Regardless of whether you’re a Game of Thrones fan or not, this limited edition phone is something special. From the packaging itself to the detail in the design, and even some color-changing magic, it has obviously been lovingly created, and is going to make GoT devotees very happy indeed.
The phone’s design
Dragon claws and all
The Game Of Thrones limited edition is based on the Realme 15 Pro, and we’ll come back to the specs in a while. First, let’s talk about the packaging. It comes in a solid, fake wood style chest which, when opened, has a pop-up throne ready to house the phone.
Open up the side panels and you’ll find the phone, a charger, cable, and case, plus a special SIM removal tool, and a few postcards and stickers. A real treat is a seemingly blank, rolled up parchment. As you unroll it, secret text appears on the surface. It not only looks great, but it feels great with a thick, grainy texture too.
The phone has a gold chassis and black leather rear panel, with a 3D engraved Seal of Power of House Targaryen on the lower third. It shimmers and shines in the light. The camera module is held up by a pair of dragon’s claws, and the rear of the glass panel has an intricate decorative design. It’s very different to the usual Realme 15 Pro, and it looks truly unique.
A phone in hot water
Black to red
If you’ve got some very hot water handy, and dunk Realme’s limited edition Game of Thrones smartphone into it, it changes color. How hot? A fiery 44-degrees centigrade, or 112 degrees Fahrenheit, so watch your hands when you do it. Dipping it in the water is made possible by the Realme 15 Pro’s IP68 and IP69 dust and water resistance rating.
How does it look? Put the phone under the hot tap and sure enough, the leather rear panel goes from black to red. It’s fine, but unfortunately it doesn’t stay red for very long and changes back to black almost immediately. I’m not sure how often you’ll be in the position to have the phone change color for any length of time, outside of taking it in the bath with you.
A visual feature you’ll see and use more is a glowing ring, called the Pulse Light, around the central rear camera. It lights up when the phone is on charge, for notifications, and even as a countdown timer for the camera.
Also, in addition to the Fire and Blood inscription at the bottom of the elaborate camera module, there are some fine markings around the camera rings, with tiny script saying Winter is Coming, and Hear me Roar.
Software and hardware
Custom themes and more
It wouldn’t be an official license tie-in without special wallpaper and a custom theme, would it? Sure enough, there’s some cool animated wallpaper, flashy gold custom icons, a choice of two themes based around fire and ice, and even a specially designed in-display fingerprint sensor icon too.
The Realme 15 Pro is otherwise a solid mid-range phone. It has a 6.9-inch screen with a 144Hz refresh rate, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 processor, either 8GB or 12GB of RAM, and a maximum of 512GB of storage space.
There’s a pair of 50-megapixel cameras on the back, taking care of main and wide-angle photos, with features including optical image stabilization. The front camera also has 50 megapixels. Inside the phone is a massive 7,000mAh battery with 80W wired charging.
How many will be released?
Definitely limited
Realme will produce 5,000 Realme 15 Pro Game of Thrones limited editions, but has not confirmed how much they will cost at the time of writing. The regular Realme 15 Pro costs around $400, so expect it to be a little more than this.
The Realme 15 Pro was released in July in several regions including India, but it’s highly unlikely it’ll be officially released in the U.S., but that shouldn’t stop keen Game of Thrones fans trying to import one.
The Game of Thrones limited edition joins several other interesting special phones released over the past year or so, including HMD’s Barbie phone, Poco’s Iron Man Edition X7 Pro, and Tecno’s Transformers Spark 30 Pro.
