Press "Enter" to skip to content

Realme X2 review: A midrange smartphone that has something for everyone

Chinese smartphone brand Realme made strides in several new areas last year. From foraying into the premium midrange segment to introducing true wireless earphones, the young and ambitious OPPO spin-off did not hesitate to explore and experiment. At the same time, it continued to focus on its midrange smartphone portfolio, considered its area of strength. A recent addition to this portfolio is the Realme X2, the plain-vanilla edition of its premium Realme X2 Pro.

Business Standard tried the Realme X2 to see how it fared on key parameters. Here is what we found in our review:

Design

The Realme X2 takes its design inspiration from the Pro edition in more ways than one. However, you cannot overlook how drastically similar it looks to the Realme XT as well. The phone has a glass construction, with a Gorilla Glass 5 protection on the front and back, and a polycarbonate chassis that looks metallic. Though the phone’s back is resilient to scratches, its glass cover is prone to smudges and fingerprints. Thankfully, the phone comes bundled with a translucent TPU cover that protects its back and also levels the phone’s otherwise protruding rear camera module, which makes it uneven on flat surfaces.

Realme X2
Display

The Realme X2 has a 6.4-inch fullHD+ AMOLED display stretched in a tall 19.5:9 aspect ratio. Being a midrange phone, it has ditched some of the premium display features the company used in its Pro edition, including a higher refresh rate panel and HDR10+ support. Moreover, the screen also lacks the peak brightness level (1000 nits) that the Pro edition boasts, so its brightness seems muted, especially in bright outdoors. Nonetheless, for a midrange phone, the screen is decent with vibrant colours and a smooth touch feedback.

Though set to render vivid colours by default, the phone can be tuned from settings to use natural colours. It has a dedicated dark mode, which is currently part of the Realme Beta programme. In the dark mode, the phone uses a greyish-black colour palette, instead of dense black, for the system background colour. Interestingly, the dark mode turns the interface dark even for the apps that natively do not support the dark mode.

Camera

The Realme X2 gets the same quad rear camera module that is there in the Realme XT. It features a 64-megapixel primary sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide sensor, a 2MP depth sensor, and a 2MP macro sensor. On the front, however, the phone gets a new 32MP sensor for selfies.

Realme X2 camera sample: HDR

Realme X2 camera sample: HDR

Realme X2 camera sample: Macro

Realme X2 camera sample: Macro

Realme X2 camera sample: Low light

Realme X2 camera sample: Low light

Realme X2 camera sample: HDR

Realme X2 camera sample: HDR

Realme X2 camera sample: Dynamic range

Realme X2 camera sample: Dynamic range
Though similar, the Realme X2 camera seems to capture better images than the Realme XT. Its primary sensor is a capable unit that takes detailed shots with a reasonable dynamic range and minimal noise in most conditions. A 16MP resolution and the pixel-binning technology allow the sensor to capture over-saturated images and project in a vivid but unnatural way. The phone’s ultra-wide sensor takes satisfactory (not exceptional) shots. These have noise, soft corners and a prominent barrel effect. The macro lens, on the other hand, is a great addition to the mix. The phone’s selfie camera is a capable performer, too. While earlier Realme phones added unnatural glamour to selfies through aggressive post-processing, the Realme X2’s selfie camera finds the right balance between natural and artificial beauty.

Performance

Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G mobile processor, the Realme X2 is a power-packed performer that delivers on most counts. It handles everyday tasks with ease and shows no weaknesses in handling processor- or graphic-intensive apps. It does warm up a bit, but not so much as to cause any discomfort.

Though the phone’s performance is top-notch, the user experience gets somewhat tempered by advertisements and app recommendations that keep randomly popping up in the phone’s ColorOS 6 UI. The phone is to soon get the company’s redesigned Realme OS UI, which is a custom ROM built on the basis of Oppo’s ColorOS7. The upcoming UI is likely to address the current UI limitations.

Battery

The phone has a 4,000 mAh battery, which is good enough to keep the phone going for a day on normal use. The device comes bundled with a 30W superVOOC fast charger, which might not be blazingly fast — if you compare it with the superVOOC charger that comes with the Pro edition — but does the job of replenishing the battery quickly from zero to full in around one-and-a-half hours.

Verdict

Starting at Rs 16,999, the Realme X2 is a midrange phone that ticks all the right boxes. Though it lacks the extreme value quotient of its elder sibling, the Realme X2 Pro, in premium midrange segment, it still is a good option in its segment. You might like to experience the Realme X2 if you want a midrange smartphone with some strength in all areas, and not one with imaging capabilities only.

Source: Business Standard