We're heading toward the end of 2023, and you may think that all smartphone launches are now behind us, but a couple of Chinese companies have taken the challenge to prove you wrong! We're expecting the official reveal of the Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro and the Honor 100 series, as well as the subject of today's article, the Realme GT5 Pro.
Now, those of you who follow the Chinese smartphone market closely already know that the vanilla GT5 version went official in the Far East on September 4, but since then Realme has been teasing the Pro model as an industry-changing device. Today, on its official Weibo page, Realme lifted a part of that curtain, showing some of the camera capabilities of the Realme GT5 Pro. And it seems that the Galaxy S24 Ultra now has a real competitor on the horizon. Will the S24 Ultra Super Zoom survive this upcoming battle?
Let's see what we extracted from this little, bizarre camera announcement.
Hail the new telephoto king?
The main talking point of the announcement was the periscope telephoto camera of the GT5 Pro. It features an IMX890 sensor made by Sony with a 1/1.56 size and a 50MP resolution, coupled with QBC (Quad Bayer coding where four adjacent pixels capture one color only) and pixel 4-1 pixel binning on top of that. This sensor was unveiled a year ago as a capable upper-midrange solution, primarily for the main camera of upper-midrangers and even some flagships, such as the OnePlus 11.
It's worth noting that using QBC to capture a single color with four pixels, coupled with pixel-binning, does improve low-light sensitivity and has the potential to produce great low-light shots. It's a great base platform.
So, what's different? Realme says that this is the first instance where this large-bottom sensor has been used in a periscope telephoto camera. The telephoto of the Realme GT5 Pro supports 3x optical zoom, 6x lossless zoom, and up to 120x Super Zoom. Putting such a large sensor in a periscope camera has a price, literally, and according to Realme, it's the most expensive periscope zoom camera in a smartphone.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 + IMX890 = ?
The other part of the equation is, of course, the latest silicon from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Xiaomi already launched its 14 series in China, sporting the aforementioned processor, but we still don't know much about the ISP capabilities of the new chip.
Realme teases a new “super light and shadow engine” that utilizes the full capabilities of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, from what we can deduce out of the Chinese translation, it's an enhanced HDR mode. The new silicon can process a single image 44% faster than the previous model, too.
The Realme GT5 Pro supports DOL-HDR technology at the telephoto end for the first time. This could lead to some decent telephoto images with nice dynamic range and also better night telephoto pictures. The cherry on top is the collaboration of Realme with ArcSoft, an AI firm specializing in image processing, so there's also that.
Realme GT5 Pro rumored specs
Specs
Realme GT5 Pro
Size and Weight
160.84 x 78.09 x 7.65mm, 240g
Display
6.78" OLED, 144Hz
Processor
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
RAM, Storage and Price
16/256GB
Software
Android 14 with Realme UI on top
Cameras
50MP main camera (Sony’s LYT-T808) 50MP telephoto (Sony IMX890), 3x optical, 6x lossless, 120x Super Zoom
32MP selfie camera
Battery Size
5,400 mAh
Charging Speeds
100W wired 50W wireless
Conclusion and afterthoughts
The Realme GT5 Pro will launch in China in the following days, and we'll know for sure how capable its telephoto camera really is when we snap some samples with it. We have to be healtly skeptics, as many times phones from the Far East rely on big claims and numbers in the specs sheet, while the end result is not that spectacular.
That being said, it will be very interesting to see such a big sensor with QBC tech and pixel-binning work under a telephoto lens.
Mariyan, a tech enthusiast with a background in Nuclear Physics and Journalism, brings a unique perspective to PhoneArena. His childhood curiosity for gadgets evolved into a professional passion for technology, leading him to the role of Editor-in-Chief at PCWorld Bulgaria before joining PhoneArena. Mariyan's interests range from mainstream Android and iPhone debates to fringe technologies like graphene batteries and nanotechnology. Off-duty, he enjoys playing his electric guitar, practicing Japanese, and revisiting his love for video games and Haruki Murakami's works.
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