Design of Realme 2
Contents
Just like Realme 1, Realme 2 also has a fiberglass body. The back panel of the handset has a glossy diamond-cut design. The back of the smartphone has 15 tangent plane curves that reflect light in different ways. Due to fiberglass, the back panel is easily scratched and fingerprinted. There is a notch display on the front panel, the border of Realme 2 is very thin compared to the rival handsets available in the market. The frame of Realme 2 may be made of plastic but still the phone is very strong. You will find a dual rear camera setup on the back panel and a fingerprint sensor has been provided for security. The name of the company Realme is written on the back panel. As we told you earlier, Realme has separated from Oppo and has now become a separate brand. This is the reason why Oppo’s logo was present on the back panel of Realme 1, which you will not see in Realme 2.
Realme 1 does not have a fingerprint sensor on the back panel for security. Face recognition technology has been used in this handset. After receiving feedback from customers, the company has added fingerprint sensor in Realme 2. The sad thing is that the fingerprint sensor present in Realme 2 works slowly and we faced problem in registering fingerprint for the first time. Like Realme 1, Realme 2 also has face recognition support, it works accurately but it is not that effective in low light.
The left side of Realme 2 has volume up and down buttons and a SIM tray. You can insert two nano SIM cards and a microSD card if you want. The power button is given on the right side of the phone. The button is quite small but at the same time it is also quite hard, due to which you may have some difficulty in pressing it. A single loudspeaker is given along with the micro-USB port. The handset went on sale for the first time on September 4, it will be available in Diamond Red and Diamond Black colors. We have the Black color variant for review, as you can see in the pictures. The Diamond Blue variant will be available from October.
Realme 2 Specifications and Display
Realme 2 uses an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 chipset. Let us tell you that you will also find this processor in Xiaomi Redmi 5 and Honor 7C. The price of 3 GB / 32 GB variant of Realme 2 is Rs 8,990. The price of 4 GB RAM and 64 GB variant is Rs 10,990. The color variant is good at this price but its back panel looks very dull and reflective. With the help of microSD card, the storage can be increased up to 256 GB. The maximum brightness is also affected in outdoor light.
Realme 2 has a 4,230 mAh battery for power backup. The company claims that it gives backup for 15 hours of video playback, 18 hours of music and 10 hours of gaming. Realme 2 will run on ColorOS 5.1 based on Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box. Connectivity features include 4G VoLTE, single-band 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS / A-GPS, GLONASS, Micro-USB and 3.5 mm headphone jack. It has a 6.2-inch HD + IPS display, whose aspect ratio is 19: 9. To protect from scratches, this handset is equipped with Corina Gorilla Glass 3.
Realme 2 performance, software and battery life
Realme 2 is capable of watching videos on YouTube, clicking pictures, web browsing and using social media applications with ease. While playing Asphalt 9, frame drops were seen at times. One good thing about this phone is that it does not heat up. During the review, we found that the phone slows down a bit when multitasking on Realme 2. Benchmark scores are average. Realme 2 got 76,929 points on AnTuTu benchmark score, 5,166 points in PC Mark Work 2.0. 12 frames per second in GFXBench Manhattan 3.1 and 32 frames per second in GFXBench T-Rex. Realme 2 scored 793 in single core and 3,882 in multi core test.
The dual-sim Realme 2 runs on ColorOS 5.1 based on Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box. The handset has received the July security patch. The smartphone will not have an app drawer, the Google Now panel has been replaced by a custom screen. On the screen you will see the temperature, how many steps you have walked, latest photos, favorite contacts. The user interface needs to be simplified. The settings app is quite confusing and cluttered. ColorOS is equipped with many features like dual apps, shortcut for taking screenshots with three fingers, theming apps and lockscreen gestures. Realme has also added the ‘Notch Full Screen Multitasking’ feature to the handset. This feature shows shortcuts to recently used apps. Turns off notifications and also gives the start screen recording option on the side of the notch.
The WiFi assistant switches between WiFi and cellular data very easily. The smart driving feature will automatically turn on the Do Not Disturb mode while you are driving. Realme 2 has a 4,230 mAh battery which comes with ‘AI Power Master’. Due to the dim, low-res display and Snapdragon 450 processor, the battery life of Realme 2 is quite good. In the HD video loop test, Realme 2 gave a backup of 17 hours 30 minutes. Even after using the phone normally throughout the day, 40-50 percent battery was present. In the retail box, you will get a 10-watt standard charger of Oppo brand, which is capable of fully charging the phone in 3 hours.
Camera of Realme 2
Realme 2 will have a dual rear camera setup. The primary sensor is 13 megapixels, which comes with F/2/.2 aperture. The secondary camera is 2 megapixels. On the front panel, you will get an 8 megapixel selfie camera, whose aperture is F/2.2. There is a single LED flash on the back panel. In the camera app, you will get panorama, time lapse and 28 AR stickers. The dynamic range of the camera is quite poor. The colors are not captured properly in the picture taken at night. The rear camera is capable of clicking decent photos when there is sufficient light. The quality of the picture taken during the portrait shot is average, while the picture taken at night appeared blurry.
The artificial intelligence selfie camera can easily detect skin tone, skin type, age, gender. Realme claims that there are 8 million beauty reference points in their database. The front camera of Realme 2 takes decent photos in adequate light, but the quality of photos in low light is not that good. The sensor present in the phone is capable of capturing bokeh shots with the help of software algorithms. We did not like Realme’s AI beautification feature very much because it gives a watercolor-like effect to the photo. The rear and front cameras of the phone can record videos at 1080p.
Our verdict
The battery life, unique design, microSD card slot and build quality of Realme 2 are quite good. The performance and display of the phone are decent, while the camera provides average quality in pictures. The fingerprint sensor present on the back panel works at a slow speed. If you are looking for a smartphone in this budget range, then the cheaper variants of Xiaomi Redmi 5 (Review) and Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 are better options. As soon as Realme 2 was launched, the cheapest variant of Realme 1 was discontinued. Let us tell you that the price of this variant of Realme 1 was Rs 8,990. If you can increase your budget a little, then we would advise you to buy the cheaper variant of Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1. Apart from this, if you want, you can buy the 4 GB / 64 GB variant of Realme 1. The price of this handset is Rs 10,990. This variant comes with a more powerful and high resolution display than Realme 2.
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