Realme 2 Review – Design | Performance | Camera | Battery

Realme 2 review: Realme 2 impresses with its design, battery performance and it is one of the cheapest phones to come with a notched display.

Realme 2 is priced starting at Rs 8,990 for the base storage model, which is exactly the same price as its predecessor for the same storage variant. However, the phone lacks a Full HD+ display, and the processor is now a lower-powered Snapdragon 450, compared to flagship Helio P60 on Realme 1.

Realme 2 Review – Display

The display on Realme 2 is a 6.2-inch HD+ with a notch on top and an aspect ratio of 19:9. This is one of the cheapest phones to offer the notch design, which has a slightly taller aspect ratio and also means more screen real estate.

• Do not expect many changes on the design front.
• Realme 2 sports the same diamond-cutting reflection back cover that we saw on Realme 1.
• The phone looks stylish and sure does stand out in this segment.
• Realme 2 is heavier thanks to a larger 4,230mAh battery, compared to a 3,410mAh on the original phone.
• The display is decent and the viewing angles are also good. In bright outdoors, I had to turn the screen brightness to maximum to use the phone.
• Thanks to a larger, edge-to-edge display, there was more viewing space and I enjoyed playing games and watching videos.

Realme 2 Review – Performance

On the performance front, I would say Realme 2 is a downgrade from Helio P60 processor on Realme 1. The new phone is powered by the Snapdragon 450 processor, and it has been optimised for heavy-duty games such as Asphalt-8 and PUBG.

• Realme 2 is good when it comes to daily usage, which includes making calls, browsing social media pages, clicking pictures, messaging, etc.
• Battery is one of the strengths of Realme 2 as it lasts for a good one and a half day with moderate to heavy usage.
• I used the phone for playing games, watching videos, making calls, browsing Facebook, etc and the battery refused to die, which is great.
• The downside is its takes close to three hours for the phone to get fully charged from around ten per cent.

Realme 2 Review – Camera

The Realme 2 has a dual-camera setup comprising of a 13-megapixel primary camera with an aperture of f/2.2 and a 2-megapixel secondary camera for depth data.

The camera will not disappoint you, especially if one looks at the price. Pictures clicked in bright outdoors look decent have details and I was also happy with the colour reproduction. Those clicked indoors, say inside a mall, also seemed fine, considering the price segment of this device.

1) Of course, low-light performance is something that a lot of phones struggle with in this price range and Realme 2 is no exception.

2) The front camera should keep most selfie buffs happy, with pictures that have good colour reproduction, though do not expect much details.

3) Here, I would like to point out that even with Artificial Intelligence (AI) features switched off, the camera tends to brighten and smoothen your face too much, which I did not care for too much.

Realme 2 Review – Final Words

Realme 2 impresses with its design, battery performance and it is one of the cheapest phones to come with a notched display.

Performance is good, I would say, when it comes to daily usage. However, Realme 2 seems like a stripped down version of Realme 1 with a lower-powered processor and HD+ screen.

In terms of processor, Realme 2 is at par with most other similar priced devices on the market like the Honor 7A, Xiaomi Redmi Y2, etc.

Realme 2 seems like a good budget option currently, though those willing to spend an extra Rs 1,000 can go for options like Redmi Note 5 or Asus Zenfone Pro Max M1. With the launch of the Realme 2, the lowest priced variant of the Realme 1 — which retailed for Rs. 8,990 and offered stellar value for money — has been discontinued.