- Realme has launched the Realme GT5 Pro in China.
- The phone shares several features in common with the OnePlus 12.
- The device also offers palm unlock and gesture controls reminiscent of older Google and LG phones.
Realme hasn’t offered a Pro flagship since last year’s Realme GT 2 Pro. But that’s changing today as the company launches the Realme GT5 Pro in China.
The Realme GT5 Pro is a proper flagship phone from the Chinese brand, and you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s basically the OnePlus 12 when looking at the spec sheet.
Realme GT5 Pro: The meat and potatoes
The new handset packs a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, a 5,400mAh battery with 100W wired charging, 50W wireless charging, and an OLED screen with a maximum brightness of 4,500 nits. Realme adds that the screen can also reach 1,000 nits of brightness via manual adjustments, as well as 1,600 nits of “global maximum brightness.”
But there are a number of changes here compared to the latest OnePlus phone. For one, the Realme brings a 1.5K 144Hz display in lieu of a QHD+ 120Hz panel. This screen also boasts the ability to drop down to as low as 0.5Hz.
Realme’s phone also offers a tweaked rear camera setup. You’ve got the same 50MP LYT-808 main camera as the OnePlus 12 (1/1.4-inch, f/1.69) and a middling 8MP ultrawide lens (IMX355). However, the company is upping its game as far as camera zoom is concerned.
The Realme GT5 Pro opts for a 50MP 3x periscope camera, using the flagship-tier IMX890 sensor. This is the same periscope camera setup as the OPPO Find X6 Pro, so we’re expecting similarly great image quality here, particularly in low-light scenes. Realme adds that this periscope camera can deliver 6x lossless zoom too.
Realme grabs old LG and Google features
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2tskamVvyo
Otherwise, the company is offering a 32MP selfie camera. But Realme is also bringing a strange palm-based feature to the front of the phone, reminiscent of the LG G8. More specifically, the company says it’s offering palm unlock capabilities (check out the video above).
“When the display is off, just open your palm and bring it close to the screen to turn on the screen and quickly unlock it,” the company explained in a press statement.
Realme told Android Authority that the phone is indeed using a sensor to facilitate palm recognition, although we can’t make out anything aside from the selfie camera. For what it’s worth, the LG G8 used a 3D ToF camera and an infrared sensor to facilitate its palm-recognition functionality.
Realme’s latest phone offers palm unlocking and air gestures. Will this approach be more successful than LG and Google’s takes on the tech?
The Realme GT5 Pro also brings a so-called “AI gesture control system” that sounds similar to LG and Google’s gesture controls. This allows you to hover your hand over the phone screen, using one of 12 gestures to interact with your phone.
The company’s video, seen above, gives us a better idea of what to expect. This includes a five-finger pinch to enter the recents menu, a lateral swipe to horizontally scroll through running apps, showing a single index finger to move an on-screen cursor, and flipping your hand to go home.
What else should you know?
The new smartphone also brings a slick design, with the black variant having an AG glass back while the white and brown variants offer a pleather-like rear. You’re also getting a circular camera housing here, along with an aluminum frame and center-mounted punch-hole cutout. Expect an IP64 rating here, meaning the phone is dust-resistant but only splash-resistant.
Realme’s phone is also running the Realme UI 5.0 skin atop Android 14. The company is promising three major Android version updates and four years of security patches. This isn’t on par with Samsung and Google’s flagship phones, but it’s still a step above update policies from the likes of Sony.
Other notable features include the ability to adjust CPU/GPU clock speeds via a side panel, dual stereo speakers, an IR blaster, multi-directional NFC, USB 3.2 speeds,
Realme GT5 Pro pricing and availability
The Realme GT5 Pro starts at 3,399 yuan (~$479) in China for the 12GB/256GB model, with a promotional price of 3,298 yuan (~$465). This goes all the way up to 4,299 yuan (~$606) for the 16GB/1TB variant.
Realme told Android Authority that it doesn’t currently have any plans to launch the phone in global markets just yet. In saying so, the Realme GT2 Pro was the last GT Pro model and it saw a global release. So we wouldn’t completely rule out a wider GT5 Pro launch at some point in 2024.
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