Realme GT2 Explorer Master review

Realme UI 3.0 and Android 12

Even though the Realme GT2 Explorer Master runs a Chinese version of Realme UI as it's not getting a global version, it's still pretty much the same experience. That's true at least when it comes to features, while the default app package is obviously different.

It's still Relame UI 3.0 based on Android 12 and it still has Google Mobile Services even if they are lying dormant by default. We just had to sideload the Google Play Store and install the needed apps without any awkrward hacks required. Some limitations with this software are at hand, however. Some banking apps might not work and the device isn't whitelisted by Netflix, so you'd have to sideload that as well. No HDR capabilities in the YouTube and Netflix apps too.

Realme UI has a colorful UI with customizable UI elements and its own iconography for the notification shade and the general Settings menu. The app drawer hasn't been tweaked either, but we did notice a bit of inconsistency with the swipe up and swipe down gestures on the Home screen when opening/closing the drawer. A small annoyance that probably won't be noticed by most users.

Home screen, recent apps, notification shade, app drawer, settings menu

Realme also kept the so-called Icon pull-down gesture. Swiping alongside the left or right edge of the screen crams icons at the bottom half of the screen so they can be easily reached with your thumb. The gesture is pretty reliable as well. By default, the swipe-down gesture on the Home screen opens up the so-called global search, but you can set it to expand the notification shade instead.

Icon pull-down gesture

As before, Realme UI offers deep customization of the interface by letting you choose accent colors (or a combination of accent colors), wallpapers, icons, the shape of the quick toggles as well as the font and size. All of these settings are found in the Personalization sub-menu.

Customization settings

The Dark mode isn't a new feature, especially for Realme's UI, but you get some additional options. Scheduling the Dark mode is possible, of course, and forcing it on third-party apps is also available. We were surprised by the color schemes, however, as the Dark mode now offers three variations - dark gray instead of black and a bit lighter gray. The gray color has been proven to be just as effective as the pitch-black color when it comes to energy consumption. So going for a lighter gray might be a sweet spot for users that are hesitant to go full Dark mode.

Always-on display

Under the Special features sub-menu, Realme put the Smart sidebar and Flexible windows features, both of which boost multitasking. When turned on, the sidebar offers quick access to some of your favorite apps. The system allows you to adjust the position of the sidebar, which is crucial because it might interfere with the back gesture if you are using the standard Android gestures. Anyway, tap and hold on an app icon enters split-screen mode while a single tap opens up the app in a floating window or as Realme likes to call it, "Flexible window". The supported apps can be opened in small, draggable and size-adjustable windows.

Floating window and smart Sidebar

A few good words about the vibration motor - it seems to be improved upon as the haptic feedback feels precise, punchy and strong. It feels great alongside the whole frame of the phone when typing or during certain actions when navigating through menus and apps. This version of the software also has separate controls over vibration intensity for calls and notifications.

The good old screen-off gestures that allow you to launch certain apps or the flashlight by drawing letters on a locked screen are here to stay.

In the Realme labs, where the company likes to introduce experimental features, there's one that caught our eye. You can stream music to a Bluetooth headset and wired headphones simultaneously. Pretty neat if you are traveling with a friend and want to listen to the same tunes.

Gestures and Realme lab

Lastly, let's talk about the fingerprint reader. It's fast, it's accurate and reliable. Two new features are now available with the fingerprint reader, though. One of them is the built-in heart rate monitor, which seems to be largely inconsistent.

A Quick launch option is now available and seems to be taken straight from OnePlus' OxygenOS. You just tap on the fingerprint scanner and hold until icons for your pre-defined apps appear. Dragging your finger on one of them launches the app in question.

Quick launch

All in all, though, the Realme UI 3.0 looks snappy, offers some new features and looks and feels the same as the previous iteration of the software, for better or worse. It's also highly customizable, and that's something a lot of Android users are looking for. Bonus points for that.

Gaming features and shoulder triggers

The GT Mode 3.0 isn't something new as most Realme phones come with one. It devotes all of the CPU and GPU resources to keeping a stable frame rate throughout the gaming session.

A double swipe from the side brings out an in-game overlay that lets you customize the gaming environment, block calls and notifications, record your gaming session and also display stats about your network connectivity, in-game FPS and battery level.

GT Mode overaly

And since the GT2 Explorer Master is equipped with a set of shoulder triggers, this is where you bind them to certain actions. We found them to be particularly useful in first-person shooter and racing games. There's visual and haptic feedback when pressing down on the trigger area. Since the vibration motor is precise and crisp, the feedback you get from pressing on the frame gets pretty close to pressing an actual button. Pretty nice job on Realme's end.

Shoulder triggers settings

Synthetic performance

Compared to the Realme GT Explorer Master, the GT2 Explorer Master offers a substantial upgrade in terms of raw performance, but it's also an improvement over the Realme GT2 Pro, even if more modest. The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 promises 30% better power efficiency in the CPU and GPU department compared to its predecessor since Qualcomm changed from Samsung's fabs to TSMC's (both are still 4nm, though). Performance gains are smaller - 10% on both CPU and GPU, mainly due to the higher clock speeds.

The octa-core CPU consists of the same 1+3+4 core combo (1x Cortex-X2 + 3x Cortex-A710 + 4x Cortex-510), but clocked at 3.20 GHz, 2.75 GHz and 1.80 GHz, respectively. The Adreno 730 GPU runs at 900Hz.

Aside from the CPU and GPU, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is also bringing a new Spectra ISP, premium Snapdragon Sound and more power-efficient NPU computing. The ISP can now record 8K HDR footage and video bokeh effect alongside face tracking simultaneously. The NPU's capabilities have been bumped up 20% per watt.

There's also the Volumetric rendering support and improved power efficiency during gaming, and those alone theoretically boost gaming time by about an hour. Now off to the benchmarks to see how well it fares against the competition and see how good Realme's implementation is.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Asus Zenfone 9 (High Performance)
  4338
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  4300
• Realme GT2 Explorer Master
  4021
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  3657
• Poco F4 GT
  3637
• Asus Zenfone 9 (Dynamic)
  3606
• Realme GT2 Pro
  3501
• Realme GT2
  3487
• Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
  3049
• Google Pixel 6 Pro
  2831

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Realme GT2 Explorer Master
  1336
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  1324
• Asus Zenfone 9 (High Performance)
  1313
• Poco F4 GT
  1244
• Realme GT2 Pro
  1238
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  1180
• Realme GT2
  1131
• Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
  1096
• Google Pixel 6 Pro
  1042
• Asus Zenfone 9 (Dynamic)
  927

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Asus Zenfone 9 (High Performance)
  1083092
• Realme GT2 Explorer Master
  1045876
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  1039412
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  968359
• Realme GT2 Pro
  966251
• Poco F4 GT
  952124
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1080p)
  940400
• Realme GT2
  810512
• Asus Zenfone 9 (Dynamic)
  783425
• Google Pixel 6 Pro
  719815
• Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
  719696

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Asus Zenfone 9 (High Performance)
  67
• Realme GT2 Explorer Master
  59
• Asus Zenfone 9 (Dynamic)
  57
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1080p)
  51
• Realme GT2
  40
• Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
  38
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  38
• Realme GT2 Pro
  36
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  30
• Google Pixel 6 Pro
  28

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Realme GT2 Explorer Master
  46
• Asus Zenfone 9 (High Performance)
  46
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  46
• Realme GT2 Pro
  42
• Asus Zenfone 9 (Dynamic)
  33
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1080p)
  32
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  31
• Google Pixel 6 Pro
  31
• Realme GT2
  27
• Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
  24

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Asus Zenfone 9 (High Performance)
  69
• Realme GT2 Explorer Master
  59
• Asus Zenfone 9 (Dynamic)
  47
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1080p)
  46
• Realme GT2 Pro
  39
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  39
• Realme GT2
  38
• Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
  38
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  29
• Google Pixel 6 Pro
  26

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Asus Zenfone 9 (High Performance)
  52
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  51
• Realme GT2 Explorer Master
  50
• Realme GT2 Pro
  46
• Asus Zenfone 9 (Dynamic)
  36
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  35
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1080p)
  34
• Realme GT2
  30
• Google Pixel 6 Pro
  30
• Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
  25

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Asus Zenfone 9 (High Performance)
  104
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  104
• Realme GT2 Explorer Master
  103
• Realme GT2 Pro
  95
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1080p)
  76
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  76
• Asus Zenfone 9 (Dynamic)
  75
• Google Pixel 6 Pro
  70
• Realme GT2
  68
• Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
  57

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Asus Zenfone 9 (High Performance)
  187
• Realme GT2 Explorer Master
  182
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  182
• Realme GT2 Pro
  165
• Asus Zenfone 9 (Dynamic)
  137
• Realme GT2
  115
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1080p)
  114
• Google Pixel 6 Pro
  110
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  109
• Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
  103

As you can see from the scores, the results are inline other SD 8+ Gen 1-powered smartphones. We've excluded some onscreen tests from the charts since the device was locked at 60fps. The SoC is convincingly more powerful than its predecessor and the competing solution from Samsung, the Exynos 2200, in pretty much all scenarios.

Sustained performance

Although Realme's dual vapor chamber cooling design sounds a lot like the GT2 Pro's, the cited numbers are ever so slightly different in favor of the GT2 Explorer Master. The total heat dissipation area is 37,924 mm2, while the two VC sheets are crammed up in a 4,811 mm2 heat dissipation area.

In addition, Realme highlights a total of 11 layers designed to get the heat away from the SoC and some of those include stainless steel mesh, diamond thermal gel and graphene.

We ran the standard CPU throttle test that puts 100% workload on the CPU for an hour. Usually, games don't reach such high loads for extended periods of time, but this kind of stress testing is the best we can do for testing the cooling capabilities of a system.

CPU throttle test: 30 min • 60 min

The GT2 Explorer Master did great. In the first 30 minutes, the CPU throttled down to about 80% of its maximum performance and that only happened after the 25th-minute mark. The graph seems smooth enough too. It remained at around 78% of its performance throughout the rest of the test, which is pretty solid given the powerful chipset and the passive cooling design. It's also notably better than the SD 8 Gen 1-powered GT2 Pro, which throttled down to 74% of its maximum performance in the first 15 minutes.

Since the handset has a plastic (sort of) back, it doesn't get too hot to handle after an extended workload, but the frame does get toasty. It's aluminum after all.