Realme is actively developing its flagship GT smartphone line — the realme GT 6 has joined it. Instead of a classic review, we decided to compare the smartphone with one of its competitors — the Samsung Galaxy S24+. It’s more interesting this way. We measured display brightness, took photos, conducted synthetic tests — and are ready to share the results.
Appearance
The realme GT 6 is available in two colors: silver and green; we have the second version for review. The Samsung Galaxy S24+ has a wider color palette: black, gold, purple, and silver, like ours. At the bottom, there’s a USB-C port, speaker, microphone, and SIM slot. At the top — an additional microphone, and for realme — also an IR port for controlling home appliances. On the right — volume rocker and power button below it. Everything is standard.
But the tactile sensations are completely different. Primarily due to the materials used: the back panel of both smartphones is made of glass, but realme’s is glossy, while Samsung’s is matte. As they say, to each their own, but the gloss is not as slippery, and the chance of dropping the smartphone is much lower. The edges of the Galaxy S24+ are made of metal, while the realme GT 6’s are plastic.
This doesn’t affect the perception of the smartphones; the materials and assembly are high-quality. An additional bonus for realme is the mirror part around the cameras, which can be used as a mirror, and this turned out to be really convenient. However, the phone gets dirty very easily — you’ll have to constantly wipe it, while the matte S24+ doesn’t have this problem.
Screen
From the front, the smartphones differ even more — Samsung has a flat display, while realme has a so-called “waterfall” display. As for specifications, the realme GT 6 received a 6.78-inch LTPO AMOLED display with a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz. The resolution is 2780×1264 pixels, with brightness up to 6000 nits. Meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy S24+ has a slightly smaller 6.7″ screen, but with a higher resolution (3120×1440) and lower brightness — 2600 nits. Small spoiler: both manufacturers have exaggerated the actual figures. Probably, the stated brightness can be achieved on a small area of the display, but we decided to measure the full-screen brightness.
Let’s start with normal use, without HDR. The results are as follows: 880 nits for Samsung versus 1400 nits for realme.
Turning on HDR, we observe a comparable picture: 1800 nits for S24+ and a whole 2300 nits for realme.
We conclude that the display of the realme GT 6 is significantly brighter than that of the Samsung Galaxy S24+. However, neither device reached peak brightness even in HDR mode. Despite this, realme openly claims a brightness of 1000 nits in manual mode and 1600 nits in HDR, while we measured even more, approximately 40% higher. You won’t always need maximum brightness, but in summer outdoors, every nit counts so you don’t have to move into the shade to send a message.
Let’s look at PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation). For the Galaxy S24+, the indicators are as follows:
- Maximum brightness — 35%
- Average brightness — 36%
- Minimum brightness — 81%
This is an average result, especially at minimum brightness. The flicker can be noticed with the naked eye, and this will definitely cause discomfort to PWM-sensitive people at night when the smartphone brightness is set to minimum.
The GT 6 handles PWM better:
- Maximum brightness — 17%
- Average brightness — 19%
- Minimum brightness — 13%
The reason is that the S24+ has a PWM frequency of only 480 Hz compared to 2160 Hz for the GT 6. The screen flickers more frequently, the brain doesn’t notice it, and the eyes don’t get tired
To put it simply, I liked the screen of the realme GT 6 more — it’s significantly brighter, which is especially relevant in summer. Colors are pleasant and saturated on both devices, although realme displays up to 1.07 billion colors, while Samsung — up to 16 million. But be careful with the Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protective glass — it’s present on both smartphones. However, realme comes with a factory-applied screen protector, while Samsung doesn’t. As a result — minor scratches all over the S24+ screen after careful use for a week and a perfect film on the GT 6. How the film turned out to be more resistant than the protective coating specifically developed for this, I don’t know.
Performance
The realme GT 6 is built on the basis of an 8-core 4-nanometer Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chip with a maximum clock speed of 3 GHz, using the Adreno 735 as a graphics accelerator. The review unit has 16 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512 GB of UFS 4.0 internal storage, there’s also a 12+256 GB model available.
The Samsung Galaxy S24+ runs on a 10-core 4-nanometer Exynos 2400 chip with Xclipse 940 graphics, with a maximum frequency of 3.2 GHz. It has 12 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256 GB of UFS 4.0 internal storage. There’s also a 12+512 GB memory version available.
In Antutu, the devices are neck and neck — each scoring about 1.6 million points. However, the Samsung heated up noticeably more than the realme.
The performance graph of the realme GT 6 can’t be called ideal either: at about the 17th minute, the chip suddenly dropped 50% of its performance for one minute, cooled down, and this was enough for another five minutes, then the frequencies dropped again. There is heating, it’s noticeable, but you can still hold the device in your hands.
Regarding battery life, the realme GT 6 has a 5500 mAh battery capacity with fast 120-watt charging. Samsung can’t boast such indicators: a 4900 mAh battery with fast charging up to 45 watts. By the way, there’s no adapter included. In total, realme will charge in half an hour, and Samsung in an hour. To get 50% charge, GT 6 will take 10 minutes, and S24+ – 20 minutes. However, the latter has wireless and reverse wireless charging.
The realme GT 6 battery will last about a day and a half of average use: this includes browser, messengers, music, and a bit of navigation. At the same time, Samsung in the same scenario discharged by the evening of the same day.
Camera
The realme GT 6 features a triple camera setup. The main camera is 50 MP (Sony LYT-808) with optical image stabilization, a telephoto lens of 50 MP (Samsung ISOCELL JN5), and an ultra-wide lens of 8 MP (Sony IMX355).
But in the context of video recording, Samsung leads: it supports 4K60 (HDR10+) recording on all cameras simultaneously. Additionally, it can record in 8K30 without HDR. realme can’t do this: for example, the ultra-wide lens can only shoot in Full HD at 30 FPS.
Did the Galaxy S24+ lose?
It’s worth noting some aspects where Samsung undeniably leads over realme. The first point was already mentioned above — wireless charging. Why it wasn’t added to the GT 6 is a mystery. The second point is the fingerprint scanner. It is ultrasonic, meaning it works lightning-fast, accurately, and without bright illumination in this area. realme’s is optical, works slower, and occasionally makes mistakes — but not often, about 9 out of 10 recognitions occur without issues.
The third point is eSIM. realme only supports physical SIM cards. The fourth is water resistance: IP68 for the S24+ and IP65 for the GT 6. Swimming with the realme is not recommended. Finally, the fifth point is that the S24+ is equipped with a USB 3 port, while the GT 6 has only USB 2. File transfers via cable will be slower.
Conclusions
First, let’s talk about the cost of the devices. The Samsung Galaxy S24+ in the 12+256 GB version is offered at about 112 thousand rubles without discounts in retail, although it can be found for 75 thousand on marketplaces. The realme GT 6 in the 12+256 GB configuration is offered for 70 thousand rubles, but I have found it for 57 thousand. Savings can be made in both cases, but even so, the price difference is quite significant — Samsung is more expensive. Despite this, realme surpassed Samsung in some parameters: battery life, screen, and photography.
