Realme is a different company now. Now Realme 2 Pro has been launched about Realme 2 ,review) was told during the launch itself. The use of the name ‘Pro’ in the Realme 2 Pro smartphone itself indicates the powerful hardware of this smartphone. Through this phone the company wants to attract students and youth. On paper, the handset looks very powerful. How is its performance in the real world? Let us know….
Realme 2 Pro design
Realme 2 Pro feels bigger in hands. We found it difficult to use this phone with one hand, but it is not very heavy. The thickness of 8.5 millimeters would be considered wide, but the curved polycarbonate edges allow for good grip. There are several layers of lamination on the back of the phone, which gives the feeling of it being a glass panel. In the language of Realme, it is called “Crystal-like dewdrop” effect. Fingerprints easily fall on it.
The phone comes with a 6.3-inch full-HD+ display with Gorilla Glass 3 protection. The bezels all around are very slim. The edges feel a little rough when touched with hands, especially with the pre-supplied screen protector. The ‘dewdrop’ notch design is slowly coming into trend. It consumes very little space and looks good too. Despite having less space, there is room for the front camera. There is no notification LED. The earpiece is just above the front camera. The sensors are on the right.
The power and volume buttons are on different sides of the phone. Fingers do not face any problem in reaching these. The SIM tray has separate slots for two nano SIMs and a microSD card (up to 256 GB). The phone supports dual 4G VoLTE. But due to getting a Vietnamese unit for review, it could not be tested. Dual 4G worked when using two Airtel SIMs. But there was no toggle for VoLTE. Realme says that the retail unit will have support for dual 4G VoLTE.
There is a speaker grill, micro-USB port and 3.5mm headphone socket at the bottom. Holding the phone in landscape mode increases the chances of the speaker being blocked. You can avoid this by flipping the phone to the other side. The fingerprint sensor is on the back. It works fast. The dual camera module at the rear was protruding from the surface. But there were no scratch marks on its glass during use. The retail box will contain 10 watt charger, micro-USB cable, SIM ejector tool, silicone cover and instruction manual.
Realme 2 Pro specifications and software
The specifications of Realme 2 Pro are very powerful. Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor is used in all variants which is a powerful octa-core chipset. This chipset is in the price range of less than Rs 20,000 Xiaomi Mi A2 ,review) And Vivo V9 Pro Get in. The benchmark scores also justify its powerful specifications.
There are three variants of the phone based on RAM and storage – 4 GB RAM with 64 GB storage, 6 GB RAM with 64 GB storage and 8 GB RAM with 128 GB storage. It does not have FM radio or NFC support. The top variant of Realme 2 Pro is the first phone to come with 8 GB RAM in this price range. Other specifications include Bluetooth 5, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac, USB-OTG, gyroscope, ambient light sensor, proximity sensor, compass, and accelerometer. It does not have FM radio or NFC support.
Realme 2 Pro runs on ColorOS 5.2 based on Android 8.1 Oreo. The security patch of September was also present in the phone. Even the latest version of ColorOS has a two-step process for dismissing notifications, which is annoying. Apart from this, the OS is quite polished and the user gets many customization options with gestures. Our review unit was the Vietnamese model. It had many Vietnamese apps pre-installed. Not only will these apps not be available in retail units sold in India, but nothing can be said about whether any other apps will already be there or not.
Apart from fingerprint sensor, the phone also has face unlock. It identifies you quickly. It works only when the eyes are open, which means it is very secure. Screen lights up to help in low light. If you want, you can also use face recognition to lock apps and private spaces. This will definitely unlock the phone.
Realme 2 Pro performance, camera and battery life
We used Realme 2 Pro for several days. To be honest, we have no complaints. Barring a few shortcomings of ColorOS, the UI is generally smooth. We never experienced any slowdown while multitasking or loading games with powerful graphics. The phone doesn’t get too hot either. The area around the fingerprint sensor gets a little warm, that too after playing games or using the camera for a long time. Call quality is good and call recording is also built into the dialer app.
Realme 2 Pro has a 16-megapixel primary camera on the back which has F/1.7 aperture. It captures photos with detail in daylight. We got to see good dynamic range in landscape shots. Even small objects came out with great detail and accurate colors. The wide aperture brings a good Bokeh effect in close up shots. We had trouble getting clear shots of moving objects, but apart from that the autofocus worked quickly.
Tap to view Realme 2 Pro camera samples in full size
The secondary 2 megapixel sensor does not do any work in the image capture process. Its function is to assess depth. Photos look good in portrait mode. Edge detection is clear. The sharpness of the object remains clear even in artificial lightning. You have several lightning modes to choose from that provide great effects. Photos appear a bit grainy in low light. Details are also reduced, especially in landscape shots. Sharpness is less in close-up shots. But overall the photos are usable.
Videos of 1080 pixels are of good quality. There is electronic image stabilization which works fine. There is also support for 4K recording. The quality is very average and there is no stabilization. Videos shot in low light come out grainy.
Realme has also provided a 16 megapixel front camera. It comes with Bokeh effect, HDR and screen flash. Image quality is fine. Details could have been a little better. Screen flash is very effective. But it messes up your skin tone. There is also a stickers shooting mode with the help of which you will be able to apply different AR stickers on selfies or on the faces of others.
The 3500 mAh battery easily lasted a whole day. It lasted 10 hours and 22 minutes in our video loop test, which is slightly better than average. The phone does not support fast charging. But the charger provided with the phone charged the battery 64 percent in one hour. It took about 2 hours 20 minutes to get from zero to full charge.
our decision
Realme 2 Pro lives up to its claim of being a powerful phone. We think it will appeal to many people, especially its price. The 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage variant of the phone is priced at Rs 18,990. If seen, it seems to have more appeal than Mi A2 or Vivo V9 Pro. Both these phones come with Snapdragon 660 processor. The starting variant of the phone is Rs 13,990. it Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro ,review, Nokia 6.1 Plus, Motorola One Power, Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 6 GB RAM variant and realme 1 ,review) will challenge the 6 GB RAM variant of.
The sharp and vivid display, good build quality, solid app and gaming performance go in favor of the Realme 2 Pro. Low-light photography and video performance could be better. We wish Realme (and Oppo) did away with the annoying process of dismissing notifications.
Well, if you are looking for an all-round phone in the price segment of Rs 20,000 then this is a great option.