Realme 2 Pro with waterdrop notch display, dual rear cameras arrive in the Indian market
Realme 2 Pro, the Chinese brand’s third smartphone has arrived in the Indian market. The waterdrop notch-style Realme smartphone has been launched at a competitive price of Rs 13,990 for the 4GB RAM and 64GB storage variant, the 6GB RAM and 64GB storage is priced at Rs 15,990 and the top-model with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage costs Rs 17,990. The new Realme 2 Pro features a minimal bezel full HD+ display measuring 6.3 inches with a resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels.
The front panel has a screen-to-body ratio of 90.8 per cent. Underneath the hood sits Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 SoC, the mobile platform prevalent in the popular mid-range and upper mid-range smartphones in India including Xiaomi Mi A2, Nokia 7 Plus and Vivo V11 Pro. Realme 2 Pro will be available for purchase exclusively on the e-retail platform, Flipkart. We spent some time with the new Realme smartphone, and here are our initial impressions.
Realme 2 Pro first impressions: Design, display
Realme 2 Pro flaunts a minimal bezel display with a screen-to-body ratio of 90.8 per cent. The backside of the phone is encased in glass with plastic surrounding the perimeters. The phone features dual rear camera setup aligned in horizontal position.
A circular fingerprint sensor is placed below the dual camera sensors. Realme 2 Pro offers dedicated microSD slot which is located on the left side above the volume keys while the power button sits on the right side. The phone houses a mono speaker grille, micro-USB port and 3.5mm audio jack, all of which are drilled at the base.
Read more: Realme 2 Pro launch in India HIGHLIGHTS
Realme 2 Pro features an elongated 6.3-inch full HD+ display with 19.5:9 aspect ratio with a sleek chin and thin bezels on the edges of the front fascia. The display on the new Realme phone produces vivid colour and sharp details. The viewing angles are decent, however, the front panel is a tad reflective and reading content under bright sunlight was quite difficult.
At the top of the screen is the waterdrop style notch that includes the proximity sensor, front-facing camera and the microphone is placed right above the notch.
Realme 2 Pro features a waterdrop notch-style display
Realme 2 Pro feels slightly heavy in hand and the glass-encased body easily attracts smudge and fingerprint grease. Ergonomically, the new Realme phone is good with the thumb comfortably reaching the power button.
Even the volume rockers are well-placed on the left side below the SIM/microSD tray. The index finger reaches out both the keys even while operating the device single-handedly.
Realme 2 Pro first impressions: Processing hardware
Talking about Realme 2 Pro’s processing hardware, the phone is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 660 mobile platform paired with Adreno 512 GPU for rendering graphics. During our initial experience, the phone performed smoothly while opening a few tabs on Chrome browser.
Even while running a few casual games, for instance, Orbia, Alto’s Odyssey, the phone rendered smooth lag-free experience. However, we would like to hold back the final verdict about the phone’s performance until we put it through some more tests.
Realme 2 Pro first impressions: Camera
Realme 2 Pro houses a dual camera setup at the back comprising of a 16MP primary sensor and a 2MP secondary sensor for depth sensing. Up front, it carries a 16MP lens for clicking selfies and making video calls. We found the focus to be quite accurate in broad daylight condition.
The dual lenses yielded vivid colours with rich green, blue and good details in outdoor shooting. Although we observed glare effect in a few low light shots, the image processing was quite fast.
Both the front and rear camera sensors offer Portrait mode. In addition, the native camera app on the phone offers a bunch of other features as well, for instance, Film Light, Mono Light etc, under Portrait mode; a Manual mode that allows adjusting ISO, exposure value, White Balance and focus as well.
Realme 2 Pro features a 16MP+2MP dual camera setup at the back
Realme 2 Pro first impressions: Camera samples
Realme 2 Pro dual camera sensors produce vivid colours (Image resized for web)
Realme 2 Pro captures good detailed images in bright lighting condition (Image resized for web)
Realme 2 Pro outdoor camera sample (Image resized for web)
Realme 2 Pro low light camera sample
Realme 2 Pro first impressions: Software, other features
Realme 2 Pro runs ColorOS 5.2 based on Android 8.1 Oreo out-of-the-box. For those users who have used Oppo, Vivo or Honor phones before, they won’t find it difficult to adapt to Realme 2 Pro’s user interface. The phone comes with a host of bloatware, but thankfully you can uninstall most of it.
Realme, however, has added an interesting feature called Smart Sidebar the acts as a Quick toggle. The Sidebar present on the home screen can be accessed by swiping to the left. It gives you options to open social apps, camera etc. You can customise it as well and add apps based on your preferences.
Realme 2 Pro offers a bunch of interesting features like Smart SideBar, Swipe-up Gesture Navigation etc
The phone provides an option to hide the navigation keys with Swipe-up Gesture Navigation mode. Realme 2 Pro supports facial recognition for unlocking the device. The phone features a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor as well. In our initial experience, we found both the features to be quite consistent.
Realme 2 Pro includes a host of bloatware
Realme 2 Pro first impressions: Battery, storage
Realme 2 Pro packs a 3,500mAh battery and supports USB OTG (on-the-go). While the phone carries a decent battery backup, it features a micro-USB port which is quite disappointing given that many mid-range smartphones these days offer a USB Type-C port for charging. We used the device for a few hours and ran a few games and stream content from YouTube and Netflix.
The battery appeared to last for a working day. But we would like to reserve our final verdict until we put it to a thorough test. As for the storage, our Realme 2 Pro test unit has 8GB RAM and 128GB native storage.
Realme 2 Pro bears a micro-USB port and supports USB OTG
Realme 2 Pro first impressions: Initial impressions
During the limited amount of time we had with the Realme 2 Pro phone, we were quite impressed with the camera performance and overall design. It feels good to hold and the display offers vivid colours. The dual lenses at the back render good images with nice detail and colour reproduction.
For those who prefer a handset with a tiny notch display and good cameras, the Realme 2 Pro can be a good option. The glass design attracts smudge and fingerprints, but it does provide a visual appeal especially from the front. Considering the price, Realme 2 Pro will likely compete against Xiaomi Mi A2, that fall under similar price-range. But we will dig deeper and tell you more in our full review of the phone.