Realme GT8 Pro Review – Flagship Power, Unique Design & Big Battery Win

Realme is back with its most serious flagship attempt to date, and this Realme GT8 Pro Review reveals just how far the brand has come. While last year’s GT series focused on raw speed, the GT8 Pro is trying to prove that Realme can deliver a well-rounded flagship — one that looks premium, feels different, and packs real innovation instead of just specs.

This phone is bold, experimental, and at times even confusing — but it is definitely one of the most interesting flagships of the year.

Realme GT8 Pro Review main pic

Design & Build – Flagship Feel with a Unique Twist

Realme GT8 Pro Review display

The moment you pick up the Realme GT8 Pro, it immediately feels like the most premium Realme device ever made. The glass back and metal frame give it true flagship weight and density, but the Urban Blue variant stands out the most. The soft, rubberized back adds grip without needing a case, and the device feels well-balanced despite being 214–218g.

Then there’s the wild part — the detachable camera module. You can literally unscrew the circular camera housing and swap it for a square module in the box. It’s a gimmick, yes, but also a fun reminder that phones don’t have to be boring rectangles.

The chassis includes stereo speakers, an IR blaster, and most importantly — IP69 water resistance, the highest level currently used in mainstream smartphones. This means the phone can handle high-pressure water jets, dirt and dust, and full submersion — a huge win for durability.


Display – Gorgeous, Bright, and Fast (But Not Quite Perfect)

The GT8 Pro’s display is easily one of the best in its segment. It features a massive 6.79-inch 2K LTPS AMOLED panel with a blazing 144Hz refresh rate. Colors are bold, contrast is excellent, HDR performance is strong, and the bezels are perfectly slim and symmetrical.

And yes — 7,000 nits peak brightness. It’s ridiculous. It’s overkill. It’s also genuinely useful outdoors in direct Indian sunlight. When reviewers say it feels like having a “small sun” in your pocket — it’s not an exaggeration.

But there is one drawback: this isn’t LTPO. That means refresh rate switching isn’t as efficient, and it does affect battery drain slightly. For a phone that checks so many flagship boxes, this feels like an obvious cost cut.

Protected by Corning Gorilla Glass (Moh’s level 4), the display looks great — but LTPO would have made it near-perfect.

Performance – Hardware Monster, Software Quirks

Realme GT8 Pro Review performance

Under the hood, this phone is running the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 — Qualcomm’s newest 3nm flagship chip. It’s not just powerful, it’s absurdly fast. Paired with UFS 4.1 storage, LPDDR5X RAM, and the Hyper Vision Plus AI chip, the GT8 Pro pulls off a massive 3.79M+ AnTuTu score.

Thermals are impressive too. Even in sustained gaming, the device barely throttles — the stability graph was almost entirely green. Qualcomm finally nailed efficiency on this generation.

However, while the phone supports 120 FPS gaming, something weird happens: turning on GT Boost/Game Mode drops FPS in BGMI and Call of Duty. Without it, you get 119–122 FPS. With it, FPS drops. This clearly needs a software fix.

Haptics are excellent, touch response is fast, and app performance is buttery smooth — but the GT Boost bug holds it back from being the perfect gaming flagship.


Camera – Huge Hardware, Smart Partnership, Mixed Results

Realme GT8 Pro Review camera specs

Realme went big. A massive 200MP periscope zoom lens, 50MP main camera, 50MP ultrawide, and a 32MP selfie shooter — all tuned in partnership with RCO (Ricoh GR).

The RCO Mode delivers the most natural and detailed output with excellent colors and skin tones. But here’s where it gets complicated:

What Realme got right:
  • Crazy detailed telephoto shots

  • 3x optical + high-resolution 200MP zoom

  • Great shutter speed

  • Beautiful results in RCO mode

  • Night performance better than previous GT phones

What Realme messed up:
  • Severe underexposure and color shift in default modes

  • Photos look fine before clicking, then turn dull after processing

  • Portrait mode is hit-or-miss indoors

This is clearly a software tuning issue. The hardware is easily flagship level, but until Realme fixes color science and exposure, the camera won’t compete with the S25 Ultra or even the OnePlus 15.

Selfies, thankfully, are clean and natural — the 32MP camera performs consistently well.

Video quality is excellent on paper:

  • 8K 30fps

  • 4K 120fps

  • Dolby Vision

  • 10-bit LOG with good stabilization

Creators will love the flexibility here. They just need Realme to fix the image processing pipeline.


Battery & Charging – This Is Where Realme DESTROYS the Competition

Realme GT8 Pro Review battery and charging

Nobody in the flagship space is doing this right now:

🔋 7,000 mAh battery
⚡ 120W wired charging
⚡ 50W wireless charging

That’s a mad combination.

The GT8 Pro lasts a full 1.5–2 days easily and charges from 0–100% in about 43 minutes. Wireless charging takes 79 minutes, which is still impressive given the massive battery size. And yes — the charger is included in the box.

This is the single biggest reason to buy the GT8 Pro.


Software & Connectivity – Mostly Great, But One Unforgivable Detail

Realme GT8 Pro Review os

The phone ships with Realme UI 7.0 (Android 16) and guaranteed 4 years of OS updates + 5 years of security updates, which is finally flagship level.

The ultrasonic fingerprint sensor is extremely fast and accurate, and connectivity options are strong — Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, eSIM, 16 5G bands, NFC, IR blaster.

But then comes the disaster:

❌ It uses USB 2.0.

On a flagship phone. In 2025. With a 7,000 mAh battery and 8K video support.

This should have been USB 3.2 at least. It makes data transfer slow and kills potential use cases like high-speed external storage or wired capture. It’s the worst decision in this entire phone.


Verdict – Should You Buy the Realme GT8 Pro?

If battery life, display brightness, speed and futuristic design matter to you more than perfect camera tuning — the Realme GT8 Pro is a monster of a flagship.

Buy it for:

✔ Stunning 2K 144Hz display
✔ 7,000 mAh battery + super-fast charging
✔ Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 performance
✔ Unique design & detachable camera module
✔ IP69 durability
✔ Long-term software support

Skip it if:

❌ You want the best flagship camera consistency
❌ USB 2.0 is a dealbreaker
❌ You need LTPO for efficiency

In this Realme GT8 Pro Review, the conclusion is simple:

This phone feels like Realme finally decided to swing for the fences. It doesn’t always hit, but when it does — it hits harder than anyone else in its class.

OnePlus 15 Review: A Performance Beast Redefining the Flagship Experience

The OnePlus 15 is the clearest message the brand has sent in years: performance is the new identity. After ending the long-running Hasselblad partnership, OnePlus has gone all-in on speed, stability, thermals, and AI-powered software. And unlike previous years, the OnePlus 15 isn’t trying to be another “balanced flagship.” It’s intentionally built to be a performance monster wrapped inside a clean, mature design.

In this OnePlus 15 Review, I’ll break down whether this new direction makes the device a genuine flagship killer—or if the compromises behind the scenes hold it back.

OnePlus 15 Review

Design & Durability: Sleek, Minimal, Shockingly Tough

The OnePlus 15 continues the polished, flat-sided aesthetic, but the rounded corners and lightweight frame instantly make it feel more comfortable in the hand. What’s interesting is how each color variant uses different materials. The Sandstorm model uses fiberglass, making it surprisingly light at just 211 grams, while the Black and Violet options shift to Gorilla Glass 7i on the back. The front is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2, keeping it in line with flagship durability standards.

However, what truly stands out is the industry-first complete IP certification. The OnePlus 15 isn’t just IP68. It’s IP66, IP67, IP68, and IP69K. That includes resistance to dust, rain, immersion, and even high-pressure hot water jets. Practically, this is the most durable OnePlus phone ever made.

The iconic Alert Slider is gone, replaced by the more versatile Plus Key, which ties into the phone’s AI capabilities. You can map it to actions, shortcuts, and contextual flows, and it feels like OnePlus finally modernized something that was once a fan-favorite relic.


Display: 165Hz Brilliance with a Smart Compromise

OnePlus 15 Review- Display of OnePlus 15

On paper, the 6.78-inch LTPO display doesn’t scream groundbreaking—until you see the 165Hz refresh rate. It’s an industry first on a mainstream flagship. The panel dynamically scales from 1Hz to 120Hz in most apps, but supported games and apps can unlock the native 165Hz mode.

Of course, this upgrade comes with a catch: the resolution drops from 2K on the OnePlus 13 to 1.5K. OnePlus claims that running 2K at 165Hz simply isn’t possible yet.

In real use, the display holds up beautifully. Brightness reaches an impressive 3,600 nits peak (20% APL), making it far more usable outdoors than the 4,500-nit marketing numbers of last gen. High Brightness Mode hits 1,800 nits, and the panel drops as low as 0.5 nits for night use. Colors are punchy, HDR performance is strong, and the bezels are ridiculously slim at just 1.15 mm.

Multimedia benefits from Dolby Vision and a noticeably improved stereo speaker setup. The ultrasonic fingerprint sensor is among the fastest I’ve used.


Performance: The New Flagship Benchmark

1588490 onepl

Performance is where the OnePlus 15 Review gets exciting. Powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, the phone hits numbers that no Android phone in India has touched yet. OnePlus didn’t just drop in the chip—they rewrote massive parts of the kernel scheduler (over 25k lines of code) to better allocate resources during gaming and heavy tasks.

And the result? A jaw-dropping 4 million+ Antutu score.

Thermals stay under control thanks to the 360° Cryo-Velocity cooling system. Even during sustained 165Hz gaming, the temperature doesn’t cross 42–43°C. This is a huge achievement for a device this slim.

The storage is UFS 4.1 and the RAM is next-gen too. The 16GB variant uses LPDDR5X Ultra Plus—officially the fastest smartphone RAM in the world. Multitasking is instant, loading times vanish, and the device holds apps in memory like a true flagship workstation.

You also get a triple-chip setup:

  • Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5

  • Dedicated Wi-Fi G2 chip

  • Dedicated Touch Response chip (3,200 Hz sampling)

This combination directly boosts gaming stability, network consistency, and touch responsiveness. It genuinely feels like a console-level input system.


Gaming Performance: A Beast in Disguise

If you’re a gamer, the OnePlus 15 is almost unfair. Titles like Call of Duty Mobile run at 165 FPS, something previously unheard of on phones. Genshin Impact—one of the most demanding games—runs at a native 120 FPS with shocking stability.

The new gyroscope is console-grade, providing pinpoint precision during competitive gameplay. Bypass Charging keeps heat low during long sessions by powering the phone directly from the charger.

Stereo speakers offer great channel separation, which helps identify enemy direction. Simply put, this phone is built for gamers in a way no mainstream flagship has ever dared.

Battery, Charging & Connectivity: Flagship Leading Numbers

OnePlus 15 battery size featured

he massive 7,300 mAh silicon-carbon battery is one of the biggest upgrades here. Unlike the typical 5,000 mAh setups on competitors, this battery comfortably lasts:

  • 9 hours of heavy gaming

  • 1.5 to 2 days of mixed use

Charging is equally impressive:

  • 120W wired SuperVOOC

  • 50W wireless charging

Connectivity is equally stacked with Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, 16 5G bands, NFC, IR blaster, NavIC, and USB 3.2 Gen 1. For streamers and competitive gamers, the high-bandwidth USB port is a small but important bonus.


Software & AI: OxygenOS Evolves

OnePlus 15 Review: Oxygen OS 15

The OnePlus 15 ships with OxygenOS 16 on Android 16. Animations feel better, transitions are smoother, and stability has noticeably improved thanks to Parallel Animations 2.0.

Software support promises 4 years of major updates and 6 years of security patches.

AI now plays a central role:

  • Plus Key brings contextual AI shortcuts

  • Mind Space stores screenshots and memories

  • Gemini AI can pull context from your saved content

  • AI Play Lab brings style transfer tools

  • AI Call Assistant and AI Writer add more quality-of-life features

This is the most AI-forward OnePlus phone to date.


Camera: Computational Power Over Hardware

Oneplus 15 Review Camera Details

The camera setup includes three 50MP sensors and a 32MP selfie shooter with autofocus. But the real story is OnePlus’ shift to computational photography instead of sensor-based upgrades.

The new Detail Max Engine captures ten stacked frames (up from six on the OnePlus 13), producing sharper, more detailed results. Daylight shots are excellent, and low-light performance has improved significantly.

Skin tones can sometimes look inconsistent, but switching to Master Mode fixes this by retaining more natural color accuracy.

The telephoto camera offers 3.5x optical and 7x lossless hybrid zoom. The selfie camera upgrade is important—autofocus finally makes it reliable in various lighting situations.

Video gets a big boost with:

  • 4K 60FPS on all sensors

  • 4K 120FPS on main + telephoto

  • LOG video with real-time LUT previews

  • Dolby Vision support

Content creators will love the flexibility.


Pricing & Verdict: Should You Buy the OnePlus 15?

As explained in our previous article about the price leak, it is somewhat similar to that,

  • 12GB + 256GB: ₹72,999 (₹68,999 effective)

  • 16GB + 512GB: ₹79,999 (₹75,999 effective)

In my OnePlus 15 Review, it’s clear this phone is designed with a purpose. OnePlus wanted a device that dominates performance charts, wins gaming tests, and stays cold under pressure—and they’ve nailed that target.

If you want:

  • The fastest performance on Android

  • A ridiculously smooth 165Hz display

  • Long battery life

  • Excellent software

  • Strong computational photography

The OnePlus 15 delivers a complete flagship experience without unnecessary gimmicks.