Phone (1) also has similar functionality. There is also a blue, white and orange colour beaming as part of a 10-second countdown when one is taking photos.
realme GT3’s Pulse Interface Design displays different light effects depending on the phone’s status. For example, when the phone is 20% charged, it will display a red breathing light effect; when it is charged to 21%-100%, it will display a purple breathing light effect; and when it is fully charged, the purple light will always be on. When there are incoming calls, the light flashes quickly. While receiving notifications, the lighting system will display a white colour; for a 10-second countdown before taking photos, the phone will display a blue, white, and orange colour beaming.
8 and 16GB memory options when paired with a wide range of 128, 256 and 512GB storage options produces a bunch of combos that realme is making available with a global starting price of just over Kshs 80,000 (US $ 649 at the time of publication).
The device comes in Pulse White and Booster Black colour options.