Less than a week ago, we got the first smartphone powered by the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 SOC, the Redmi Note 12 Turbo. Today, Realme GT Neo 5 SE was launched in China, and this is the company’s reply to the Note 12 Turbo since the same chip powers the GT Neo 5 SE. The pricing is almost the same since the GT Neo 5 SE starts at ¥2,099, ¥100 higher than the starting price of the Redmi Note 12 Turbo.
The Realme GT Neo 5 SE inherits the design language of the Realme GT Neo 5, except for that transparent rear design & the RGB lights. The phone has a similar camera layout which includes two big circles & three camera sensors. There are curved sides and a flat display with a hole punch cutout in the center.
The phone has a stereo speaker setup with Dolby Atmos support, an under-display fingerprint sensor, an X-axis linear motor, and an IR blaster. The phone, however, lacks a 3.5mm headphone jack which is present on Redmi Note 12 Turbo. But the Note 12 Turbo is not perfect, too, since, unlike the GT Neo 5 SE, it does not have an under-display fingerprint sensor.
The main USP of this phone is its chipset. The Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 is an underclocked version of the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, which is quite powerful. This chip scores over one million AnTuTu points, which shows its power. Realme paired this chipset with the LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 3.1 storage, so the phone has faster RAM than the Note 12 Turbo (LPDDR5).
The display is a 6.74-inch 144Hz OLED with a 1.5K resolution (2772 x 1240 pixels), 1400 nits peak brightness, and 10-bit color depth. The battery size is 5,500mAh, and the phone supports 100W fast charging.
Finally, the cameras are pretty average on paper. Three cameras on the back include a 64MP primary sensor without OIS, an 8MP ultrawide & a 2MP macro. The selfie shooter has a 16MP camera.
Android 13 runs out of the box with Realme UI 4.0.
Realme GT Neo 5 SE comes in two colors & here is the pricing for the Chinese market –
- 8GB + 256GB – ¥2099 (~$305)
- 12GB + 256GB – ¥2299 (~$334)
- 12GB + 512GB – ¥2399 (~$349)
- 16GB + 1TB – ¥2799 (~$407)
Comparing Redmi Note 12 Turbo & the GT Neo 5 SE, we see that both phones have pros and cons. Speaking of pros, the Note 12 Turbo has a 3.5mm jack, OIS for the primary camera, and a 12-bit display. The Realme GT Neo 5 SE has a higher resolution display with a higher refresh rate, a larger battery, faster charging, an under-display fingerprint sensor, and faster RAM.
As for the cons, Redmi Note 12 Turbo has a side-mounted fingerprint sensor and a slower RAM (than GT Neo 5 SE). The GT Neo 5 SE has no OIS support, no 3.5mm headphone jack, and costs ¥100 more than the Note 12 Turbo.