Realme GT 2 Pro Review: Much more than expected

The Realme GT 2 Pro is currently the most expensive Realme phone sold in India, but it is one of the most affordable models you can buy with Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line processor. It has only one direct competitor and that is the Motorola Edge 30 Pro (Review).
At a starting price of Rs 49,999, the GT 2 Pro has a lot to offer, including a 2K display, fast charging, a good set of cameras, and the promise of decent gaming performance. So, is it a better option than the Moto phones? Let’s find out.

Design of Realme GT 2 Pro

The back panel of the Realme GT 2 Pro has an optional unique texture. It is said that this is an imitation to give the feel of paper products. Regarding the special material used in its back, Realme says that it has been taken from renewable sources and has been used in the white and green versions of the phone. At the same time, a common glass panel with frosted texture is available in the Steel Black variant.

After using the white unit for a few weeks, I am happy to report that the phone doesn’t suffer from any permanent stains or marks from daily use, as I thought it might. The wavy texture makes for a good grip. It also ensures that fingerprints and smudges aren’t an issue. I like the look of the matte-finished aluminium frame and the overall aesthetic of the phone, but I wish Realme had given its most expensive model a little more character to make it stand out from the rest of the phones in the portfolio.

A big selling point of the Realme GT 2 Pro is its display, which is usually found in expensive Android flagships. Its 6.7-inch AMOLED panel has a 2K (3216×1440) resolution, with a colour depth of 10-bit and a maximum brightness of 1,400 nits. It also features LTPO 2.0 technology, which means the refresh rate can vary from 1Hz to 120Hz depending on your activity. Apart from this, Realme has used Corning Gorilla Glass Victus for scratch protection. Needless to say, its display performs well for playing games and watching videos.

The Realme GT 2 Pro box contains a 65W Superdart fast charger, a USB cable, and a case.

Realme GT 2 Pro Price, Specs and Software

The base variant of Realme GT 2 Pro is priced in the range of Rs 50,000. This is the variant with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. At the same time, the variant priced at Rs 57,999 has 12GB RAM and 256GB storage and this is the variant that I have.

The Realme GT 2 Pro has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor. It supports 13 5G bands and you get DUAL 5G support for both SIMs. This should be enough for the upcoming 5G networks in India.

The phone has stereo speakers, which are Dolby Atmos certified. Like Apple’s True Tone feature, color temperature sensors have been provided on the front and back of the phone to adjust its display color (white balance). Apart from this, heart rate monitoring has been implemented in the in-display fingerprint sensor as an experimental feature.

The Realme Gt 2 Pro features a stainless steel vapor cooling chamber, which promises to prevent the phone from overheating. The software includes a GT Mode toggle, which is believed to prevent the phone’s processor from throttling to deliver better performance in heavy apps.

Two features of the phone are missing. Wireless charging and IP rating. However, there is a rubber gasket around the SIM tray to prevent water, which indicates that measures have been taken to protect the phone from water. But, Realme has not given any official guarantee. In comparison, both these features are offered in Motorola Edge 30 Pro, which can turn customers away from GT 2 Pro.

The Realme GT 2 Pro runs on Realme UI 3.0 based on Android 12. The interface looks customizable and runs smoothly. The phone has a lot of bundled apps, including the Realme Store and Community. Most of these can be uninstalled. I did not face notification spam or any other issue from Realme’s first-party apps, which surprised me.

With this phone, Realme has promised three years of Android OS updates and four years of security updates. I think this is a good way to maintain trust.

Performance and Battery Life of Realme GT 2 Pro

The Realme GT 2 Pro doesn’t feel cumbersome or bulky to carry around. Although this is said for many flagship Android phones. The phone isn’t too thick either and weighs just 189 grams, making it feel light and easy to carry. However, the glass back variant is a bit heavy, weighing 199g.

The GT 2 Pro handled popular social and productivity apps well. Its interface was always fast and fluid. I also liked that the in-display fingerprint sensor is close to the center of the display.

The phone’s display gets bright enough to make the content visible clearly. It even gets bright in direct sunlight. The display resolution was set to ‘Auto Select’ throughout my review period and I found it rendered all apps and content, including games, quite well at WQHD+ resolution.

The Realme GT 2 Pro excelled with media playback and gaming.

Videos looked great with excellent colour saturation, adequate brightness and good HDR rendering. The stereo speakers were also quite loud and sounded good. Gaming performance was also solid. Asphalt 9: Legends ran smoothly with a solid frame rate and good graphics. However, the body of the phone did get warm after playing more demanding games like Fortnite for a long time. Even when playing this game indoors, I noticed that the upper half of the frame and some parts of the back panel got very hot after about 20 minutes. After a point, I had to put a case on the phone as the heating was unbearable.

This issue wasn’t there with every game. But graphically demanding games do push the GT 2 Pro’s cooling system to its limits. The phone also performed very well in benchmarks. It got an impressive score of 972,119 points in AnTuTu.

The battery life of the phone was also quite good. I was able to use the phone for a day or a little more on a single charge. In our HD video loop test, this phone lasted for 20 hours and 41 minutes. Its 5,000mAh battery does not take much time to charge with a 65W charger. You can fully charge it in just over half an hour. That is, it charges quite fast.

Cameras of Realme GT 2 Pro

The Realme GT 2 Pro has a good set of cameras. It performs well in daylight and low light. Realme has used the Sony IMX766 50-megapixel sensor for the main rear camera. It also has a wide F/1.8 aperture with optical stabilization. It can shoot video at 24fps in 8K resolution. Autofocus was quick in daylight and landscape shots had rich detail and color. Close-up shots had excellent details with great background blur. Low-light pictures were also very good. It had less noise and more detail than average. Due to OIS, low-light close-ups were sharp and well detailed.

The Realme GT 2 Pro has an ultra-wide camera with a 50-megapixel Samsung JN1 sensor, which we saw on the OnePlus 10 Pro (Review). Ultra-wide shots had less detail and colours weren’t very accurate to real-life scenes, but barrel distortion and HDR were handled well. The camera app has a 150-degree shooting mode, like the one on the 10 Pro. This lets you take advantage of the full field of view of the lens. Low-light photos weren’t as bright as those from the main camera. There was still a lot to experiment with, though.

The third camera on the phone is a 2-megapixel sensor with a ‘micro-lens’. It lets you capture extreme close-ups at 20x or 40x magnification. This lens can be used to capture something special from everyday objects. In the ‘Microscope’ shooting mode, the phone needs to be millimeters away from its subject. Since light is an issue in such a mode, two LEDs placed above and below the micro-lens are automatically activated when using this mode. Apart from this, there are some fun filters as well.

The Realme GT 2 Pro has the same 32-megapixel Sony IMX615 sensor selfie camera as the OnePlus 10 Pro. It takes good pictures during the day and in low light. Skin smoothing is enabled by default for selfies. However, if you switch to the Natural profile, the skin tone and texture become much better.

The video recording capabilities of the Realme GT 2 Pro are also top-notch. 8K videos shot during the day and at night looked good, but the stabilisation made camera movement look a bit jerky. Videos recorded at 4K also looked very good and had smooth stabilisation. The camera app also allows you to switch between the main and ultra-wide cameras while recording at this resolution.

What is our decision

There should be no doubt that the Realme GT 2 Pro is a very good premium smartphone. In my opinion, the base variant with 8GB of RAM offers the best value. I would recommend it for the great performance, unique textured design, better battery life and cameras. However, if IP rating and wireless charging matter to you, Motorola would be a smarter choice.

The 12GB variant is less expensive than other Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 smartphones, but costs around Rs 58,000. I think options like the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G (Review) or the OnePlus 9 Pro 5G (Review) are more complete flagships and offer better value. Yes, they may lack the processor power of the GT 2 Pro, but they are ahead with features like wireless charging and official IP rating.