Realme GT 7 Pro Review: A Numbers Game

Realme’s GT Pro smartphones are indeed a rare breed. Since the brand came to be in 2018, Realme announced just a handful of powerful smartphones, and only two made it to India. The last time around, it was the Realme GT 2 Pro in 2022, which offered flagship performance at a premium price tag of Rs. 49,999.

But a lot has changed in the past two years. These days, having 8GB of RAM on a flagship device is no longer sufficient, particularly with the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) features that have only increased in number since 2024. Priced from Rs. 59,999 for the base 12GB + 256GB variant, Realme’s latest GT 7 Pro debuts a top-notch processor and comes with little compromise in every other area, making it a serious and practical contender in the premium segment.

*Please note that we received the Chinese model of the Realme GT 7 Pro. This model has a 6,500mAh battery versus the 5,800mAh capacity of the Indian model. However, this is the only change between the two models.

Realme GT 7 Pro Design: Captivating

• Dimensions – 162.45mm x 76.89mm x 8.55mm
• Weight – 220.2 grams
• Durability – IP69

The GT 7 Pro differentiates itself from the Realme GT 2 Pro and other GT smartphones in the company’s lineup. It has a very mature design philosophy with clean lines, flat sides, and a very slim overall appearance thanks to its 3D-curved glass screens used for its display and its rear panel.

The Realme GT 7 Pro’s design sure is a departure from the tacky and racing-inspired designs of past GT smartphones

 

I received the vibrant Mars Orange finish, but Realme offers a subtle Galaxy Grey finish. Both finishes have a matte-finished rear panel, but the Mars Orange colourway gets the contrasted (almost lustrous) orange finish, which also has a wavy pattern that appears like a gradient terrain layer of a map. The metallic bronze colour, along with the vibrant matte orange back, gives it a very sci-fi sort of appearance. I also like the slightly raised camera module, which has a neatly designed off-sided bevelled border around it.

The Realme GT 7 Pro has an IP69-rated design for dust and water resistance

 

Given its sheer size, metal frame, and sizeable battery inside, I expected the phone to feel heavy. Still, it’s not too heavy and lends a premium heft to the device.

Its IP69 rating is currently the highest possible durability rating a device can get. The ‘6′ stands for excellent protection against fine dust; the ‘9′ applies to pressurised water and even steam cleaning, meaning this phone can withstand the elements, immersion, and all types of rainy weather without any problems. This IP rating also comes in handy when using this phone underwater, as it also packs a special underwater photography mode.

Always remember that these ratings and seals are meant to protect your phone in such environments and that warranty coverage will not cover damage caused by using it in such conditions.

Realme includes a soft-feel silicon case in the box, which feels premium

 

Realme GT 7 Pro Display: As good as it gets

• Display size – 6.78-inch, 2780 x 1,264 pixels
• Display type – AMOLED, 120Hz refresh rate, 240Hz touch sampling
• Display protection – Gorilla Glass 7i

The Realme GT 7 Pro easily offers one of the best display’s in its segment. The company claims a maximum peak brightness of 6,500 nits from its special display, which was codeveloped with Samsung. Realme also claims that this energy-efficient ECO display, along with its LTPO 8T technology, lets users gain an extra 500mAh of battery life, which is impressive. While these are manufacturer claims, we did find the results of our battery test to be equally impressive, as you will see in the Battery section of this review.

The Realme GT 7 Pro’s quad-curved display glass can be distracting outdoors

 

In terms of colour reproduction, the display produces subtle and natural colours. You can also crank things up to get some punchy hues by heading into Settings> Display & brightness> Screen colour mode and selecting the Vivid colour profile.

The company claims it offers a quad-curved display, which provides a more immersive viewing experience, but the 3D-curved glass, apart from being aesthetic, did not feel special and shows some distracting reflections around the edges when viewing video outdoors. Regardless, I liked the skinny and uniform bezel.

The display glass is a proper smudge magnet

 

Realme GT 7 Pro Software: The usual with a splash of AI

• Software version – Android 15
• Software – Realme UI 6.0
• Software commitment – 3 years of software + 4 years of security

Realme seems to have made some conscious efforts when it comes to cutting down the number of third-party apps. The phone comes pre-loaded with only three third-party apps—Amazon, Myntra, and Facebook—all of which are uninstallable.

Over the past year, AI has gained popularity, and Realme has experimented with lighter AI applications through software updates. With the GT 7 Pro, Realme has finally delivered a complete suite of AI tools.

The Realme GT 7 Pro with Realme UI 6.0 offers plenty of AI tools, but these do not perform as expected

 

The Photos app within the image editor packs a majority of new AI-enabled features. The AI UnBlur tool does a passable job of removing blur from photos or moving kids or pets, but the resulting image looks far from perfect or what one would expect from such a tool. The same applies to the AI Eraser, which has a Remove people option. While the AI Eraser successfully identified every person in the scene, the results are not as impressive as those we’ve seen on Google’s Pixel devices. Despite its capabilities, the sketch-to-AI tool encountered several “failed to generate” messages.

Realme UI 6.0 offers plenty of lock screen customisation options

 

The new Live Alerts feature, which mimics Apple’s Dynamic Island feature, improves on Realme’s Mini Capsule, which was completely ineffective on its budget C55 smartphone. Mini Capsule evolved into Fluid Cloud (a bubble to the left of the selfie camera) across ColorOS forks (OnePlus, Oppo, and Realme) and has now turned into Live Alerts, which finally copies what Apple does on its iPhones (with a bubble overlapping the selfie camera) but with lesser functionality. The feature still supports only Swiggy and Zomato for third-party notifications but can now also show music playback, game timer, personal hotspot, and screen recording activities in its bubble.

Realme GT 7 Pro Performance: Downright impressive!

• Processor – Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite
• RAM – 12/16GB (LPDDR5X)
• Storage – 256/512GB (UFS 4.0)

There have also been some unusual applications of AI. Realme claims to have used AI to improve both gaming performance and quality.

AAA mobile titles like Genshin Impact worked flawlessly even with the Gaming Super Frame AI mode switched on

 

AI Gaming Super Resolution can bump up the resolution of a game from the usual 720p to up to 1.5K. AI Gaming Super Frame, when turned on in the slide-out console after launching a game does crank up the FPS. So you can enjoy flawless MEMC-enhanced framerates in games like Genshin Impact or Honkai: Star Rail. And it works as advertised. I was able to play Genshin Impact at 120fps at the Highest graphics setting when the feature was switched on. The phone did not overheat during the gameplay either.

Even without the Super Resolution feature, the Realme GT 7 Pro impressed me by offering a steady 60fps at the highest graphics setting. 120fps Super Resolution enhanced gaming is currently supported for select games, and this short list includes Free Fire, BGMI and Honor of Kings (HOK).

The table below shows how impressive the benchmarks were thanks to the Realme GT 7 Pro’s Snapdragon 8 Elite processor. Also included are some benchmark results from our Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max review for the sake of comparison.

Realme GT 7 Pro Cameras: Well-equipped

• Primary camera – 50-megapixel, f/1.8, OIS
• Telephoto camera – 50-megapixel, f/2.65, OIS
• Ultrawide camera – 8-megapixel, f/2.2, no AF
• Selfie camera – 16-megapixel, f/2.45, no AF

Realme GT 7 Pro primary camera samples. (Tap to expand images)

 

The primary camera produces vibrant photos with deep contrast, and it does this without skimping on dynamic range, ensuring plenty of detail in the shadows. These photos come out sharp, but at times I did feel that the system overdoes the HDR processing, adding unnecessary detail. However, these instances were occasional. In low light, the camera produces impressive detail, but the noise processing tends to flatten textures, which you will notice only when you pixel peep.

Realme GT 7 Pro 3X (optical) camera samples (Tap images to expand)

 

Realme GT 7 Pro 6X (digital) camera sample (Tap image to expand)

 

The 3X optical zoom telephoto camera is also a performer in daylight, and images captured at 6X zoom offer enough detail to be usable. In low light, the photos captured by this camera still appear sharp but with a minor drop in detail. The 2X magnification, which is a crop of the primary camera, stands out like a sore thumb, managing images that are soft in daylight but show a severe drop in overall quality in low light.

Realme GT 7 Pro ultrawide camera samples (Tap to expand images)

 

The ultra-wide-angle camera is low-resolution, and as expected, it did not produce quality results. Daylight photos appear soft and lack texture and detail. Low-light photos appeared defocused.

Selfie camera sample (Tap image to expand)

 

Selfies look sharp and have near-accurate edge detection in daylight. In low light, the level of detail drops significantly, but the results are still usable, provided there is some ambient lighting in the vicinity.

Video quality is average for a smartphone at this price point. Shooting 4K video at 30fps showed very little detail because of the camera’s aggressive noise reduction. Stabilisation is good, but I did notice some minor flickering.

4K 60fps video offers the smoothest framerate and detail in daylight. 8K video recordings captured at 24fps are a gimmick and not usable. In low light, 4K 60fps mode managed the best quality. One detail to note is that the ultrawide-angle camera does not offer 4K video recording because of its low-resolution sensor.

Realme GT 7 Pro Battery: Fantastic!

• Battery capacity – 6,500mAh (5,800mAh on the India model)
• Charging rate – 120W SuperVOOC (wired)
• Wireless charging – NA

There are large batteries, and there is what Realme calls a “Titan” battery. And the branding sure makes sense, as this energy-dense battery is the biggest we have tested on a flagship smartphone to date. And it’s all about the numbers. It managed a very impressive 27 hours and 35 minutes in our video loop battery life test.

The phone also charges up quickly thanks to SuperVOOC wired charging tech that manages a 56 percent charge in just 15 minutes, a 99 percent charge in 30 minutes and completes the charging process in 40 minutes. And this is downright impressive given that it is charging a 6,500mAh battery.

The Realme GT 7 Pro’s 6.500mAh (in our Chinese unit) charges quickly

 

As expected, given Realme’s already impressive battery optimisations, the phone lasted me 2 whole days on a single charge with moderate usage, which also included minor camera usage and some 3D gaming apart from the usual social media scrolling and video streaming. Indeed, it is a perfect fit not just for road warriors but also for gamers, as this phone packs a very powerful processor. To give you an idea about how well this battery (and Realme’s optimisations) work. I spoke for an hour on 5G on a full battery, and it did not even budge from 100 percent.

Sadly, Realme has only managed to include a 5,800mAh battery in the Indian model due to certifications, which we did not have access to for review. This should drop the usage figures we mentioned above, as there is a very noticeable difference between the two. However, Realme claims the lower capacity lets it charge from 0-100 percent in 30 minutes. Indeed, these are Realme’s claims, but given the speeds we have experienced on the 6,500mAh model, we don’t find this difficult to believe.

Realme GT 7 Pro Verdict

After a two-year gap, it does feel that Realme has done its research and came well-prepared to take on the competition that exists in this segment. Realme has managed to deliver a very capable device. And in doing so, it has finally established itself well in the premium segment.

The Realme GT 7 Pro’s IP69-rated design, performance (as seen from the performance chart above), and battery life can easily crush some of the high-end premium flagships that retail at a much higher price tag, making it an excellent value-for-money proposition.

It fumbles a bit when it comes to its cameras (especially video recording), but there’s still room for some updates that could improve its performance for the better. If you are searching for better cameras at this price point, the OnePlus 12 (Review) is definitely a better choice. And if you aren’t in a hurry, the OnePlus 13 is just on the horizon. The upcoming iQoo 13 should also be a good candidate for those solely interested in performance or gaming.

The GT 7 Pro’s AI tools are far from what’s available on a Pixel or a Samsung smartphone, both in terms of polish and capability. So, if you are looking for an AI buffet, this is not the right phone.

While the Indian model’s battery usage figures remain a mystery, Realme has played its numbers game well, offering a flagship phone with a sizeable battery, fast charging, and impressive raw performance. This makes it difficult to ignore—at least until the Snapdragon 8 Elite starts showing up in other premium devices. And once that happens, a price cut could make it a very attractive proposition.