Realme GT 2 Pro Review: A Grand Experience

Name: Realme GT 2 Pro
Item: Realme GT 2 Pro
Author: Priya Kumari

Realme GT 2 Pro, the first attempt of the company to enter into a premium segment this year, shows a lot of potential on paper. To know if it is worth the amount it is being offered at, read the full review here.

By: PRIYA KUMARI
| Updated on: Aug 22 2022, 11:38 IST

Realme GT 2 Pro is available at a starting price of Rs. 49,999. (Priya/HT Tech)

Realme is known for offering feature-packed smartphones at an affordable price range, and with the launch of GT 2 Pro, the company is stepping into the premium segment. Obviously, the higher the amount you pay, the more you seek from the phone's overall performance accompanied by a long-lasting battery, good cameras, exceptional performance, and more importantly, a satisfactory user experience. With a starting price of Rs. 49,999, Realme has done a few world's firsts with this flagship.

The GT 2 Pro comes with the world's first 2K AMOLED flat display with LTPO 2.0 technology, world's first 150 degree ultra-wide camera, world's first fisheye mode, and the industry's first bio-based polymer smartphone design. But is this Realme's flagship device a genuine effort? I guess yes, here is why I say so. Read the full review to know.

Realme GT 2 Pro Design

Smartphones having unique, elegant, out of the league design may lead you to even buy them. And Realme has checked all the boxes right when it comes to the overall looks of the GT 2 Pro. The phone shell is made from bio-based polymer (said to reduce carbon emissions) and is designed in collaboration with Japanese industrial designer, Naoto Fukasawa. The variant I have is the Paper White and it does impart a premium feel.

image caption — Realme GT 2 Pro (Priya/HT Tech)

The back panel of the Realme GT 2 Pro holds a zigzag texture and will take you back to school days, reminding you of paper. You can even write on it (with a pencil of course!) and erase it later. The matte finish does not let any fingerprint smudges, marks, or dust reside on the rear panel. Even if somehow it does, you can simply use a wet cloth to wipe the dust off! Along with a big rectangular camera hump on the back, the phone also gets a fair share of branding. It gets Realme printed on it along with the signature of Naoto Fukasava mentioned under- designed by. However, you may like it, this is not something that appealed to me!

Moving to the front, the Realme GT 2 Pro has a big display of 6.7 inches with thin bezels, a selfie camera at the top left, and in-display fingerprint sensor at the bottom. The phone is lightweight (189 grams), slim and the texture on the back enables a comfortable grip on the phone.

Realme GT 2 Pro Display

Almost every smartphone brand is coming up with a big display screen to enhance your viewing experience and offer an amazing visual treat. Realme GT 2 Pro is an addition to the list. The phone has a 6.7-inch 2K WQHD+ AMOLED display with an adaptive LTPO 2.0 refresh rate of 1-120Hz, 1000Hz peak touch sampling rate, and an ability to achieve up to 1400 nits peak brightness.

From watching movies or any other videos to scrolling social media, or just browsing the internet to playing games, I enjoyed doing all these activities on the phone. From colour accuracy to minute detailings, everything was on point. The good thing is you can make a change to the display and brightness of the phone according to your convenience. You will get options like image sharpener, video colour enhancer, video motion enhancement, and bright HDR video mode. These functions will improve the content quality and give you an amazing viewing experience. However, it will also raise the battery consumption.

Apart from these, you can also choose screen resolution between auto select or FHD+ or QHD+. I have tested all the three functions during the review period and trust me, none of them disappointed with their output.

Realme GT 2 Pro Performance

Running on the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, Realme GT 2 Pro delivers an impressive performance. The phone also boots Realme UI 3.0 based on Android 12, which adds on its user experience. As you set up the phone, you will find certain pre-installed applications like Daily Hunt, HeyFun, Josh, Moj, Sloop cut, and much more. Though these apps won't bother you much as they can be easily uninstalled, but if you don't, you may find the UI of the phone a bit cluttered.

Apart from that, the phone worked perfectly fine. From switching between tabs, loading the apps, to other basic daily activities including calling, browsing the web, scrolling Facebook and Instagram, playing games (Temple Run, Subway Surfers), etc., the phone handled everything with ease and class without making any complaints or throwing tantrums. The phone even comes with a stainless steel vapour cooling system, which I believe helped it in keeping its calm.

Realme GT 2 Pro is also equipped with dual stereo speakers, however, I felt the audio was not loud enough to enhance my entertainment experience. With the ceiling fan switched on, and the media playing at full volume, it was a bit difficult for me to listen to the audio even at one hand's distance.

Coming to the connectivity, the phone offers 5G technology, which is still an "on paper thing" in the country. With the 4G connectivity, the calling experience including both the audio and the video calls have been pretty decent. Though I did suffer a lot of call drops, it can be attributed to the poor local network conditions!

Realme GT 2 Pro Cameras

One thing that grabbed my attention is Realme GT 2 Pro's cameras, especially the microlens. The phone sports a triple rear camera setup with a 50MP main camera, 50MP ultra-wide lens, and 3MP microlens. At the front, the phone gets a 32MP selfie camera. Whether it be daylight photography, night photography, street photography, or the pictures clicked with the 150-degree Ultra-wide lens, and 40x microlens, every click looks beautiful.

The pictures were sharp, clear, almost accurate with the colours, and even had minute detailings. Though the pictures did get a bit more brightened than usual, it was fine for me, however, it is subjective and you may end up not liking it! Also, while using the microlens, I struggled a bit to get stability, but once achieved, it is interesting to see how things look when zoomed perfectly.

You can check out the samples here to check out the camera performance yourself.

Talking about recording videos, it also gave a decent output. There are several other camera features that you can enjoy exploring including- Pro mode, Starry Mode, 3D Photo, and Tilt-Shift, among others.

Realme GT 2 Pro Battery

Equipped with a 5000mAh battery, I was expecting a good battery backup from Realme GT 2 Pro. However, I got a bit disappointed here as the phone lasted only around a day on a single charge with regular usage. While on heavy usage, I needed to charge it twice a day. Maybe Realme needs to tune that power-hungry Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 better to get the most out of this battery. To give you relief from the fast-draining battery, Realme has provided fast charging support with a 65W SuperDart Charger which can refill the battery from 5 percent to 100 percent within 40 minutes. Again, this is good but I was expecting Realme to introduce the faster 150W system here, considering this is its flagship.

Verdict

Realme has tried to give almost everything in its flagship GT 2 Pro. From a classy elegant design, and powerful performance, to commendable cameras and other nifty features, Realme has checked the boxes right, and that too in some trendy fashion. The phone not only gives tough competition to smartphones in its price range but also to the ones that are more expensive. The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE comes on par with its pricing but it can't match the performance of the GT 2 Pro. On the other hand, the Motorola Edge 30 Pro with its Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, a 144Hz OLED display, slightly faster wired charging, and wireless charging, and a Pixel-like Android experience ends up being another tempting choice, and could make choosing the GT 2 Pro tough.

Compared to the Motorola Edge 30 Pro, the Realme GT 2 Pro lacks a better sound output and battery backup. Other than these, I do not find the phone compromising on the basics. The phone feels grand in the way it is built, and the way it performs; this is what most of us seek from a high-end phone. Especially at the price range it is being offered, the Realme GT 2 Pro is something I would recommend checking out.

Rating

4 out of 5

Price

INR 49,999/-

Product Name

Realme GT 2 Pro

Brand Name

Realme

Pros