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BARCELONA (Pocket-lint) – Realme chose to announce its GT 2 Pro at Mobile World Congress 2022 – a show held in Barcelona, Spain, one of the beating heart cities of Europe. Which is apt, as the GT 2 Pro is the very first handset to market in this region that ships with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 inside.
Sure, Qualcomm’s flagship platform was announced back in December 2021 and plenty of phone-makers have jumped aboard to use the latest and greatest inside their forthcoming devices – but none have yet managed to get one to market in Europe. Samsung went with its own Exynos silicon in the Galaxy S22 series, Oppo’s Find X5 Pro won’t arrive until later, while others are still behind in the line.
In the meantime, Realme is looking to grab attention not only with this Snapdragon “first”, but also a very keen asking price indeed. Which, starting at £599 in the UK (€749 in Europe), ought to get many looking for an affordable flagship wanting to know more…
Design & Display
- 6.7-inch AMOLED panel, 3216 x 1440 resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, 1400 nits max brightness
- Dimensions: 163.2 x 74.7 x 8.2mm / Weight: 189-199g (colour dependent)
- Finishes: Paper White, Paper Green, Steel Black, Titanium Blue
- Bio-polymer rear panel, Gorilla Glass Victus front
Realme has gone with a whole different angle when it comes to design of the GT 2 Pro, collaborating with Naoto Fukasawa, a renowned Japanese industrial designer. That’s why his scribbly logo sits pride of place on the rear of the handset, next to the all-lower-case Realme logo. We’d rather it was cleaner in this regard, after all this is a phone not a birthday card.
The design has some other unusual aspects about it too: the power button sits solo on the right-hand side of the handset (screen facing), while the volume up/down keys are on the left-hand side opposite – which is unusual for an Android handset these days.
On the rear there are various finishes available, here shown in so-called Paper Green. Apparently the design was inspired by paper folds, while the green is a more minty colour than the deeper hues that have been typical from other makers in the last 12 months or so. Certainly can’t say that Realme isn’t cutting its own design path, whatever you make of the design aesthetic.
That rear has a subtly textured finish, too, so it has a grippy quality about it. Only the transparent camera enclosure and the raised logo/signature areas segregate from this more tactile finish, adding more contour to the look. Those cameras are dark black circles, a la iPhone 13 series, but don’t protrude to excess from the rear – which we like.
With so many flagship handsets these days of considerable scale, the GT 2 Pro does a good job of delivering a slender and lightweight look. It’s a refreshing feel and certainly won’t weigh down a pocket or bag to excess.
The screen is a large scale, with lots of flagship-level spec points to shout about: it’s high resolution, it’s OLED (so peak whites and deep blacks are a given), and the maximum brightness here is really impressive.
Hardware & Software
- Android 12 operating system, Realme UI 3.0 interface
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 platform
- 12GB RAM (+3GB-7GB RAM expansion)
- 256GB storage, no microSD slot
- 5000mAh battery, 65W charge
As we said up top, however, it’s the interior that gives the GT 2 Pro one of its major sell points. Our review handset comes with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and 12GB RAM – which is expanded by 3GB using the on-board memory, and can even be pushed to an additional 5GB or 7GB if you prefer (ever heard of a phone with 19GB RAM? Us neither!).
At this stage we’ve not been putting the GT Pro 2 through its paces, uses it as a second “playphone” while at MWC 2022 in Barcelona. The software seems very snappy to us thus far, though, loading screens and apps with ease – even if we haven’t dug in too deep as yet to see how that battery life fares and whether there are any heat issues owed to design and processor choices.
This model also features 256GB storage, which is plenty, but you can’t expand upon that with microSD – as there’s no slot available. That’s increasingly typical of flagship devices these days, but you might want to think twice before buying the 128GB option instead.
Elsewhere there’s a 5000mAh battery, which is an impressive capacity in such a slender body, with a 65W fast-charger included in the box – that’s both plug and cable, which is an increasing rarity these days. That’s not the fastest charging system available, but it’s still plenty quick enough to top up the battery.
Cameras
- Triple rear camera:
- Main (26mm): 50-megapixel, f/1.8 aperture, 1.0µm pixel size, optical image stabilisation (OIS), phase-detection autofocus (PDAF)
- Ultra-wide (150-degrees): 50MP, f/2.2
- ‘Microscope’ (40x mag): 3MP, f/3.0
- Front-facing camera (26mm): 32MP, f/2.4, 0.8µm
In terms of camera specification the Realme GT 2 Pro continues with its largely high-spec flag-waving, offering a pair of 50-megapixel sensors to cater for the main and wide-angle options.
There’s no zoom lens, though, it’s instead a “microscope” offering that’s much lower resolution, at 3-megapixels. Although it’s a bit of a gimmick, it is actually a lot of fun to use. You hold the camera lens to more or less touch the subject and it’ll use the torch to illuminate and show things in ultimate close-up detail – the threads of your jeans appearing like hedgerows, for example – that makes it enjoyable to play around with. Not especially useful, though, so we’d rather have a zoom.
When it comes to the main camera, the sensor on board is a decent choice (Sony IMX766), offering capable stills, including night mode and all manner of other options from within the Camera app. There’s optical stabilisation too (something the microscope cameras lacks and makes it hard to use) which is an essential for low-light shooting.
On the front is a 32MP camera in a single punch-hole that’s pushed towards the corner of the screen, rather than popping out front and centre. It’s a pretty neat look, so long as apps don’t awkwardly load in this area of course.
Whether you like the design or not, Realme’s GT 2 Pro has a lot of positives going for it, from its flagship-grade innards and Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 ‘first’, to capable (and quirky) cameras. It might not be the biggest brand name across Europe right now, but with pricing this keen it’s hard to not pay attention to what is, in many respects, a very capable offering – the kind of OnePlus competitor that so few have been able to quite master.
Writing by Mike Lowe.
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