Realme X2 Pro review spec, camera and Performance

The Realme X2 Pro review is out, it's time to see what the company can offer in the mid-range segment. realme is a well-known brand in Asia, especially in India, but it has to make a name for itself once again now that it has started sales in Europe too. And what better way to do it than with a well equipped and affordable midrange like the Realme X2.

Surely, the X2 is no Pro but that doesn't mean it doesn't pack a punch. The combination of an upper mid-range SoC, an OLED panel, a premium build, and a versatile quad-camera setup at a regular mid-range price is really hard to ignore when shopping on a budget. And quick market research shows that the choice in this particular price range is rather limited. So it's probably safe to say that Realme's aggressive pricing of the standard X2 will bear fruits in the future.

Key specification:

• Body: 158.7 x 75.2 x 8.6mm, 182g; plastic frame, Gorilla Glass 5 front and back.
• Display: 6.4" Super AMOLED, 1080 x 2340px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 403 ppi; .
• Rear camera: Primary: 64MP, f/1.8 aperture, 1/1.7" sensor size, 0.8µm pixel size, PDAF. Ultra wide: 8MP, f/2.3, 1/4", 1.12µm pixels; Macro: 2MP, f/2.4, 1/5", 1.75µm; Depth sensor: 2MP; 2160p@30fps, 1080p@30/60/120fps, 720p@480/960fps video recording.
• Front camera: 32MP, f/2.0.
• Operating System: Android 9 Pie; ColorOS 6.1.
• Chipset: Snapdragon 730G chipset (8 nm), octa-core CPU (2x2.2 GHz Kryo 470 Gold & 6x1.8 GHz Kryo 470 Silver), Adreno 618 GPU..
• Memory: 6GB/8GB of RAM; 64/128/256GB storage; microSD card slot.
• Connectivity: Dual-SIM; Cat.15 LTE; USB 2.0 Type-C; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; GPS + GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS; Bluetooth 5.0; FM radio.
• Misc: Under-display fingerprint reader; NFC, 3.5mm audio jack.
• Battery: 4,000mAh; 30W SuperVOOC Flash Charge 4.0.

Design

• Stylish pearlescent effect on the white model
• It has a metal frame and a glass back
• Slippery and sizable
  

With each new device released by different manufacturers across the globe, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell mobile phones apart. Some have notches, some don’t, almost all are metal and glass sandwiches.

That's largely true here too, but our ‘white’ model which arrived for review is something a little different, and is quite attractive.

It is called ‘Lunar White’, meaning it has a pearlescent effect which changes color just slightly in the light. It isn’t excessive like some of the ‘twilight’ models marketed by other manufacturers, and has a certain executive-chic about it.

Along with the dark version, this is a model which will be just as happy in the boardroom as in the pocket and, superfluous as it may seem, feels like hardware designed for an adult (the software is a slightly different story, though more on this later).

The metal sides and the glass on the front and back certainly feel solid enough, with little to no flex or give when pressure is applied. Balance too is quite good, if slightly weighted towards the top - with the overall slipperiness of the handset this means that one-handed usage without a case isn’t a good idea.



Camera

• Main, telephoto and ultra-wide rear lenses
• 16MP f/2.0 selfie camera
• Reasonable general performance but poor night shots
  

The display on the Realme X2 Pro isn’t the only beneficiary of an avalanche of marketing acronyms, the camera system too is separated as something special. It certainly has a lot of sensors and lenses attached, all of which provide a great deal of versatility to the aspiring photographer.

First and foremost among the offerings is the 64MP f/1.8 main snapper. This is produced by Samsung, and contrary to the 64MP promise, is actually a 16MP sensor (in real terms) complemented by a Quad-Bayer arrangement. This means that ‘normal’ photos are produced at 16MP, in daylight and low light.

The sensor is capable of reproducing images at 64MP however, with Realme’s ‘64MP’ mode - regardless of how these images are achieved, the end results are astonishingly detailed when taken in good light.

As for general performance, there is no cause for complaint, even if there isn’t any reason to celebrate either. Images are colorful and have a decent representation of detail generally, however we found noise performance to be merely average.
 

The HDR mode does a decent job of recovering detail from shadows, however we found that ‘Chroma’ mode (in partnership with the ‘vivid’ display color mode in particular) cooked colors a little too far for our liking. It does make for a boost on a dull grey day, but in certain situations it means that ensuing images have only a passing resemblance to reality.

Telephoto performance from the 13MP f/2.5 lens we found to be wholly adequate, while the performance of the 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide angle lens left more than a little to be desired. Detail was smudged and colors were bland, and as such we would recommend that this should only be used in a pinch.

As ever in modern smartphones, the real proof of the pudding in camera terms is low light performance. Indeed, the standard sensor promises its pixel-binning tech combined with long exposures should provide for an excellent low light photography experience.


Performance and benchmarks

• Snapdragon 855 Plus and up to 12GB of RAM offer top performance
• High benchmark scores

The Realme X2 Pro has the most powerful chipset available from Qualcomm at the time of writing, buried inside its shell.

The Snapdragon 855 Plus is a slightly overclocked version of the popular 855 chipset, with a tweaked GPU for better performance over the original.

Backed up with an absurd 12GB of RAM at the top end and a massive storage allocation (of up to 256GB), there isn't much in the Android ecosystem which can faze the Realme X2 Pro.

Running the Geekbench 4 test, it achieved a single core score of 3,264 and a multi-core score of 9,236. This is high, but it's not at the upper end of what it's possible to achieve today, with phones from Apple, Samsung, Sony, Huawei, OnePlus, Oppo and more all reaching five figures in the multi-core scores.

Beyond benchmarks, and as inferred, what this will mean for you is PUBG at maximum settings, played without issue.


Battery life

• 4,000mAh battery lasts a decently long time
• Can be charged from 0 to 100% in just 35 minutes

The phone industry has sat for so long with 60Hz as a standard for screen performance, that anything even slightly faster throws something of a spanner in the works. This is to say that higher screen refresh rates have made larger batteries not so much a pleasant extra as an essential inclusion.
 

With an average ‘speed’ screen, the 4,000mAh cell in the Realme X2 Pro would be more than enough, from a spec-perspective, to essentially guarantee more than a day’s worth of battery life.

It is a pleasure to say then that, even with a screen that bucks the trend and saps more juice than normal, the Realme X2 Pro has a very dependable battery. This isn’t to say that it will hit the heights of the OnePlus 7 Pro, but it will certainly fit well into the lives of most.



Screen

• 6.5-inch 1080 x 2400 90Hz screen
• Good quality for the money
• Color calibration options don't allow for natural shades
  

It has been mentioned that the display of the Realme X2 Pro holds a great deal of promise, arriving with an array of acronyms to delight even the most hardened of screen obsessives.

It is good then that the panel mostly lives up to the promise of said acronyms. To begin, the 90Hz refresh rate is certainly a pleasant addition, even if it is mostly noticeable when scrolling through text. Though it isn’t worth abandoning an ‘ancient’ 60Hz screen over, the improvement in fluidity is perceivable - if you are a regular user of Kindle on your device it will be a pleasant surprise.
 

However, we did find that the color calibration of the screen was a little bit of an issue. That is to say, the screen has two presets, ‘Gentle’ and ‘Vivid’. Gentle may be sold by the UI as ‘pensioner mode’, however the ‘vivid’ mode tends to blow the socks off most images.

The colors of this setting veer towards the Teletubbies, and should be avoided by those looking for accuracy in their images. This isn’t to say that the representation of colors is bad, but that this screen serves the unfortunate reputation for some AMOLED panels to have a cartoonish, unrealistic representation of scenes.

The screen certainly gets bright enough, the marketing promises 1000 nits, and although we didn’t have the equipment to measure this, it certainly remains legible in bright, sharp autumnal sunlight.