The Realme GT 2 is one of the most excellent Android smartphones to date for those looking for the flavor of an elevated $1000/£1000 phone at a fraction of the price.
Three genuinely unique qualities mainly influence its evaluation. First and foremost, the Realme GT 2 has a brilliant and colorful 120Hz OLED screen.
The 50MP primary camera is also outstanding. This primary camera employs the superb Sony IMX766 sensor, which is also found in the OnePlus 9 Pro and the Oppo Find X5 Pro, and provides exceptional image quality both day and night. And while the highlight retention isn’t quite as good as on the finest phones, its efficiency is still excellent, especially given the GT 2’s mid-tier price.
The Realme GT 2 features a powerful CPU as well. Sure, it’s Qualcomm’s premium from 2021, yet it performs admirably in 2022 – and will most likely continue to do so for many years to come.
The key reason for giving you concern is battery life. While the 5,000mAh battery pack of the Realme GT 2 is exactly what anyone would expect for a phone like this, its endurance in 120Hz display mode is less than other low-power phones such as the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11.
What will you see here?
Price and Availability
The Realme GT 2 smartphone was released in China in January 2022, although it did not reach Western markets until March. One-half of a pair includes the Realme GT 2 and Realme GT 2 Pro.
This GT 2 phone costs £499, £200 cheaper than the Realme GT 2 Pro. It features a lower-resolution screen, a CPU from an earlier generation, and a subpar ultra-wide camera.
The Realme GT 2 costs £499 and has half the storage (128GB) and RAM (8GB). A step-up version with 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM costs £549.
The Realme GT 2 is currently available in the UK and will arrive in Australia soon. However, we don’t have any specifics at this moment. It will not make its way to the United States.
Design of Realme GT 2
Many Realme phones feature bizarre looks that are meant to catch your eye right away. Massive phrases plastered over the backs of several of its smartphones read like portable advertisements for the corporation. The Realme GT 2 smartphone, on the other hand, is reserved. From, in true Realme flair, it’s everything but conventional.
A smooth rectangle towards the top of the device has the designer of the back panel, Naoto Fukasawa’s signature. Even if you use the extraordinarily excellent, soft-touch provided case, you won’t be able to avoid the signature, which appears again, this time in gloss print.
Realme’s description says it’s a biopolymer with a cellulose component, despite the company’s explicit avoidance of the name plastic. According to the firm, using this bioplastic decreases carbon dioxide emissions in the fabrication of the backplate by “35.5%”; it should be noted, however, that Realme does not specify what baseline was used to arrive at that number.
This is one of Realme’s most attractive phones. The backplate features an embossed pattern that is pleasing to the eye and the touch, and the green color of our review phone is gorgeous. The designer’s distinctive feature doesn’t look out of place in this color scheme.
There’s not much to complain about regarding the Realme GT 2’s external hardware, although it’s missing an audio jack. The phone boasts excellent stereo speakers, one on the bottom and one above the display. The 6.6-inch screen is a perfect size for an Android enthusiast’s phone, which is what this phone is.
Display of Realme GT 2
The screen of the Realme GT 2 demonstrates the first significant difference between this phone and the more costly Realme GT 2 Pro. It has a 2400 x 1080 pixel resolution and a 120Hz AMOLED display. The Pro model offers a higher-resolution 1440p display. Of course, there is a visible difference, but the Realme GT 2 screen is still crisp. It’s also colorful, so you can control how bright it becomes.
By default, the “vivid” setting corresponds to the DCI P3 wide color gamut standard. “Natural” is closer to sRGB, and the Pro mode allows you to select between DCI P3 and the OLED panel’s native gamut for even more vibrant color saturation. It also has temperature adjustments for the colors.
This is a 120Hz display that can be downclocked to an energy 60Hz mode, and there is an Auto setting that alters the refresh rate automatically. However, it does not appear to be highly dynamic, as it cannot reduce the refresh rate below 60Hz, according to Android’s monitoring features.
When viewing the HDR video, the Realme GT 2 looks fantastic. There’s even a slider in the Display options menu that allows you to maximize luminance with HDR to highlight both the video and the screen.
The display has a peak brightness of 1300 nits, comparable to the most expensive phones on the market. Realme does not use this sort of power in direct sunshine since it would overheat the phone and ruin the battery in a short period of time. However, outdoor visibility isn’t that good, and an automated “sunlight” setting, similar to the finest OLEDs, changes color and contrast to enhance visibility in direct sunlight.
Specifications and Performance
The Realme GT 2 is powered by Android 12 and comes with the Realme UI 3.0 overlay on top. Contrary to what you might anticipate from a new Chinese brand like Realme, the os is mainly hidden.
It’s tidy; there are no bloated Realme apps pre-installed. However, just a few essential utilities like the picture viewer and music player. It does come preconfigured with
The Realme GT 2 is a compelling smartphone. It is equipped with Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 888, which will be available in early-mid 2021. It is remarkable when mid-range phones have top-tier CPUs from the previous generation since they are nearly always superior to the current mid-tier devices.
In Geekbench 5, the Realme GT 2 scores 3519, 1133 per core, equivalent to last-generation flagships like the OnePlus 9 Pro. There’s also a GT model, which promises to maximize performance at the price of battery life. In a Geekbench run using this function, the phone scored worse in GT mode, demonstrating that it is more about turning off whatever power-saving measures you may have enabled, such as 60Hz refresh, than changing the power ceiling.
Cameras of Realme GT 2
It’s not only sheer power that distinguishes the Realme GT 2 among tech enthusiasts. Even though just one of the three back cameras has it, it is a high-end CPU paired with the high-end camera hardware.
The Realme GT 2 comes with a 50-mp primary camera, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera, and a 2MP macro that is subpar like all 2MP macros. Its ultra-wide camera isn’t terrific either, but the 50-megapixel wide camera is fantastic.
It’s a big 1/1.56-inch sensor that recently outperforms the 50MP Samsung camera used in some low-cost phones, including the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11. It includes optical image stabilization and the Sony IMX766 sensor. The same components are utilized in far more costly phones such as the Oppo Find X5 Pro, Xiaomi 12, and Honor Magic 4 Pro. They may appear the same on paper, but they are not.
The ultra-wide camera likewise pales in comparison to the primary 50MP camera. While it benefits from the phone’s sound photo editing, making your images appear decent from a distance, closer scrutiny reveals problems beyond the center of the frame.
The video features are also adequate. The Realme GT 2 can record stabilized video at up to 4K quality and 60fps. The footage is clear, the motion is fluid, and the picture is detailed. It will also attempt ultra-low-light footage at 1080p resolution.
Battery life
The Realme GT 2 sports a 5,000mAh capacity with rapid charging at 65W. According to our tests, it goes from flat to complete in 43 minutes and reaches 89% in 30 minutes.
While the Realme GT 2 can go through a typical day of use. Because battery life isn’t great in the 120Hz or Auto display settings, you may need to rely on quick charging. And if you were going out for the night, you’d surely give it a top-up before leaving the house.
Conclusion
With a strong CPU, a fantastic primary camera, and a surprisingly mature design, Realme’s GT 2 delivers the goods for mid-range shoppers. It’s simply a shame that the secondary cameras aren’t as good.
That’s not to suggest you shouldn’t purchase it. However, it’s just that it’s less obvious this time. There hasn’t been much change since the original GT, with many of the same specs and the attractive vegan leather design over this new bioplastic one.
With a more excellent pricing and the entry-level model confined to the Steel Black colorway, it has a more difficult time competing with phones at a comparable or frequently cheaper price.
The absence of waterproofing, wireless charging, and the primary ultrawide and macro cameras are all letdowns. If the odd biopolymer build appeals to you, you’ll receive a well-specced phone with above battery life and fast 65W charging.
