So, this POCO F3 has gone against many smartphones in my comparison videos, where it went against the Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro, the POCO X3 GT, the Xiaomi 11T, and the Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE.
POCO F3 vs Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE – https://youtu.be/0CdLUs8yzQo
POCO F3 vs Xiaomi 11T – https://youtu.be/mUXpVBpRIvU
POCO F3 vs POCO X3 GT – https://youtu.be/oE-ZoZlfl_s
POCO F3 vs Mi 10T Pro – https://youtu.be/1QR7uGCrSRs
And while there was a very close winner of each category, overall my pick was always the POCO F3.
So now, in my typical Adam Lobo TV fashion, here is my in-depth comparison to help you make a purchase decision between the POCO F3 against the Realme GT NEO 2 since it was another of your requests on my YouTube Community tab.
Hardware
Starting from the phone’s hardware, in terms of the chipset the POCO F3 comes with the Snapdragon 870 chipset, a 7nm processor and the Realme GT NEO 2 comes with the same Snapdragon 870 chipset, and yes, both phones are 5G phones.
Then when it comes to the phone’s build quality, and using both phones daily, both phones felt like they were siblings. Both feel nice to hold, it has a perfect thin design and the right form factor, the Realme is just a tad bit heavier than the POCO but not too extreme of a difference.
But of course, the decision-making process will also really come down to the rear finish as the Realme GT NEO 2 has this very striking green color, which kind of reminds me of the BMW M4 color. Or if you rather have something that is more on a lower profile, take a look at the POCO F3.
Now judging on my whole studio, my obvious pick would be the POCO F3 because I just love white, but I have to say that I liked the out of the ordinary color that Realme has gone with this phone.
You will find the camera arrays on both phones placed at the top left, with a rather medium-sized camera bump, so expect both phones to wobble if you type the phone on a surface.
As for the ports and buttons, the arrangements below of the phones are the same, and both phones have a dual SIM card slot, with no MicroSD card slot expansion option.
Then the power button and the volume rockers are on the right for the POCO F3, which I prefer compared to having the volume rockers on the other side, like how it was on the Realme GT NEO 2, as simple tasks like taking a selfie photo or a video are surely easier to control within my thumb.
Yes, this is a minor thing, but it does make a difference if you take lots of photos or videos with a single hand.
Then looking on top, while the POCO has a dedicated speaker over here as a placement for the secondary speaker, the Realme has the other speaker on the earpiece area.
And when it comes to the unlocking speed for both phones, although the POCO F3 is using the side fingerprint sensor which would obviously unlock faster, the Realme GT NEO 2 unlocks very quickly too even though it has an in-display fingerprint sensor, which I prefer over the button ones, since its just more “current” in the smartphone industry.
Display
Looking at the displays, both had a stunning AMOLED display. The POCO F3 has a tad bit of a larger screen which is a 6.67-inch display compared to a 6.52-inch on the Realme GT NEO 2.
Both have the same screen 1080 x 2400 pixel resolution and I love how there is the Auto Select refresh rate setting, in order for the phone to adapt to the screen. And both have the same peak brightness of a massive 1300 nits.
Now, there is no doubt that both phones have a very good screen and the only thing I have noticed is that if you compare both phones side to side, the POCO F3 has a little more saturation on the videos on YouTube, even with both displays set at the Vivid settings.
Then when it comes to watching videos on Netflix, here is where I found it weird – according to the Netflix app, there is HDR playback on the POCO F3 and none on the Realme GT NEO 2 even when both displays has the same HDR10 capabilities so hopefully, there is a software update on Netflix to fix this.
But another funny thing is that, when I played the same movie side by side, the Realme GT NEO 2 seems to be brighter by default, and you can even increase the brightness even more compared to the slightly dimmed video even when it was increased to the highest brightness in the app.
Both phones are at Widevine L1 and Full HD Playback Resolution, which was sweet but as seen in the HDR capabilities, there is none on the Realme GT NEO 2.
Now of course, since this is a comparison video, I had to tell you all that I found when comparing each but I have stress to you that both phone’s screens are really nice, and you won’t go wrong if you go with either.
Cameras
Next, on to the phone’s cameras, the POCO F3’s rear camera comes with a 48-megapixel f 1.8 aperture lens, an 8-megapixel f 2.2 ultrawide lens, and a 5-megapixel f 2.4 macro lens.
Then as for Realme GT NEO 2, it has a bigger 64-megapixel f1.8 aperture lens for the main, an 8-megapixel f 2.3 ultrawide lens, and a 2-megapixel f 2.4 macro lens.
Then as for the front cameras, the POCO has a 20-megapixel f 2.5 lens but the Realme GT NEO 2 has a 16-megapixel F2.5 lens
Now just so y’all know that since the current monsoon weather is still going on here in Malaysia, so the images are not at the best of the outdoor lighting especially the skies are pretty gloomy in certain areas, but I guess that’s a great way to see how both perform right?
Do check out my full YouTube video for more photo samples!
High Megapixel Mode
Starting from the High Megapixel Mode, although the specs sheet shows that the Realme has a bigger megapixel count, as seen on these images, the image quality was pretty much the same, even if you zoom in really close.
However, I do prefer how the images looked on the Realme as the darker black levels were more prominent compared to a more washed-out image on the POCO F3.
Main Lens
Then the images on the Main lens were a little brighter on the Realme as this could be due to the higher megapixel sensor count and while from afar it does look very similar but if you REALLY pixel peep, there are areas of the shadows which had more details on the Realme GT NEO 2.
And because there is more saturation in the image on the Realme, the images do look nicer straight out of the camera compared to a more washed-out image on the POCO F3.
Zoom
Then as for zooming features, since there is no dedicated telephoto lens, I tested out the 5x zoom image where the quality remains the same but the similar better contrast levels on the Realme, but the quality of the 10x zoom on the Realme was way better.
Portrait Mode
As for the portrait mode, edge detection on the Realme was flawless where in this image you can see that the POCO didn’t do a great job on the top edge of Lehud’s cap.
But most of the time it was fine and once again, the colors on the Realme image were more vibrant, straight out of the camera.
The background details on the Realme were also better on this close-up image, where you can see better details on the sky area compared to the POCO F3, which was blown out
And where the POCO F3 totally failed was during a backlit situation, where the subject was totally underexposed as the phone was trying to get more dynamic range on the background instead of the subject, where the Realme did a better job over here.
Ultrawide Lens
As For the ultrawide lens, both images produced on the phone were identical to each other, with the same amount of great quality, focal length with no barrel distortion on the edges, but there were times where the image did have a little more saturation on the Realme image.
Macro Mode
Looking at the Macro Mode shots then, both had easier focusing during this mode.
On the Realme GT NEO 2, instead of a Macro mode it is called Ultra Macro Mode where it was just Macro Mode on the POCO F3.
Now, names aside, overall the shots on the POCO F3 was better as it had an overall better image quality due to the higher megapixel count, the images were also sharper and more focused in the middle of the image with the sides being more blurred and colors were more accurate on the POCO F3.
So if you love taking Macro shots, the POCO F3 would be a better choice for you, which I don’t use it anyways.
Night Mode – Ultrawide
As for the night mode on the ultrawide lens, both had similar results with very same colors too but the overall glare coming from the nights were a bit more spread out on the POCO, making it a less of a nicer image compared to the Realme.
Night Mode – Main Lens
Then as for the main lenses, the images were processed better on the Realme as it had even better detail overall, and as seen in this first image, the lights had a sort of a glare on the POCO F3 compared to a sharper image on the Realme GT NEO 2. And the color accuracy of the skies are even better at night on the Realme GT NEO 2.
Regular Selfie
Next, looking at the selfie shots, as for the regular selfie mode, while both images looked great, I do prefer the more natural skin tones that the POCO F3 produced.
But the dynamic range, especially for the background area was better on the Realme as seen at the area of the cloud on this second image.
Portrait Selfie
Then as for the portrait selfie, the edge detection on the POCO is just a little bit better than the Realme image and the overall saturation was also nicer. Now this makes me wonder why didn’t POCO do the same image processing for the rear camera instead as it surely looks better.
Video Recording
Then as for video recording, the POCO F3 maximizes at 4k 30 frames per second but the Realme GT NEO 2 can go up to 60 frames per second at 4k resolution.
The quality of the video was great on both and the results were the same as the pictures where the video footage on the Realme was a bit more vibrant overall and the dynamic range of the skies was a bit better on the Realme as well, and the image Stabilization for both was really good.
Do check out my full YouTube video for the video recording samples!
Ultra-wide lens for video
Then the footage for the ultrawide lens for both phones maxes out at 1080p 30 fps but once again you can go up to 60 fps on the Realme, where the video quality was still good, with similar dynamic range and the Image Stabilization was really great over here as well.
Front Video Specs
As for the front video recording, here is where things once again get weird, because now the POCO can record up to 60 fps at 1080p where the Realme goes up to 30 fps.
It is almost like POCO is saying that their front camera is more important than the rear?
While image stabilization was better on the POCO F3, that is because by default there the stabilization is turned off, so you need to turn it on, for this first footage it was turned off. But image stabilization aside, the overall video footage, from the skin tones to the overall dynamic range was still better on the POCO F3.
So let me know – Do you think the POCO F3 or the Realme GT NEO 2 performed better in every aspect of the cameras? Tricky right? Let me know what you think in the comments section below.
Audio
In terms of both of the phone’s speakers, both have dual speakers, where as mentioned, the POCO F3 has the secondary speaker on top of the phone compared to it coming out from the earpiece area on the Realme GT NEO 2.
In terms of the loudness level, the POCO was not only louder at 95.5 dB compared to the Realme which was at 95.3 dB but also the audio quality was better on POCO F3 as it had more bass in the speakers. Do check out the sound test in my YouTube video!
Battery
As for the battery specs, the POCO F3 comes with a 4520 milliamps of battery, whereas the Realme GT NEO 2 comes with a bigger 5000 milliamps of battery.
So does the size matter in this case?
Oh yes it does! Because the Realme GT NEO 2 gave me up to a massive 10 hours and 22 minutes of screen-on time with Dark Mode turned on when I was at 10% battery compared to 7 hours on the POCO F3 with the same settings.
However, the Realme GT NEO 2 is better on a faster charging up to 65 watts compared to 33 watts on the POCO F3, which got me from 0 to 100 percent in a little more than 30 minutes, whereas the POCO F3 got me just close to half at that same time.
But, let me know if you were to choose which do you prefer? Fast charging or more screen-on time?
Software
So the current software version that I was at during this review for the POCO F3 is at MIUI 12.5.7 with the POCO Skin of course
and the Realme GT NEO 2 was at the realme UI version 2.0.
By default, both of the icons were something that I liked, which had rounded corners compared to the squared ones that you would get on a typical Xiaomi device or some other smartphones.
While yes I didn’t have any issues using both phones daily, but if I REALLY had to choose between both, I prefer the realme UI way much more, and here is why.
Firstly, it is the menu system, I still prefer how straightforward it is. For example, if I want to set the auto screen off duration, naturally you’d find that on the display settings, and that’s how it is on the realme UI but for the POCO, you will need to find those settings on the Always On Display & Lock Screen Menu in order to access it.
And I also love how there are more flexible options on the realme UI like adjusting the screen refresh rate on several settings as mentioned earlier.
There are cool shortcuts like pressing the power button and the top volume rocker to quickly change the phone to vibrate mode for messages and phone calls compared to typically going on the Control Center.
Then there is the software RAM expansion that can go up to an additional 7GB and there are other smaller adjustments like activating the GT mode to increase the phone’s performance, which I never came to a point of needing to use, but it’s nice that there is an option.
And finally whether or not it is multitasking or just playing games, there was never a point of time where the phone overheated too and speaking of playing games, that brings me to my next topic, which is gaming!
Gaming
As for Gaming, as usual, I started out with Genshin Impact on the POCO F3, and the previous software updates has always been a great help when it comes to the overall thermals when playing games for a long time, but there was no significant differences between the previous update and now.
So as to how it was before, the game ran very smoothly without any lags or issues at Medium Settings, 60 fps and motion blur turned off.
And it did get just a bit warm but not hot to the touch about 20 minutes into the game. The performance during the Normal or the Ultimate animation commands was really stable when performing these commands.
As for PUBG Mobile, the setting was at UHD on the Graphics, and Frame Rate was at Ultra, with no battery drain or heating issues when playing games continuously close to half an hour or more.
Next, looking at the Realme GT NEO 2 on Genshin Impact, the overall settings were the same at Medium Setting, 60 fps, and Motion Blur turned off.
Where the overall animation feels fluid and smooth and I was really surprised by the great battery performance as the battery barely moved from 88% to 81% with nonstop gaming of 30 mins on the game.
The overall thermals were a tad bit better than the POCO F3 and gaming on the phone also felt very good in the hands too.
Then as for PUBG Mobile, the playing experience was identical to the POCO F3 with the exact settings, once again the overall thermals and battery drain were at their minimal and the game controls during gameplay were also really comfortable in the hands.
So overall, when it comes to gaming perspective, I would give the edge to the Realme GT NEO 2 even though both performed pretty similar when it comes to the gaming performance.
Conclusion
So in conclusion, this is seriously a hard one to choose compared to other comparisons I did with the POCO F3 because the design and using the phone daily was similar so was both of the phone’s screen.
Gaming on both was still nice and battery performance was also very good for both but Realme would beat it from a charging perspective obviously.
However, the camera department was a little tricky as the overall rear main cameras for the Realme are more appealing BUT the POCO F3’s front image and video beat it instead.
As of the making of this video, the POCO F3 is priced at RM1,699 for the 8 gigabytes of RAM and 256 gigabytes of storage and the Realme GT Neo2 retails at RM2,099 but a higher 12 gigabytes of RAM but the same storage variant.
So yes, this does come down to what you really need on your smartphone based on all the comparisons that I have done in this review. So with all of this, do let me know which would you choose in the comments section below.
Speaking of comparison videos, as y’all know, I have done tons of comparison videos with the POCO F3, so let me know if it is about time that the POCO F3 retires or if there are any other smartphones that you would like to compare with.
Thanks for stopping by!