Realme GT2 Pro: hands on with a phone with a fisheye lens

After years of producing low-cost smartphones with a few real highlights every now and then, Realme has finally launched a true flagship across-the-board in the Realme GT2 Pro. 

It marries a 2K display, the first flat panel to feature the LTPO 2.0 technology found in Oppo and OnePlus’s new flagships, a cutting edge Snapdragon processor, new ecological design made from a combination of materials including paper pulp, and a dual 50-megapixel camera system.

Costing just £599 in the UK, which is approximately $800, the Realme GT2 pro also undercuts pretty much all the competition. 

The question is, can the GT 2 Pro’s excellent combination of hardware hold out against the flagship software experiences from the likes of OPPO, OnePlus, Samsung and Xiaomi, or does the Realme GT 2 Pro try to cram too much in without getting the fundamentals right first?

Realme GT2 Pro design and screen

There’s no doubt about it, from the front, the Realme GT 2 Pro looks and feels like a serious flagship smartphone. Its screen is stunningly bright, vibrant, and punchy with a silky smooth 120Hz refresh rate. 

The phone’s back looks and feels a touch less flagship on first impression. Feeling like a mix of hard plastic, rubber, and paper, Realme uses a world-first biopolymer with a micro stitch-effect textured finish. 

Along with the new, eco-focused design, Realme also shared some stats – for every million phones with this type of back panel sold, an equivalent of 3.5m fewer bottles worth of plastic would end up in the world. Big numbers always sound impressive, and it’s great to see Realme take action on this front. Of course, this is one aspect of a wider smartphone ecological impact story. A focus on phone longevity, easy recycling and repurposing of old phones, and a reduction of smartphone packaging size would all take Realme’s initiative even further. We’re excited to see more brands take an increasingly sustainable approach to smartphone production and distribution. 

Because Realme uses a new LTPO 2 panel, as used in the OnePlus 10 Pro, the phone’s display can drop the refresh rate as low as 1hz, taking it all the way up to 120Hz. This should help with keeping it power-efficient. 

Realme includes a 6.7-inch screen on the GT 2 Pro, matched with a WQHD+ resolution, which means 3216 x 1440 pixels, creating a pixel density of 509 pixels per inch. That’s super-sharp.

With the screen to body ratio of 92.6 percent, the phone’s front is immersive, and what's even more impressive is that the GT 2 Pro features a touch sampling rate of up to 1000Hz, as high as the new Oppo Find X5 Pro. This should make it incredibly responsive for gaming. 

It’s also a 10-bit display with Gorilla Glass Victus protection and gets as bright as 1400 nits, so outdoor viewing shouldn’t be a problem.

Realme GT2 Pro camera

Perhaps the most exciting thing about the GT2 Pro is it camera setup. The main camera is a Sony IMX 766 OIS module. It combines a 50MP resolution with a 23.6mm focal length, an f/1.8 aperture, as well as a six-element lens. As for the sensor size, it’s 1/1.56 inches, making it large, but not the largest around. 

The 150º ultra-wide camera is also 50MP, though Realme doesn’t disclose the sensor size, so it’s safe to assume it isn’t quite as flagship as the primary camera. 150º equates to a 15mm focal length, and that’s matched with an f/2.2 aperture. 

There’s no telephoto camera amongst the GT 2 Pro’s camera mix, though there is a Micro-lens camera that has a 20x optical magnification for a microscope-like effect. Check out our Oppo Find X3 Pro review to read up on how another Micro-lens camera performs.

As for selfie cameras, the GT 2 Pro’s is a respectable 32MP, featuring an IMX 615 sensor with an 80.6º field of view and an f/2.4 aperture. 

Realme claims the GT 2 Pro is the first camera phone in the world with a fish eye mode. That’s not true – there have been software fisheye modes in camera phones for years. That said, they probably haven’t matched up fisheye software with such a wide-angle ultra-wide camera as that featured on Realme’s latest phone – so we’re excited to see the results. 

Realme GT 2 Pro specs

We’ve seen a lot of fast charging from Realme before, so it shouldn’t come as any wonder that it’s brought back 65W SuperDart charging to the GT2 Pro, matched with a 5000mAh battery. Realme claims this combo can deliver a 100 percent charge in as little as 33 minutes.

The phone also enjoys dual speakers, a flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, and either 8GB RAM with 128GB storage, or 12GB RAM with 256GB storage – plenty for most users.

The only major omission we can spot is wireless charging, which a number of phones in the GT 2 Pro’s price category feature, including the Pixel 6 and OnePlus 9. 

Realme GT 2 Pro early verdict

Realme is part of OPPO, and that’s never been more evident at a hardware level than with the release of the GT 2 Pro. It’s as if OPPO Group took the flagship features seen in the Find X5 Pro and launched a much lower-cost, scaled back version for a different demographic that’s still packed with premium specs and some excellent, unique features. 

The result of this OPPO / Realme relationship has produced what looks like the most impressive value flagship we’ve seen all year. Yes there are obvious features missing that we would have loved to see – wireless charging and optical telephoto reach being the main two. That said, at its price, the Realme GT 2 Pro is a value champion, on paper at least. 

We should be getting one in for review in the coming weeks, so check back to see if the reality lives up to the hype and if Realme’s new flagship can place on our best camera phones of 2022 podium.

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