Realme X2 Smartphone with 64 MP Quad Camera from $297.34

Because the Realme X2 Pro is our insider tip among the current flagships, the X2 – without Pro – may also be an insider tip for the middle class. Will the cutbacks be related to the lower price?

Technical data of the Realme X2

Notch instead of Pop-Up Cam

The Realme X2 seems to be a mixture of the Realme 3 Pro and the Realme X. You can tell by the screen diagonal of 6.4 inches, which is almost exactly between the 6.3″ and 6.53″ of the other two Realme devices. Like the 3 Pro, however, you use a waterdrop notch at the top of the screen instead of a pop-up cam. This is slightly curved and steals relatively few pixels from the display.

On the back, it quickly becomes clear why the Realme X2 is seen as a direct competitor for the Redmi Note 8 (Pro). The quad camera is located in the upper left corner. However, we don’t see a fingerprint sensor in the X2’s display. The Realme X2 is available in pearl white and pearl blue and also offers a shimmering effect in sunlight. As with the other Realme devices, the same color concept is applied and the power button and the camera are accentuated with the Realme yellow.

The dimensions are 158.7 x 75.2 x 8.6 mm with a weight of 183 grams. The loudspeaker is located on the underside to the left of the USB port, and the headphone input to the right. Our test device is the Global Version, which is published on the back (unfortunately) with a somewhat out of place CE mark.

Handling & Processing

Sometimes it’s the little things. Even though the Realme X2 is only 3 mm shorter than the X2 Pro, it’s a bit more manageable overall. The difference of 18 g total weight is more noticeable, but of course a one-handed operation is not possible. On the other hand, both left- and right-handed users reach the keys very well, as they face each other at the same height.

The pressure point of the keys on our test device is somewhat softer compared to the X2 Pro, but still good. In general, Realme doesn’t make any mistakes during processing. However, in contrast to the company’s internal flagship, the case frame is not so stable, apparently no metal frame was used, which also explains the lower weight. Compared to the flagship, the X2 seems to be a bit inferior, but it is not badly processed.

AMOLED for all

The Full HD+ resolution of the 6.4″ large display is 2340 x 1080 pixels and results in a pixel density of 402 ppi, i.e. pixels per inch – an average value. The display is even protected by Gorilla Glass 5. Like the X, the Realme X2 is also equipped with an AMOLED panel. Unfortunately, a different panel is used than in the Pro version. The display panel in the X2 is not so bright and doesn’t offer a 90 Hz refresh rate. Both are justifiable in a mid-range smartphone, because nevertheless you get an all around good panel without visible weaknesses.

The brightness at approx. 60% is sufficient for everyday use, the panel is uniformly illuminated and the functionality one expects is also given. In addition to the 10-finger multi-touch, you get a fingerprint sensor in the display, which works just as fast and reliable as with the X2 Pro. Realme can place itself in front of the Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite, for example. It’s also pleasing that the panel is evenly illuminated.

Realme still has some catching up to do when it comes to the possible settings. Standard functions like a night mode, two different color modes and the adjustment of the color temperature are given, but not much happens beyond that. An Always-On display hides behind “screen off clock”, but doesn’t offer any adjustment possibilities apart from time planning. Hopefully with ColorOS 7 there will be some more adjustment possibilities.

Same CPU as Xiaomi Mi Note 10

Parallels to Xiaomi can also be seen in the hardware used, but more to the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 than to the Redmi Note 8 Pro. The Realme X2 also uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G processor, which delivers a clock frequency of up to 2.2 GHz. The Adreno 618 GPU provides the graphics performance. However, this is only a small step in contrast to the Realme 3 Pro, which is equipped with the Snapdragon 710.

In our test device Realme combines 8 GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128 GB UFS 2.1 memory. There is also the 6/64 GB version, but it is not (yet) available as a global version. But we like to use it, even if Realme doesn’t use UFS 3.0 memory like in Realme X2 Pro.

But in the end this doesn’t play a major role, because the Realme X2 is also a fast smartphone. In contrast to so many other China manufacturers, Realme knows how to handle the hardware and adjust its Color OS 6 operating system accordingly.

The smartphone makes a very quick impression in almost all situations. If you switch from a lap of asphalt 9 to the camera to quickly take a picture, you can do this without much delay. Here you benefit from the 8 GB RAM. Compared to the Mi 9T with the Snapdragon 730, it’s absolutely at the same height, but especially when cold starting more demanding apps, you can see a speed advantage in favor of the Realme smartphone. If you look at the current smartphone generations, this hardware puts you in the upper class range, actually only flagships with the SD 885(+) processor are currently faster.

Benchmark results

To prove our impression, we also ran the benchmarks PCMark, AnTuTu and Geekbench 5. Here, the Realme X2 performs as we expected and seamlessly ranks in the upper middle class. However, we would like to point out that benchmarks should only be regarded as a rough classification.

Duration: Realmes biggest weakness

Just like the 3 Pro, it also has a 4,000 mAh battery in the case. In contrast to its big brother, it’s one battery and not two 2,000 mAh batteries. This probably explains why the Realme X2 can only be charged with 30W instead of 50W. The quotation marks are justified, but the Realme X2 still charges completely within 1 hour and 15 minutes.

The battery life is not Realmes biggest strength, the energy management of the Color OS 6 operating system is not as aggressive as with MIUI for example. In the benchmark we get about 10 hours, in practice it’s more like seven to eight hours display-on time, which is very decent. You can easily get through the day with it, but in the lunch break of the next day you are allowed to go to the next power socket. The drain in standby, for example overnight, is somewhat higher than that of the competition, but still within limits.

Quad camera with many possibilities

The Quad camera on the back of the Realme X2 is almost a unique selling point. Like the Redmi Note 8 Pro, the Samsung ISOCELL GW1 sensor with the large 64 megapixel resolution and ƒ/1.8 aperture is used. In addition, there is an ultra-wide angle camera with 8 megapixel resolution and 120.5° shooting angle, which also supports night shots. The third sensor here is a macro camera, which allows a close-up limit of 4 cm. The fourth sensor is only used in portrait mode and only provides additional depth information. A 32 megapixel camera is used on the front.

Since the same sensor as in the Realme X2 Pro is used, one can theoretically expect a similar photo quality. We like the photos quite well overall, the shots look lively and the autofocus is convincing, even though the skin tones of the Realme quickly look unnatural due to very high saturation. Through pixel binning one shoots with a resolution of 16 megapixels, always four of the 64 million pixels are combined to one. The 64 MP mode increases the image quality only minimally.

Unfortunately, the sharpness is not exactly the best in every situation. Everything away from the focus point quickly becomes a bit muddy, which is not noticeable at first glance, but definitely at second glance. The Realme X2 also doesn’t handle movements that well, we liked the Pro version a bit better here.

Ultra wide angle

The second “real” camera is an ultra wide angle camera. The 8 megapixel sensor already shows on paper that you can’t expect too much detail. Nevertheless, it surprised me a bit, as at least fonts can still be read well and relatively sharply at the edge of the screen, while similar pixels are quickly combined to a muddy overall picture. So you have to live with a certain grain size.

Portait mode

The Realme X2 can collect points once again in the portrait mode, the edge detection is on top level. Here Xiaomi is always ahead in the price range, but Realme is on their heels. This is not only due to the good edge detection, but also to the natural bokeh, which we like much better than with Huawei or Honor. Here I would also like to see a bit more sharpness in the face, so that the effect comes out better. This applies to the main camera as well as to the front camera.

Macro photos

Even if we can take funny photos with the macro mode, the 2 megapixel resolution is a thorn in the side. Therefore the quality is only sufficient for social media or similar, cool animal pictures or similar can’t be done with it. Even if the Realme X2 offers an ultra-macro mode, the “macro shots” with the main camera are somewhat better.

Fortunately with NFC

As already mentioned, the Realme X2 has a USB type C port on the bottom, as well as a 3.5 mm jack connector. In addition, there is a dual SIM slot, which also leaves room for a microSD memory card. You don’t even have to do without a SIM slot – very good! So you can use two Nano SIM cards and one microSD memory card at the same time. In addition there is 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac WiFi for local Internet, mobile Internet is available via the LTE bands 1/3/5/ 8 and via the LTE band 20 as well as band 28. GPS and Bluetooth 5 are of course also integrated.

The voice quality is great, you don’t have to worry about that. The LTE connection in the O2 network also works well, the speed leaves nothing to be desired. In contrast to the Realme 3 Pro, we didn’t have to make any APN settings here. Fortunately, Realme finally uses NFC, which is missing in the Realme 5 Pro, for example. It was long overdue that Realme finally also uses NFC in the mid-range models. So one can pay also completely comfortably contactlessly by Google Pay.

Color OS6: Good basis with further development possibilities

Color OS6 based on Android 9 is also used here as the operating system, which we were already able to test extensively in the Realme X and Realme 3 Pro. Of course, all Google services are pre-installed and it is completely usable in multiple languages. But you should buy the Global Version, which we also link to you above. We could only test the China version of the Realme X2 Pro, the differences are mainly in the language, because the X2 Pro is only usable in English.

We like Color OS6 quite well, the look is very well adapted, but there is an App-Drawer, which can be deactivated easily under “Start Screen and Background”. In addition there are some smart features, besides the smart sidebar, which really simplifies the one-handed operation, there is for example a mode for “Intelligent Driving”, which we couldn’t test until now due to the lack of a suitable car. Realme also uses its own apps like Game Space or Clone Phone, but you also have to accept bloatware like Aqua Mail or Opera.

The security patch of Color OS 6.1 is from October 2019, so it is relatively up-to-date. We like the update policy of Realme very much so far, the Realme 3 Pro, for example, has been updated regularly for about half a year. That’s what we’re hoping for for the X2 and X2 Pro, of course. However, Realme is still too new on the market to share long-term experiences regarding the update policy.

Conclusion: Almost everything done right

The Realme X2 has fortunately been released as a global version. The Pro version, the Realme X2 Pro, is considered the new true flagship killer, while the Realme X2 is somewhat more moderate overall. But that’s not bad, because we’re currently dealing with the best competitor for the Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite. In the middle class you get a lot of well implemented features like the AMOLED display, the fingerprint sensor in the display, NFC and the quad camera.

In addition there is the same processor as in the Xiaomi Mi Note 10, the Snapdragon 730G is even more powerful than the Snapdragon 710 from the Mi 9 Lite. On the other hand, the Xiaomi device has a better battery life and a slightly better main camera. Both smartphones offer a very good price-performance ratio, the decision should be made according to the individual preference.

If you want a little more, the Realme X2 Pro is the flagship version including top processor and 90 Hz display. Apart from that, Realme also shows with the X2 how much potential they have for the future.