realme launched the GT 2 Pro flagship smartphone in India in April, and it is the first Pro series phone in the GT series. For the first time the company is offering a QHD+ AMOLED 120Hz LTPO 2.0 screen, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC, and the phone also has a 50MP 150° ultra-wide camera. Is this the best flagship phone for Rs. 50,000? Let us dive into the review to find out.
| Box Contents |
| Camera |
| Battery Life |
| Conclusion |
Box Contents
- realme GT 2 Pro 12GB + 256GB in Paper White colour
- 65W Super Dart fast charger
- USB Type-C cable
- Protective case
- SIM Ejector tool
- User guide
Display, Hardware and Design
The realme GT2 Pro sports a 6.7-inch (3216 × 1440 pixels) Quad HD+ 20:9 aspect ratio AMOLED display. It has an LTPO 2.0 panel that offers 1-120Hz variable refresh rate, Up to 1000Hz instant touch sampling rate and 525 PPI pixel density. The display is bright since it has up to 1400 nits brightness with 10240 level of brightness adjustment, offers good colour output since it has 100% DCI-P3 wide Colour Gamut, JNCD ≈ 0.5 and the sunlight legibility is good as well. Overall, it has a brilliant screen for the price. You can select from vivid, Gentle and brilliant screen colour modes.
It also has Image sharpner, video color enhancer and MEMC, but there is no DC dimming. However, I didn’t face any issues with the display refresh rate in low brightness. The 1-120Hz refresh rate and 1000Hz touch sampling rate offers a buttery smooth user experience, especially when you are scrolling through the UI and when gaming. When you set it to auto, it can automatically switch to different refresh rate depending on the content, thus saving the battery life. You can also force it to 60Hz or 120Hz. The phone has Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection on the front.
The phone doesn’t have a notification LED, but this has an always-on-display that shows contextual info and notifications all day or as per schedule, and there is also edge light lighting that glows when you receive notifications. It doesn’t consume a lot of power since this is an AMOLED screen, but the company says that it increases the power consumption.
The phone has a tiny punch-hole on the left that houses a 32-megapixel camera. Above the display, there is an earpiece on the top edge that doubles up as a secondary speaker.
It has an in-display fingerprint scanner which is quick to unlock the phone immediately when you place your finger. You can also notice a small bezel below the screen.
The haptic feedback is good as well, thanks to an X-axis linear vibration motor with a newly designed composite magnetic field, and redesigned motor engines. “Compared with the previous generation, the volume has been increased by 40%, the energy capacity increased by 80%, the effective frequency width is wider, and the noise reduced by 30%,” says the company.
Coming to the button placements and ports, the power button is present on the right side, the volume rockers are present on the left. The dual SIM slot, primary microphone, USB Type-C port and the loudspeaker grill are present on the bottom. The secondary microphone is on the top. The phone doesn’t have an expandable storage. The phone has a metal frame, and you can see the antenna bands.
Coming to the design, the phone comes in three colors. The Paper Green and Paper White models have Paper Tech Master Design that features a back cover that is made of sustainable Sabic bio-based materials extracted from renewable raw materials such as paper pulp and fallen leaves that can reduce carbon emissions by up to 63% per kilogram and can reduce potential fossil feedstock consumption by up to 35%. The Steel Black has a matte AG glass back.
Even though it packs a huge, 5000mAh battery, it weighs just 189 grams for the Green and White model and the Black version with a glass back is 199 grams. It doesn’t have IP ratings.
Camera
Camera setup
- 50MP main camera with Sony IMX766 sensor, f/1.8 aperture, OIS
- 50MP 150° ultra-wide camera with ISOCELL JN1 sensor, f/2.2 aperture
- 2MP microscope camera with up to 40x zoom
- 32MP front camera with Sony IMX615 sensor, f/2.4 aperture
The camera UI is similar to other phones in realme UI 3.0. It has features like dual video, AI color portrait and bokeh flare portrait for images. There is also Dynamic bokeh option for photos. The Street Photography Mode 2.0 offers long exposure mode, Peak & Zoom and 90’s Pop Filter. For video, you only get bokeh flare portrait and AI color portrait. You can also see microscope and 150° options. The rear camera offers 12.5MP output after pixel binning, and the front camera images are 32MP in size.
Daylight shots came out well, thanks to the 50MP Sony sensor, and the dynamic range is better with auto HDR. There is AI mode which recognizes different photo scenes and automatically adjusts camera settings to make boost the colours. 2X is good, but once you zoom after that the quality degrades since it is digital zoom since the phone doesn’t have a telephoto camera. The 50MP ultra-wide camera is good as well, and there is a separate 150° mode. The portrait mode is good even without the dedicated portrait sensor. The 2MP microscope camera with 20x zoom and up to 40x digital zoom is useful, and the dual LED flash helps to brighten the image even if you go too close. The 32MP front camera is decent, but not the best.
Check out the camera samples.
It can record videos in up to 8K 30fps, 4K 60 fps, slow motion at 120fps, 720p at 240 fps and the front camera can record 1080p 30fps videos. There is also 4K 30fps in ultra-wide mode, and the AI mode is limited to 1080p 30fps. It uses OIS does a good job, and and the 4K videos are decent. The ultra-wide is better for videos.
Software, UI and Apps
It runs Android 12 based realme UI 3.0 out of the box. It recently got Android security patch for May 2022. The company has promised 3 years of Android updates and 4 years of security patches. relame UI 3.0 adds 3D icon, personalization on AOD, AI Smooth engine, floating window 2.0, smooth animation engine, security and privacy features, phone manager 2.0 and app permission recording.
Apart from the usual set of realme apps and Google apps, it comes with Amazon Shopping, Booking.com, Josh, Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat and Moj. Most apps can be uninstalled, but the Finsell Pay app can’t be uninstalled since it is a system app. However, you can use the ADB commands to remove them.
Out of 12GB LPDD5 RAM, you get 10.97GB of usable RAM, and about 6GB of RAM is free when default apps are running in the background. It also has DRE or dynamic RAM expansion feature, which uses the built-in storage as RAM. This has up to 7GB of additional RAM expansion. Out of 256GB, you get about 223GB of free storage. The phone uses UFS 3.1 storage, and we got sequential read speeds of about, 1787 MB/s.
Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock
It has an in-display fingerprint sensor that unlocks the phone quickly. You can add up to 5 fingerprints. You can also use the fingerprint for app local and payments in apps. Furthermore, you can change the fingerprint animation, but you can’t disable it. In the realme Labs, there is a heart rate measurement option that lets you use the fingerprint sensor for heart rate tracking. You can also save it, and it shows up in the history. The phone also has face unlock feature.
Music and Multimedia
YouTube Music is the default Music Player that has Dolby Atmos with customizable Smart, Movie, Gaming and Music modes. It doesn’t have FM Radio support. Audio through the stereo speakers is good without any distortion even in full volume. Audio through earphones is good as well, and there is Dolby Atmos for both wired and wireless headset, but it doesn’t work for speakers. This has Widevine L1, so that you can play HD content on Netflix and other streaming apps. It supports HDR content on YouTube, but this doesn’t work on Netflix, which is a bummer for a flagship with a good screen.
Dual SIM and Connectivity
The realme GT 2 Pro has support for several 5G bands that includes N1/N3/N5/N7/N8/N20/N28/N38/N40/N41/N66(2110-2180MHz)/N77/N78 Network Bands in India. It has 4G Wi-Fi and VoLTE, with support for Carrier Aggregation on 4G. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi 6 802.11 ax (2.4GHz + 5GHz), VoWiFi / Wi-Fi calling support, Bluetooth 5.2, GPS / GLONASS / Beidou. It has OTG support and 360° NFC support. Moving on, the call quality is good, and we did not face any call drops and the earpiece volume was loud.
The realme GT 2 Pro’s body SAR is 0.528W/Kg and head SAR is at 1.160/Kg, which is well under the limit of 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g) in India.
Performance and Benchmarks
Coming to the performance, it is the first realme phone to be powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 4nm Mobile Platform. Samsung has finally switched from Exynos to Snapdragon in India. It has 1 x Kryo Prime CPU (Arm Cortex-X2-based) at up to 3.0GHz, 3 x Kryo Performance CPUs (A710-based) at up to 2.50GHz, 4x Kryo Efficiency CPUs (A510-based) at up to 1.80GHz. The new Qualcomm Adreno GPU provides a 30% boost in graphics rendering capabilities and 25% improvement in power savings compared to the previous generation.
It has Stainless Steel Vapour cooling Max, a 9-layer cooling system that includes a large 36761mm² heat dissipation area and 4129mm² VC liquid cooling area, so the heat dissipation area increased by 205%, according to te company. The heat dissipation structure offers 100% heat source coverage, so the core temperature can be reduced by 19℃.
When you play graphic-intensive games like COD, BGMI and Genshin Impact, or use the camera for a long time for recording videos, it gets heated quickly, but doesn’t get too hot. It reached maximum 42º in our testing indoors in Wi-Fi, but this might vary outdoors in 4G. That said, check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the phone packs a 5000mAh (typical) built-in battery which lasts for a whole day with Wi-Fi, but with 4G and dual SIMs, and heavy multimedia use, it might not last the whole day. I got close to 4 and half hours of screen on time with over a day of use on Wi-Fi and in QHD+ resolution in 120Hz, and it might last longer in FHD+ resolution. Since the phone has support for 65W SuperDart Charge, it can charge from 50% in 17 minutes and up to 100% in about 40 minutes with the bundled 65W charger.
Conclusion
At a starting price of Rs. 49,999, the realme GT 2 Pro offers a great value if you want good screen, flagship performance without heating issues and a good camera. However, the phone doesn’t come with a telephoto camera and the front camera quality is just average.
Pricing and availability
It is priced at Rs. 49,999 for the 8GB + 128GB model and the 12GB + 256GB model costs Rs. 57,999. You can get it from realme.com, Flipkart and offline stores.
Alternatives
There is no direct competition for Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 phones in the price range, since the iQOO 9 Pro and OnePlus 10 Pro are priced more since the features they offer are slightly better considering the price.
Pros
- QHD+ 120Hz LTPO 2.0 screen is brilliant
- Smooth performance and good gaming performance
- Good build quality with PaperTech Master design
- Stereo speakers, Dolby Atmos
- Good camera performance
- Good battery life, 65W fast charging
Cons
- No Netflix HDR support
- No telephoto camera
- Front camera could have been better