Realme X2 review - Beating Xiaomi at its own game - Android
2019 has been a big year for Realme. With a steady spate of well performing, and well received devices, the company has managed to grow its market share by leaps and bounds. Now, with the Realme X2, the company is ending the year with yet another blockbuster release. The phone takes direct aim at the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro, and in many ways supersedes it as a mid-range champ.
In Android Authority’s Realme X2 review, we find out if it has what it takes to earn the crown of best mid-range phone around.
The Realme X2 faces off against great phones such as the Redmi Note 8 Pro, the Redmi K20, the Nokia 7.2, and others. While the X2 offers a potent mix of power, design, and imaging capabilities, Redmi’s phones are no slouches.
In fact, the Redmi K20 emphasizes fit and finish and build quality, while still retaining the other qualities for which Xiaomi’s mid-rangers are known.
Meanwhile, the Nokia 7.2 delivers a unique, stunning design and pairs it with a clean build of Android.
Realme provides all the essentials to get you up and running with your smartphone. The phone ships with a pre-applied screen protector, as well as a basic but functional TPU case in the box.
The Realme X2 showcases the next step in the company’s design process. It was heavily inspired by the Realme XT and Realme X2 Pro, albeit with a few concessions made to hit a lower price point.
The most eye-catching aspect of the phone has to be the rear. Realme sent us the new pearl green color variant and it looks absolutely fetching. There’s a high-gloss, metal-like finish with a subtle, yet beautiful gradient pattern that shifts based on how light strikes it. Unfortunately, the high gloss finish is a fingerprint magnet, and you’ll spend a fair amount of time keeping the phone clean if you chose not to use a case.
Realme branding rests in the bottom left corner, while the quad camera module sits at the top. A gold ring around the main lens further accentuates the design. The camera module protrudes from the body of the phone, which means the phone has a tendency to wobble when placed on a flat surface. It also makes for an awkward grip in the hand since your index finger will likely rest right on the camera assembly.
The button layout is standard with the split volume rockers on the left and a gold-accented power button on the right. A quick press of the power button activates Google Assistant and a long press brings up the standard power-off and reboot options. The frame of the Realme X2 is made of a polycarbonate material, a step back from the Realme X2 Pro. The port selection includes USB-C, headphone jack, and a speaker grille along the bottom edge.
The front of the phone is a standard affair. The large 6.4-inch display is surrounded by thin bezels. A water-drop notch up top doesn’t take up too much space. The display doesn’t quite curve into the frame, and you can feel it when you hold the phone in your hand. Personally, I felt it aided in improving the grip.
I found the under-display fingerprint scanner to be fast and reliable.
The phone sports a Goodie optical under-display fingerprint reader. I found it be fast and generally reliable with few misses in my time with the phone.
I really like what Realme has done with the hardware on the X2. The phone looks great, and, just as importantly, feels great. Weighing just 182g, you can comfortably hold it while out and about. My only gripe with the design, and this might be nitpicking, is the panel gap between the rear glass panel and the polycarbonate frame. No, the phone does not have an IP rating.
The Realme X2’s display is a beautiful canvas for media consumption. While there is a water drop notch, I didn’t find it to be a hindrance and got used to it quickly.
The screen skews towards cooler tones and isn’t very natural looking. It is possible to adjust it, but I didn’t observe a drastic difference. A bigger issue is that the peak brightness level tops off at about 418nits, which isn’t very good. If you plan to use the phone while out and about in the sun, visibility will be an issue.
The Realme X2’s processor is a souped up version of the standard Snapdragon 730 SoC. It packs the same Adreno 618 GPU, but it’s more finely tuned. Oppo uses the same chipset in its Reno 2.
The Snapdragon 730G is powerful enough to plow through almost any task or game you throw at it.
While the Snapdragon 730G is positioned as a mid-range chipset, it offers more than enough grunt to run almost anything you throw at it. I found the combination of hardware and software to be tuned well for gaming and everyday use. I did not notice any lags or stutters. Coming from the more powerful OnePlus 7T Pro, I barely noticed any dip in performance at all.
The higher-clocked GPU helps gaming. Long sessions in PUBG and Call of Duty Mobile were a cinch, and the phone was able to play the games with the graphics turned up to the max. I did not notice any frame drops, and while the phone did heat up, it never got to an uncomfortable degree of warmth.
Benchmark results show excellent performance for a mid-ranger. In the CPU-centric AnTuTu benchmark, the phone scores 260714 points, which puts it well ahead of the 228519 points scored by the Redmi Note 8 Pro. The Realme X2 also does well in the GPU-focussed 3D Mark benchmark, where it managed 2408 points.
A 4,000mAh battery is now a standard in the segment and doesn’t really stand out on its own. Battery optimisation, however, plays a big role and Realme has done a very good job here. A full day of use is certainly not hard to get. Realistically, I was able to go a day and a half between charges.
30W charging is the fastest you can get in the segment.
When it comes to charging the phone, the Realme X2 is one of the fastest, if not the fastest in the mid-range space. The phone supports the VOOC 4.0 standard, which lets you top off the phone at 30W speeds. In my own tests, I was able to charge the phone from 0 to 100% in 72 minutes, which is incredibly fast for a battery of this size.
The Realme X2 ships with Color OS 6.1 running on top of Android 9 Pie. Yes, an upgrade to Android 10 is in the offing. There isn’t much new that has been added to Color OS; this is still the same skin that you either love or hate. However, it is hard to ignore the wide variety of customisation options that Color OS provides to tweak it to your liking.
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