Buy the Realme GT 8 Pro. That is the short answer to this iQOO 15 vs Realme GT 8 Pro comparison. On paper these two phones are twins: same Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, same 7,000mAh battery, same 2K display at 144Hz. The difference is the price tag, and the price tag is not close.
The iQOO 15 now sells at Rs 85,999 for 12GB and 256GB, per 91mobiles and Smartprix, and Rs 93,999 for 16GB and 512GB. The Realme GT 8 Pro sells at Rs 72,999 for the same 12GB and 256GB, per Smartprix and 91mobiles, and Rs 78,999 for 16GB and 512GB. That is a gap of Rs 13,000 at the base, and Rs 15,000 at the top end.
We have already had the Realme beat the OnePlus 15 and the iQOO beat the OnePlus 15. This closes the triangle with the same lesson: the phone that holds its launch price usually wins.
The price climb that changed the fight
The iQOO 15 launched in India at Rs 72,999, per Android Central and Smartprix. Then the price moved: Digit reports three separate hikes since launch, driven by the memory chip shortage, and Beebom’s timeline shows the jump to Rs 85,999. Smartprix notes a 9 percent rise in the last month alone.
Excuses do not change the maths. At launch, this comparison would have been a coin toss. At today’s listings, per 91mobiles and Gadgets Now, the iQOO costs Rs 13,000 more for the same chip and battery. That is the hole the iQOO has to climb out of, and it only partly manages it.
iQOO 15 vs Realme GT 8 Pro: the camera round
Cameras are where the Realme earns its keep. The GT 8 Pro carries a 50MP main camera, a 50MP ultrawide, and a 200MP periscope telephoto, 3x optical and up to 120x digital zoom, per 91mobiles and GadgetByte, with Ricoh GR tuning. That telephoto is the single most interesting camera in this price band. It turns distant subjects into real photos instead of crops.
The iQOO answers with three 50MP sensors, per Digit and Android Central: a Sony IMX921 main with stabilisation, a 3x periscope telephoto, and an ultrawide. In daylight it will please almost anyone. But balanced is the problem. Nothing about it changes a photo the way the Realme’s telephoto does, and 91mobiles scores the iQOO at 8.0 out of 10 against the Realme’s 8.3.
91mobiles flags the Realme’s primary camera as inconsistent, and Car India notes image quality falls off noticeably beyond 6x zoom. The telephoto is a star, not a miracle. Still, when two phones cost Rs 13,000 apart, the cheaper one having the more interesting camera is a hard fact to argue past. Camera winner: Realme, clearly.
The screen and the gaming chip
This is the iQOO’s round, won on the panel: a 6.85-inch Samsung M14 2K LTPO AMOLED display at 144Hz, per 91mobiles and Digit, with peak brightness of 6,000 nits. Android Central calls it among the best in its class.
The Realme panel is no slouch: a 6.79-inch display at 1440 by 3136 pixels and 144Hz, per Smartprix, rated 9 out of 10 by GadgetByte. Side by side, most buyers would struggle to tell them apart. The iQOO wins on the finer print, the Samsung M14 panel and higher peak brightness. A narrow win, felt on a bright day and forgotten indoors.
Gaming tilts the same way, also narrowly. The benchmark gap is a rounding error: 91mobiles records an AnTuTu score of 3,842,735 for the iQOO, while Smartprix records 3,847,213 for the Realme. What matters is the iQOO’s dedicated Q3 gaming chip, which Smartprix credits with smooth 144 frames per second in BGMI and Call of Duty. The Realme has no second chip doing the same job. Display and gaming winner: iQOO, narrowly, on both counts.
Same tank, different stamina
Both phones carry a 7,000mAh battery. That sentence looks like a tie. It is not. A battery’s size is only half the story. How the phone uses it is the other half.
The iQOO pairs its battery with 100W wired charging and 40W wireless charging, per Gadgets360 and Digit, with the charger in the box, per Smartprix. Android Central got a day and a half of heavy use out of it.
The Realme charges faster: 120W wired, 50 percent in 15 minutes per Gadgets Now, plus 50W wireless, per 91mobiles. But the same outlet calls its battery life disappointing despite the large capacity. The Realme wins the charging race and loses the endurance argument, the opposite of what the spec sheet implies. The round splits: endurance to the iQOO, charging to the Realme. A phone that refills in 40 minutes forgives a shorter day.
Software is the long game
Software is where the iQOO makes its strongest case for the extra money. It runs OriginOS 6 on Android 16, per Android Central and Smartprix, with five years of OS updates and seven years of security updates. Android Central notes OriginOS is much cleaner than the skins iQOO used to ship.
The Realme runs Realme UI 7 on Android 16, per Beebom and 91mobiles, with four years of OS updates and five years of security patches: one year shorter on both counts. One year of updates is not worth Rs 13,000 on its own, but it is worth something real if you keep a phone for four or five years. Software winner: iQOO, on longevity.
Who should buy which one
No fence-sitting. Price goes to the Realme, by Rs 13,000. Cameras go to the Realme, on the 200MP telephoto. Display goes to the iQOO, narrowly. Gaming goes to the iQOO, narrowly. Battery endurance goes to the iQOO, charging speed goes to the Realme. Software goes to the iQOO, on the update promise.
The overall winner is the Realme GT 8 Pro. The iQOO wins more rounds on paper, but rounds are not worth the same. The iQOO’s wins are all narrow: a slightly better panel, one extra year of updates. The Realme’s wins are the ones you feel every day: Rs 13,000 stays in your pocket, and the telephoto changes your photos.
Buy the Realme GT 8 Pro if you want the best value flagship in India right now, or if zoom photography matters to you.
Buy the iQOO 15 if you game every day and want the Q3 chip, or if you keep a phone for five years and want the longest update promise in the segment. Or find it on a genuine bank offer near Rs 76,000, where Digit says it has sold before: at that price the whole comparison flips. At today’s Rs 85,999 listing, per 91mobiles, it does not.
One last check before you pay for either: confirm the variant. If you want to see how the iQOO handled the other Rs 85,000 flagship, our OnePlus 15 vs iQOO 15 comparison has the full story. Our Realme GT 8 Pro vs OnePlus 15 comparison covers how the Realme beat that same OnePlus. And our Vivo X300 vs Realme GT 8 Pro comparison covers the small-phone alternative at Rs 75,999.