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Realme has established itself as one of the leading smartphone manufacturers in Asia, within a short amount of time. And unlike OnePlus, Realme has many super successful low-to-mid-tier models in its portfolio. And now, Realme is finally stepping into flagship-territory with the release of Realme X2 Pro.
Going through the Realme X2 Pro’s specs sheet and finding the price tag at the bottom reminds us of OnePlus’ old Flagship killer. The X2 Pro can easily take on with Xiaomi’s Mi 9T Pro & a couple of other reasonably-priced top-tier handsets.
The X2 Pro offers a long list of features for 1/3rd the price of an iPhone 11 Pro. It includes the Snapdragon 855+ Chipset, an OLED screen, a multi-camera array, and more. Yes, there are phones in this price bracket, but the X2 Pro does some things that set it apart.
Contents
Unboxing & Specifications | Realme X2 Pro
The Realme X2 Pro comes in a rather modest box with the following in it.
- User Manuals;
- SIM Ejector Tool;
- A TPU case;
- A 50W Super VOOC Charging Brick; and
- A USB-A to USB-C Cable.
Now coming to the specifications –
- Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ (1+3+4);
- RAM: 6GB | 8GB | 12GB;
- GPU: Adreno 640 Overclocked by 100Mhz;
- Display: 6.5″ SuperAMOLED | 90Hz | HDR10+ | 1080 x 2400px resolution | 20:9 Aspect Ratio | ~402ppi;
- Rear Cameras:
- Primary: 64MP | f/1.8 | PDAF;
- Ultra-Wide: 8MP | f/2.2 | PDAF;
- Telephoto: 13MP | f/2.5 | PDAF | 2x Optical Zoom;
- Depth Sensor: 2MP.
- Front Camera: 16MP | f/2.0;
- Connectivity: Dual-SIM | Wi-Fi 5 | Wi-Fi Direct | Bluetooth 5.1 | GPS;
- Miscellanous: Under-Display Fingerprint reader | Stereo Loudspeakers | NFC | 3.5mm Audio Jack;
- Battery: 4000mAh | 50W SuperVOOC Flash Charging | 18W USB-PD | QC 4.0+;
- Dimensions: 161 x 75.7 x 8.7 mm | 199g | Gorilla Glass 5 – Front & Back;
- OS: Android 9 Pie | ColorOS 6.1
- Storage: 64GB UFS 2.0 | 128GB & 256GB UFS 3.0.
Learn More about the Full Specifications at GSMArena
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Design | Realme X2 Pro
The phone feels nothing short of premium despite its low price. The build feels like other flagships, that is, two sheets of glass pieced together by an aluminum frame. At first, though, it does feel like plastic, and that is probably due to the finish. The two sheets of glass at the front and rear is Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5.
However, no matter how you wield the phone, the glass back is slippery and gets smudged easily. Not to forget to mention that it’s a fingerprint magnet as well. In addition to all this is the camera bump. The camera bump is very prominent with the quad-camera array and wobbles a bit when placed flat on its back.
At the front is a tall 6.5″ notch display sporting a resolution of 1080 x 2400px with an aspect ratio of 20:9. Also, the corners of the phone are rounded enough, while the teardrop notch doesn’t protrude much by any means. And, we’re pretty sure that this is the very same panel as the OnePlus 7T because putting both side-by-side yields hardly any difference at all.
On the right side is the power button with a golden accent color along with the SIM tray. We find the volume rocker on the other side. The top is reserved for the noise-canceling microphone. Whereas, the 3.5mm headphone jack, the primary mic, and the USB-C connector are located at the bottom.
Overall, the phone feels very premium and solidly built. It is a bit on the thicker and heavier side, but that’s ok.
Display | Realme X2 Pro
We already pointed out in the design section that the Realme X2 Pro is possibly using the same notched OLED display as the OnePlus 7T. The diagonal measurement checks out at 6.5″, as well as the resolution of 1080x2400px. Besides, the aspect ratio at 20.9 and refresh rate at 90Hz also check out, and the notch with rounded corners also looks identical.
But, the screen itself is a little less bright when compared to the 7T. This must be due to the controller itself. It gets to about 500nits with the brightness slider set to maximum, while the Max Auto gets to about 708nits. Maybe the advertised 1000nits of brightness is achieved only for a small portion of the screen since it supports HDR10+.
Coming to color accuracy, the default color mode isn’t as impressive, but switching to the Gentle mode produces much better results. Also, note that there’s a blue-ish tint in the whites.
Apart from the above, there’s also the option to set your refresh rates between 60Hz and 90Hz. You’d think that this would help in conserving battery, but according to battery tests, it won’t.
Performance | Realme X2 Pro
Powering the Realme X2 Pro is Qualcomm’s latest and greatest. The Snapdragon 855+ SoC has an octa-core configuration fabricated on TSMC’s 7nm EUV process. It has more than enough juice to handle pretty much everything you can throw at it. The octa-core chipset consists of four big Kryo 485 cores, of which one is clocked at 2.96Ghz while the other three at 2.42Ghz. And the four efficient-cores are Kryo 485s running at 1.8Ghz to take care of less demanding applications.
Accompanying the CPU is the Adreno 640 GPU, which is now clocked at 700Mhz (100Mhz higher than the SD855). Then there’s 12GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.0 internal storage.
The Snapdragon 855+ performs as per expectations aside from the albeit lower CPU scores in Geekbench. While in terms of GPU, the handset performs on par with the competition. However, single-core benchmarks show that the Exynos 9820 and 9825 are faster with Samsung’s physically bigger cores. In multi-threaded loads, though, both should be just about on par.
Loudspeakers
The X2 Pro comes with stereo loudspeakers. One of them sits at the bottom, while the other doubles as the earpiece. Both the speakers are also Dolby Atmos tuned and are one of the loudest ones among the bunch. The volume output is very impressive, while the sound quality isn’t half bad either.
Cameras | Realme X2 Pro
One of the centerpiece features of the phone is the Quad-camera setup. Of the four, three are usable, since the fourth one is a depth sensor. However, the good news is that the other three make up for a pretty versatile camera experience.
The Primary Sensor is Samsung’s brand new ISOCELL Bright GW1 64MP sensor that supports native pixel-binning and thus outputs 16MP images. At 1/1.7″ with 0.8µm pixels, it is one of the largest sensors to ever be in a smartphone. It is coupled with an f/1.8 aperture lens.
The second sharpshooter is a 13MP sensor with f/2.5 aperture and capable of 2x optical zoom. Lastly, the ultra-wide camera gets an 8MP sensor with f/2.2 aperture. Besides, all the cameras have Auto-focus, a feature that is still very difficult to find in high-end smartphones. At the front sits a 16MP selfie snapper on the notch with an aperture of f/2.0.
Battery Life & Charging
Now moving on to the battery, the Realme X2 Pro features a 4000mAh Lithium-Polymer battery. The 4000mAh battery is nowadays somewhat of an industry-norm. Our opinion about the battery is that you would want such minimum battery capacity on a flagship. But numbers are just there to help you narrow down on the specs. Often, software optimization is the real kingmaker in battery life tests and longevity.
According to GSMArena, the Realme X2 Pro delivers on the promise of a better than average battery life at 94hrs. We’d say that 94hrs is more than good enough since, when you couple the superfast 50W SuperVOOC charging, you get some insane charge times. And as it turns out, Realme’s claim of 0-100% in 35mins was conservative. The phone did the 0-100% test in 30mins, flat. But this charging speed comes at the cost of warmer temperatures during charging. Also, the included USB-A to USB-C cable is SuperVOOC compliant.
It is subjective though on how the batteries will last since, Li-ion and Li-Po batteries don’t like heat. And being subjected to frequent heating does take away from the longevity of these batteries.
Now, on a more optimistic note, the phone also supports the USB-PD and QC 4.0+ up to 18W. This means that in case of a battery shortage, you can top it up with any USB-PD compliant charger at a respectable 18W.
Colors & Pricing
The Realme X2 Pro will be available in 4 colors.
- Lunar White
- Neptune Blue
- Red Master Edition
- Gray Master Edition
The phone is expected to be available in 3 variants.
- 6GB | 64GB UFS 2.0
- 8GB | 128GB UFS 3.0
- 12GB | 256GB UFS 3.0
The Realme X2 Pro will be on sale in China from October 18. It comes at CNY2,699, which is $380 for the 6GB/64 GB model. The 8GB/128 GB version costs CNY2,899, which is $410. You will be paying CNY3,299 or $465 for the top model with 12GB|256GB. The Master Edition comes in a singular configuration of 12GB|256GB. The price for the master edition though is the same as the regular variant.
Conclusion
What we could conclude from all this is that the only element of the Realme X2 Pro that needs to be improved is the camera. You can get a better camera experience at around the same price of € 400-500, depending on the storage setup. But, once you add most of the features to the mix, you can hardly do anything better than the Realme. It ticks all the right boxes in one neat package.
As for the price bracket, it is an offer that is hard to deny. The Realme X2 Pro is really a no brainer for the value it offers.
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