Realme 2 Pro Review: A Worthy Debut Device?

Realme 2 Pro Review: A Worthy Debut Device?

Realme, the sub-brand of the popular brand — OPPO, is set to launch its products here in the country very soon. Targeting young people, their main message is “Proud to be Young”.  As you all know, we had the privilege to head to Jakarta, Indonesia a couple of weeks ago, to get an early look at a device that could possibly edge out some of the competition in the very challenging mid-range scene here in the Philippines with the Realme 2 Pro. After having spent some time with the device, we’d like to share our thoughts on this smartphone and let you know if it’s worth keeping an eye out for when they finally make it available in the country.

Evident Traces of the Parent Brand

We’re not going to beat around the bush here.

The Realme 2 Pro definitely hasn’t deviated much from its parent brand’s offerings; down to material choice and general ergonomics. It’s not necessarily a bad thing since OPPO does have everything down pat and we’re glad to see that the know-how has been passed on to its sub-brand as well.

While the similarities to its cousins in the OPPO F series can be seen in its general design, the Dewdrop finish on the back of the Realme 2 Pro does give it a unique luster to set it apart. It’s a little hard to see with the color variant that was handed to us so, if you like the look, choose something other than black.

The Ice Lake color variant of the Realme 2 Pro taken during the Jakarta launch.

Whatever you choose to go with, we definitely encourage you to keep the case on the Realme 2 Pro on as much as you can to prevent its polycarbonate plastic build from getting scuffed up in your bag or if you mistakenly put it in the same pocket as your keys.

A Great All-Around Panel

For the display, the Realme 2 Pro has a 6.3-inch Full HD+ LTPS Dewdrop Display. They call it a Dewdrop Display simply because of the notch it has on top of its screen, which is again very similar to the one found on the OPPO F9. We like it that it gives you a much larger screen-to-body ratio but, as we all know, not a lot of content has been adapted to this aspect ratio just yet, so remember to go into the phone’s setting to make sure that It doesn’t block the UI in the games you play.

Aside from that, the panel actually performs quite well for day-to-day use. Consuming content on the Realme 2 Pro has been enjoyable. It has generous viewing angles for sharing and colors are pretty much what you’d expect from a device of this caliber.

You’re going to want to keep the volume to around the 80 percent mark, however, as we did observe some distortion beyond that. It’s best to use a pair of earphones or pair it with Bluetooth speakers if you’re sharing your tunes.

The Snapdragon 660 Is One of the Best

With all the mid-range processors out in the market today, we can confidently say that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 belongs in the Top 3. Its number-crunching capabilities are definitely enough for everything you need for your typical range of social apps. Our review unit also came paired with 8GB of RAM, which is definitely more than enough to handle bouncing around multiple apps if you needed to plus you’ve got 128GB of storage to play around with for all your downloads and media.

We’re pretty sure a lot of you are here to see how it does in the gaming department and, thankfully, I think many will be pleased with what the Realme 2 Pro has to offer.

PUBG Mobile Benchmarks
Asphalt 9 Benchmarks
Vainglory 5v5 Benchmarks

We were able to max out the median frame rates for all the games we tried out with this device with all the settings (except for PUBG) set to maximum. We should have a gaming review for you guys up very soon, so make sure you’re subscribed to the YouTube channel to really see how it handles all of these games.

ColorOS is Still ColorOS

With Realme’s parent company being OPPO, they threw in the same UI overlay on these devices as well. For people new to their take on the Android experience, it’s best described as a mix between iOS and stock Android. You’ll definitely see a lot of influences from Apple but, thankfully, it’s easy to get used to if you’ve been sticking to Android for the most part.

Cams Are OK All Things Considered

The Realme 2 Pro has dual rear shooters, which consists of a 16-megapixel main camera at an aperture of f/1.7 with a secondary 2-megapixel depth sensor and the results are great when lighting conditions are just right. Colors have just the right amount of saturation to give them that pop and details are nice and sharp too. Sadly, the dynamic range on the Realme 2 Pro’s rear cameras are a little bit lacking and the low light photos are a bit of a disappointment considering its larger aperture as well.

It’s pretty much the same story for the front camera. You’ve got AI beautification in tow but be sure to use it wisely because it does tend to get rather aggressive; leaving you less like the real you, which is quite ironic.

Don’t Believe the Battery Benchmark

The Realme 2 Pro comes decked out with a 3500mAh battery and we were surprised by the low marks it got with our battery benchmark. It clocked in a paltry 7 hours and 15 minutes, which is definitely below the average of what we’re used to seeing with phones at this battery capacity. This serves as a reminder to not always look at the benchmark scores as real-world use easily got us a day and a half worth’s of juice when we were mostly tethered to a WiFi connection and a whole day when we were out and about with mobile data on for the great part of the day.

Verdict: A Solid Option with a Big If

The Realme 2 Pro definitely has a lot to offer for those looking for a device that has a lot of computing power and we’re ready to forgive its shortcomings if the company gives this device a solid sticker price when it officially launches on our shores. If they manage to stick to the price tag that they announced in Jakarta a few weeks ago, which starts at roughly Php 10,000 for the base model, then we can easily see the Realme 2 Pro as one of the top sellers in the country.

It really is the Wild West when it comes to mid-range segment so we’ll see if the Realme 2 Pro can stick it out with the big guns when they decide to finally reveal the price to us.

 

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