Oppo Realme 2 review

Color OS 5.1 and Android 8.1 Oreo

The Realme 2 runs on a heavily-modified Android 8.1 Oreo core, with Color OS 5.1 on top. The Chinese OEM hasn't really extended any effort to customize the UI to differentiate the Realme sub-brand. Instead, Oppo fans will find a familiar sight and should feel right at home.

The v.5.1 of the Color OS launcher offers enhanced AI engine with real-time translation, faster Face Unlock, new navigation gestures, better gallery, split-screen multi-tasking. There are also new app shortcuts (long tap), minor changes in the UI design and strengthened security. There is also an improved gaming mode.

ColorOS customizations run deep, as usual, making it far off from the standard Google-developed mobile experience. The Realme 2 has all Google services pre-installed, so you are ready to start your complete Android experience right out of the box.

The so-called AI builds on-device user behavior models for faster app startups and better resource management. It also uses this behavior to show relevant information on the left-most homescreen pane - calendar appointments, quick shortcuts, weather, world clock, package tracking, flight info, among others. You can configure those, or just leave them to the "AI".

The user interface is very familiar. There's no app drawer on the default launcher. Instead, every app you install appears onto the homescreen.

Lock and home screens

The fingerprint sensor is always-on, and it's fast and accurate. You can also set up face unlock in addition to fingerprint security - it's equally fast as the Realme 2 wakes up the moment you pick it up.

The face recognition is indeed blazing fast, faster than on the iPhone X. It relies on 120 recognition points and supposedly can't be fooled by a picture. Surely, this implementation is not as secure as Apple's Face ID, but it's there, and it's user-friendly.

Face recognition settings

The Theme Store features whole themes and just wallpapers, sorted into categories (including free and paid ones). Themes change the icon pack, the lockscreen wallpaper, and even the system font.

Themes

The notification shade features notifications, quick toggles, and a brightness scrubber. The task switcher reminds of Apple's, though it has an End All button. And split screen is available for all compatible apps.

Notifications • Toggles • Task Switcher • Split screen • Split screen • Split screen

The Full-Screen Gesture model is available for the Realme 2. When enabled, Full-Screen Gesture navigation positions three small lines at the bottom of the UI. Swiping up from the middle one acts like a home button but if you stop the gestures mid-way - you'll summon the task switcher (like on the iPhone X). Swiping on the left or right ones acts as Back. You can change one of those to open the recent apps manager if you like.

You can hide those lines since they are only visual aids. And if you don't like these controls, there is a standard Android navigation bar to fall back to as well.

Navigation settings

Clone apps and file safe functions are on board, as well as real-time translation thanks to an improved voice assistant.

There is a Phone Manager quite similar to what Huawei and Xiaomi have on their phones under the same name. It handles memory cleaner functions, app permissions and encryption, and virus scan, among other things.

Oppo provides multimedia apps of all sorts - Gallery, Music, Video, and even FM radio.

Phone Manager • Gallery • Videos • Files • FM radio

An improved Game Space allows you to handpick which notifications to pass through when you are playing with friends. There are also different performance modes and an option to lock the brightness only for certain games.

Game Space

Performance and benchmarks

The Realme 2 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 chip. It's somewhat of a reworked Snapdragon 625 and comes to replace the Snapdragon 435. The 450's processor has eight 1.8GHz Cortex-A53, while the GPU in charge of graphics is Adreno 506. The Realme 2 comes with either 3 or 4 gigs of RAM depending on the storage model you buy.

The Snapdragon 450 is a considerable step down from the Helio P60 in the Realme 1 regarding performance, and this is one of the major differences between the two devices. That's the reason the Realme 2 can't be considered as a sequel but as an alternative.

The lower screen resolution is the other reason, but it should also be the equalizer of the performance - the low-end GPU should be able to deliver the same punch on this 720p screen as the Mali-G72 MP3 GPU on the Realme 1's 1080p display.

But no Cortex-A53 can match the A73 processor in the Realme 1. The Helio P60 has 4x A73 and 4x A53 - one of the best offers you can get in the budget and mid-range classes. While the A53 are still very capable processor cores, the downgrade of the processor in the Realme 2 is still a big letdown.

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi A2
  1617
• Oppo Realme 1
  1511
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro
  1327
• Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite
  881
• Xiaomi Mi A1
  877
• Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus
  874
• Oppo Realme 2
  790
• vivo V7+
  767
• Xiaomi Redmi 5
  766

Even when working together, the A53 cores are still no match for those high-end A73 ones.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Oppo Realme 1
  5741
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro
  4696
• Xiaomi Mi A2
  4625
• Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite
  4388
• Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus
  4309
• Xiaomi Mi A1
  4292
• Xiaomi Redmi 5
  4018
• vivo V7+
  3912
• Oppo Realme 2
  3881

As we suspected the lower screen resolution helped the Adreno 506 GPU achieve a performance close to what the Realme 1 was offering. It's not exactly on par, but not that far behind either.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi A2
  21
• Oppo Realme 1
  20
• Xiaomi Redmi 5
  18
• vivo V7+
  17
• Oppo Realme 2
  16
• Xiaomi Mi A1
  9.7
• Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus
  9.4
• Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite
  9.4

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi A2
  8.6
• Oppo Realme 1
  7.5
• Xiaomi Redmi 5
  6.8
• vivo V7+
  6.6
• Oppo Realme 2
  6.3
• Xiaomi Mi A1
  3.5
• Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus
  3.4
• Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite
  3.4

AnTuTu is the universal benchmark when comparing phones and the Realme 2 isn't doing great there. The score is mediocre, and probably fine for the class, but it's exactly half of the Realme 1's number.

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Oppo Realme 1
  138524
• Xiaomi Mi A2
  130927
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro
  107737
• Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite
  77964
• Oppo Realme 2
  75434

It's not like the Realme 2 isn't packing some nice power punch. It does a very good job of handling Android, Color OS, and all the opened apps. The games do run smoothly and mostly hiccup-free due to the lower screen resolution, too. And the Realme 2 isn't warming or stuttering due to overheating.

It's just that the Realme 1 set the bar high and the second one isn't even close to it. And that's a bit hard to swallow.