When we tested GT 2 Pro, the upstart Realme’s challenger to expensive mobiles from manufacturers such as Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi and Oneplus, we got, for less than SEK 8,000, most of what you have to pay well over SEK 10,000 for from competitors. Now we have also tested the simpler version, Realme GT2. It does the same thing, provides a lot of performance and quality at a low price. This time just below the 6,000 kronor mark.
Rating 4 out of 5
Opinion
Realme GT 2 gives us most of what we are looking for in a mid-range mobile. There are some compromises compared to premium mobiles, but Realme mostly opts out of features, which most people can do without and scoop on with their usual headstrong and charming design, both on the outside and in the interface. We like that.
Positively
- Close to premium performance
- Nice screen and good sound
- Large and fast-charging battery
- Competent main camera
Negative
- Large in size
- Mediocre extra cameras
- Occasionally cluttered system
GT2 has an exterior that is very similar to GT2 Pro. A stylish and comfortably patterned back in plastic, a matte gray frame with bevelled short sides and a screen of Gorilla Glass 2.5d type. Here, however, it is Gorilla Glass 5 instead of Gorilla Glass Victus. It is a mobile with real dimensions. Smaller screen area than GT2 Pro, just over 6.6 inches compared to 6.7. But with thicker screen edges, it gets a millimeter wider. It is also slightly thicker and relatively heavy, weighing just under 200 grams.
GT2 is available in three configurations, two of which can be found in Swedish stores, one with eight gigabytes of frame and 128 gigabytes of storage and one with 12 and 256 gigabytes, respectively. Incidentally, they are identical. The smaller model can be bought for less than SEK 6,000, while the larger one costs a few more lobster pieces.
The phone holds many interesting things despite its pressured price. In this price range, we do not expect top performance, but Realme is still close by using last year’s top processor, Snapdragon 888. With plenty of memory and fast storage, it keeps pace with the best mobiles from last year.
We surf, stream, run heavy video and video apps, mobile Office and play all the most demanding games without noticeable choppiness or toughness. During long gaming sessions, some graphics-heavy games may experience degraded performance, which we guess is due to the fact that the heat is not as easy to dissipate through the plastic chassis as those that have a metal or glass exterior. In return, it means that the phone never becomes more than lukewarm to hold.
Screen with almost everything
You get fast wireless connection with wifi 6 and 5g. We experience both connections as fast and hassle-free. Another thing that contributes to a fast feeling is the screen with its 120 Hz frame rate and its fast reading frequency for the touch screen. It also holds exactly the high class we expect from a modern amoled: color range in dci-p3 class, high color accuracy, timeless contrast and high peak brightness.
In normal mode we get up to about 750 cd / m2, which is good enough for most situations, except possibly in sunlight. According to Realme, the screen should have a maximum brightness of as much as 1,300 cd / m2, but it only seems possible to activate in an HDR mode. It supports hdr 10+, and when we play movies, we really get a sparkling hdr experience. Then, however, it chews a lot of battery.
There are other less energy consuming ways that Realme’s phones can enhance the video experience. You can increase the sharpness of low-resolution video, as well as give a certain hdr experience to paler sdr video, as well as interpolate frames for motion smoothing. All of these features also draw more power, but the result is about as good as in a simpler smart TV with some upscaling and video enhancement.
Sounding stereo
You also get stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support. The balance between right and left is not perfect, with more midrange on one side and more treble on the other, but if you can tolerate it, the sound is both powerful and detailed. Atmos is permanently switched on for the speakers, but can be switched off if you connect headphones, either via USB c or Bluetooth.
You get some other premium features in the phone, such as a fast and reliable fingerprint reader placed under the screen and a large battery that can be quickly charged with high power. But you can do without wireless charging and IP rating for water resistance. In addition to a large and powerful charger, you also get a protective shell in the box.
The large battery of 5,000 milliampere hours provides convincing operating time. Almost a day of video streaming at high brightness, or 19 hours in our web surfing test with more dim light. It’s without Realme’s video enhancement effects turned on and with automatic screen frame rate, which means 60 Hz for video and 120 Hz for web.
The screen does not have, as far as we can see, lpto technology. The frequency does not scale dynamically as on the GT 2 Pro. Therefore, the battery life is not as good, but it is still good. To charge the battery, we connect the included 65-watt charger with Realme’s own Superdart technology. It takes about half an hour to go from zero to full battery.
Plus and minus in the camera
The camera has three lenses, with the same main camera as in the Realme GT 2 Pro. A 50-megapixel sensor from Sony, with excellent sharpness and dynamics in daylight, but we get some problems with noise in dark environments and at night, however, with well-balanced light compensation and color management. It also becomes somewhat slow in autofocus when it gets dark.
GT 2 Pro had two odd extra cameras, an extreme 150 degree wide angle with a large 50-megapixel sensor and an extremely close-up microscope camera instead of a macro, GT 2 has a more traditional simple 8-megapixel wide angle of 119 degrees and a modest 2-megapixel macro. The wide-angle camera captures vivid landscape images in daylight, albeit with excessive contrast and in dark environments it loses a lot of color saturation and detail. The macro camera allows for approved work, as long as you are steady on your hand and find the fixed focus distance.
The phone of course runs Android 12, and Realme has its own interface RealmeUI on top, which gives it both a distinctive look and a bunch of extra features. We have already mentioned the video effects, but there is more. The GT mode should provide better gaming performance, but this is not something we immediately notice.
Lots to explore
You also have a side menu for quick access to selected apps, you can select features and apps that you can launch from the lock screen, you can activate childproof profiles or a mode with larger icons and higher system sounds, and you can even use the fingerprint reader as heart rate monitor. All of these are available as options, but can also be disabled, if you just want a clean and stripped-down interface.
All the functions can be cluttered to navigate to. Were it not for the fact that Realme puts a handful of third-party bloatware in the phone, it would still have been a plus. A big plus is that Realme promises three years of Android updates and four years of security updates, which can clearly be considered good. It’s the same as Google does for the latest Pixel phones.
In short, Realme continues to deliver what they are good at. Not perfect, but never bad mobiles, with unique still and much of the most important at a good price. In any case, the most important things are high performance, high sound and picture quality, good connection and long battery life. And that’s enough for most people.
Specifications
Product name: Realme GT2
Tested: May 2022
Contact: Realme
System circuit: Snapdragon 888 5G
Processor: 1st Kryo 680 2.84 GHz, 2nd Kryo 680 2.42 GHz, 4th Kryo 680 1.8 GHz
Graphics: Adreno 660
Memory: 8/12 GB
Storage: 128/256 GB
Screen: 6.62 inches amoled, 1080 x 2400 pixels, 120 Hz
Cameras: 50 megapixels + 8 megapixels wide angle + 2 megapixels macro with LED rear, 16 megapixels front
Connections: Usb 2.0 typ c
Communication: 2g, 3g, 4g, 5g, wifi 6, bluetooth 5.2, agps, galileo, nfc
Operating system: Android 12 with RealmeUI 3.0
Other: Dual sim, fingerprint reader
Battery: 5,000 mAh, 22 hours of online video (wifi, high brightness, 60 Hz), approx. 19 hours of mixed use (4g, low brightness, 120Hz), approx. 38 hours of calls
Battery charge: 65 W usb (Superdart)
Size: 16.3 x 7.6 x 0.86 cm
Weight: 195 grams
Award: SEK 5,890 at Webhallen (8/128 GB)
Performance
Antutu Benchmark: 841 043 points
Geekbench 5: 3 428 points
Geekbench 5 and core: 1 124 points
3dmark Wild Life: 5,917 points
Storage, reading: 1 875.7 MB / s
Storage, writing: 801.4 MB / s
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