Realme 2 Pro review: At Rs 13,990, impressive camera and capable performance

Realme 2 Pro specifications: 6.3-inch full HD+ display | Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor | 8GB RAM and 128GB internal storage | 16MP+2MP rear camera | 16MP front camera | 3,500mAh battery | Android Oreo 8.1

Realme 2 Pro price in India: Rs 13,990 for 4GB RAM/64GB storage, Rs 15,990 for 6GB RAM/64GB storage and Rs 17,990 for 8GB RAM/128GB storage

Realme 2 Pro review: What’s good?

Realme 2 Pro features a laminated glass design. It has a polycarbonate chassis covering the perimeters that offer better grip on the phone. Realme 2 Pro flaunts an all-screen front-fascia with a small dewdrop-like notch on top that gives an aesthetic appeal.

The notch houses the front camera with earpiece right above it and sensors placed on the left side. The phone comes with a dedicated microSD slot which is located on the left side above the volume buttons while the power button sits on the right side.

Realme 2 Pro is 8.5mm thick and weighs 174 grams

Ergonomically, the phone is quite good with fingers comfortably resting on the volume keys and power button. A mono speaker grille, micro-USB port and 3.5 mm audio jack sit at the bottom part of the phone. On the rear side, you will find a circular shaped fingerprint sensor and slightly protruded dual cameras, which are aligned horizontally.

As for the display, Realme 2 Pro sports a 6.3-inch full HD+ display with 19.5:9 aspect ratio. It has a screen-to-body-ratio of 90.8 per cent. With bezels trimmed minimally from all sides and a small cutout on top, the front panel offers extra real screen estate to consume content. The front panel is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3.

The display is quite bright and produces vibrant colours with sharp text details. The phone is Widevine L1 certified, which means you can stream Netflix content in HD. Further, Realme 2 Pro offers adjusting the colour temperature which you will find under Display & Brightness settings.

Realme 2 Pro features a 6.3-inch FHD+ display with dewdrop notch on top

Powering the phone is a capable octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor paired with Adreno 512 GPU for graphics rendition. Realme 2 Pro comes in three RAM/storage configuration- 4GB RAM/64GB storage, 6GB RAM/64GB storage and 8GB RAM/128GB storage. We reviewed the high-end variant that packs 8GB RAM.

The phone functions seamlessly, be it multi-tasking, running graphic-intensive games, taking photos and editing in Snapseed. PuBG, Real Racing 3 and Alto’s Odyssey Adventure ran smoothly rendering detailed graphics. While playing it for a near 30 minutes run-time, we did not face any drops in frame rates.

As for synthetic benchmark, the phone managed to score 1,23,064 points in AnTuTu. Realme 2 Pro earned 1453 in single-core score Geekbench test and 5428 in multi-core score test.

Realme 2 Pro benchmark test scores

On the software front, Realme 2 Pro runs ColorOS 5.2 based on Android 8.1 Oreo OS. Similar to Oppo phones, it does not have an app drawer. However, the phone offers a host of gestures and features which are quite handy.

It includes a Smart Sidebar the functions as a Quick toggle and can be accessed by swiping to the left on the home screen. With this feature, you can quickly open social apps, camera etc and even customise it by adding apps based on your preferences.

Realme 2 Pro offers a dedicated gaming mode as well that disable alerts while throttling games. There’s a Swipe-up Gesture Navigation mode that enables to hide or tweak the navigation keys. Besides the fingerprint sensor, Realme 2 Pro comes with facial recognition as well. Both the features are quite consistent and respond quickly.

You can use facial recognition to secure apps and private safe, however, you need to set a privacy passcode first to access these features. Although the Realme 2 Pro does not house a front-facing LED flash, the screen lightens up in the dimly-lit environment to open the device with face unlock.

Realme 2 Pro runs Android Oreo OS and includes a bunch of features like Smart SideBar, Swipe-up Gesture Navigation etc

The imaging sensors are one area where we were quite impressed with the Realme 2 Pro. The phone features dual rear camera setup comprising of a 16MP Sony IMX398 sensor and a 2MP secondary sensor for depth effect.

The cameras are capable of shooting striking shots in good lighting condition. The images turn out quite bright with rich green and reds. Even while capturing small objects, we observed plenty of details popping out in the phone’s screen.

The dynamic range is good and the phone is capable of taking nice indoor shots as well with balanced contrast and saturation. Surprisingly, the phone managed to take good shots in low-light with fewer grains and decent colour reproduction.

Realme 2 Pro sports 16MP+2MP dual rear camera setup

In terms of battery capacity, Realme 2 Pro carries a 3,500mAh battery and supports USB OTG (on-the-go). In our PCMark test, the phone managed to score 7934 in Work 2.0 performance test. Talking about battery performance, the phone lasted for more than a day with usual day-to-day activities that include browsing the Internet, streaming videos, scrolling through the social apps. Realme 2 Pro bundles a 5V/2A charger that takes nearly two hours to fully charge up the device.

The capable Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 SoC with Adreno 512 GPU manages to render smooth frames and detailed graphics

Realme 2 Pro review: Camera samples

Realme 2 Pro bright light camera sample (Image resized for web)

Realme 2 Pro low-light camera sample (Image resized for web)

Realme 2 Pro outdoor camera sample (Image resized for web)

Realme 2 Pro macro shot (Image resized for web)

Realme 2 Pro good lighting camera sample (Image resized for web)

Realme 2 Pro indoor camera sample (Image resized for web)

Realme 2 Pro: What’s not good?

Talking about the cons, Realme 2 Pro although features a vivid display, the front panel is reflective on certain angles which makes it difficult to read content in bright light. Besides, the phone is thick and bulky that pulls both your hands to operate mostly while typing texts for extended hours.

Moreover, with the app drawer missing it becomes difficult to find for an app from the bunch since the home screen gets all cluttered. The glass-encased body is prone to fingerprint grease and smudges.

Realme 2 Pro comes with a micro-USB port and mono speaker grill

Although Realme 2 Pro offers decent battery backup, it comes with micro-USB port and does not support fast charging which is quite disappointing in this price point. The sound quality on the Realme 2 Pro is quite low and the audio gets muffled while playing or streaming content in landscape orientation. It comes with a host of bloatware pre-installed, however, you can duly uninstall all those apps on the device.

Realme 2 Pro review: Verdict

Realme 2 Pro is one of the best devices you can currently get in the mid-range segment in India. The phone’s sharp display, modern design, brilliant imaging sensors and capable processing hardware does make the new Realme smartphone stand out in the crowd.

The micro-USB port, low audio quality and absence of the app drawer takes a few points away. However, if you want a phone with a visually appealing design, decent battery, processing hardware that can smoothly manage heavy duty tasks and reliable imaging sensors, the new Realme 2 Pro will rightly tick all these boxes.