Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
Battery life
- 4,000mAh battery lasts a decently long time
- Can be charged from 0 to 100% in just 35 minutes
The phone industry has sat for so long with 60Hz as a standard for screen performance, that anything even slightly faster throws something of a spanner in the works. This is to say that higher screen refresh rates have made larger batteries not so much a pleasant extra as an essential inclusion.
With an average ‘speed’ screen, the 4,000mAh cell in the Realme X2 Pro would be more than enough, from a spec-perspective, to essentially guarantee more than a day’s worth of battery life.
It is a pleasure to say then that, even with a screen that bucks the trend and saps more juice than normal, the Realme X2 Pro has a very dependable battery. This isn’t to say that it will hit the heights of the OnePlus 7 Pro, but it will certainly fit well into the lives of most.
Running the TechRadar battery test (a full resolution video, played over Wi-Fi for 90 minutes), the battery dropped to 87% from 100%, which is a strong showing if not the best seen.
One strong factor in favor of the Realme is its heritage. Perhaps due to the murky nature of certain business models, it isn’t widely known that OnePlus, Oppo and Realme have the same owner, BBK Electronics. For this device, it means that Realme has access to the same charging tech first introduced by Oppo, VOOC fast charging.
For the X2 Pro, that means you can dependably charge the device from 0% to 100% in 35 minutes with the included fast charger and cable. This is done while keeping the heat in the charging brick and not in the device itself, and is a considerable achievement.
Being able to charge so much within such a short space of time is more than a little useful, and in situations where even a single percentage point matters, could potentially be a lifesaver.
Overall, this isn’t the best battery life we’ve seen, nor the worst, but the charging tech on display is really a game changer.
Camera
- Main, telephoto and ultra-wide rear lenses
- 16MP f/2.0 selfie camera
- Reasonable general performance but poor night shots
The display on the Realme X2 Pro isn’t the only beneficiary of an avalanche of marketing acronyms, the camera system too is separated as something special. It certainly has a lot of sensors and lenses attached, all of which provide a great deal of versatility to the aspiring photographer.
First and foremost among the offerings is the 64MP f/1.8 main snapper. This is produced by Samsung, and contrary to the 64MP promise, is actually a 16MP sensor (in real terms) complemented by a Quad-Bayer arrangement. This means that ‘normal’ photos are produced at 16MP, in daylight and low light.
The sensor is capable of reproducing images at 64MP however, with Realme’s ‘64MP’ mode - regardless of how these images are achieved, the end results are astonishingly detailed when taken in good light.
As for general performance, there is no cause for complaint, even if there isn’t any reason to celebrate either. Images are colorful and have a decent representation of detail generally, however we found noise performance to be merely average.
The HDR mode does a decent job of recovering detail from shadows, however we found that ‘Chroma’ mode (in partnership with the ‘vivid’ display color mode in particular) cooked colors a little too far for our liking. It does make for a boost on a dull grey day, but in certain situations it means that ensuing images have only a passing resemblance to reality.
Telephoto performance from the 13MP f/2.5 lens we found to be wholly adequate, while the performance of the 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide angle lens left more than a little to be desired. Detail was smudged and colors were bland, and as such we would recommend that this should only be used in a pinch.
As ever in modern smartphones, the real proof of the pudding in camera terms is low light performance. Indeed, the standard sensor promises its pixel-binning tech combined with long exposures should provide for an excellent low light photography experience.
Unfortunately however, with a lack of Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), we found that this generally wasn’t the case. In general situations, the Realme X2 Pro performs reasonably well in low light, however when Night Mode is required, noise becomes king and detail is all but lost. Whether a processing issue or otherwise, we found this to be a particularly disappointing part of the overall experience.
It isn't by any measure a deal-breaker, however it shows the weakness of the device when compared to the likes of the Google Pixel 3a, which is both cheaper and better (with just a single lens).
