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Realme GT Neo 3 Audio test

OTHER AVAILABLE TESTS FOR THIS DEVICE

We put the Realme GT Neo 3 through our rigorous DXOMARK Audio test suite to measure its performance both at recording sound using its built-in microphones, and at playing audio back through its speakers.
In this review, we will break down how it fared in a variety of tests and several common use cases.

Overview


Key audio specifications include:

  • Two speakers: one bottom right side firing; 1  top center front firing
  • No Jack audio output
  • Dolby Atmos technology

Scoring

Sub-scores and attributes included in the calculations of the global score.


Realme GT Neo 3
118
audio
119
playback
112

158

117

149

136

162

117

162

108

157

114
recording
85

147

109

146

117

157

143

170

124

145

77

166

Playback

Pros

  • Decent midrange rendition
  • Artifacts fairly well under control

Cons

  • Tonal balance too focused on midrange, resulting in nasal sound
  • Poor overall performance

Recording

Pros

  • Good recording loudness
  • Good stereo wideness, even in portrait orientation
  • Excellent signal-to-noise ratio, thanks to drastic processing

Cons

  • Poor timbre performance overall, lack of consistency, with muffled and/or nasal tonal balance
  • Inaccurate localizability and distance rendition
  • Excessive processing results in compression, gating, phasing, and volume jumps

The Realme GT Neo 3 achieved a DXOMARK Audio score of 118, with a performance that was overall underwhelming in both playback and recording. Recording performance, in particular,  was marred with a multitude of artifacts that were caused by excessive processing.

While playback sound was almost free of artifacts and midrange was rendered decently, there was a pronounced lack of high-end and low-end extension, resulting in a nasal sound and overall poor playback performance.

When using the device to record sound, loudness was good, and a good wideness was rendered, even when holding the phone in portrait orientation while recording. Strong processing achieved an excellent signal-to-noise ratio but also resulted in a number of artifacts, including compression, gating, phasing, and volume jumps. Overall, the device would benefit from a fine-tuning of the processing algorithms. Timbre was also poor and lacked consistency. The tonal balance either sounded muffled or nasal or both. Overall, it’s difficult to recommend the Realme GT Neo 3 to any audio-centric smartphone user.

Test summary

About DXOMARK Audio tests: For scoring and analysis in our smartphone audio reviews, DXOMARK engineers perform a variety of objective tests and undertake more than 20 hours of perceptual evaluation under controlled lab conditions.
(For more details about our Playback protocol, click here; for more details about our Recording protocol, click here.)

The following section gathers key elements of our exhaustive tests and analyses performed in DXOMARK laboratories. Detailed performance evaluations under the form of reports are available upon request. Do not hesitate to contact us.

Playback

119

Realme GT Neo 3

163

Black Shark 5 Pro
How Audio Playback score is composed

DXOMARK engineers test playback through the smartphone speakers, whose performance is evaluated in our labs and in real-life conditions, using default apps and settings.

The GT Neo 3 did slightly better for playback than for recording, but still leaves quite some room for improvement. Timbre rendition through the internal speakers was quite unbalanced, with a narrow spectrum and clear emphasis on the midrange. Treble was dull and there was a severe lack of high-end extension as well as low-end extension and bass.

In terms of dynamics, the device performed on an average level. Attack rendition was correct, but the lack of bass affected envelope rendition, and punch was weak. The Realme speakers offered average wideness, and while localizability was correct, it was  quite hard to pinpoint the location of individual sound sources in the scene. Voices sounded slightly distant, even veiled on some occasions. The minimum volume step was slightly low, making it difficult to properly hear soft content, such as classical music. At the other end of the volume spectrum, the device was loud enough but not on the same level as the best in class.

Overall, few sound artifacts were noticeable, only some distortion and compression at high volume levels. While it was possible to accidentally cover the speakers with your hands while holding the phone normally, speaker occlusion did not impair the listening experience too much.

Listen to the tested smartphone’s playback performance in this comparison with some of its competitors:

Realme Realme GT Neo 3
Realme GT Neo2 5G
OnePlus 9
Recordings of the smartphones playing some of our music tracks at 60 LAeq in an anechoic environment by 2 microphones in A-B configuration, at 30 cm
Here is how the Realme GT Neo 3 performs in playback use cases compared to its competitors:
Playback use-cases scores

Timbre

112

Realme GT Neo 3

158

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Timbre score represents how well a phone reproduces sound across the audible tonal range and takes into account bass, midrange, treble, tonal balance, and volume dependency. It is the most important attribute for playback.

Music playback frequency response
A 1/12 octave frequency response graph, which measures the volume of each frequency emitted by the smartphone when playing a pure-sine wave in an anechoic environment.

Dynamics

117

Realme GT Neo 3

149

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Dynamics score measures the accuracy of changes in the energy level of sound sources, for example how precisely a bass note is reproduced or the impact sound from drums.


Spatial

136

Realme GT Neo 3

162

Black Shark 5 Pro

The sub-attributes for spatial tests include pinpointing a specific sound's location, its positional balance, distance, and wideness.


Volume

117

Realme GT Neo 3

162

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Volume score represents the overall loudness of a smartphone and how smoothly volume increases and decreases based on user input.

Here are a few sound pressure levels (SPL) measured when playing our sample recordings of hip-hop and classical music at maximum volume:
Hip-Hop Classical
Realme GT Neo 3 72.6 dBA 68.7 dBA
Realme GT Neo 2 5G 76.2 dBA 70.5 dBA
OnePlus 9 75.9 dBA 72.3 dBA
The following graph shows the gradual changes in volume going from minimum to maximum. We expect these changes to be consistent across the range, so that all volume steps correspond to users’ expectations:
Music volume consistency
This line graph shows the relative loudness of playback relative to the user selected volume step, measured at different volume steps with a correlated pink noise in an anechoic box recorded in axis at 0.20 meter.

Artifacts

108

Realme GT Neo 3

157

Asus ROG Phone 5

The Artifacts score measures the extent to which the sound is affected by various types of distortion. The higher the score, the less the disturbances in the sound are noticeable. Distortion can occur because of sound processing in the device and because of the quality of the speakers.

Playback Total Harmonic Distortion (Maximum Volume)
This graph shows the Total Harmonic Distortion and Noise over the hearable frequency range.
It represents the distortion and noise of the device playing our test signal (0 dB Fs, Sweep Sine in an anechoic box at 40 cm) at the device's maximum volume.

Recording

114

Realme GT Neo 3

157

Black Shark 5 Pro
How Audio Recording score is composed

DXOMARK engineers test recording by evaluating the recorded files on reference audio equipment. Those recordings are done in our labs and in real-life conditions, using default apps and settings.

If you are planning to use the Realme GT Neo 3 as a recording device, you might want to consider alternatives. Timbre was poor and too focused on the midrange, with recordings sounding muffled and nasal. Treble was faint and receded, and the lack of bass and low-end extension was especially noticeable in recordings at high sound pressure levels, such as concerts.

The Realme delivered an excellent signal-to-noise ratio in all test use cases, but strong compression and strong noise-reduction processing resulted in a very unreliable envelope rendition, with dull attacks and plosives as well as unrealistic sustain. Stereo wideness was pretty good in recordings, but the positions of sound sources in the scene were unstable and hard to locate. On the plus side, recording loudness was overall pretty good.

Some artifacts were noticeable in GT Neo 3 recordings. Both compression and distortion were overall fairly moderate but became more intrusive at high volume levels. Our testers also found it easy to accidentally occlude the microphones with their fingers. Finger noises were quite noticeable in recorded sound as well. Background performance was overall poor, with a muffled sound and resonant sonority.

Here is how the Realme GT Neo 3 performs in recording use cases compared to its competitors:

Recording use-cases scores

Timbre

85

Realme GT Neo 3

147

Honor Magic3 Pro+

The Timbre score represents how well a phone captures sounds across the audible tonal range and takes into account bass, midrange, treble, and tonal balance. It is the most important attribute for recording.

Life video frequency response
A 1/12 octave frequency response graph, which measures the volume of each frequency captured by the smartphone when recording a pure-sine wave in an anechoic environment.

Dynamics

109

Realme GT Neo 3

146

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Dynamics score measures the accuracy of changes in the energy level of sound sources, for example how precisely a voice's plosives (the p's, t's and k's, for example) are reproduced. The score also considers the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), for example how loud the main voice is compared to the background noise.


Spatial

117

Realme GT Neo 3

157

Asus ROG Phone 5

The sub-attributes for spatial tests include pinpointing a specific sound's location, its positional balance, distance, and wideness on the recorded audio files.

Recording directivity
Directivity graph of the smartphone when recording test signals using the camera app, with the main camera. It represents the acoustic energy (in dB) over the angle of incidence of the sound source. (Normalized to the angle 0°, in front of the device.)

Volume

143

Realme GT Neo 3

170

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Volume score represents how loud audio is normalized on the recorded files and the how the device handles loud environments, such as electronic concerts, when recording.

Here are the sound levels recorded in the audio and video files, measured in LUFS (Loudness Unit Full Scale); as a reference, we expect loudness levels to be above -24 LUFS for recorded content:
Meeting Life Video Selfie Video Memo
Realme GT Neo 3 -21.3 LUFS -20.2 LUFS -18.3 LUFS -18.4 LUFS
Realme GT Neo 2 5G -25.2 LUFS -22.9 LUFS -21.8 LUFS -22.2 LUFS
OnePlus 9 -29.5 LUFS -20.6 LUFS -19.4 LUFS -19.4 LUFS

Artifacts

124

Realme GT Neo 3

145

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Artifacts score measures the extent to which the recorded sounds are affected by various types of distortions. The higher the score, the less the disturbances in the sound are noticeable. Distortions can occur because of sound processing in the device and the quality of the microphones, as well as user handling, such as how the phone is held.

In this audio comparison, you can listen to the way this smartphone handles wind noise relative to its competitors:

Recordings of a voice sample with light background noise, facing a turbulent wind of 5 m/s

Background

77

Realme GT Neo 3

166

Black Shark 5 Pro

Background evaluates how natural the various sounds around a voice blend into the video recording file. For example, when recording a speech at an event, the background should not interfere with the main voice, yet it should provide some context of the surroundings.

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