realme GT6 Launches in the Philippines: A New Flagship Killer?

Planning to buy a new premium phone with top-tier hardware? Well, realme has now launched its powerful realme GT6, promising top-tier performance and impeccable build quality at a price below the premium competition currently in the market. And from our initial look at the phone, it’s looking quite promising.

A Very Glossy Package

For the GT6, realme has opted for a very high-gloss finish, especially near the camera lenses, regardless if you choose Razor Green or Fluid Silver; the latter looking white at times depending on lighting conditions. And yeah, it’s very shiny, which does help obscure the fact that its frame and back are technically made of plastic.

The high gloss also works against it if you’re using it without a good phone case, accumulating fingerprints quite fast. Still, it was a little cool to use the high-gloss strip as a selfie viewfinder of sorts, at least on the Fluid Silver model.

It’s a very thin phone too, easily sliding inside your pockets. It’s not quite a light phone at 199g, making it heavier than other compact options such as the Pixel 8 that only sits at 187g or the Galaxy S24 which sits at 167g. You shouldn’t have any problems simply using it in your hands for hours though.

Top Performance in the Midrange

Starting with the chipset, the realme GT6 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8s Gen 3; a slightly pared-down version of the flagship chip. In terms of performance and numbers, it should be around the same level as the previous Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in something like the Xiaomi 13, maybe a little behind in games (just a little though) due to a weaker GPU. In other words, it should be quite smooth no matter what you throw at it.

This is backed by 8GB of RAM at the cheapest end, all the way up to 16GB of RAM (actual RAM, not extended via the phone’s storage) at the upper end, ensuring you have plenty of headroom for your apps. Additionally, you also get fast UFS 4.0 storage, available in either 256GB or 512GB variants.

Do think hard about just how much storage you need however. The realme GT6 lacks microSD card support so it’s all you’re going to get.

For gamers specifically, the phone packs in its Iceberg 3D vapor chamber, helping keep your phone quite cool even during extended Asphalt 9 or Honkai Star Rail sessions.

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Excellent Camera Hardware

For the longest time, flagship killers tend to have compromises in the camera department. Sure, they may pack big 108MP main cameras but sometimes, these are accompanied by cheaper 2MP ultrawide or macro lenses, helping keep costs down. Sometimes, processing isn’t nearly as good as the more incumbent rivals it's trying to usurp.

Not the case with the realme GT6. You get a powerful trio of cameras, with a 50MP Sony LYT-808 main camera complete with OIS, an 8MP Sony IMX355 ultrawide, and best of all, a 50MP Samsung ISOCELL JN5 telephoto lens, also with OIS. The selfie camera is a regular 32MP Sony IMX 615.

For those interested in AI features in a smartphone, this is where realme has opted to focus their efforts. Dubbed “realme Next AI”, some notable features are:

• AI Smart Removal - A tool that allows you to edit out unwanted elements on your photo a la Magic Eraser.

• AI Smart Loop - A predictive on-screen ‘task wheel’ of sorts where the phone predicts what action you’ll want to do next after taking a photo. Not too useful, in our opinion.

• AI Night Vision Video - A way for the phone to take brighter videos even under extremely low light via the use of its complex algorithms.

Battery and UI

In terms of battery life, the realme GT6 goes above even most flagships, packing in a 2,750mAh battery in a dual-cell configuration, totalling to 5,500mAh. That’s a little higher than the usual 5,000mAh cell we find in most flagship phones. This allows it to easily last over a day, even with bursts of heavy usage like gaming or video streaming.

In case you do run it empty though, the phone does ship with a 120W SuperVOOC fast charger inside the box along with its cable so you’re able to immediately get up to 50% from 0 in just 10 minutes, as per Realme’s official numbers.

The phone ships with Android 14 out of the box, with the realme UI 5 skin on top, which should still feel familiar even if you’re coming from a stock Android experience. As expected though, the phone does ship with some bloatware in the form of pre-installed apps like Lazada and Shopee. Fortunately, it doesn’t take much effort to uninstall them right away in order to free up space.

realme GT6: Flagship Killer?

So is the GT6 a proper flagship killer? We certainly think so. Based on the specs alone, the phone is able to provide a fast, well-rounded experience across a wide array of uses whether that’s gaming or photography without compromising too badly on other parts. Add to that a premium-looking design and we’ve definitely got a solid option in our hands.

The phone technically sits in the upper tiers of midrange pricing, officially priced at PHP 34,999 for the 12GB RAM + 256GB storage configuration. You do at least get a fast charger and silicon case inside the box which is already more than most flagships.

We’ll keep you updated when we can finally get this phone in store, especially once we’re able to get it for you at a more competitive price! Until then, stay tuned~

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