realme GT Master Edition review: Another winner from realme

By now, we all know what realme is about — excellent value-for-money phones and accessories. The realme GT Master Edition is the latest device that falls in that category.

The GT Master Edition is the latest mid-range phone from realme. The handset promises a “flagship experience” at an affordable price.

And on paper, it looks like it too. With a starting price of Php 18,990, it comes with an AMOLED display, a Snapdragon 778G 5G chip, a 64MP main camera, and 65W fast charging.

But how does it perform in real life? Does it deliver a flagship experience? Well, we finally completed our full review, and we’re going to answer these questions. Let’s dive in.

Design and Display

The realme GT Master Edition comes in are two variants — Voyager Grey with a swanky suitcase design, and the Daybreak Blue, which is our review unit here.

As the name implies, Daybreak Blue resembles the colors associated with the dawn before sunrise. To achieve the look, realme used a patented technology called PICASUS that covers the phone in a nano-laminate coating that gives it a metallic and holographic shine.

The result is a beautiful mix of blue, orange, yellow, and purple hues that shift and transition with every movement.

The handset has a plastic frame with a good build. It feels substantial in the hand. It has a thin body at 8mm and a lightweight of only 174g.

At the front, you have a Samsung-made Super AMOLED display. It’s a full HD 6.43-inch panel with a list of features that you often see on flagships — an in-display fingerprint scanner, an ultra-smooth 120Hz refresh rate, a responsive 360Hz touch sampling rate, and 100% DCI-P3 support.

Of course, like any AMOLED panel from Samsung, this one has deep blacks, punchy over-saturated colors, and good viewing angles. It’s sharp and bright, great for viewing images and watching videos.

The display has a punch hole on the upper left side for the selfie camera. It’s small and close to the edge, so it’s not distracting.

At the back, you have the triple rear cameras with large lenses on a vertical layout. The whole setup is on a camera island that’s raised a few millimeters off the back panel. It actually looks good and very modern, accentuating the shooters.

On the left, you have the volume rocker and the dual SIM slot, and on the right, the power button. Both buttons are ergonomically placed, easily within reach of your fingers.

There’s a secondary mic at the top. And at the bottom, you have the headphone jack, microphone, USB-C port, and a single speaker.

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The lone speaker is loud and good, but I really wish realme included another one. I mean, I do understand that some sacrifices had to be made to maintain the price, but stereo speakers would have been a great addition.

And then we have the included phone case. It’s free and I do appreciate it. And it’s a great accessory to be included in the retail package. But it’s gray and opaque and covers the entirety of the handset. The case does offer ample protection but it also prevents you from seeing and enjoying the beautiful Daybreak Blue colorway.

To be clear, the speaker and case are not deal-breakers. It’s still a great device by any means, but I feel they missed an opportunity here.

Performance and Battery

The realme GT Master Edition is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G 5G with a vapor chamber cooling system. Our review unit comes with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. The phone also boasts a 4300mAh battery with a 65W fast charger.

On the software side, the device runs on realme UI 2.0 on top of Android 11. It comes with the usual realme apps and features. Unfortunately, you also get a few pre-installed bloat, which you can easily uninstall as usual.

realme UI 2.0 provides a reasonable amount of customization options. Aside from changing lock screen and home screen wallpapers, you can change icon styles, fingerprint animations, font types, change colors, and more.

Another bonus feature is RAM expansion. You can add up to 5GB more RAM by allocating from storage. Performance-wise, the additional RAM will only give you a slight boost.

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Basic navigation is fast and responsive. Apps and games are quick to load and open. And thanks to the 120Hz refresh rate, animations are butter smooth.

For the benchmark scores, the handset did pretty well for its price range.

• AnTuTu – 540,194
  CPU – 162,502
  GPU – 156,264
  MEM – 89,958
  UX – 131,470
• Geekbench – 790 (Single-core); 2,795 (Multi-core)
• 3D Mark – 2,509 (Wild Life); 693 (Wild Life Extreme)

For gaming, it can play most games albeit in more modest graphics settings. Genshin Impact defaults to Low graphics settings. The game still looks good. On Pro Gamer Mode, you can set it to Highest at 60 FPS with little effect on gameplay. It might get stuttery when there’s a lot of things happening onscreen but for the most part, it’s pretty good.

You can access Game Assistant by swiping at the slim tab on the upper left side. Here, you can set Performance Modes, access Touch Sensitivity options, send messages, and more. You can also activate GT Mode, which boosts CPU performance and set’s the refresh rate 120Hz.

As for the battery life, you get a 4300mAh capacity with a 65W fast charger. Battery life is pretty good and will last you a day, more if you’re a light or moderate user. Charging is great, as it takes around 40 minutes for a full charge, less if you charge from 50% to 100%.

Cameras

When it comes to photography, the realme GT Master Edition has a multitude of options. It features a 64MP main, an 8MP ultra-wide, and a 2MP macro at the back, and a 32MP selfie camera in front. The camera app includes the usual features and brings in Street Photography mode that comes with DIS Snapshot, Instant Focus, Manual Focus, and Quick Zoom functions, and a set of filters.

The handset also has a Pro Night Mode, which lets users adjust camera settings, and Starry Mode that, as the name implies, will let you take astrophotography shots.

The photo quality in bright light is crisp with good detail and dynamic range. Colors were a bit saturated, but it looks good, especially for social media. Photos shot indoors are softer, but colors still look good.

The handset also does a good job in night photography. Images are sharp with good detail, but there is some noise and artifacts. Pro Night Mode, which offers a longer shutter speed, looks great as long as the phone is stable (like on a tripod).

The 32MP selfie camera is good, showing natural skin tones and decent sharpness. The colors look natural and not overdone.

Check out our camera samples below. 

Verdict

Price and Availability

realme GT Master Edition 8GB+128GB: Php 18,990
realme GT Master Edition 8GB+256GB: Php 21,990

The realme GT Master Edition is priced at Php 18,990 for the the128GB variant and Php 19,990 for the 256GB variant. The handset is now available in realme online and offline stores nationwide.

realme GT Master Edition specs