Since the brand's inception in 2018, the slogan "Dare to go above and beyond" has accompanied every generation of realme phones. And this kind of product concept also makes realme mobile phones particularly different in the market: when most mid-range mobile phones try to create a "high-performance sub-flagship" with high-spec processors, realme can use a more balanced configuration to meet consumers' requirements for performance, screen, image, battery life and even design, so that the mobile phone can leapfrog into a real "quasi-flagship phone".
Of course, in the era of AI mobile phones, there are more mobile phones that are willing to provide "leapfrogging" functions on non-flagship mobile phones. After all, the emergence of AI technology has reduced the hardware requirements for mobile phone functions to a certain extent - taking cameras as an example, most mobile phones used to be equipped with special telephoto cameras, but with the support of AI imaging technology, the combination of wide angle + ultra wide angle can already meet the needs of daily shooting. This atmosphere of "shrinking hardware and making up for software" has also left room for many brands to be "lazy" in hardware.
Luckily, the real me didn't choose to do that.
On April 11, 2024, realme officially released the long-awaited new GT series - realme GT Neo6 SE. As the latest masterpiece of realme at the price of 1,000 yuan, realme GT Neo6 SE shows what it means to be a real "leapfrog experience" with excellent hardware configuration and software strength.
Image source: Ray Technology
In terms of configuration, the realme GT Neo6 SE uses the third-generation Snapdragon 7+ mobile platform, providing up to 16GB+512GB (LPDDR5X+UFS4.0) flash configuration. On paper, it's a bit of a shame that the Realme GT Neo6 SE didn't use the latest third-generation Snapdragon 8s. However, Realme still has prepared a lot of unique tricks for the Realme GT Neo6 SE that can provide a next-level experience, such as the ice core three-dimensional cooling system, which we will talk about later.
Image source: Ray Technology
As the "biggest" "bright" point of the phone, the Realme GT Neo6 SE is equipped with an ultra-bright 6.8-inch AMOLED FHD+ 8T LTPO display with an excitation brightness of 1600nit and a maximum peak brightness of 6000nit. While most 120Hz LTPO displays only support 1-120Hz VRR, the Realme GT Neo6 SE even extends the lower VRR limit to 0.5Hz, making the screen "more power-efficient" without affecting the display effect.
Image source: Ray Technology
In terms of cameras, the Realme GT Neo6 SE uses a 50-megapixel wide-angle camera (IMX882) and an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera (IMX355) rear camera module, of which the main camera supports optical image stabilization (OIS). In terms of battery life, the Realme GT Neo6 SE uses a 5,500mAh "Big Mac" battery and 100W wired fast charging, which is rare among phones in its class with a capacity of only 5,000mAh and less than 100W fast charging.
The only full-match screen in its class
As mentioned earlier, the screen is the "biggest" "bright" point of the Realme GT Neo6 SE, after all, the peak brightness of up to 6000nit is extremely rare even in the flagship phone camp. According to the introduction, the screen of the realme GT Neo6 SE adopts BOE S1 substrate and 8T LTPO technology, which is a new generation of screen created by the in-depth cooperation between realme and BOE, which is called "no dual screen".
It's pointless to just talk about the data, but the ultra-high screen brightness does give me an eye-catching and memorable display: as you may already know, in Android 14, Google added support for native HDR photos, and Android phones can finally capture and view real HDR photos.
Image source: Ray Technology
And when HDR photos meet the realme GT Neo6 SE's "no dual screen", the ultra-high dynamic range of HDR photos is truly revealed: the high-brightness information in ProXDR photos is fully preserved, and even in the southern afternoon outdoor sun, the details of the highlighted areas in the photos can still be seen clearly, and there is no need to even use your hands to block the realme GT Neo6 SE.
Even when I was shooting the exterior of the Realme GT Neo6 SE in the studio, I didn't need to look for an angle to create shadows for the Realme GT Neo6 SE, even if I was facing the 200W fill light – I just pulled up the brightness and just shot it.
Image source: Ray Technology
It is worth mentioning that while it has the best screen brightness and excellent display effect, the realme GT Neo6 SE screen bezel is also well controlled, with only 1.36mm at its narrowest point. In addition to that, the Realme GT Neo6 SE also offers the ability to manually adjust the minimum screen brightness.
Although I don't recommend using your phone in low-light environments, if you really need it, the realme GT Neo6 SE's low-brightness control can also avoid the situation where the brightness of the phone is too low. Considering that most non-flagship Android phones like to reduce the brightness in low-light environments to the point where it affects use, the realme GT Neo6 SE not only goes above and beyond in terms of experience, but also pays enough attention to detail.
Strong heat dissipation creates next-level performance
When introducing the configuration, I said that the realme GT Neo6 SE has its own "unique trick" - the three-dimensional cooling system of the ice core, which is actually composed of two parts: a 10014 square mm VC plate and a mid-frame ice structure. The dual-layer three-dimensional cooling structure and the large area of VC provide a very high heat capacity for the realme GT Neo6 SE, allowing the phone to run for a longer time under the condition of "full blood" or even "overclocking".
This cooling design also allows the Realme GT Neo6 SE to better cope with short-term and high-load conditions: in the Antutu test, the Realme GT Neo6 SE scored 1.48 million points, which is only one step away from the third-generation Snapdragon 8s. Of course, this result is measured at the default frequency, and if you use the Geek Performance Panel 2.0 "Little Super Pleasant" when you have a radiator, I believe the performance will only be better.
Image source: Ray Technology
I've just been emphasizing that the realme GT Neo6 SE's high-heat capacity design can withstand short-term high-power loads, does this mean that the realme GT Neo6 SE is not suitable for long-term loads, such as gaming?
In the half-hour Max Genshin Impact test, the Realme GT Neo6 SE's performance was also unusually stable: the FPS fluctuated slightly in the first 15 minutes due to monster clearing and cross-region loading, but the realme GT Neo6 SE was able to maintain 60 fps in the last 15 minutes of the running phase, and it was not a problem to play for a long time.
Image source: Ray Technology
In order to find out the phone's performance and heat dissipation, Xiaolei also used 3D Mark's Wildlife Extreme to stress test the realme GT Neo6 SE, and at the same time used a thermal imaging camera to continuously shoot the back of the phone.
In terms of performance, the Realme GT Neo6 SE ran its highest cycle score of 3094 in Cycle 1, which even surpassed the highest cycle score of a third-generation Snapdragon 8s device. For the first 12 cycles, the Realme GT Neo6 SE was very stable, with only a slight drop in performance due to heat buildup.
Image source: Ray Technology
In Cycle 13, the Realme GT Neo6 SE started to experience noticeable throttling, and in Cycle 14, the device ran its lowest cycle score of 1654. However, due to the downscaling slowing down the heat and the heat being quickly transferred, the Realme GT Neo6 SE returned to the first stage of the 2841 cycle score in Cycle 15 and held on for two cycles until Cycle 17 before falling back to the second stage.
Meanwhile, the maximum temperature on the back of the phone is 45.7 degrees Celsius, and the center temperature is 40.3 degrees Celsius. And due to the special middle frame design (I really call it the middle frame ice structure), the temperature of the mobile phone bezel is significantly lower than the temperature of the center of the back.
Image source: Ray Technology
Of course, the highest score of 3094 points and the lowest score of 1654 points in the cycling score mean that the Realme GT Neo6 SE is only 53.5% stable in the stress test. Although the Realme GT Neo6 SE scored even higher than phones with more powerful processors in the first phase, the Realme GT Neo6 SE was not always "calm" without the use of external auxiliary devices such as coolers.
But again, taking into account the overall stability, the Realme GT Neo6 SE has already delivered a leapfrog in performance. If you are strong enough, the strength of the Realme GT Neo6 SE after "Little Super Pleasure" is immeasurable.
"Self-cultivation" in the age of AI
However, in the AI era, mobile phone computing power is far from enough, how to use AI models and use cases to reflect the computing power of mobile phones, this is the direction that mobile phone brands need to study in the AI era.
In the realme GT Neo6 SE, AI is mainly embodied in three aspects: Xiaobu AI assistant that uses generative large model technology to significantly improve natural semantic understanding, image elimination function implemented by AIGC, and AI-based summary generation.
Image source: Ray Technology
I believe everyone has experienced the part of the AI assistant conversation before, so I won't repeat it here. Although many brands of mobile phones use AIGC-based image editing functions, due to the differences between their models, the final object elimination effect is also very different.
Let's first talk about the shortcomings of the AndesGPT model adopted by Realme GT Neo6 SE:
As far as the current experience is concerned, Xiaolei believes that AndesGPT's ability to recognize the shadow of objects is relatively limited. In the smart circle mode, even if Xiao Lei takes the initiative to circle the shadow of the object, the phone will still "throw away" the shadow part, and only eliminate the object itself.
In addition, in some cases, AdesGPT also likes to "replay" the remaining shadows, such as after removing the warning signs, AndesGPT also took it upon itself to draw the shadows under the warning signs into a red basin of water, which needs to be eliminated twice.
Image source: Ray Technology
And under the current version (SP01CN01), AndeGPT does not provide the function of AI expansion for the time being, which is a bit of a pity.
But without shadows, the AndesGPT on the Realme GT Neo6 SE performs very well. Not only can the task of a small area of the picture be eliminated cleanly, but even the leaves that occupy a large area of the picture and the window grilles attached to the glass can be handled cleanly.
Image source: Ray Technology
Image source: Ray Technology
AI smart summarization is also a very interesting feature that intelligently organizes web pages and even calls. Xiao Lei briefly experienced the part of the call summary, and the AI's understanding of the content of the conversation is indeed very good. The AI summary here is not a text-transcribed text like iFLYTEK hears, but a "stream-saving" summary that is summarized by the AI after understanding the content of the conversation. What surprised me even more was that even in English conversations, the Realme GT Neo6 SE was able to summarize normally, which is really positive.
Use super configuration to create a leapfrog experience
As is customary, here is the conclusion of the realme GT Neo6 SE review by Ray Technology:
Merit:
1. The brightness and color of the screen are all flagship level, and the display effect is excellent;
2. Luxurious heat dissipation configuration, performance leapfrogging;
3. The large 5500mAh battery with 100W high-speed fast charging is rare in its class.
Shortcoming:
1. AndesGPT 训练有待加强;
2. 2× The camera calculation traces are obvious.
Xiao Lei originally thought that these experiences should appear on a flagship mobile phone that sold for five or six thousand, but he really didn't expect a mobile phone with a starting price of 1699 yuan (8+256GB) to bring such an excellent experience. Regardless of the screen quality or performance release, realme GT Neo6 SE did not disappoint us, and it also fulfilled the brand mission of "dare to leapfrog" well.
As a young mobile phone brand, Realme has always adhered to the principle of cost performance from the beginning of its birth, and Realme has taken this feature to the extreme. If you're a well-balanced user like Ray, then the Realme GT Neo6 SE might be one of your best bets right now.
The Beijing International Automobile Exhibition (Beijing Auto Show) will be held from April 25th to May 4th, with the theme of "New Era, New Automobiles", which is the vane of "Cars from Electrification to Intelligence".
At that time, including BYD, Xiaomi, AITO, Xiaopeng, Weilai, ideal, Extreme Krypton, Jiyue, Changan Deep Blue and other head brands will all appear, in addition to the new model "big competition", the advancement of autonomous driving technology, the evolution of intelligent cockpit and the combination of AI large models and cars, will be important highlights. Lei Technology's "Pay attention to electric vehicles, understand more intelligent" account tram will send a reporting team to Beijing to conduct first-line professional reports, so stay tuned.