Realme GT2 Pro review

Two 50MP sensors, fisheye and microscopic lenses

The Realme GT2 Pro has similar to the iQOO 9 Pro's and the Oppo Find X5 Pro's camera setups with two 50MP sensors. They use different optics, though.

In this case, the primary shooter uses Sony's IMX766 50MP, 1/1.56" in size with 1.0µm pixels. The sensor is aided by OIS and supports multi-directional PDAF, and the lens provides a fairly wide f/1.8 aperture.

Normally secondary to the main cam, the ultrawide camera is probably the star of the show here. It's one of the few cameras with a 150-degree field of view. The only other phone running such a setup is the aforementioned iQOO 9 Pro.

Sitting behind the extremely wide lens is the Samsung ISOCELL JN1 sensor, 1/2.76" in size and having 0.64µm pixels. Тhe lens features f/2.2 aperture and doesn't have autofocus, even though the similar implementation of the same sensor on the IQOO 9 Pro has auto focus enabled.

The third camera is the so-called Micro-lens camera, which is essentially a 3MP, f/3.0 camera, fitted with 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.

On the front, we have a 32MP f/2.4, 1/2.74", 0.8µm camera for selfies that shoots in the full 32MP resolution.

Camera menus

Realme's overhauled software didn't reach the default camera app as it looks exactly the same as before. Swiping left or right 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.

Default camera app

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.

To our surprise, 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.

Daylight samples

Main camera

The daylight samples look great and are comparable to that of the big brands in the industry. Sharpness is great, the level of detail is good, and the dynamic range is excellent. Expectedly, going inside with the camera produces slightly noisier pictures and sharpness drops by a little, but the fine detail is retained.

12.5MP daylight samples

The color reproduction is a bit more conservative so if you are going after punchier colors, use the AI toggle on the top of the viewfinder. It boosts the color saturation depending on the scenario.

12.5MP daylight samples

Shooting with the full 50MP resolution bears little to no benefits. You can get a bit more detail but at the expense of sharpness and noise.

50MP daylight samples

2x zoom

Since there's no telephoto, the phone resorts to cropping out the center of the binned 12.5MP images and upscaling them back to 12.5MP, or at least that's what we suspect happens behind the scenes. The end result isn't what you'd normally expect from a proper 2x telephoto camera, but the overall quality is good enough for social media posting. Sharpness is okay, the level of detail is good, and the dynamic range is rather wide. Overall, the rendition is comparable to that of the non-zoomed samples.

2x daylight samples

Ultrawide camera

The ultrawide's camera is paired with an extremely wide lens with an advertised 150-degree field of view, so we suspect that the standard ultrawide shots are cropped and upscaled back to 12.5MP for consistency. They are considerably softer than the main camera's samples, as a result, but they are also quite detailed.

Ultrawide daylight samples

Compared to other ultrawide solutions, the GT2 Pro edges out the competition. The consistency between the standard 12.5MP photos and the ultrawide ones is apparent. Both cameras produce comparable stills (minus the sharpness) with recognizable color reproduction and overall rendition. This, in turn, means that color reproduction is true to life.

Ultrawide daylight samples

Dynamic range is also impressive, and so is the ability to retain acceptable sharpness indoors. Sure, noise starts to creep in, but nothing too major. The sensor outputs good images even in more challenging lighting conditions. Oh, and the lens correction algorithm is impressive, especially considering the wider-than-usual lens.

150-degree and fisheye samples

If you are willing to trade some of that ultrawide sharpness, which isn't all that much, to begin with, you can get some nice-looking, dramatic shots. The overall rendition is exactly the same as the standard ultrawide shots, but the barrel distortion is considerably more visible, which is the desired effect anyway.

150-degree daylight samples

Fan of the fisheye effect? Well, the GT2 Pro is capable of some cool-looking shots. Sharpness and detail deteriorate fast, but they will still look great on social media channels.

Daylight fisheye samples

Microscopic camera

The native zoom is 20x, and some digital enhancement pushes it to 40x. In our opinion, the former shots look way nicer. There's a little learning curve to it as you have to get really close to the subject, but there's also autofocus support to help you out. The best part is that the LED flashes positioned at both ends of the lens help with additional light so your subject is well exposed.

Microscopic camera samples: 20x • 40x

Despite the neat shots we got, we'd still prefer a proper telephoto lens over this.

Low-light samples

Main camera

Even without Night mode, the GT2 Pro shows impressive nighttime performance. Images are generally sharp with plenty of detail, including the shadows. Dynamic range is wide, and there's definitely some HDR and image stacking going on in the background, but most of the time, the standard Photo mode didn't prompt us to wait. You can easily see fine detail in the dark while highlights and bright light sources are contained and not clipped.

Low-light main camera samples

Noise isn't easy to spot either, and colors are once again close to real-life. Quite frankly, there's nothing much to say about these photos, they are great.

Low-light main camera samples

Using the Night mode brings out a bit more detail across the whole scene while brightening up the shadows. Sharpness and color rendition remain comparable. We've noticed that the dedicated Night mode isn't very aggressive with the sharpening and the exposure. It doesn't make the stills look like they are rendered. If we need to get nit-picky, a tad more sharpening overall wouldn't have hurt.

Night mode main camera samples

2x zoom

Two surprises here. The first one is that the standard Photo mode produces better results than the Night mode. And the second one is that the 2x zoom mode produces good low-light images in the first place. Sure, there's a significant loss in sharpness, but other than that, the crop zoom photos look good for social media purposes too. Expect a similar rendition as the non-zoomed stills.

Low-light 2x zoom: Normal • Night mode

Ultrawide camera

For an ultrawide camera in the dark, this one seems to be doing a more than decent job. We can see a similar rendition to the main camera with true-to-life colors, a decent amount of detail, a wide dynamic range and balanced highlights. Noise is also absent. The Night mode wouldn't necessarily improve image quality and instead may introduce some oversharpening halos around objects and fine detail.

Low-light ultrawide: Normal • Night mode

Still, it helps bring out a tad more detail from the shadows, brightens them up without going overboard. You can definitely get some nice-looking ultrawide shots in the dark no matter the mode and that's something very few phones can do.

150-degree samples

Since the 150-degree lens adds a considerable amount of edge softness, which is an even bigger issue in the dark. The 150-degree samples in the dark have a somewhat narrower dynamic range as well, judging by the darker shadows and clipped highlights in some cases.

Low-light 150-degree samples

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 Pro fares against the competition.

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

Portraits

To be honest, we expected more from the Portrait shots. The faux bokeh effect is convincing enough, and you can adjust the strength of the blur using the "electronic aperture" slider. However, we expected more from a flagship-grade phone. Even in decent lighting conditions, the images come out a bit soft, and the subject's skin is often a bit pale. You can also spot some noise in uniform areas.

Portrait samples

Selfies

Selfies are good, although a little pale. A touch more color wouldn't have hurt, but we appreciate the level of detail and sharpness. Noise becomes more apparent in sub-optimal lighting conditions, and that's to be expected. Dynamic range is wide in the standard Photo mode, probably because HDR is enabled, but you can expect accurate exposure of the subject's face at all times.

Selfies: Normal • Portrait

Video recording

Having a flagship SoC enables the GT2 Pro to record 4320p@30fps videos and also implement EIS on its 2160p videos. The 8K video isn't stabilized, however, and you probably don't have to resort to this mode unless you have an 8K TV. Speaking of stabilization, the handset doesn't offer that action camera-like stabilization we are used to seeing on modern flagships for the past couple of years. It's strange because we've seen it on other Realme devices supported in 1080p mode. It may be added with a future update.

Anyway, the 8K video below shows good sharpness and level of detail with once again rather conservative color reproduction. The dynamic range is wide, but the videos feel like they need a touch of contrast. Interestingly enough, we noticed that the 8K footage has a narrower field of view compared to the 4K videos below.

The 4K videos look exactly the same but understandably with slightly lower detail and softer. For 2160p footage, though, we can say it's pretty good.

The ultrawide camera can also do 4K videos, and to our surprise, these ones look a tad more pleasing than the ones taken with the main camera. And by more pleasing we mean colors are a hair better, the wide dynamic range, detail is excellent, and sharpness has suffered ever so slightly. Compared to other ultrawide videos, these are indeed excellent.

Once you are done with the real-life scenarios, take a look at our video compare tool to see how the Realme GT2 Pro stacks against the other phones we've reviewed.

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