Realme GT Neo 2 Review: A Bold Budget Phone For The Gamers

Realme GT Neo 2 features a flagship Snapdragon 870 processor and another top of the line specifications and delivers a complete package at a budget price, the same strategy with which OnePlus was born. The GT Neo 2 offers a unique design that attracts buyers with the flashy colour variants that it comes with.

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The device is built for gamers out there and Realme has tried to make it a complete package with also keeping a budget price point. I have been using the device for a few days as my primary device and here is my Realme GT Neo 2 review.

Realme GT Neo 2 is potentially a flagship killer and comes with a price tag of Rs. 31,999 for the 8GB RAM and 128GB storage variant and Rs. 35,999 for the 12GB RAM and 256GB variant. It comes in three colour options: Neo Green, Neo Blue, and Neo Black. The phone is available to buy from Realme’s website, Flipkart, and from offline retailers.

Here are the box contents of Realme GT Neo 2:

• Realme GT NEO 2
• USB Type-C Cable
• 65W Charge Adapter
• SIM Ejector Tool
• Screen Protector Film
• Protect Case
• Documentation

Let’s talk about the on-paper specifications of the Realme GT Neo 2 at first:

• Display: 6.62 inches, FHD+ (1080 x 2400 pixels), AMOLED display with HDR10+ and 120Hz refresh rate
• Camera: 64MP + 8MP + 2MP | 16MP Front Camera
• Battery: Li-Po 5000 mAh Battery with 65W fast-charging
• Chipset: Qualcomm SM8250-AC Snapdragon 870 5G (7 nm)
• RAM & ROM: 8GB/12GB | 128 GB, 256GB
• Dimensions: 162.9 x 75.8 x 9 mm 
• Weight: 199.8 grams

The unit I was reviewing came with a black box as it had the black colour variant inside. Realme has provided three narrow bezels on the front and features a 6.62 inches AMOLED display. The front camera is housed in a punch hole digging straight through the E4 material that the display is made from.

For the back panel, we get matte glass which is becoming somewhat a norm for smartphones today. The back finish is glossy and feels like you are touching silk and also looks very textured. I personally liked it as it is not much shiny and does not attract fingerprints like the other back panels with a glossy finish.

The rear camera is housed in a chunky rectangular module that makes the phone wobble when put on a flat surface. Two camera lenses are placed vertically while the third lens is placed on the right side of the two larger lenses. There’s also the subtle RealMe branding on the bottom left corner of the back panel. At the bottom of the phone, there’s a USB-C port for charging. along with the speaker grille and the SIM tray. The power button is placed on the left side while the volume buttons are located on the right. On the top, there’s nothing but a microphone for voice cancellation.

The GT Neo 2 retains the same 1080p display from its predecessor GT Neo but it is now bigger in size, we get a 6.43″ and not a 6.62-inch display. But despite the increase in the screen size, the display doesn’t appear less sharp than before. The display is AMOLED in nature and comes with a 120hz refresh rate with 1080 x 2400 pixels resolution. Realme has also provided HDR 10+ certification so you can watch TV shows online in high quality. The maximum brightness of the screen can peak up to 1300 nits with appropriate content.

The display is amazing in terms of brightness and resolution. I was able to watch YouTube videos at up to 4K resolution easily. Watching media and playing games on the phone is really a treat with this display. One of the downsides I noticed in the display is that it lacks colour accuracy. Though it is very bright and you can read anything on the phone in daylight conditions. Overall the display lacks colour accuracy but provides great performance on par with the competition if not ahead and the Gorilla Glass 5 protection adds the cherry on the cake.

Also Read: Samsung Galaxy M52 5G Review

Realme GT Neo 2 is powered by Snapdragon 870 6nm chipset that uses Qualcomm Kryo 585 CPUs. The primary cores are clocked at 3.2 GHz while the 3x Kryo 585 Gold cores are running at 2.42 GHz. For gaming, the Adreno 650 GPU offers a smooth gaming performance even in graphics-intensive games. The chipset is paired with upto 12GB RAM which can be further expanded to 19GB using Realme’s RAM expansion technology that allows users to take 7GB of free storage and convert that into expanded RAM. Like the display, the phone’s performance is also smooth.

Let’s talk about benchmarking performance, for Geekbench 5, the device scored 3555 in the multi-core test and 1139 in the single-core. For AnTuTu 9, the GT Neo 2 scored 810823 which is far better than the OnePlus Nord 2 and Samsung Galaxy A72.

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I used the smartphone at full brightness keeping the display at 120 Hz for the most part of my test and playing some heavy games like Battlegrounds Mobile India, Asphalt 9,  Call Of Duty Mobile and more and the phone gave no issues. It was able to run battlegrounds mobile India on maxed-out settings with no sign of slowing down.

The company says that Realme GT Neo 2 comes with a new cooling system that is made of 8 layers and includes a Diamond thermal gel and Stainless Steel vapour cooling technology. The technology did work in my testing as the device remained cool throughout my gaming session. I felt a little bit of heating up but that wasn’t anything substantial. I found the touch response and gaming performance even better after turning on the GT model which also includes a special mode to control the heating.

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In terms of software, the Realme GT Neo 2 runs on RealmeUI 2.0 which is based on Android 11. The upcoming RealmeUI 3.0 based on Android 12 will soon arrive in the form of beta by the end of the year. The phone is pretty much the same software as compared to the Realme X7 Max with a bunch of added customizations. You get features like a floating window, assistive ball, quick return bubble, split-screen, and gamespace that will come in handy very often. 

One of the annoying issues that I ran into during review was notifications from social media apps like Instagram, WhatsApp, Slack, etc were delayed even though I had allowed full background activity and turned off Battery Optimisation. 

Also read: Realme 8s 5G Review: Just Another Budget 5G Smartphone!

While Realme provides a snappy software and ad-free experience with its Realme UI would like to have seen less bloatware especially when RealMe says this is their mainstream flagship lineup. There is the same amount of bloatware on GT Neo 2 as any other budget phone. I received constant notifications from apps like Theme store which distracts me from enjoying the overall software experience. Many of the other pre-installed apps also push multiple notifications in a day which can be pretty annoying but you can easily block them by long-pressing and turning off the notifications. 

Realme’s UI offers a cleaner UI with a mix of features from Oppo’s ColorOS. The skin offers tons of customization options that include changing the icons and overall theme of the UI with themes from the theme store. You can choose from icon packs, ascent colours, fingerprint animation and a lot more. Overall the Realme UI is decent enough and with less added bloatware this could match up to Xiaomi’s MIUI and could be a better skin than MIUI.

In the camera department, the Realme GT Neo 2 features a 64MP main camera (Samsung GW1) with an f/1.8 aperture, an 8-megapixel 119-degree Ultra-Wide angle lens, and a 2MP macro shooter. On the front, you have a 16MP selfie camera with an f/2.5 aperture. 

The phone snaps 16MP images by default with good color accuracy, dynamic range, and sharpness. There are a bunch of different modes that you can play around with as well. There is a street photography mode from the master edition is also present here. In this mode, you can shoot in RAW and a bunch of other different filters. It essentially offers instant focus and provides mm level control focus peaking and more. You can shoot in a bunch of different modes like 16mm, 24mm, 50mm, and 120mm. The shutter button is also very quick to capture the images instantly. The 64-megapixel mode does provide more details and can be handy if you want to zoom in and get more details later.

I took the camera out for a spin on my terrace and tested out the HDR and AI modes. Both the modes provide a boost to photos even more which looks great for clouds and plant photos, but you might feel the image processing a bit more artificial more often. The 8MP wide-angle camera provides a wider field of view but loses out on color accuracy saturation and often oversharpens. I tried out the 2-megapixel macro camera 2 and it takes some good pictures if you can keep your hands steady and have ample light otherwise it becomes useless.

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In low-light situations, the primary camera provides good pictures with more details from shadows but I noticed the pictures to be over sharpened and a bit noisy. I think the OnePlus Nord 2 provides better image quality if the camera is your top priority.

Talking about the 16MP selfie camera, it is good for daylight use. You also get the HDR and portrait mode along with a bunch of filters that you can play around with. The portrait shots came out recently but I think RealMe could have improved the edge detection a little bit. 

Also Read: Realme GT Master Review

Lastly, the RealMe GT Neo 2 is capable of recording 4K videos at 60fps and up to 1080p slow-motion videos. There is no image stabilization available on the phone but you do get software-based stabilization. 

Overall the camera performance is decent and can be a good device for occasional photography. And with gaming and performance being the highlight of the device and the price at which the device comes, the camera performance is acceptable.

Also Read: Top 10 Tips To Keep Your Smartphone Battery Healthy

Realme GT Neo 2 comes with a 5000mAh battery and supports 65W fast charging which is much more than what you can ask in an Rs. 32,000 phone. With moderate everyday use, I can say the phone was able to last with 50% battery life left by the end of the day. If you also include heavy gaming sessions you will find yourself looking for a charger by the end of the day. It takes just about 40 minutes to charge the phone from 5 to 80% which is what I mostly miss with my use of the iPhone.

Read More: Top 10 Tips To Keep Your Smartphone Battery Healthy

The phone does come with 5G support and 1, 3, 5, 8, 28, 41, 77, 78 SA/NSA bands are supported. In terms of audio quality, you get dual stereo speakers that support Dolby Atmos and Hi-Res audio. The quality of the speakers is very good, unlike the RealMe GT Master Edition which was introduced without stereo speakers. The audio output from the speaker does get loud enough for a small to medium-sized room.

For connectivity, you get features like Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot, aptX HD support, and Bluetooth 5.1. The in-display fingerprint scanner is pretty fast and works very well. If you want an even faster way to unlock the phone you can use the face unlock but that might not be as secure.

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