Realme 2 Pro Review: A Real Value for Money

Realme separated from its parent company, Oppo, in May 2018 and launched its first phone Realme 1 which was succeeded by the Realme 2. Now the company has finally expanded its operations to Pakistan with its most recent Realme 2 Pro.

It is the company’s first smartphone in the country, and thankfully, we got our hands before the official launch of the device in Pakistan. After spending a fair amount of time with the phone, we can finally give you our verdict about the handset, so let’s dive into the in-depth review of Realme 2 Pro.

Realme 2 Pro specs

  • Display: 6.3 inches, IPS LCD
  • OS: Andriod 8.1 (Oreo), ColorOS 6
  • Chipset: Snapdragon 660
  • RAM/ROM: 8GB/128GB
  • Camera (rear): 16MP + 2MP
  • Camera (front): 16MP
  • Battery: 3500 mAh

Design and Display

Realme has taken inspiration from Oppo phones, which can be seen from the choice of material to the ergonomics of the device. It’s not a bad thing because the company’s latest devices, including the new Oppo F9, offer looking smartphones to its users.

The good thing is that it doesn’t add unnecessary shimmer and glimmer to the design, instead keeps it clean and simple. It has a polycarbonate body that is well-polished at the back.

The power key rest on the right side of the phone, and the left side hosts the volume key and the triple-slot SIM tray that uses two SIM cards and a memory card simultaneously.

The bottom end of the phone contains a 3.5mm headphone jack, a micro USB charging port, and a single speaker along with the primary microphone. On the top end, you’ll find another microphone, which acts as the noise-canceling mic.

The phone’s build is quite on the sturdy side, and it feels firm in one’s hand. It is not too sleek and slim as many other mid-range phones, and even if you remove the protective case, the phone feels a bit thick as compared to devices like Honor 8X or the Vivo Y95. Also, Realme 2 Pro is a fingerprint magnet, and it is advisable to keep the protective case on at all times.

Realme 2 Pro comes with a FullHD+ LCD panel that comes in a 6.3 inches size at a resolution of 1080 x 2340. The display comes with a waterdrop notch that helps the phone crack up the screen to body ratio to 84%, though the company claims the Realme 2 Pro to have 90.8% along with a 409 PPI.

Most of the mid-range devices present an LCD panel, and although we were expecting it to be good on Realme 2 Pro, we did not think that it would be this great.

The viewing angles are more extensive than we have earlier seen in other phones like the Huawei Y9 2019. Pictures come out quite nice and sharp but not oversaturated.

Another plus, along with the great saturation and color reproduction, is the brightness. Turning brightness to full-on, this thing is insane. Once you crank it to full, you can easily operate the phone even in direct sunlight.

It doesn’t matter if the screen is covered in smudges, full brightness helps a lot to use the device in direct sunlight. Going through the phone to perform daily tasks or even watching videos gets much easier with brightness in sunlight.

OS

Though it gives you all the conveniences of ColorOS 5.2 that you find on any latest Oppo phone, just by looking at the phone, you instantly realize how “aggressive” the skin is with all its animations and design.

Even though the resemblance with stock Android is very little, you can find some of the most exciting elements on the color OS like the multitasking bar that comes out when you swipe inward from the notch if you are using the phone in landscape mode.

Swipe inwards to bring out multitasking Bar

If you are looking for a clean and stock-like experience like the Android One devices, this won’t be the one for you as the skin is heavily loaded with its design elements and also gets a fair share of bloatware.

Besides that, the Color OS has a game space that lets you enjoy uninterrupted gaming on your device. Other mentionable features from the OS include the Gesture controls and Clone Apps and App Split Screen.

Performance & Battery

The specs on the Realme 2 Pro are pretty impressive, which in turn helps the phone in achieving a flagship-like performance. It packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset that earlier proved its might in the real-life review of Vivo V11 Pro.

The unit that we had for review was equipped with 8GB RAM along with a massive 128GB storage, which is the hallmark of a flagship phone. It’s impressive that Realme has managed to provide these specs in a mid-ranger. Here are the Antutu and Geekbench benchmark results of Realme 2 Pro.

Now that we are over with everything on paper let’s move to our real-life performance tests and let me tell you, this phone just blew me away with its performance. Even the heavily loaded skin wasn’t able to slow down the phone, and it performed as snappy as it can be.

There was no sign of lag or slowing down of the phone during our review while we performed all the tests that represent a moderate user, including social media browsing, using the camera, texting, calling, browsing the web, and multitasking. The phone was quick as a fox.

Not only in moderate usage, but Realme 2 Pro also gave us a fan moment in its heavy usage test. The phone performed immaculately in heavy usage thanks to its massive RAM and a higher mid-range chipset.

Game Space in Realme 2 Pro

We played heavy games like PUBG and Asphalt 9, Deer hunter, and not once did we notice any hiccup, nor did it show any signs of stutter. While we were at the game, we also opened more than 15 google chrome tabs and almost 20 apps in the background and were amazed to see the optimum performance of the device.

Realme 2 Pro Battery Test

Realme 2 Pro packs a 3500mAh battery, and in 1 hour of our moderate usage, the phone drained out 15% battery while an hour of heavy usage ate out 20% of the battery.

In terms of performance, the phone is genuinely worthy of the ‘Pro’ tag that it uses in its name. If you are a power user and looking for a phone with a fantastic price and optimum performance, look no further because you have just found the gem for you.

Camera

The phone packs a 16MP + 2MP camera on the back that is packed with built-in AI which automatically detects the scene and adjusts its settings accordingly.

The front notch hosts a 16MP camera that takes decent selfies in bright environments, but sadly same cannot be said for low light. To ask the phone to take great selfies even in low light would be too much.

Camera Interface

Speaking of good lighting, the rear camera takes excellent pictures that show an excellent dynamic range. Check out the sample pictures taken during our camera test around the city with Realme 2 Pro.

Lahore Museum Picture with Auto Mode on Realme 2 Pro
Auto Mode
Lahore Museum Picture with HDR Mode on Realme 2 Pro
HDR Mode
Picture with 5x Zoom on Realme 2 Pro
5x Zoom

The HDR mode works fine and lightens up the dark corners of the picture. Although you’ll only need the HDR at low light photos, you won’t get disappointed with the results.

With Auto Mode on Realme 2 Pro
Auto Mode
With hdr Mode on Realme 2 Pro
HDR Mode

However, in low-light images, the camera tends to struggle with capturing the details, and a lot of grain creeps into the picture.

Picture at Night with Auto mode on Realme 2 Pro
Auto Mode
Picture at Night with HDR mode on Realme 2 Pro
HDR Mode
Building Picture at Night with Auto mode on Realme 2 Pro
Auto Mode
Building Picture at Night with HDR mode on Realme 2 Pro
HDR Mode

The phone also has a portrait mode where the secondary camera collects the depth of field and blurs the background. Still, weirdly, you cannot adjust the portrait settings, and the camera automatically recognizes the subject to blur the background and sometimes even fails to do so.

Portrait Mode on Realme 2 Pro
Portrait Mode

For the selfie lovers out there, this might be just the one for you as Realme 2 Pro takes punchy selfies but also refrains from smoothing out the skin, a problem that we have earlier seen with most of the Chinese phones.

Selfie with Realme 2 Pro

All in all, Realme 2 Pro is a good choice when it comes to the camera. Though every phone has its compromises in the camera, you’ll find the Realme quite justifying its price.

Verdict

Realme 2 Pro comes with a price tag of PKR 45,000 in Pakistan and delivers well in terms of performance and can be quite appealing, especially being the only phone to provide 8GB RAM in this price bracket, although there are other variants as well which come at a much lower price.

The handset has a lot going on. With its sharp and vivid display and excellent performance, Realme has convinced us in believing that it is worth every penny.

That being said, we still wish that the low-light camera performance on the device could be better. Nonetheless, Realme 2 Pro is a solid option to go for at this price point.

3 thoughts on “Realme 2 Pro Review: A Real Value for Money”

  1. Very impressive. Battery is good. Camera looks okay. Performance looks good. Design is inde
    ed inspired from oppo though it looks good.overall nice in depth review.

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