If there’s one mobile brand currently in the Indian market that’s grabbing everyone’s attention – it’s the RealMe. What began as a sub-brand to the much recognized Oppo brand is now a separate entity in itself.
The RealMe1 which released less than a year ago was truly a disruptive mobile in the Indian market since it offered almost everything you’d expect in a budget range device (<10,000). Due to the success of their very first device in India, the RealMe brand saw potential and therefore wanted to enter it’s products in future as it’s own, without Oppo.
The first release for RealMe as a brand in it’s own came in the form of RealMe2. At the very outset we’d say that the RealMe2 probably wasn’t a successor to the RealMe1. It was basically a much more budget oriented, notch displayed smartphone which offered plenty of features for a budget buyer to not just be happy but rather ecstatic.
The buzz over the last one month though, has all been about the RealMe2 Pro. This we all expected to be in the true sense, the “successor” to the RealMe1. In this article, we review the RealMe 2 Pro and give our verdict on whether it’s the go-to mobile in today’s highly competitive Indian mobile market.
Looks, Display & Build Quality
In our experience, we liked having used the RealMe 2, which comes with the diamond-like quoted back – giving a truly fashionable look when posed against light. The RealMe 2 pro doesn’t exactly incorporate that but is still quote fashionable since the whole look seems to be more polished. Initially due to not having that diamond-edge look, the mobile feels to be made out of glass – which is a tremendous achievement by the brand. That however is not obviously the case. Saying which, the back of the mobile doesn’t feel to be made out of cheap plastic, it doesn’t give that cheap hold. Rather, it justifies it’s prize range in terms of the build quality.
At just 174 gms, it’s impeccable that the company has loaded so many features. We also need to point out that the RealMe 2 Pro comes with a 6.3 inch screen, same as the RealMe1 – while RealMe 2 came with 6.2
As has been the case with all RealMe mobiles, you get the sim tray – which supports 2 4G sims and 1 MicroSD card (upto 256 GB). The RealMe 2 Pro supports a 3.5MM headphone jack at the bottom and that’s where you’ll find the speaker as well (which performs reasonably well).
With a 6.3 TFT LCD 1080×2340 display – you can be rest assured of a high quality resolution on heavy ended games or videos. The notch is much smaller as compared to the RealMe 2, which gives the mobile a near perfect 90% screen to body ratio.
The RealMe 2 Pro comes in 3 colour variants – Ice Lake, Blue Ocean and Black Sea.
Hardware
Backed by Snapdragon 660 AIE SoC, this device is truly a successor to the RealMe 1 which came with Snapdragon 450. RealMe has rightly tapped into the usage of the Indian consumers and has provided with plenty of RAM to ensure that the mobile doesn’t slow down within a couple of months of usage. The RealMe 2 Pro comes with 8 GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.
In the battery department is where we felt that RealMe 2 Pro could’ve done better. With 3500 mAh battery, the performance isn’t bad. It’ll still last you up to a day on normal usage. However, Real Me 2 which comes at almost Rs9,000 is backed by 4200 mAh battery – which shockingly can last upto 1.5 days on moderate-heavy usage. Therefore, not giving the same battery life to RealMe 2 Pro does make us wonder but it’s not a deal breaker since battery performance in RealMe devices has been good thus far.
Both front and back cameras are 16MP – with f/1.7 aperture. The device is running on the Android 8.1 with ColorOS 5.2.
Just like RealMe 2, we’re given both the finger sensor and the face sensor with the RealMe 2 Pro. The finger sensor works just fine and what we can gather from our experience of the facial recognition so far, it’s much quicker than the RealMe 2.
Camera & Performance
The camera point is one of the most key aspects in today’s Indian buyers choice making. A good camera can truly make a mobile sweep away the Indian market or vice-versa, regardless of how good other specs are; if the camera isn’t good enough, the mobile probably isn’t as well.
With 16MP back and front cameras respectively, the RealMe 2 Pro does everything to ensure that it doesn’t disappoint. Since RealMe 2 didn’t impress massively in this department (understandable, it was budget ended), the hopes from the RealMe 2 Pro were much higher.
The f/1.7 aperture backs the camera to do well. We wouldn’t say that it gives the most exceptional performance in a smartphone out there in this range but it also doesn’t make you complain. The daylight shots are actually quite good and will leave the photographer in you rather satisfied.
The Bokeh Mode is present along with plenty of face enhancers and modes – which we wouldn’t get much into, it depends on user to user as to how likely they’re to use these features and whether they matter or not. The camera quality in general doesn’t disappoint.
Pricing & Competition
The RealMe brand has made a name for itself in the Indian market with RealMe 1 and 2 but it’ll be fair to say that their “real” journey will start from the RealMe 2 Pro. This is simply because the RealMe 2 provides much more than you’d expect in a smartphone priced at just 13,990 (4GB), 15,990 (6GB) and 8GB (17,990).
The RealMe 2 is in direct competition with Xiaomi Redmi Note 5, Asus Zenfone Max Pro 1 & Motorola One Power. All of these 3 smartphones are bound to be hugely affected by the launch of RealMe 2 Pro – since for starters, it’s screen size is a massive 6.3 inch and yet doesn’t feel uncomfortable to hold in your hand.
The Snapdragon 660 is a beast when it comes to performance. Realme 2 Pro is a terrific update from the RealMe 1 and purely on that basis, the Indian consumers will look forward to trying out this “upgrade” to the RelaMe 1.
Verdict – the RealMe 2 Pro impresses in all aspects. The pricing point of this device has been kept aggressive to attract the Indian consumers since the RealMe brand, having shifted from Oppo, is still making a name for itself as an individual brand.
With the specs it has on offer, along with the build quality and a fairly good camera – the RealMe 2 Pro shall be the market leader at it’s price range. We truly believe that if you’re looking for a smartphone in the range of 13,000-18,000 the RealMe 2 Pro can be your perfect choice.
The RealMe 2 Pro goes on sale via Flipkart on the 11th of October, 2018.
