Realme 2 Pro Review – Truly A ‘Pro’

Realme, a brand that started off as an online offshoot of Oppo, launched the Realme 2 in India last month. It wasn’t a particularly bad phone for the price and indeed did well in coming weeks, but received a lot of bad press for actually being a downgrade to Realme 1 – as far specs go, that is. (Realme 2 Pro Review हिंदी में पढ़िए)

Realme was quick to announce that a ‘Pro’ variant with more lucrative specs, to the tune of what was being anticipated, was on its way. Well, the Realme 2 Pro is now official in India and that too at a surprisingly aggressive price. We have been putting the phone through its paces for a while and are now ready to share our take on what works and what doesn’t for the Realme 2 Pro.

Jump To:

• Specification of Realme 2 Pro
• Realme 2 Pro Box Content
• Review: Realme 2 Pro Design and Build
• Realme 2 Pro Review: Display
• Review: Realme 2 Pro Performance and Software
• Realme 2 Pro Camera Review
• Review: Realme 2 Pro Battery and Audio
• Realme 2 Pro Review verdict with Pros & Cons

Realme 2 Pro Specifications

Realme 2 Pro Box Content

The Realme 2 Pro Box content includes:

• The handset
• 10W (5V, 2A) charging adaptor
• USB Cable
• Transparent back cover

For anyone who’s asking, headphones aren’t included in the Realme 2 Pro box.

Realme 2 Pro Review: Design and Build

The Realme 2 Pro has a glass finish and comes with a metal side frame. As on all Realme phones, the glass used on the back is actually plastic, and that’s fine considering the cost factors at play.

As is given with most glass-finish phones, the back panel is a smudge magnet. But, it’s a moot point, since most of us would use a case anyway.

The most distinctive element of the phone is the tiny water-drop or dewdrop notch at the front. The tiny notch allows for a near bezel-less display without hogging a significant portion of the status bar. And as of now, the Realme 2 Pro is the cheapest phone with this kind of notch.

As you can see, we have the Blue color variant with us and it looks good.

• The Realme 2 Pro looks premium and is comfortable to handle.
• The fingerprint sensor is present on the rear and it’s accessible. The Face Unlock is extremely fast.
• At the bottom, the phone has speaker grill, an audio jack, and a regular USB Type-B port. No Type-C.
• The MicroSD card slot is a dedicated one.
• Realme bundles a protective case in the box. A plastic film screen protector is pre-installed, but it gets scratched and smudged rather easily.

ALSO READ: Apple iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max Review: ‘XXL’ Price Overshadows ‘L’ Features

Realme 2 Pro Review: Display

The Realme 2 Pro has a 6.3-inch Full HD+ display with 19.5:9 aspect ratio. There is little air gap between the screen and digitizer and thus the display pops nicely. The warm color present in the display settings about fixes the white point.

Overall, the IPS LCD display is sharp and vivid and pretty good considering the price.

• The display is sharp (409 PPI) and the colors pop nicely. If you feel the whites are a bit cold (blue-ish) a warm color preset is present under display settings.
• Thanks to the water-drop notch, you get a staggering 90.8% screen-to-body ratio.
• Outdoor visibility is average.
• Realme 2 Pro has Gorilla Glass protection for the screen.

Realme 2 Pro Review: Performance and Software

Of course, the performance will be the strongest suit of the Realme 2 Pro. This is for the first time that we are seeing Snapdragon 660 for under Rs. 15,000. Our review unit includes 8GB RAM and 128GB storage, but we don’t think any of the three variants should disappoint.

The day-to-day usage and multitasking are smooth and so is high-end gaming on the realme 2 Pro.

The color OS software running on the phone isn’t much to brag about, though. Oppo’s custom skin is a little too heavily inspired by iOS and simply isn’t very pleasant to live with. It’s kind of jarring for an Android user when swiping away notifications is a two-step process. But that’s how iOS does it, so Realme still thinks it’s the best way. The interface is still rich in features and quite stable.

• The performance on our review unit (8GB RAM/128GB storage) is butter smooth. The other two variants with 6GB RAM + 128GB storage and 4GB RAM+64GB storage should have similar performance too.
• The handset doesn’t have Widevine DRM L1 certificate and can’t stream HD content on Netflix or Amazon Prime.
• Dual SIM Dual VoLTE is supported on Realme 2 Pro.
• The Color OS software is stable and feature-rich, but it’s a little too inspired by iOS. It’s not very well optimized for the Notch, either.
• Fingerprint sensor is fast and accurate. Face unlock is very fast.
• We didn’t face any issue with call quality in our area.

ALSO READ: OnePlus 6 Long-Term Review: Still The Phone To Beat

Realme 2 Pro Review: Camera

The Realme 2 Pro has a 16MP camera on the rear paired with a 2MP depth sensor, and a 16MP selfie camera up front. The camera performance isn’t perfect (far from it), but it’s quite good for the price.

The Realme 2 Pro images look good on the phone’s screen, but you will notice fuzzy details when you examine them on the big screen. The dynamic range isn’t very wide and colors get a bit muted in harsh sunlight.

In balanced lighting, say, on a cloudy day, the camera does well.

At times, shots clicked in artificial light, images felt a little underexposed at times, but are certainly usable. Background details and texture in lowlight shots is better than what we’d expected.

Portrait mode is a hit and miss. Edge dectection needs to get better and subject edges are often soft.

In proper lighting, the camera manages to lock focus quickly, even for fairly close up shots.

The 16MP selfie camera performance seems average.

So, overall, the camera isn’t perfect and not as good as the one on Mi A2 or Redmi Note 5 pro, but it’s still pretty good for the price.

Realme 2 Pro Review: Battery and Audio

The Realme 2 Pro houses a 3500mAh battery and bundles a 10W charger. The battery can last for more than a day of light and moderate usage. With heavy usage, the battery drain can be steep.

The inbox charger can charge the phone at a reasonable speed (around 2 hours for a complete charge), but the fast charging isn’t supported.

Audio output via the mono speaker at the bottom is loud. Audio quality via headphones and via speaker is strictly average.

Realme 2 Pro Review: Should you buy it?

If you are looking for a value for money option, the Realme 2 Pro is a great buy. The phone looks good, has a staggering screen-to-body ratio, has a decent set of cameras, and is a solid performer. Moreover, considering the aggressive price, its flaws are forgivable and forgettable.

The biggest downside of the phone is its software. The Color OS is still unpalatable, which is why users may consider stock Android options like Nokia 6.1 Plus and Motorola One Power that are relatively safer bets, especially those who are looking forward to buying the top model that costs 17,990 INR.

Realme U1 Review Video