Friends+Design
- The Realme 2 Pro, takes a different design philosophy compared to previous Realme phones, and is more about refined, premium, understated aesthetics - it all comes off quite well - and makes for easily one of the best looking devices in the mid-range segment
- The paintjobs themselves are pretty catchy, and have a slight depth effect, which looks nice
- The glossy rear panel is plastic but looks like glass
- It is made via an injection molding process which requires 15 layers of sectional lamination and is claimed by Realme to be heat and impact resistant to a certain extent
- The body of the phone is all smooth curves - the edges are curved ever so subtly and they perfectly merge with the metallic rim without any sharp corners whatsoever
- When it comes to in-hand feel, the Realme 2 Pro is a joy to use
- The device has a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor which is quite fast and easily recognizes fingerprints in less than a second
- The Realme 2 Pro also has support for Face Unlock functionality, which is surprisingly fast too, though it is more reliable when used in a well-lit environment
- The downside to all the glossy charm of the rear panel is that the Realme 2 Pro is also a fingerprint magnet - if you don’t use a protective cover, you’ll find yourselves cleaning the rear panel multiple times throughout the day
Display
- The Realme 2 Pro packs a gorgeous 6.3-inch FullHD+ (1080×2340) display with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio - the side and top bezels are virtually non-existent, with only a 5.5 mm thick chin at the bottom with rounded edges, granting the device an impressive 90.8% screen-to-body ratio - the Realme 2 Pro’s signature design element of course is a waterdrop-shaped notch at the top - only previously seen in significantly more expensive phones like the Oppo F9 and the F9 Pro - and it looks equally stunning on the Realme 2 Pro - the minimalist appeal of the tiny, waterdrop notch is striking and arguably looks way better than the wide notches we have come to see on the iPhone XR, iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Max trio, as well as an increasing number of Android smartphones - as for the display quality itself, it's quite brilliant when it comes to color reproduction, hues appear punchy and saturation is never an issue - sunlight legibility is good too - this is easily the best display in it's price bracket
- The display is not flawless though - it is evident that Realme utilized a rectangular LCD panel which has been covered with a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass on top and a thick chin of bottom bezels with rounded edges - the rounded bezels hide a little bit of content at the two bottom corners of the LCD panel, which can create an issue in apps which hold important control at these points - for example, in case of the PUBG game, the rounded bottom bezel covered a significant portion of the ‘x’ button used to go back in the game’s UI
Software
- Color OS adds plenty of useful features to the Android experience - such as the 'Smart Assistant' (which can be accessed by swiping right on the homescreen, and basically acts as a command center where users can access tools such as Quick Functions for quickly launching frequently used apps, check the weather, track health vitals such as steps walked, and do a lot more), 'Smart Sidebar' (which allows users to populate it with certain apps they use frequently and always want them at their disposal - the ‘Smart Sidebar’ can be accessed by swiping a thin sidebar at either edge of the screen), 'Kids Space', and navigation gestures
- Aesthetics wise though, Color OS is not the most refined, or clean Android UI, and this is one area where Realme falls a little behind stock Android, or MIUI phones in this price bracket
- There are some UX quirks too in Color OS, like an annoying 2-step process to clear a notification
Performance
- Very good, butter smooth performance, backed by a fast Snapdragon 660 processor - the device delivers on any task you throw at it, including heavy games - notching up performance scores similar to the Snapdragon 660 equipped Mi A2
Camera
- Good set of dual rear cameras, with strong image output in both good lighting conditions, as well as indoors - the images have good details, vibrant colors and adequate depth - bokeh shots come out well too with rich details and vibrant hues
- Decent selfie camera too - takes good quality images, even though they are slightly over-exposed - and had a decent software bokeh effect
- On the whole, the Realme 2 Pro cameras are pretty much on-par with the 2 best camera phones currently ruling the mid-range, the Redmi Note 5 Pro and the Mi A2
- Video recording is a bit of a weak point, given the otherwise high quality of the camera - even with EIS, the videos tend to come out shaky if you are moving
Battery
- Good battery life - the phone comfortably breezes past a day, even with heavier use
- Decent charging speed (takes about 2 hours to go from 0 to 100%), even though fast charging is not supported
More
- On the whole, the Realme 2 definitely looks like another winner from the Realme camp and will give some tough competition to the phones ruling across the mid-range segment like the Redmi Note 5 Pro (larger battery, better software, but Realme 2 wins on design, display, and performance), Zenfone Max Pro M1 (larger battery, stock Android, but again Realme 2 wins on design, display, performance, and cameras), Mi A2 (stock Android, but Realme 2 wins on a better design, a better display, a larger battery, and headphone jack), Nokia 6.1 Plus (stock Android, but Realme 2 wins on a better design, a better display, better cameras, and a larger battery), and finally the Poco F1 and the Honor Play (they both have better performance with flagship chipsets, but Realme 2 wins on better design) - everything considered, Realme has very likely another champion phone on its hands - in the meantime, the mid-range in India keeps getting more and more competitive
