Realme GT2 Explorer Master review

50MP Sony IMX766 main camera and secondary 50MP fisheye

The GT2 Explorer Master uses the same 50MP Sony IMX766, 1/1.56", 1.0µm sensor with multi-directional PDAF as half a dozen more Realmes, Oppos and OnePlus smartphones. It's used as a main camera and is paired with an f/1.9 aperture. The sensor is quite capable and fits the flagship's specs sheet.

The secondary, ultrawide camera has another 50MP sensor, but we get no official confirmation on the exact unit used. Though, it's probably safe to assume that the company used the same Samsung ISOCELL JN1, 1/2.76", 0.64µm sensor found in the GT2 Pro. The aperture is fairly wide for an ultrawide - f/2.2 and the lens covers a whopping 150-degree field of view, worthy of the fisheye title.

The third camera is the so-called micro-lens camera, which is essentially a 3MP, f/3.0 shooter, fitted with a lens for microscope-level magnification. The native magnification is 20x but up to 40x is offered as digital zoom. The unit supports AF and produces neat photos.

The GT2 Explorer Master gets a 16MP f/2.5 selfie camera instead of the 32MP found on the GT2 Pro series.

Camera menus

Swiping left or right in the camera viewfinder switches between the usual camera modes while the "More" section accommodates the secondary modes, including the Expert. The latter gives you granular control over ISO, exposure, focus, white balance and shutter speed.

In the standard Photo mode, you will find an AI toggle for a boost in colors, HDR control, three toggles for the ultrawide, main and 2x zoom.

Camera menus and modes

The iconic 150-degree and fisheye modes are tucked away in the additional camera modes as well as the microscopic lens. You can always rearrange them to your liking and put them alongside the main camera modes in the carousel.

Camera menus and modes

The automatic Night mode behavior seems to have been implemented on Realme phones as well after we saw it in action on Oppo's recent handsets. It's not such big of a surprise since they share mostly the same software. In short, the standard Photo mode will almost always force the Night mode on if it deems it dark enough. Realme still keeps the separate Night mode for when the software decides to opt for the standard Photo mode but you feel it's not enough. So you do have some flexibility at your disposal. The image stacking process doesn't take long, though, the ISP and the algorithm are blazing-fast.

Daylight samples

Main camera

As expected, the overall rendition reminds us of the GT2 Pro since it has the same camera setup and roughly the same ISP as well. This, in turn, means that the daylight performance is almost impeccable. Aside from the first sample in which the grass has a couple of soft patches (probably the noise suppression algorithm acting up), the photos look great. They are crystal-clear, have plenty of detail, sharpness is good and dynamic range is wide.

12.5MP daylight samples

The camera seems to be quite consistent even indoors, as noise is virtually non-existent and sharpness doesn't deteriorate as much as we would have expected. Colors in all scenarios are a bit more conservative, but that can be easily fixed with a flick of the AI toggle, which boosts saturation in most scenarios. Then again, some of you may like natural color reproduction.

12.5MP daylight samples

The 50MP mode gets a new name - 50MP AI. However, the results are rather unimpressive as you are really not getting much extra detail to make up for the larger file sizes and you are losing some dynamic range as well.

50MP AI daylight samples

2x zoom

The lack of a proper telephoto camera is mitigated to some extent thanks to the excellent processing and solid primary 50MP sensor. The samples below would easily beat some 2x telephoto cameras, although going further is probably not advisable.

2x zoom daylight samples

Ultrawide camera

Since the ultrawide unit features a lens with extremely wide FoV, 150-degree to be exact, the handset crops from the middle of the frame and straightens out the barrel distortion to produce the ultrawide view without the drawbacks. However, there must be some upscaling up to 12.5MP for the sake of consistency and in combination with the lens, the shots below aren't the sharpest around.

Ultrawide daylight samples

Still, overall the ultraide camera captures some good-looking pictures compared to competing ultrawide solutions. Rendition as a whole is pretty similar to the main camera in terms of color reproduction, noise and even the dynamic range is great. Indoor environments are harder and some shadows may come out underexposed.

150-degree and fisheye

There are two separate modes in the so-called Fisheye mode - one that takes 150-degree FoV samples and the other one simulates the fisheye effect. Both produce shots with pretty much the same quality as the standard ultrawide mode. The only drawback is sharpness - this one seems to be worse in the Fisheye mode, which isn't a big surprise. More importantly, the images are perfectly presentable for social media and produce cool dramatic effect.

150 FoV ultrawide samples

Fisheye ultrawide samples

Microscopic camera samples

The native zoom of the camera is 20x, while the digital enhancement can push that to 40x zoom. Sticking to the native 20x zoom is better, in our opinion, as the 3MP resolution of the sensor is really not suited to digital zoom. Either way, the microscopic shots are really impressive allowing you to se really fine details. The LED flash on the back turns on, so you get good lighting in almost all scenarios.

Micro-lens camera samples: 20x • 40x

Low-light samples

Main camera

As opposed to the GT2 Pro, the GT2 Explorer Master uses Night mode to shoot scenes with poor lighting far more frequently in its default mode.

We've got a few examples for you to see where the software opted for the standard shooting method.

Low-light samples: Normal • Night mode

Either way, we suggest using the Night mode in all poorly-lit scenarios as sharpness is excellent, there's virtually no noise, the level of detail, even in the shadows, is impressive and dynamic range is outstanding. Light sources look great, colors are punchy and the contrast is just right. To be honest, there's little not to like about those samples. The GT2 Explorer Master's cameras are doing an excellent job, all things considered.

Night mode main camera samples

2x zoom

Even going for the 2x zoom at night isn't ruinous to the image quality. Sharpness suffers notably, but it's not deal-breaking and the rest of it remains unchanged. Sadly, this is true only for the standard Photo mode and in most cases, the software will force Night mode.

2x zoom low-light samples: Normal • Night mode

The Night mode produces signifcantly softer pictures. One workaround is to use the Pro mode when shooting low-light scenes with the 2x zoom and just leave all the settings to Auto. This wouldn't trigger the Night mode.

2x zoom Night mode samples

Ultrawide camera

The ultrawide camera captures surprisingly good shots in the dark and the Night mode will turn on in the vast majority of cases. You can expect decently sharp images with plenty of detail and wide dynamic range. Colors are punchy, contrast is good and noise is hard to spot. The quality is excellent for an ultrawide camera.

Ultrawide camera Night mode samples

Here are two scenes in which we had forced the Night mode and the difference is apparent. The Night mode sample on the right is considerably sharper and handles light sources much better.

Ultrawide low-light samples: Normal • Night mode

Once you are done with the real-life examples, take a look at our Photo compare tool for some pixel-peeping and see how the Realme GT2 Explorer Master fares against the competition.

Realme GT2 Explorer Master vs. Samsung Galaxy S21 FE and the Google Pixel 6 in our Photo compare tool

Portraits

The portrait samples look a tad better than the ones we took with the GT2 Pro. They are detailed, with good contrast and lively colors, but not over the top. The system gets the right exposure of the subject's face all the time, regardless of the scene, even in sub-optimal lighting conditions.

Portrait samples

The faux bokeh effect is impeccable - it's quite convincing and handles complex backgrounds pretty well.

Selfies

Selfies are good, for the most part, with excellent dynamic range, good level of detail and challenging lighting conditions aren't an issue. In some cases, though, we suggest forcing the HDR as the background can often come out clipped. We were also surprised to see the HDR algorithm working in Portrait mode. However, we would have appreciated a bit more sharpness. That's our only complaint.

Selfies: Normal • Portrait

Video recording

We were surprised to see that there's no 4320p option available, but we can't say we miss the 8K recording anyway. It's often not up to the real 8K standards and 8K-capable TVs aren't widely adopted. So the 2160p video resolution should do just fine and it's stabilized as well. Speaking of, we didn't find the action camera-like stabilization other Realmes and brands offer, but the standard EIS should be enough for most.

The first thing we noticed about the 4K footage below is the overly enthusiastic exposure. It's easy to see the clipped roof of the building as well as the overexposed signs and foliage. Aside from that, the video is great. It has plenty of detail, contrast is good, colors are natural and life-like, sharpness is great too.

We were pleasantly surprised by the ultrawide camera, which produced similar-looking video with minimal loss of sharpness. That's downright impressive for an ultrawide camera. The overall rendition (color reproduction, white balance, exposure, dynamic range, etc.) seems identical to the main camera. Kudos for that.

As we already mentioned, EIS is available in 4K and it's pretty good too. There are no unwanted jello effect or panning issues.

We've recorded a video using the ultrawide camera as well.

The nighttime video recording capabilities are impressive. The main camera produces relatively clean videos with an acceptable amount of noise, good dynamic range and quite a bit of detail in the dark. Sure, clipped highlights are a thing but aren't all that bad.

The AI mode is supposed to deliver better nighttime video performance but it's capped at 1080p resolution so it's generally softer. However, it also looks somewhat cleaner as it takes care of the remaining noise.

The ultrawide camera in the dark produces considerably softer and darker videos, its smaller sensor showing up, but it's still usable and not the worst we've seen from an ultrawide camera.

You can now take a look at our video compare tool to see how the Realme GT2 Explorer Master stacks against the other phones we've reviewed.

2160p: Realme GT2 Explorer Master vs. Samsung Galaxy S21 FE and the Google Pixel 6 in our Video compare tool