realme GT Neo 2 Review: 40 Minutes of Charging for 2 Days

realme GT Neo 2 is quite a nice and user-friendly smartphone somewhere at the crossroads of the mid-price segment and flagships. Its strong points include a bright display with 120 Hz refresh rate, HDR support and flicker elimination function (for those who are sensitive to it). The smartphone is equipped with a very high performance platform. It is enough for the most demanding games, especially comfortable to play thanks to the stereo sound. realme GT Neo 2 has high-capacity battery life, adding to a very fast charge - just 40 minutes. The phone runs on a very handy and smart shell realme UI 2.0 and packaged in a nice, though plastic case. Of course, the manufacturer had to make some compromises for the sake of affordable price. The camera in the smartphone is not bad, but no more. There is no moisture protection, no memory card slot and no 3.5mm jack, although these things are not critical. 

Pros:

• Impressive performance
• Bright AMOLED screen with 120 Hz refresh rate
• Long battery life and fast charging
• Stereo sound and support for Dolby Atmos
• Convenient shell realme UI 2.0

Cons:

• No moisture protection, no slot for a memory card and no 3.5 mm jack
• Nothing special about camera

What's in the Package?

Like all realme more advanced models, the GT Neo 2 comes in a large black box with a big silver realme lettering and the model name. The package includes the smartphone itself, a 65W SuperDart power supply, a USB Type-C cable, a tool to eject the tray, documentation, a protective film (right on the screen) and a protective cover. It is dark gray with a matte surface and a small protective edge for the camera.

realme Design

realme GT Neo 2 looks like a typical modern smartphone: almost the entire front panel ia a 6.62-inch display. According to the manufacturer, it covers 92.6% of the entire front surface area. The frames on the sides and top are really very thin, the bottom is a little wider. In the upper left corner of the screen there is a hole in the front camera, and above the screen there is a barely noticeable thin mesh of the earpiece. It also acts as a second speaker when playing stereo sound.

The frame is made of matte plastic in the same dark gray color as the back of the smartphone. The layout of the buttons is traditional for realme smartphones: the power button is on the right side, separate volume control buttons are on the left. They are placed at a comfortable height, you don’t have to reach out with your fingers, no matter which hand you hold the smartphone with.

On the top edge there is an additional microphone. Bottom – USB Type-C connector, speaker, microphone and tray. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack, although realme GT has one.

The tray can contain two SIM-cards, but there is no place for memory cards.

The back cover is also plastic, with a nice matte finish. It practically does not collect fingerprints, the smartphone does not need to be constantly wiped to maintain a presentable appearance. We reviewed the "black" version, which is actually dark gray. There is also a blue gradient for those who like it brighter.

The main camera unit is made in the form of a mirrored rectangle with rounded corners. The camera unit itself protrudes slightly above the back of the smartphone. Plus the two main cameras are also slightly protruding, already above the camera unit. But the cameras won't get scratched in the included protective cover, thanks to the edge around the module.

realme GT Neo 2 does not look unique, but quite modern. Dimensions and weight are also typical, it is comfortable to use a smartphone.

The Screen

realme GT Neo 2 comes with a 6.62-inch AMOLED flat panel display with a resolution of FullHD+, 2400x1080 (20:9 aspect ratio), pixel density is about 398 ppi. The refresh rate of the picture is 120 Hz, and the touch registration rate of the touch layer is an impressive 600 Hz. It will be interesting for mobile gamers. The manufacturer promises a peak brightness of 1300 cd / m², color gamut 100% DCI-P3 and 106% NTSC. There is support for HDR10+.

The screen settings have everything you need: a dark interface theme (with additional options), eye protection, color temperature settings, color modes ("Bright", "Tenderness" and "Excellent"), video enhancers 01 Ultra Vision Engine, font size and scale of interface elements, refresh rate (auto, 60 and 120 Hz) and Always on Display. Elimination of flicker DC Dimming was hidden in a separate item realme Labs.

According to personal feelings, I liked the screen: a rich picture, a decent margin of brightness, maximum viewing angles, 120 Hz. But we also carried out a hardware test of the screen. The screen really shows quite high brightness values, but in all modes the reference color temperature is noticeably higher due to an excess of the blue component. The screen goes a little cold. But by adjusting the color temperature, this can be corrected. In "Bright" mode, the maximum brightness was 448.15 cd/m², and the color gamut is much wider than sRGB.

In the "Tenderness" mode, the color gamut is close to sRGB, while the maximum brightness is slightly lower: 431.019 cd/m².

The "Excellent" mode has the widest color gamut and highest maximum brightness: 455.905 cd/m².

Comparison with other models:

How to Unlock realme GT Neo 2?

To identify the owner, the smartphone provides an under-screen optical fingerprint scanner and facial recognition system by the front camera. Face recognition works very quickly, provided there is sufficient light. In the settings there is an option to automatically increase the brightness of the display for recognition in the dark (really helps a little, but the recognition rate is still lower than during the day), as well as a ban on the unlock face with the eyes closed. The fingerprint scanner delighted: in the realme GT Neo 2 it works accurately and very quickly, which is something that not all under-screen scanners can so far boast of. But, given the specifics of the technology (the fingerprint is backlit for scanning), it works poorly with wet fingers.

Performance, Memory, Sound and Battery Life

Realme GT Neo 2 has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 processor, albeit not a flagship, but very productive one. It is manufactured using a 7nm process technology, includes one ARM Cortex-A77 core with a frequency of up to 3.2 GHz, three Cortex-A77 cores at 2.42 GHz and a block of four energy-efficient Cortex-A55 cores at 1.8 GHz for less demanding tasks. The graphics accelerator is Adreno 650. The RAM in our sample is 12 GB LPDDR4X, there are more modest versions with 8 GB. The RAM expansion function is supported due to the built-in storage capacity from 3 to 7 GB. Built-in storage for 256 GB is type UFS 3.1, and 128 GB for the simpler version. Although it is worth considering the lack of a slot for memory cards. The option with a more capacious drive looks preferable. In synthetic tests, the smartphone demonstrates, albeit not top-end, but close to top-end results.

The interface works very smoothly, without slowdowns, any heavy applications start up and work quickly, and most modern graphic games run at maximum graphics settings with very comfortable frame rates. In the branded gaming application, in addition to disabling notifications and calls, there is a system performance adjustment, as well as a bunch of smaller bonuses. In particular, you can adjust the sensitivity of the sensor (and I remind you that it has a polling rate of 600 Hz), which will be useful for hardcore mobile gamers. Call of Duty Mobile, Shadowgun Legends and Shadow Fight 3 at maximum graphics settings run at a nearly stable 60 frames per second.

The CPU Throttling Test stress test showed that during long peak loads, performance can drop by up to approximately 85%. The case of the smartphone becomes warm. In everyday use and in resource-intensive games, heating is not observed.

Interfaces: dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, Bluetooth 5.1 LE with support for aptX HD and LDAC codecs, as well as NFC module for contactless payment. Supports global positioning systems GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NavIC. There is no headphone jack, so either Bluetooth or adapters. The smartphone can reproduce stereo sound using the main and conversational speakers. The volume margin is impressive, but the sound quality is average. Separately, it is worth noting that the smartphone has a fairly powerful vibration motor and the vibration both during calls and in games or just by touching the screen is very pleasant. Returning to the issue of sound, it is worth noting Dolby Atmos support with a bunch of operating modes.

Realme GT Neo 2 has a 5000 mAh battery. SuperDart Charge 65W fast wired charging is supported, with which the smartphone is fully charged in about 40 minutes. Wireless charging is not supported. The smartphone proved to be very tenacious. Even with very active use (abundant use of the camera and games, in addition to conversations, YouTube browser, instant messengers, social networks, mail and music via Bluetooth), the smartphone had about 20-25% battery charge by midnight. So in a more modest scenario, it is quite possible to get two days. And in critical situations, use the power saving modes.

The Interface

realme GT Neo 2 is currently running Android 11 with realme UI 2.0 filmware. In the near future realme UI 3.0 based on Android 12 should come, some users have already started getting the beta. The filmware itself is similar to Color OS in OPPO smartphones. The main differences from "pure" Android concern the appearance, plus some useful and convenient little things have been added. The rest of the logic of work is familiar. Three types of display are available: only desktops and a separate application menu, as well as a simplified mode. The grid of applications and desktops can be customized, widgets and various themes are available.

In addition to the standard choice between button and gesture navigation, there is a number of additional gestures on the active and off screen. Including quick launch of the camera, applications and music playback control. The fingerprint scanner can be configured to quickly launch three applications: after scanning, you need to hold your finger, and then move it to the desired application. There is also a side smart panel (as in past realme and OPPO smartphones) with the most used applications.

The application manager is made in the form of a standard horizontal carousel. It is possible to close all applications at once, or to fix certain ones. There is a two-window mode, but not all applications are supported.

The Cameras

The camera set is exactly the same as in the realme GT. The rear camera includes three modules. The main one is 64 megapixel, 1/1.73" sensor size, 0.8µm pixel, f/1.8 aperture, PDAF phase autofocus. There is no optical stabilization. Ultra wide-angle camera - 8 MP, 119˚ angle of view, aperture f/2.3. And a 2 MP macro camera. Front camera: 16 MP f/2.5. The camera application is familiar, without any oddities or peculiarities. Carousel of the basic shooting modes, a separate menu "More" with all the additional modes, including slow motion, macro and manual mode. On the main screen, in addition to the standard settings of HDR, Ai, flash and other things, there is zoom, including 2x and 5x. But it is worth remembering that the smartphone has no telephoto camera and it's just a cropped shot from the main camera.

The main camera shoots well in most situations. With enough light, pictures are detailed, with true-to-life colors and good dynamic range. No obvious artifacts of processing algorithms are observed. Night mode also works well. Of course, detailing suffers a little, but in general, the pictures are very good.

Ultra wide-angle camera without autofocus. With sufficient lighting, it can take decent pictures with acceptable detail. At night, it is much more difficult: an abundant amount of "soap" appears, a decrease in detail. But with no-shaking-hands, you can get good pictures.

The smartphone is devoid of a telephoto module, so the zoom is exclusively digital:

Don't expect much from a 2MP macro camera without autofocus, but you can play around:

The smartphone can shoot up to 4K 60 frames per second. In this resolution, there is no stabilization, the picture is quite detailed, but it shakes incredibly at the slightest movement.

FullHD-videos with stabilization are really very good. Yes, there is a minimal loss of detail, but in general, very even:

3 Things to Know about realme GT Neo 2

• Realme GT Neo 2 features a bright AMOLED display with a refresh rate of 120Hz and a powerful Snapdragon 870 processor
• The smartphone supports very fast charging at 65 W and lives up to 2 days on a single battery charge
• The smartphone does not have any protection against dust and moisture, no slot for memory cards and no 3.5 mm jack