GT 2 Pro: How realme's most expensive smartphone to date has managed to impress us

With the GT 2 Pro, realme has launched its most expensive smartphone to date and it packs a punch: A brand-new Snapdragon 8 Gen. 1 is supposed to make other flagship phones cower in fear and as our review shows, the realme phone's performance is nothing to scoff at.

However, realme does not just try to compete solely in terms of raw power and instead relies on innovative materials for its case: The smartphone (at least the green and white color variants) come with a bioplastic back, which reduce material consumption, while looking appealing. Another plus: The realme GT 2 Pro turns out to be fairly lightweight for a smartphone of its size and considering its 5000-mAh battery.

The cameras system is a partial success: While it lacks sharpness compared to other flagship smartphone lenses, there is an infinitely variable zoom for videos that even supports different speeds and many different photography modes for various scenarios. Similarly, the macro lens has an extremely short focal lenght and a high zoom level, allowing for interesting shots.

High performance, good cameras, sleek appearance - then what is the realme GT 2 Pro missing? Evidently, some features had to be omitted in order to reach the relatively low price (~769 USD for the 256 GB model on Tradingshenzhen's import shop): For example, there is no IP certification. While this does not necessarily mean that the smartphone will not survive falling into water, but there is no way to know for certain.

Additionally, the realme GT 2 Pro lacks wireless charging and the manufacturer has also omitted the modern Wi-Fi 6E standard. These are not essential features by any stretch of the imagination, but they may cause some prospective buyers to reconsider.

In our in-depth review with many benchmark results, we explore why this would be a shame and why the smartphone is definitely worth a closer look.