Realme GT2 Explorer Master review

Design and build

The GT2 Explorer Master is quite different from what we are used to seeing from Realme. It's a mixture of modern, sleek design and retro styling. The Travel Trunk colorway we got has a vegan leather back (a fancy type of plastic) and a flat metal frame goes around the handset in line with the recent trend of boxy designs. The combination makes it feel premium and solid in the hand.

The material on the back, although plastic, makes a very plausible leather impression, it's grippy, yet somewhat soft to the touch. There are brackets in three of the corners for that old school trunk reference. The choice of colors is also pretty elegant with that light beige back plate and gold-ish brown finish of the frame. And for those that feel such retro inspiration doesn't sit well with modern tech Realme offers standard Black and White colors with glass backs.

The back is plenty grippy and along with the sharp corners and flat frame make up for secure and pleasant handling. And for a 6.7-inch device with a 5,000 mAh battery and two vapor chambers inside, 195 grams is really acceptable. Perhaps opting for the vegan leather back has trimmed off some weight. It's a more lightweight option than glass, that's for sure.

Despite its relations with the GT2 family and the Explorer Master from last year, the camera island takes after the GT Neo3. The big main sensor sits on top with the other two cameras underneath. The bump is quite prominent, has sharp edges and the individual lenses stick out quite a bit.

As we already mentioned, the side frame is metal-made with flat sides and has chamfered edges towards the front and back panels. It feels pretty nice and looks great. Realme says it's designed in a way that actually helps 5G reception as well.

Realme GT2 Explorer Master

The power button sits on the right while the volume rocker is on the opposite side. Both keys are positioned conveniently, but the same cannot be said about the fingerprint reader. It's once again placed too close to the bottom bezel and makes it somewhat awkward to reach with your thumb.

The bottom side of the frame is business as usual - USB-C connector, speaker grille and a SIM card tray. The top houses only the secondary mic and the additional grille for the other speaker's echo chamber.

Nothing out of the ordinary on the front as well, where we see some premium flagship-level bezels. The top one measures just 1.84mm while the bottom one is not far at 2.37mm. For all intents and purposes, though, the top and bottom bezels look symmetrical to the naked eye. The side ones take it one step further, measuring at 1.48mm. The selfie camera sits in a small, centered punch-hole.

Even though the Travel Trunk design might not be for everyone, it's definitely interesting and well implemented making it a worthy installment in the Mast Edition series. Kudos to Realme for delivering so many unorthodox designs and with such high frequency.

The phone also deserves bonus points for the reasonable weight and surprisingly comfortable handling. An omissions you might want to consider - there's no official ingress protection. Going by the GT and the GT Neo series, however, there probably are seals that protect from sprinkles and splashes.