Realme 2 Pro review: A capable mid-tier smartphone that won’t disappoint you

Design

Realme 2 Pro looks and feels premium with rounded corners, dewdrop notch and compact form factor. The front of the smartphone is dominated by the huge 6.3-inch display with a waterdrop notch. The screen is resistant to scratches, thanks to the Corning Gorilla Glass protection on top. The dewdrop notch on top of the screen houses the selfie camera and conceals the earpiece and other sensors.

The side and top bezels are slim but the bottom bezel is relatively thicker. However, the device has a high screen-to-body ratio of 90.8% giving an impressive screen space for users to enjoy various activities.

Realme 2 Pro features a unique back design made of polycarbonate resin and it is the same material that is used for the frame too. The unique finish at the rear is said to be a result of multiple rounds of injection molding that is meant to give a satisfactory look and feel. This makes the device attractive to look and gives a comfortable feel when it is held. The Black Sea, Blue Ocean and Ice Lake color variants add more attraction to this unique dewdrop arc design.

The rear panel has a dual camera module at the top left corner with a noticeable camera bulge. The two lenses are stacked horizontally with the LED flash towards the right. There is a circular fingerprint sensor as well. The power button is at the right edge while the volume rockets and the triple SIM card tray is at the left edge. There is a micro USB charging port, a 3.5mm headphone jack and the speaker grilles at the bottom while the top remains barren.

Though the design looks unique, the rear panel is a fingerprint magnet. However, there is a silicon case bundled with the device that leaves us free from rubbing the fingerprint marks and smudges all the time. Moreover, it is a transparent case that lets us flaunt the phone's unique looks. On the whole, there is no denying that it is a premium-looking mid-tier smartphone.

Display

The Realme 2 Pro has an impressive display with ample screen space. The device bestows a large 6.3-inch LCD display with a FHD+ resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels. The screen has a dewdrop notch on top as mentioned above and an aspect ratio of 19.5:9. The ample screen space results in a high screen-to-body ratio of 90.8%. Though there is a super large screen, the device is still compact when it is held, thanks to the dewdrop design and slim bezels. As mentioned above, there is Gorilla Glass protection that keeps the display protected all the time.

The screen is capable of reproducing crisp and vibrant colors and it is eye-catching. Eventually, the device is well suited for multimedia applications. It is quite visible even under direct sunlight. With the maximum brightness, I didn't have any issue in viewing the contents of the display. Given the price point of this smartphone, the impressive screen is definitely a favorable one for this smartphone. However, the one thing that I didn't like about the screen is the waterdrop notch. A notch-less design would have been much better and made the device distinct from the other latest offerings.

While this display with an ample screen space and impressive color reproduction is suitable for multimedia use, the downside is that it lacks the Widevine L1 support. On checking, we got to see that it comes with L3 support so it cannot be used to playback HD content on Netlfix and other services.

Performance

The Realme 2 Pro makes use of an octa-core Snapdragon 660 AIE. This processor is paired with Adreno 512 GPU, 4GB/6GB/8GB RAM and 64GB/128GB (UFS 2.1) storage space. There is a dedicated microSD card slot supporting up to 256GB of expandable storage. Notably, the Snapdragon processor comes with Qualcomm All-Ways Aware sensor hub, digital signal processing, Bluetooth searching, WiFi searching, low power consumption mode and more that make it extremely efficient. The processor renders high performance and consumes low power. Also, there is an inbuilt AI engine to render a real AI experience.

Having mentioned the technical aspects, let's move on to the real-life usage and performance. During my usage, it managed the daily gaming, multitasking and multimedia usage pretty well. The multitasking was swift without any delay or lag during switching between apps. I tried games like Asphalt 8 and Shadow Fight 3 and there was no lag in the performance. What's cool is that the high graphics ran smoothly without a clutter.

Going to the numbers, the Realme 2 Pro scored 1439 and 5483 points respectively in the single-core and multi-core tests on Geekbench. This is pretty much impressive for a smartphone at this price point. In the AnTuTu benchmark test, it scored 114335 points.

Overall, the device renders a great performance and is capable of handling any task that is thrown at it. However, there is very minimal heating on subjecting it to intensive tasks but it is negligible. And, sometimes, when many apps are open, the gaming apps with heavy graphics take a little while to boot but that isn't a serious issue.

Talking about the Face Unlock and fingerprint sensor performance, both the security features work pretty efficiently. They are snappy in recognizing and unlocking the device. I didn't find any issue in using these two features.

Dual real cameras

Realme 2 Pro flaunts an AI dual camera with a 16MP 1/2.8-inch Sony IMX398 primary sensor and a 2MP secondary sensor. These sensors have f/1.7 and f/2.2 aperture for improved bokeh performance. The camera has AI capabilities such as portrait mode, noise reduction, AI scene recognition, AR stickers, AI Album and more. The camera supports 4K video capture at 30fps with features such as EIS. The AI integration of the Snapdragon 660 AIE comes to play while we edit images and videos captured by the device, browse the gallery and more.

Given that there is 4K video recording with EIS, it is definitely a good option. It is interesting to see the Expert mode that was missing in the Realme 2. On the performance front, the camera does a good job considering that it is a mid-range smartphone. The photos look good under well-lit and bright lighting conditions but when it comes to the low-light performance, the result is slightly pixelated and blurred. The shutter speed is fast and the colors appear clear and vivid. And, the bokeh effect isn't too impressive but it on par with the effect rendered by rivals in this price point.

Selfie camera

Moving to the selfie camera, it is a 16MP sensor with f/2.0 aperture. It captures enough light to click bright selfie shots. And, there is AI beauty 2.0 that can recognize 296 facial points to make the selfies look better. The software-based selfie portrait mode eliminates the background in the selfies keeping the subject as the prime focus. However, the selfies clicked with the AI portrait mode turned on appear to have a little overexposed and washed out effect.

Software

The smartphone runs Android 8.1 Oreo topped by the company's ColorOS 5.2 UI. Notably, the device will get the Android 9 Pie update as the company's CEO announced that all the Realme phones will get the latest iteration of the OS. There are customizations and optimizations to some extent but that doesn't seem to affect the performance of the device to a great extent. There are some preloaded apps but the features of this UI outweighs the drawbacks.

There are interesting features such as Clone apps, Game Space for an uninterrupted gaming experience, an array of security features, Smart Driving, Google Assistant, screen and audio recording, custom timer, Oroaming for frequent travelers and more for an enhanced user experience.

Battery and connectivity

Realme 2 Pro uses a 3500mAh battery that is touted to render 2-day battery life, thanks to the power efficient Snapdragon 660 AIE under its hood. And, there is a Power Saving mode as well. The device manages to render a long-lasting battery life with this specification. I could get over 1 day of battery life on a single change with 4G VoLTE or Wi-Fi turned on all the time. Also, apps like Saavn were frequently used and games were also played without too much battery drain.

On the connectivity front, the smartphone comes with dual-SIM support, dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other standard features.

Verdict

The Realme 2 Pro is an impressive mid-tier smartphone that renders a decent overall performance. It renders a fast and efficient performance, decent camera capabilities, a vibrant display, long-lasting battery life, a unique design and ample storage space without burning a hole in your pocket. If you want a smartphone priced under Rs. 20,000 with above average performance, then you can choose to buy this one.