Review of Realme X2

We knew since September last year that Realme will launch its Realme XT 730G smartphone in the Indian market before the end of 2019. And that happened. It came to the market with the name Realme X2. It has been launched in the market as a response to Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 8 Pro, which is the most powerful phone in the price segment of Rs 20,000 today. The name of Realme X2 seems to indicate that it is a variant of Realme X2 Pro. But it is not so. It is a powerful avatar of Realme XT.

The Realme X2 is priced around the same as the Realme XT (Review), but comes with a more powerful processor, faster charging, and a higher-resolution front camera. On paper, it looks like an upgrade. But the most appealing feature is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G processor for gaming enthusiasts. This processor is claimed to offer better graphics performance than the Snapdragon 730. It also outperforms the Snapdragon 710 and Snapdragon 712. The Realme X2 is the first smartphone in its segment to come with this processor. This has been possible due to Realme’s aggressive pricing.

If you are one of those people who are looking for a great smartphone under Rs 20,000, then you will also have the same question in your mind that is Realme X2 worth buying? Let’s find out…

Realme X2 design

The design of Realme X2 is very similar to Realme XT and not like Realme X2 Pro. If both the phones are kept together, it is very difficult to differentiate between them. If you buy the Pearl Green variant, then it is very different. Because this color variant has come only for Realme X2 till now. The color trim has a glossy frame, while the rest of the color variants come with a matte finish. The build quality and finish are excellent. The phone does not slip much.
The screen is quite large. In such a situation, it is not easy to use the phone with one hand. The position of the buttons is good. The position of the ports is the same as the old Realme phone. The speaker, USB Type-C port and headphone socket are at the bottom. Realme X2 has support for microSD card. Apart from this, there are two nano SIM slots.

The 6.4-inch full-HD+ (1080×2340 pixels) display given in the smartphone is the same as seen in Realme XT. It is a Super AMOLED panel and has an in-display fingerprint sensor. There is Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for protection on the display. Realme has provided the same glass on the back. The camera layout of Realme X2 is similar to Realme XT. Which is quite raised. But the cover given in the retail box removes this shortcoming.

The contents of the box are the same. You will get a SIM eject tool, USB Type-C cable, a cover and a fast charger. This Realme phone supports VOOC Flash Charge 4.0. That is, 30 watt fast charging. Actually, this is the same Warp Charge 30T charger that comes with the new OnePlus 7T series phones. In fact, when we used Realme’s charger in our OnePlus 7T Pro McLaren Edition, the phone recognized it as a Warp charger.

Realme X2 price, specifications and software

The most attractive feature of Realme X2 is the processor. It has Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G processor which we have seen in phones like Samsung Galaxy A80 and Oppo Reno 2. Both the phones are priced above Rs 30,000. In such a situation, keeping the price of the phone below Rs 20,000 is an achievement for the company.

Three variants of Realme X2 have been launched in India – 4GB RAM with 64GB storage (Rs. 16,999), 6GB RAM with 128GB storage (Rs. 17,999) and 8GB RAM with 128GB storage (Rs. 19,999). All variants use LPDDR4X RAM. Connectivity features include dual-band Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 5, three satellite navigation systems and common sensors.

Realme X2 comes with ColorOS 6.1. The review unit had the October 2019 security patch. It is expected that the company will provide an update soon. We have also come across software features in Realme X2 Pro. You will get Google’s Digital Wellbeing feature, system wide dark mode and many gestures and shortcuts. Many apps are pre-installed. Of these, only third-party apps can be removed. We have told you about these features in detail in the review of Realme X2 Pro, Realme 5 Pro and Realme XT.

Realme X2 performance and battery life

We got the 8GB model of the Realme X2 for review. As expected, Android ran very smooth. The in-display fingerprint sensor performs authentication very quickly. You get a few different animation styles for the fingerprint position indicator. Face recognition also works well and you will be able to use it even in low light. There is no notification LED, but you can get useful information like time and alerts through the always-on display.

We did not get any complaints of the phone heating up. Despite using the camera for a long time outdoors, the back of the phone did not heat up. Realme X2 gave solid performance in gaming. For testing, we played games with powerful graphics like PUBG Mobile, Asphalt 9: Legends and Arena of Valour. These ran very smoothly and the phone did not heat up too much. The phone also got good scores in benchmark tests.

Realme X2 also performs well in terms of audio quality. It has only one speaker. But it comes with Dolby Atmos enhancement. This boosts the mid-range and low frequencies. Watching videos on a big screen is a different kind of fun. This is due to punchy colors, excellent viewing angles and satisfactory brightness.

Despite heavy usage, Realme X2 lasted for almost a day after full charge. Its battery is 4,000 mAh. This phone did not give very good results in HD video loop test. In the test, Realme X2 gave up in 13 hours and 11 minutes.

The charging speed was commendable. We were able to charge the Realme X2 from zero to 60 percent in just half an hour. It took an hour to charge the phone to 95 percent. This is possible due to the VOOC Flash Charge 4.0 feature and the 30-watt charger provided in the retail box.

Realme X2 cameras

In Realme X2, you will get a 32 megapixel selfie camera. Its aperture is F/2.0. The camera shoots normal selfies in native resolution. But in portrait mode, the pixels get bound and go to 8 megapixels.

When we used the front camera in good lighting, we found the image quality to be excellent. There was no lack of detail. Colours were accurate and exposure was generally balanced. Even when we shot in contrasting lighting conditions, we found that HDR worked well. Our face and background were well exposed. Selfies in low light were of very average quality. Noise was clearly visible in the images and there was also a lack of detail.

It is possible to use Nightscape mode with the selfie camera on the Realme X2. It fixes the exposure in low light areas. But it needs work. The screen flash is bright and proves to be effective in lighting up the face.

With Realme X2, you will be able to shoot selfie videos at 1080p. In good light, details are captured well. Colours are natural. Videos are stabilised. But there is a little distortion due to electronic stabilisation. You cannot turn it off. There is a new Bokeh mode for selfie videos. It works well, even if there are two faces in the frame. It shows you the background blur effect in real time. Selfie videos are not recorded the best in low light. But satisfactory videos are recorded in artificial lightning.

The rear camera setup in this is the same as that of Realme XT. You will get a 64-megapixel primary camera with f / 1.8 aperture. Apart from this, there is also an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera, a 2-megapixel depth sensor and a 2-megapixel macro camera. The camera app has the same features that we have found in Realme X2 Pro. You will also be able to shoot videos with the wide-angle camera. There is also an ‘Ultra Steady’ shooting mode. You can also decide the level of blur during portrait shoot and video.

Realme has talked about providing ‘Super Nightscape Portrait’ shooting mode which will be available through software update in future. As the name suggests, this feature will allow using Nightscape mode in portrait shots. Hopefully this feature will prove to be interesting.

The 64-megapixel primary camera takes 16-megapixel photos by default. During testing, image quality was excellent. The edges of objects appeared sharp and well defined. There was no lack of detail and HDR worked well. There was a little noise at the edges of each frame. But this is visible only when zooming in. Sometimes there was an autofocus problem with close-up objects. But this was not the case all the time.

We were also satisfied with the portrait mode results. The depth camera detected edges well. There was no lack of sharpness and detail on our subject’s face. The macro camera is useful. But the details don’t always come out great. Also, you need enough light to take good shots. The wide-angle camera was also useful. There wasn’t much barrel distortion visible. Details and colours were good. But it can’t be compared to the performance of the primary camera. The sensor is not of much use in low light. Details were very weak. Exposure was poor, even in nightscape.

We found that the quality of 1080p videos at 20fps from the primary camera was top-notch. The electronic stabilisation worked well. There was no shimmer in the video recording output while walking in daylight. The Realme X2 also lets you shoot 4K videos, but without stabilisation. The ‘Ultra Steady’ mode showed us very smooth videos in the viewfinder, but there was noticeable jerk in the recorded videos. There was noticeable grain in dark areas in low light.

Verdict
The Realme X2 really takes the success of the Realme XT forward. It is another great all-rounder smartphone under Rs 20,000. It makes more sense to buy this smartphone over the Realme XT or the Realme X (Review) today because you get the software of the Realme X2 Pro along with hardware upgrades for just a little more money. The Realme X2 has a dewdrop notch. If this design is not to your liking, you can opt for the Realme X which comes with a notch-less design and has a pop-up selfie camera.

Video quality could be a little better in low light. There is no FM radio, which was part of the Realme XT. Apart from this, you get a good display, excellent battery life, fast charging, capable cameras and strong gaming performance. Even if you are not a gaming fanatic, the Realme X2 is the best Realme phone under Rs 20,000.