MANILA - The realme GT Neo 3 has entered the ultracompetitive midrange smartphone market with almost all guns blazing. This fast, and fast-charging phone can slug it out with the best in this market segment even sans the coveted Snapdragon chipset.

The first thing one will notice about this smartphone is the “racing stripes” on the back. Realme said the racing stripes were inspired by the Ford GT40 that beat a Ferrari for the first time at Le Mans back in the 1960’s.

With a moniker that uses motorsports’ “GT” this gadget obviously has speed ambitions, and for the most part the phone delivers.

Besides the stripes, the main camera module at the back is also eye-catching with its oversized main lens.

I thought that the back was made of plastic, but realme says it’s actually glass with a matte finish. This design reduces fingerprints, but it may also make the phone feel less than premium to some users.

Up front is a 6.7-inch screen with a punch hole at the top housing the selfie camera.

The GT Neo 3’s display can hang with the best of the midrangers: OLED, 1080 x 2412 pixel resolution for a 394 ppi density, 120Hz refresh rate, and HDR10+ support.

Colors are bright and vibrant, details are sharp, and animations are fluid.

There is also an in-display fingerprint scanner, which in my weeks of testing has worked without any issues. Face recognition is also fast.

Our test unit also came with 8 GB of memory, 256 GB of storage, and the Mediatek Dimensity 8100 chipset.

While many midrange phones opt for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 700 series or even the 8 series, realme chose the lesser-known Dimensity 8100 which is a chip that’s designed for more affordable flagships, and it actually pays off.

Gamers won’t be disappointed with this phone. It can pretty much handle any game you throw at it.

Some reviewers even used a thermal scanner (the same kind security guards point at your forehead before allowing you to enter establishments) to show that the Dimensity chip doesn’t heat up as much as SD chips under similar loads. This means you won’t be scorching your fingers here when doing heavy gaming.

The stereo speakers are adequate. It would have been nice though if the phone also included a headphone jack, but a lot phones no longer offer that option in the midrange and flagship segments.

The phone has a triple camera setup with a 50MP Sony IMX766 OIS main camera, an 8MP ultrawide camera and a 2MP macro shooter.

The main camera does a decent job in daytime photography. The 2X zoom and 0.6X wide are adequate for most shooting needs. However, the phone's camera system seems tweaked to favor contrast over detail. There's noticeable clipping in the highlights and shadows. Night shots could also be better.

Meanwhile, it can shoot video at up to 4K and 60fps, and the optical image stabilization helps keep footage nice.

The selfie cam is also pretty good, with good detail and dynamic range even when shooting in “against the light” conditions.

Powering all of this is a 5000 mAh battery, with an 80W charger that can fully juice up the phone in just 38 minutes, according to realme.

Noticeably lacking is a water resistance rating, which means you should probably be careful not to get this wet.

The realme GT Neo 3 retails for P29,999 so it's clearly aiming to be a top-tier midranger. While it bests other contenders in this segment in several aspects, it's just OK in terms of photography.

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