Flagship smartphone prices have been trending upward in recent years, prompting some phone makers like Google and Honor to keep prices lower by outfitting their phones with mid-range processors like Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 700 series chips while others, like Motorola, have opted for Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 870 as a cheaper alternative to the top tier Snapdragon 888.

And then there’s the Realme GT, a new phone from Chinese phone maker Realme that stuffs Qualcomm’s most powerful smartphone processor into a smartphone with a starting price of just €369 (~$440).

While the flagship-class processor is the phone’s most impressive feature, other specs are largely what you’d expect from a premium phone in 2021 including:

  • 6.43 inch, 2400 x 1080 pixel Super AMOLED display with 120 Hz refresh rate and 360 Hz touch sampling rate
  • 8GB or 12GB of LPDDR5 memory
  • 128GB or 256GB of UFS 3.1 flash storage
  • 4,400 mAh battery
  • Up to 65W fast charging
  • Three rear cameras (64MP primary, 8MP 119° ultra-wide, and 2MP macro)
  • 16MP hole-punch selfie camera

The smartphone also has an under-display fingerprint sensor, stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos sound, a USB Type-C port and 3.5mm headphone jack, and support for 5G, 4G LTE, WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, and NFC.

There’s also a “stainless steel vapour cooling” system to help keep the phone from overheating while playing games or running other resource-intensive tasks.

Realme offers three different back cover options:

  • Blue (glass back)
  • Silver (glass back)
  • Yellow (“vegan leather” with a black racing stripe)

So… how is this thing priced so much lower than other flagships? It is missing a few features that you might find on some rival phones. There’s no support for wireless charging, for example. And there’s no IP rating for water or dust resistance. And I wouldn’t necessarily bet on it matching the latest Pixel, Galaxy, or iPhone in a head-to-head photography competition.

Still, at a time when sister company OnePlus (they’re both owned by BBK) seems to have largely abandoned its “flagship killer” branding, it looks like Realme is ready to continue carrying the torch… at least in regions where the company sells phones.

That includes Europe and China, but not the United States.

via Engadget, Gizmodo, and GizmoChina

 

 

 

 

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2 replies on “Realme GT packs a Snapdragon 888 processor into a $440 smartphone”

  1. Gee, $440, Snapdragon 888, & pretty good specs all ’round – I’m impressed. It just goes to show how fat the flagship profit margins are in the U.S.

  2. Id also consider usb-c 2.0 as one of those missing flagship features .. just as Xiaomi does it mostly. You cannot even use it as a fast flash drive, any fast video output .. much less desktop mode.

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