With a starting price of Rs 49,999, the GT 2 Pro has a lot to offer. Such as the promise of a 2K display, fast charging, a good set of cameras and good gaming performance. So is it a better option than the Moto phone? Let’s find out.
Design of Realme GT 2 Pro
The back panel of the Realme GT 2 Pro has an optional unique texture. It is said that this paper is an imitation to give the products feel. Regarding the special material used in its back, Realme says that it has been taken from renewable sources and has been used in the white and green versions of the phone. On the other hand, the Steel Black variant gets a common glass panel with frosted texture.
After using its white unit for a few weeks, I am happy to report that this phone does not suffer from any permanent stains or marks in daily use, as I thought it might happen. Its wavy texture makes for a good grip. This also ensures that fingerprints and smudges are not an issue. I love the look of its matte-finished aluminum frame and the overall aesthetic of the phone, but I wish Realme had given its most expensive model a few more characters to make it stand out from the rest of its portfolio.
A big selling point of the Realme GT 2 Pro is its display, which is usually found in expensive Android flagships. Its 6.7-inch AMOLED panel features 2K (3216×1440) resolution, with 10-bit color depth and 1,400 nits maximum brightness. It also has LTPO 2.0 technology, which means the refresh rate can vary from 1Hz to 120Hz depending on your activity. Apart from this, Realme has used Corning Gorilla Glass Victus for scratch protection. Needless to say, its display performs well for playing games and watching videos.
The box of the Realme GT 2 Pro includes a 65W SuperDart fast charger, a USB cable, and a case.
Realme GT 2 Pro Price, Specs and Software
The price of the base variant of Realme Gt 2 Pro is in the range of Rs 50,000. This is 8GB RAM and 128GB storage variant. At the same time, 12GB RAM and 256GB storage has been given in the variant of Rs 57,999 and this is the variant that I have.
Realme GT 2 Pro has Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor. It supports 13 5G bands and you get dual 5G support for both the SIMs. This should be enough for the upcoming 5G network in India.
The phone has stereo speakers, which are Dolby Atmos certified. Like Apple’s True Tone feature, color temperature sensors have been provided in the front and back of the phone to adjust its display color (white balance). Apart from this, heart rate monitoring has been implemented in the in-display fingerprint sensor as an experimental feature.
The Realme Gt 2 Pro packs a stainless steel vapor cooling chamber, which promises to keep the phone from overheating. The software includes a GT Mode toggle, which is believed to prevent the phone’s processor from throttling for better performance in heavy apps.
Two features of the phone are missing. Wireless charging and IP rating. However, there is a rubber gasket around the SIM tray to prevent water, which suggests that measures have been taken to protect the phone from water. But, Realme has not given any official guarantee. In comparison, both these features have been offered in Motorola Edge 30 Pro, which can drive customers away from Gt 2 Pro.
Realme GT 2 Pro runs on Realme UI 3.0 based on Android 12. The look of the interface is customizable and it runs smoothly. The phone comes with a lot of bundled apps, including the Realme Store and Community. Most of these can be uninstalled. There was no notification spam or any other issue with the first party apps of realme, which surprised me.
With this phone, Realme has promised three years of Android OS updates and four years of security updates. I think it’s a good way to build trust.
Realme GT 2 Pro performance and battery life
Carrying the Realme GT 2 Pro doesn’t feel cumbersome or bulky. Although this is said for many flagship Androids. The phone is not too thick and weighs (189 grams), which makes it feel light and easy to carry. Although its glass back variant is a bit heavy, weighing 199g.
The GT 2 Pro handled popular social and productivity apps well. Its interface was always fast and fluid. I also liked that the in-display fingerprint sensor is closer to the center of the display.
The display of the phone gets sufficiently bright for the content to be clearly visible. It gets bright even in direct sunlight. The display resolution was ‘auto select’ throughout my review period and I found that it rendered all apps and content, including games, very well at WQHD+ resolution.
The Realme GT 2 Pro excels with media playback and gaming.
Videos looked great with excellent color saturation, adequate brightness and decent HDR rendering. The stereo speakers were also very loud and sounded good. Gaming performance was also solid. With a solid frame rate and decent graphics, Asphalt 9: Legends had a smooth run. However, after playing more demanding games like Fortnite for a long time, the body of the phone got hot. Even when playing this game indoors, I noticed that the upper half of the frame and some parts of the back panel got very hot after about 20 minutes. After a point, I had to put the case on the phone because the heating was not tolerated.
This issue was not with every game. But graphically demanding games push the GT 2 Pro’s cooling system to its limits. The phone did very well in benchmarks too. Got an impressive score of 972,119 points in AnTuTu.
The battery life of the phone was also very good. In a single charge, I was able to use the phone for a day and a little more. In our HD video loop test, this phone lasted for 20 hours and 41 minutes. It doesn’t take long to charge its 5,000mAh battery with a 65W charger. You can fully charge it in more than half an hour. That means it charges very fast.
Cameras of Realme GT 2 Pro
Realme GT 2 Pro has a good set of cameras. It performs well in day and low light. Realme has used Sony IMX766 50 megapixel sensor for the main rear camera. It also has a wide F/1.8 aperture with optical stabilization. It can shoot video in 8K resolution at the rate of 24fps. Autofocus was quick in daylight and rich detail and color were available in landscape shots. Excellent details with excellent background blur came in close-up shots. The low-light pictures were also very good. It had less noise and more detail than average. OIS resulted in sharp and fine detail in low-light close-ups.
The Realme GT 2 Pro has an ultra-wide camera with a 50-megapixel Samsung JN1 sensor. we have it OnePlus 10 Pro (review) I have seen. Ultra-wide shots yielded less detail and colors weren’t very accurate for real scenes, but barrel distortion and HDR were handled better. The camera app has a 150-degree shooting mode, similar to the 10 Pro. This allows you to take advantage of the full field of view of the lens. Low-light photos were not as bright as the main camera. There was still a lot to experiment with though.
The third camera of the phone is a 2-megapixel sensor with ‘Micro-lens’. This allows for extreme close-ups to be captured at 20x or 40x magnification. This lens can be used to capture something special from everyday things. In ‘Microscope’ shooting mode, the phone should be millimeters away from its subject. Since lighting is an issue in such modes, the two LEDs on the top and bottom of the micro-lens are automatically activated when using this mode. Apart from this, there are some fun filters as well.
The Realme GT 2 Pro has the same 32-megapixel Sony IMX615 sensor selfie camera as the OnePlus 10 Pro. It takes good pictures in day time and in low light. Skin smoothing is enabled by default for selfies. However, if you switch to the natural profile, the skin tone and texture become much better.
The video recording capabilities of the Realme GT 2 Pro are also top notch. 8K videos shot during the day and at night looked good, but the stabilization made the camera look movement a bit jerky. Videos recorded at 4K also looked great and had smooth stabilization. The camera app also allows you to switch between the main and ultra-wide cameras when recording at this resolution.
what is our decision
There should be no doubt that the Realme GT 2 Pro is a very good premium smartphone. In my opinion the base variant with 8GB of RAM gives the best value. I would recommend it for the great performance, unique texture design, better battery life and cameras. However, if IP rating and wireless charging are your concern, then Motorola would be a smarter choice.
Its 12GB variant is less expensive than the rest of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 smartphones, but the price is around Rs 58 thousand. I think that Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G (review) either OnePlus 9 Pro 5G (review) As such, the options are more complete flagships and offer better value. Yes, they may lack the processor capability of the GT 2 Pro, but they make up for it with features like wireless charging and an official IP rating.