Realme has introduced its second smartphone in India, dubbed as Realme 2. The phone comes with a price tag of Rs 8,990 for the 3GB RAM and Rs 10,990 for the 4GB RAM variant. The phone will be exclusively available on Flipkart starting from September 04, 2018.
With this, Realme once again set to disrupt the market with its premium design and some respectable specifications. This not it, the company has added missing features in Realme 1 to this latest smartphone like a top-notch, a fingerprint sensor and a dual-camera setup. However, the question here is, can it rise from the shadow of its predecessor? Let’s find out
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What we liked in Realme 2!
First thing first, Realme is defining its own legacy by giving some really good design language (Pictures). We quite liked the Realme 1 design and its successor builds on the same line. Yes, the first thing you notice about this device is the back panel. It is made of fibreglass body with a Diamond-like finish at the back, which gives a different look when seen in a light. The rounded edges provide some good grip on the latest smartphone, which is a good thing. That said, Realme 2 is surely probably one of the best-looking devices you will find in this price segment.
Next is the display. The company has introduced a top notch on the Realme 2, which allows it give a better screen-to-ratio as compared to its predecessor. Further, the comes with a larger 6.2-inch HD+ display with a screen resolution of 1520 x 720 pixels, which roughly provides a Pixel density of 271ppi and an aspect ratio of 19:9. The phone provides some good colours, though the HD+ resolution is a downgrade from the Full HD+ display found in Realme 1. Apart from that, you will not face much trouble with the display as the colours look close to the source and the viewing angles look great as well.
Another thing we quite liked about the Realme 2 is the battery backup. The phone comes loaded with a 4230mAh battery juice, which gives pretty decent results in our review period. When you are using it under normal usage, the phone easily lasts a day and youcan thank the AI Power Manager for this. The feature phones with app-freezing power saver and quick App freezing option that manages background apps to deliver some good battery backup. Further, under power usage, we found out that the battery was able to last almost a day. Our testing included streaming music, checking emails, watching movies, occasionally playing games and more.
The major highlight of Realme 2 is indeed the cameras. The phone employs a dual-camera setup at the back that comes with a combination of 13-megapixel primary sensor with f/2.2 Aperture coupled with a 2-megapixel shooter with f/2.4 aperture. For the front, you get an 8-megapixel shooter with f/2.2 aperture. Check the camera samples of the Realme 2 here.
The phone also comes with AI Beauty 2.0 mode and real-time AR stickers. Starting with the camera UI, it is pretty simple to use. At the bottom, you will find different modes like Photo, Video, Timelapse, Portrait and more. Coming to the performance, the phone was able to capture some good shots when the lighting condition was good. The camera delivered some good detailing, though colours were a bit washed out. The selfie camera does a good job and AI Beauty mode is helpful in removing your flaws!
The user interface on the Realme 2 comes with some interesting features. The phone runs on Android 8.1 Oreo, which is based on ColorOS 5.0. The user interface has features like AI Board, which can be accessed by swiping left on the Home. The page shows quick functions, whether, steps count, photos, favourite contacts, and it also identify user’s travel information like air and train tickets and display it on the AI board. Apart from this, there is the smart driving mode, app cloning, privacy password, and it comes with a host of customisation options as well.
What we didn’t liked about Realme 2!
Coming to the cons, Realme has downgraded its latest smartphone as compared to the Realme 1. We really liked the performance of the Realme 1, but the same cannot be said for this one. The company has added an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 Processor clocked at 1.8GHz to the Realme 2. The phone features a 3GB/4GB of RAM and 32GB/64GB storage option. The phone works well as a daily driver, although when you start to push its limit, the results are not that great as we have seen in Realme 1. So, for example, you will notice a slight lag when you open too many apps in the background and then multitask between them.
On the gaming front, it is able to handle casual games like Subway Surfer, Temple Run 2 and more smoothly. However, things become a bit messy when you switch to high-end games. We played PUBG Mobile, which has become a new standard of testing gaming performance of a smartphone, and found out that it automatically selected the lowest settings in terms of graphics. The gaming experience was a bit laggy and we did notice some frame drops.
The low light performance of the Realme 2 is not that great as compared to its predecessor. We did notice some noises and grains in the final output. Same can be said for the selfie camera. Further, the bokeh effect was a bit inconsistent in our testing. The phone was not able to properly highlight the subject and we did notice some bleeding around the edges. Moving on video recording lacks stabilization and the output is not that great.
Although the design on the Realme 2 looks great, it is a serial fingerprint magnet. The back and front panels attract a lot of smudges, which kind of spoils the whole mood. Thankfully, the company has bundled a silicone-based cover. Moving on, the display, like we said, is a downgrade from Realme 1. Although the colours look good and you will not face much trouble in the indoor lights. It becomes a tad difficult task to use the display under direct sunlight. The screen is highly reflective and brightness is not that great, which makes it a difficult thing to read a text or watch a movie.