The Realme GT 2 Pro isn’t the most feature-packed phone in its price range, and some notable omissions hurt its broader appeal. However, there is real value to be found here, especially for performance enthusiasts and media lovers on a budget. The reliable cameras round out a refreshingly designed and refreshingly affordable flagship-tier phone.
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Realme’s product lineup has been increasingly looking northwards in its feature set and, true to form, prices have been inching up as well. The Realme GT 2 Pro is the nascent brand’s latest play at vying for a share of the coveted premium smartphone space. While value for money lies at the core of the company, it takes an extra degree of polish to successfully retail a phone that competes against much more established competition. Does the Realme GT 2 Pro successfully balance specs with value or does it fall short of the mark? Find out in the Android Authority Realme GT 2 Pro review.
What you need to know about the Realme GT 2 Pro
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
Realme GT 2 Pro (8GB/128GB): €749 / Rs. 49,999 (~$660)
The Realme GT 2 Pro sits right at the top of the Shenzhen-based company’s product portfolio. In fact, Realme calls the GT 2 Pro its most premium flagship device yet. The spec-sheet backs up that claim with all the core essentials that you’d expect from a high-end phone, with some cut corners to hit an aggressive price point.
You’ll find 2022 flagship standards like a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, oodles of RAM going all the way to 12GB, as well as an innovative design that makes use of exotic materials like bio-polymer. Realme has even tossed in premium Gorilla Glass Victus glass on top of a flat display.
What you won’t find are trimmings like wireless charging or an IP rating. Elsewhere, the camera setup has a triple camera array but does not include a telephoto sensor for zoom shots. Instead, Realme has included microscope camera for super-macro photography. The phone ships in three colors: Paper White, Paper Green, and Steel Black. While the first two color options get the new bio-polymer material, the black variant sticks to glass.
The Realme GT 2 Pro is priced starting at €749 in Europe for the base model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The higher-end variant with 12GB of RAM and 256GB storage — the only variant available in the UK — will cost you a bit more. European buyers can pick up the phone from Realme.com or via Amazon, while those in India can also find it at Flipkart.
What’s good?
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
The Realme GT 2 Pro is seriously good-looking. The phone pulls off its head-turning looks through the use of innovative materials like the aforementioned bio-polymer back and muted shades that accentuate the rounded edges and corners beautifully. Realme claims that the back panel was inspired by paper. I can’t really see the inspiration in the hedge-like pattern but the materials feel great in the hand and are a nice change from Realme’s usual glut of gloss-heavy models. The matching silver frame also helps elevate the look and feel of the phone. As an added bonus, the matte finish back is resilient to scratches and offers excellent grip.
The bio-polymer material used here is a nice change from the glut of gloss-heavy glass and metal designs.
The 6.7-inch QHD+ 120Hz OLED screen is yet another stand-out feature of the Realme GT 2 Pro. It’s been a hot minute since flat displays got popular again, and the use of one on the GT 2 Pro helps the phone stand apart from many alternatives. It’s not just about aesthetics though, as the flat display helps avoid any errant distortion or color variation around the edges (it also makes installing a screen protector a whole lot easier).
The panel displays excellent color accuracy when set to the natural color profile, and peak brightness is more than sufficient for outdoor use. Additionally, the adaptive refresh rate assists battery longevity. I measured the refresh rate going down as low as 10Hz when sitting idle. There’s an in-display fingerprint scanner to be found here as well that I found to be amongst the best in its class. Instant unlocks, no complaints.
Adding to the multimedia potential of the phone are surprisingly good stereo speakers. There’s an obvious skew towards the bottom-firing speaker. However, the sound reproduction is anything but tinny with full-sounding output and even some bass on the off chance you decide to host a rave with your phone. Cranking it all the way to the top can introduce a bit of distortion, but it’s not too bad all things considered. There’s no headphone jack here, but you do get all the most popular Bluetooth codecs including aptX HD and LDAC support.
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
Performance is all-around excellent. A lot of that comes down to the powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, but keeping the phone noticeably cool under extended use points to thoughtful engineering. We observed that performance in demanding titles like Genshin Impact was notably better than on recent hardware like the OnePlus 10 Pro. The phone consistently maintained frame rates in the high 50s, and never went above a warm but comfortable 43°C (109°F). It’s impossible to verify Realme’s claims of a larger than usual cooling solution without taking the phone apart, but whatever is under the hood is clearly doing its job. The phone not only hits high levels of peak performance but manages to sustain them over long periods of time. Benchmarks aren’t the be-all and end-all of performance testing, but the Realme GT 2 Pro does just fine there as well, though the GPU scores in 3DMark did fall behind other Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 devices.
The Realme GT 2 Pro runs cooler and smoother than alternatives like the OnePlus 10 Pro.
Most importantly, Realme UI has come a long way in ironing out inconsistencies in performance across the user experience. There’s an inherent smoothness to the interface and I didn’t spot any jitters barring the occasional frame drop. Realme is even promising three years of updates and four years of security patches. This isn’t on the same level as Google or Samsung, but it’s a solid long-term guarantee. It’s not all perfect on the software front though, and we’ll come to that in a minute.
The Realme GT 2 Pro isn’t the fastest charging phone around, but 65W charging using the included brick is still rapid. In our testing, it took about 34 minutes to top up the phone. I found battery life to be satisfactory, with my use case involving social media, texting, and emails. I averaged six hours of screen-on time despite heavier than usual use during the testing period. The GT 2 Pro also displayed very good battery optimization while gaming and 45 minutes of the power-hungry Genshin Impact only took a 10% bite out of the battery life. Not bad.
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
The Realme GT 2 Pro also proved to be a surprisingly good performer on the imaging side. The primary sensor is the Sony IMX766 that we’ve seen on the OnePlus Nord 2 and the OnePlus 9RT. This is also the same sensor that we saw earlier on the underwhelming Realme 9 Pro Plus except, this time, Realme has significantly improved the processing. The dynamic range is astounding, and unless you get down to pixel peeping, noise levels and fine grain are kept tightly in control. HDR performance has improved by leaps and bounds. The phone also does a very good job at low-light images which are further enhanced when shooting in night mode.
The Realme GT 2 Pro’s camera setup punches above its weight and is tough competition for the likes of OnePlus.
Results from the ultrawide sensor are predictable. There’s a drop in sharpness when compared to the primary camera. However, colors remain true to life and there’s a very good amount of detail, even when zoomed in. The 150-degree frame of view, however, isn’t something I expect to get much use out of. The barrel distortion around the edges is a creative effect at best accompanied by a significant drop in detail.
You can check out a range of images taken by the Realme GT 2 Pro in our camera gallery further into this review, or take a closer look at the full-resolution camera samples at the Google Drive link here.
Low resolution aside, the microscope camera is fully capable of capturing interesting-looking images. I’m not convinced it was a good trade-off against a more traditional third camera, but the implementation is effective, to say the least. The default shooting mode is set to 20x, which is where you’ll get the sharpest images aided by the autofocus motor. It is possible to digitally zoom in further to 40x, but the results are too soft to be usable.
The Realme GT 2 Pro’s imaging chops extend to video capabilities as well. The camera captures silky smooth stabilized video at 4K/60fps. I observed that the camera bumped up saturation levels noticeably. However, the level of detail is excellent here. In fact, the bitrate is high enough to ensure usable results even in less than perfect light.
What’s not so good?
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
There’s a lot to like about the design of the Realme GT 2 Pro. The heavy-handed use of branding isn’t one of them. I’m all for paying homage to the designer of the phone but, combined with the Realme logo as well as camera branding, it comes across as a bit much.
Realme UI 3.0 is let down by the sheer amount of pre-installed bloatware.
The astounding amount of bloatware on the phone also makes it less than appealing to use. I counted well over 25 third-party apps pre-installed on the phone, outside of essential apps and Google’s suite. Most of these can be removed, but it certainly doesn’t make for a great initial experience. Thankfully, I haven’t come across any advertisements just yet.
For all the positives about the cameras on the Realme GT 2 Pro, it is also hard to ignore the lack of a telephoto sensor. Moreover, the portrait mode on the Realme GT 2 Pro is particularly bad. Edge detection, both from the rear and front cameras, was amongst the worst I’ve come across in 2022.
Finally, the lack of wireless charging or any manner of splash resistance is quite disappointing. I get that the phone is built to hit a low price point, but several of the phone’s direct rivals managed to include both.
Realme GT 2 Pro camera samples
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
150-degree field of view
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
Realme GT 2 Pro specs
Realme GT 2 Pro
Display
6.7-inch QHD+ Super AMOLED 3,216 x 1,440 resolution 120Hz 1,400 nits (peak)
Chipset
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (4nm) Up to 3.0GHz clock speed
GPU
Adreno 730
RAM
8/12GB LPDDR5
Storage
128/256GB UFS3.1
MicroSD
No
Battery
5,000mAh USB-C 65W SuperDart charging (65W charger in box) No wireless charging
Camera
Rear: 50MP f/1.8 Sony IMX766, OIS 50MP f/2.2 ultrawide (150-degree) 3MP f/3.3, microscope lens with 40x magnification
Video (rear): 4K at 30/60fps 1080p at 30/60fps 720p at 30/60fps
Magnetic induction, light, proximity, gyro, acceleration
Security
In-display fingerprint sensor
Software
Android 12 Realme UI 3.0
Colors
Paper White, Paper Green, Steel Black
Dimensions
163.2 x 74.7 x 8.2mm
Weight
189g
Realme GT 2 Pro review: Should I buy it?
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
The Realme GT 2 Pro is a refreshing device from the youngest BBK brand. It stands out amongst a sea of familiar smartphones with predictable upgrades by making meaningful changes. The design and materials used here genuinely feel great, all while ensuring that basics like performance, battery life, and camera performance are on point. It lacks bells and whistles like an IP rating and wireless charging, but there’s still a lot of value to be found here.
More importantly, the phone drastically undercuts affordable flagships like the OnePlus 10 Pro (£799) while giving users much of the same feature set, barring a few extras like a telephoto sensor and wireless charging.
However, the Realme GT 2 Pro is far from the only game in town even at its reduced price point. Those looking for a more well-rounded experience might want to take a peek at the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE (£699) which packs an older generation processor, but pairs it with a trifecta of camera sensors that includes a dedicated telephoto camera. You also get wireless charging, an IP rating, and four years of software upgrades to look forward to (plus five years of security patches).
Elsewhere, there’s the Google Pixel 6 (£599) that again nets you an IP rating, wireless charging, and one of the best cameras amongst Android devices (albeit also without a dedicated zoom lens), as well as software support for three years and five years of security updates. It’s also extremely competitively priced, coming in at £100 less than Realme’s best.
Buyers in India will want to consider some of 2021’s flagship killers like the OnePlus 9 Pro or the Iqoo 9, both of which include high-end processors and additions like wireless charging or even 120W charging support.
That said, the Realme GT 2 Pro deservedly earns a recommendation for trying out something a little different and succeeding.
Realme GT 2 Pro
The Realme GT 2 Pro is the company’s premium flagship offering. It combines 2022 flagship specs with a focus on design while still sticking to its core ethos of value for money.
Top Realme GT2 Pro questions and answers
Q: Is the Realme GT 2 Pro waterproof?
A: The Realme GT 2 Pro does not have an IP rating or any claimed splash resistance.
Q: Does the Realme GT 2 Pro support wireless charging?
A: No, the Realme GT 2 Pro does not include any wireless charging support.
Q: Is the Realme GT 2 Pro 5G compatible?
A: The Realme GT 2 Pro has 5G support on both SIM card slots and is compatible with sub-6GHz networks. There is no support for mmWave 5G though this should not be an issue for its target markets.
The federal government is ordering the dissolution of TikTok’s Canadian business after a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform, but stopped short of ordering people to stay off the app.
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced the government’s “wind up” demand Wednesday, saying it is meant to address “risks” related to ByteDance Ltd.’s establishment of TikTok Technology Canada Inc.
“The decision was based on the information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community and other government partners,” he said in a statement.
The announcement added that the government is not blocking Canadians’ access to the TikTok application or their ability to create content.
However, it urged people to “adopt good cybersecurity practices and assess the possible risks of using social media platforms and applications, including how their information is likely to be protected, managed, used and shared by foreign actors, as well as to be aware of which country’s laws apply.”
Champagne’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment seeking details about what evidence led to the government’s dissolution demand, how long ByteDance has to comply and why the app is not being banned.
A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that the shutdown of its Canadian offices will mean the loss of hundreds of well-paying local jobs.
“We will challenge this order in court,” the spokesperson said.
“The TikTok platform will remain available for creators to find an audience, explore new interests and for businesses to thrive.”
The federal Liberals ordered a national security review of TikTok in September 2023, but it was not public knowledge until The Canadian Press reported in March that it was investigating the company.
At the time, it said the review was based on the expansion of a business, which it said constituted the establishment of a new Canadian entity. It declined to provide any further details about what expansion it was reviewing.
A government database showed a notification of new business from TikTok in June 2023. It said Network Sense Ventures Ltd. in Toronto and Vancouver would engage in “marketing, advertising, and content/creator development activities in relation to the use of the TikTok app in Canada.”
Even before the review, ByteDance and TikTok were lightning rod for privacy and safety concerns because Chinese national security laws compel organizations in the country to assist with intelligence gathering.
Such concerns led the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a bill in March designed to ban TikTok unless its China-based owner sells its stake in the business.
Champagne’s office has maintained Canada’s review was not related to the U.S. bill, which has yet to pass.
Canada’s review was carried out through the Investment Canada Act, which allows the government to investigate any foreign investment with potential to might harm national security.
While cabinet can make investors sell parts of the business or shares, Champagne has said the act doesn’t allow him to disclose details of the review.
Wednesday’s dissolution order was made in accordance with the act.
The federal government banned TikTok from its mobile devices in February 2023 following the launch of an investigation into the company by federal and provincial privacy commissioners.
— With files from Anja Karadeglija in Ottawa
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
LONDON (AP) — Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?
It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too. Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.
Here’s how you can prepare your digital life for your survivors:
Apple
The iPhone maker lets you nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. The company says it’s a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system — iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks needs macOS Monterey 12.1.
For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device.
You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF.
Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on — including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account.
Google
Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account.
When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait — from three to 18 months — before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people.
You can write a message informing them you’ve stopped using the account, and, optionally, include a link to download your data. You can choose what types of data they can access — including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos.
There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline.
Facebook and Instagram
Some social media platforms can preserve accounts for people who have died so that friends and family can honor their memories.
When users of Facebook or Instagram die, parent company Meta says it can memorialize the account if it gets a “valid request” from a friend or family member. Requests can be submitted through an online form.
The social media company strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also has to have a Facebook account.
You can also ask Facebook or Instagram to delete a deceased user’s account if you’re a close family member or an executor. You’ll need to send in documents like a death certificate.
TikTok
The video-sharing platform says that if a user has died, people can submit a request to memorialize the account through the settings menu. Go to the Report a Problem section, then Account and profile, then Manage account, where you can report a deceased user.
Once an account has been memorialized, it will be labeled “Remembering.” No one will be able to log into the account, which prevents anyone from editing the profile or using the account to post new content or send messages.
X
It’s not possible to nominate a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media site. But family members or an authorized person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased user’s account.
Passwords
Besides the major online services, you’ll probably have dozens if not hundreds of other digital accounts that your survivors might need to access. You could just write all your login credentials down in a notebook and put it somewhere safe. But making a physical copy presents its own vulnerabilities. What if you lose track of it? What if someone finds it?
Instead, consider a password manager that has an emergency access feature. Password managers are digital vaults that you can use to store all your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access their keys in case of an emergency such as a death.
But there are a few catches: Those contacts also need to use the same password manager and you might have to pay for the service.
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Is there a tech challenge you need help figuring out? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your questions.
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s competition watchdog said Thursday it’s opening a formal investigation into Google’s partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it has “sufficient information” to launch an initial probe after it sought input earlier this year on whether the deal would stifle competition.
The CMA has until Dec. 19 to decide whether to approve the deal or escalate its investigation.
“Google is committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world,” the company said. “Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers and does, and we don’t demand exclusive tech rights.”
San Francisco-based Anthropic was founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who previously worked at ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The company has focused on increasing the safety and reliability of AI models. Google reportedly agreed last year to make a multibillion-dollar investment in Anthropic, which has a popular chatbot named Claude.
Anthropic said it’s cooperating with the regulator and will provide “the complete picture about Google’s investment and our commercial collaboration.”
“We are an independent company and none of our strategic partnerships or investor relationships diminish the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to partner with others,” it said in a statement.
The U.K. regulator has been scrutinizing a raft of AI deals as investment money floods into the industry to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom. Last month it cleared Anthropic’s $4 billion deal with Amazon and it has also signed off on Microsoft’s deals with two other AI startups, Inflection and Mistral.
