Realme X2, X2 Pro hands-on review

Realme X2 Pro hands-on

Only the second phone in the Realme lineup to have its cameras centered along the vertical axis on the back, the X2 Pro follows in the X's footsteps. We have no strong feelings one way or the other - whatever works for the internal layout. If anything, this arrangement means it's less likely for your fingers to get in the way of an all-seeing ultra wide cam.

The cluster itself looks a lot like the previous quad-cam Realmes - the top module has the gold-ring accent and there's a 64MP inscription to make sure you're aware of the big numbers. Keeping company to a dual LED flash - now that's an extra diode, the quad-iris logo completes the company's list of signature touches.

Okay, not entirely - there's a big Realme logo too and it looks like it's been slapped at random. On the models that had their cameras in the top left corner, it balanced nicely on the bottom, but here it screams 'afterthought'. Or is it just us?

You're getting Gorilla Glass 5 front and back with an aluminum skeleton holding things together, so the Realme X2 Pro is made of the same materials you'd find on just about any high-end phone. It feels solid and well put together, and the 199g of heft is about what you'd expect for the display size and battery capacity. That is to say - heavy, but the good kind of heavy.

Not quite the good kind is the finger grease that gets all smudged up on the back in no time. In all fairness, that's pretty much true for any glass-backed phone that doesn't opt for the frosted finish, itself even more slippery - you just can't have the cake and eat it.

Flipping over to the front, the 6.5-inch SuperAMOLED display takes center stage. It's slightly bigger than the XT and X2's 6.4-inchers, but a fraction smaller the original X's 6.53-inch panel.

It's hard to find a bad display these days and the one on the Realme X2 Pro certainly isn't so. We can't verify the company's claimed 1000nits of peak brightness without taking a unit to the lab, but bright it is alright. More importantly, it's got a 90Hz refresh rate and once you go above 60Hz all other displays look mundane. Not this one.

What the X2 Pro doesn't carry over from the X is the elevating selfie cam that kept the old model notchless. We take it that Realme prioritized specs and performance over looks for the X2 Pro and a pop-up cam didn't make the cut. A valid approach, even if we're not strictly fans of notches, sweeping as they may be.

Among the key selling points of the X2 Pro are its dual stereo speakers, perhaps a welcome outcome of the stationary selfie cam as elevating assemblies typically have the speaker in them thus limiting its potential. The X2 Pro's speaker setup is Dolby Atmos certified, for what that's worth. That too will require a trip to the lab, because the venue floor is much too noisy to judge.

We'd also like to see for ourselves that 50-watt charging, though judging by our previous experience with 50W SuperVOOCs on the Oppo Find X Lamborghini Edition and the RX17 Pro, the 35-minutes-to-full claim checks out. We're just moderately skeptical about the 4,000mAh battery on a 6.5-inch 90Hz screen, but if the OnePluses of the day manage with about as much, so should the Realme X2 Pro.

The X2 Pro runs Android 9, which is a bit of a bummer since that appears to be one of few blemishes on an otherwise very impressive specsheet. We gather ColorOS isn't ready to make the leap to Android 10 just yet.

There's an under-display fingerprint reader on the X2 Pro and it works as expected - it unlocks quickly, every time. Another positive experience we got out of the new 'tactile linear motor' - the Realme X2 Pro's vibrations super precise and are a significant step up from previous efforts from the company, which did have a rather... dated feel.