We’ve seen plenty of noteworthy mobile announcements emerge from this year’s MWC (Mobile World Congress) trade show, but Realme’s official unveiling of the GT 2 Pro ranks among the most significant. Not only does the handset mark another exciting release from this fast-growing mid-range mobile brand, but it more importantly represents Realme’s next step towards disrupting the mainstream market.
The premium sibling to the Realme GT 2, the GT 2 Pro is, by and large, intended to rival premium flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S22, Oppo Find X4 and OnePlus 10 Pro, while maintaining the relative affordability that has established Realme as a major mobile player in recent years, particularly in China.
Thankfully, our first impressions are good. The GT 2 Pro is an impressively feature-packed device for the price, with a powerful processor, vivid display and unique camera set-up offering users a genuinely competitive alternative to the more expensive flagship options out there. We encountered a few unwelcome quirks during our short time with the handset, but Realme has definitely proven its premium mettle with this first roll of the dice.
Realme GT 2 Pro release date and price
Having already been released in China, the Realme GT 2 Pro will ship in two variants in the UK and Europe on March 8: one with 8GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage, and another with 12GB RAM and 256GB of internal storage.
The former will cost €749.99 (equating to around £599.99 / $800 / AU$1100) and the latter €849.99 (around £699.99 / $900 / $1300), though customers can pick up both handsets for €649.99 and €749.99, respectively, if they're bought during the brand's pre-sale period, which runs between March 8 and March 16.
In either, case it's clear that the Realme GT 2 Pro undercuts rival ranges like the Samsung Galaxy S22 and iPhone 13 by some margin (the former starts at $799 / £769 / AU$1,249 and the latter at $699 / £679 / AU$1,199).
Design and display
Realme describes the GT 2 series as its most premium flagship line-up ever, which, by default, makes the GT 2 Pro the most exclusive handset this still-young mobile company has ever produced – on paper, at least.
Speaking of which, paper is at the heart of the GT 2 Pro’s whole design philosophy. Produced in collaboration with Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa – whose signature adorns the back of the handset – the GT 2 Pro is made from a bio-polymer material intended to mimic the feel of actual paper, and in fairness to Realme, it does indeed feel about as similar to paper as any handset might reasonably hope.
This eco-friendly approach definitely feels like a marketing play as opposed to a practical design decision, mind. The GT 2 Pro’s paper-like material certainly looks and feels like something new and innovative – our green version of the device was particularly eye-catching – but it’s slippery in the hand and, since the novelty is confined to the rear of the handset, it doesn’t add any real aesthetic value to the user. Realme handily provides a smart silicon case with every order of the GT 2 Pro, but the need to use it somewhat undermines Fukasawa’s artistic involvement on the device.
Beyond its material, the GT 2 Pro is a fairly standard-looking handset, albeit one that makes excellent use of its 6.7-inch 120Hz display (which boasts a super-rich 2K resolution). Unlike most high-res screens on the market right now, the GT 2 Pro doesn't curve at the edges, which is a refreshing departure from the trend and good news for those who prefer their displays flat-edged. Near-invisible bezels give plenty of room for the screen to flex its colorful muscles, and the GT 2 Pro’s visuals are as vivid as you’ll find on almost any other premium flagships out there right now. It’s Realme’s best-looking device (in both senses of the term) to date, that’s for sure.
The GT 2 Pro is pretty standard in terms of weight – coming in at either 189g or 199g, depending on the finish – though its dimensions make it hard to use exclusively with one hand. At 163.2 x 74.7 x 8.2mm, the handset is slightly taller, narrower and thinner than its regular GT 2 sibling, and it’s nigh-on-impossible to access the phone’s drop-down top menu with your thumb alone. But given the ever-increasing size of the GT 2 Pro’s high-end competitors nowadays, this isn’t too major a criticism.
Realme has at least obliged the short-fingered user by placing the GT 2 Pro’s power and volume buttons much further down the side of the handset than we’d usually expect.
Cameras and battery life
If the design and display of the GT 2 Pro exist on a level with its premium rivals, the camera department is where the phone makes its play to stand out from the crowd.
The GT 2 Pro boasts a triple-camera setup that features a 50MP main camera (capable of shooting 8K video) alongside another 50MP ultra-wide camera with a 150-degree lens – that’s one of the widest fields of view we've seen on a smartphone camera to date, granting users a 278% increase compared to most 84-degree camera lenses (a dedicated fish-eye mode makes great use of all these extra degrees, though we can’t imagine users will be snapping too many circular selfies).
The most exciting camera fixture on the GT 2 Pro, though, is its 40x microscope lens. Similarly to the 30x zoom equivalent on the Oppo Find X3 Pro, it allows you to take super-close-up snaps of inanimate surfaces like leaves, rocks, tables or, if you’re brave enough, skin. We were doubtful about just how well this microscope lens would work prior to testing, but the results were pretty incredible.
Check out the side-by-side image comparison below, which shows just how close the GT 2 Pro's microscope lens can get to an old pair of jeans.
Realme claims that this ‘2.0’ version of its microscope technology allows users to be twice as far away from the subject, making focusing a much easier task – and while it’s still fiddly to eliminate blur in the entirety of any given shot, the process certainly isn’t overly complex, and there’s plenty of fun to be had taking a closer look at the most mundane of surfaces.
The phone’s front-facing cameras don’t offer anything particularly remarkable, though the GT 2 Pro packs a 32MP lens over the 16MP equivalent offered by the regular GT 2. Video on these selfie snappers is limited to 1080p – but who shoots on a front-facing camera, right?
A slightly annoying feature of the GT 2 Pro’s camera interface that we did encounter was the confusing method of disabling filters and shoot modes. If you’re taking a picture and you hit the magic wand button (to bring up the retouch feature), for instance, you’ll have to touch somewhere within the shot itself to return to the snapping screen. This might seem like a trivial concern, and once you’ve figured out the quirk it certainly becomes as much – but we won’t pretend we didn’t spend too many frustrating minutes trying to return to the basic camera view.
We haven’t spent enough time with the GT 2 Pro to give a comprehensive critique of its battery life just yet, but a 5,000mAh power source is big for a flagship phone nowadays, so it shouldn’t run out on you prematurely (Realme says you'll get at least 10% more battery life than the previous generation GT). We’ll have a more detailed verdict in our full review soon.
The GT 2 Pro’s 65W wired charging is also as speedy as you’ll find elsewhere (33 mins to full charge, when performing at its best), though it would have been nice to see wireless powering on a handset billed as a premium flagship.
Performance and specs
Under the hood, the Realme GT 2 Pro is powered by the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset (i.e. the most powerful processor offered by Qualcomm right now), which makes navigating the phone’s Realme UI 3.0 a seamless experience. Those without an addiction to swiping away open apps should have no problem dipping in and out of several windows on the fly.
As hard as we tried, the GT 2 Pro proved a difficult phone to overload, and we’d say that only dedicated mobile aficionados are likely to be able to differentiate between the speed of the GT 2 Pro and today’s more expensive flagship devices like the Samsung Galaxy S22.
We did encounter some slight frame rate drops when swiping across to Google News from the home screen, mind, which occasionally disrupted the otherwise buttery smooth experience of using the device – but we suspect (and hope) that this is something Realme will address in a future software patch.
Those familiar with Android 12 will likely find lots to love with the GT 2 Pro’s user-friendly UI, and comprehensive customization options – accessible by pressing down on the home screen – make tailoring the device to suit your daily needs an easy task.
It’s also worth noting that, like its standard sibling, the GT 2 Pro doesn’t have a microSD card slot, though both devices support 5G and boast an under-display fingerprint scanner.
Early verdict
In all, then, the GT 2 Pro marks an impressive premium debut for Realme given how relatively inexpensive the device is compared to today’s flashiest handsets.
While it’s eco-friendly design isn’t particularly practical, the GT 2 Pro is certainly a handsome handset, and a powerful chipset and impressive display make the experience of using it an enjoyable one.
Once we’ve spent a bit more time with the device, we’ll be able to come to a more comprehensive verdict about the GT 2 Pro (look out for a full review on TechRadar), but those wondering whether Realme could realistically step up to the big boy table need wonder no more.
- MWC (Mobile World Congress) is the world's largest showcase for the mobile industry, stuffed full of the newest phones, tablets, wearables and more. TechRadar is reporting on the show all week. Follow our MWC 2022 live blog for the very latest news as it happens and visit our dedicated MWC 2022 hub for a round-up of the biggest announcements.
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