[Realme X2 Pro Real Life Review] dadri:
Experiences with Realme X2 Pro

I’ve used the X2 Pro now for 1 1/2 weeks (but only parallel to my old Moto G4 Plus, yet) and this are my experiences:

First Impression:

This is a heavy phone! (Not compared to other current similar phones but compared to earlier phones.) I thought 30g or 40g won’t make a difference but indeed they do. I prefer the lighter Moto G4 Plus, especially if I have to hold it for some longer times.

Software appears a bit chaotic/overwhelming. Even if there actually aren’t so many Realme apps, I felt like “So many apps and functions.” “Why does this system setting requires permissions to open it. I want to open settings (especially settings I don’t know about) without granting any permissions. … Oh OK, it’s not a normal setting but an additional app.” “This menu looks a bit clunky, I don’t know why.” But it's not as bad as some people tell.

I don’t like these shiny backside design so much but it looks better than expected.

The charging is really fast (but no surprise as I’ve seen and read many tests and it was one of the main reasons to buy these).

It works like expected. Apparently the development and innovations have slowed down. But the new features (fast charge, multi cam) are nice.

I like:

SuperVOOC fast charging. It’s really useful and stunning.

Internet Connection Control: It’s possible to decline network access (wifi and mobile separate) for apps. So no need for a separate firewall app anymore.

Personal Information Protection: I like to prohibit access to contacts for WhatsApp and other prying apps. It’s useful to comply with GDPR and other data privacy laws.

No thermal throttling experienced. (I only tested it really superficially.)

GPS seems to work really fast and accurate.

I don’t like:

I still don’t like glass backsides.

They are heavy, they are way too fragile. I don’t get why every YouTuber/Tester a few years ago asked for more “high-grade” materials like glass. In the end everyone has to further bulk up these big phones with protective cases/bumpers and don’t even feel the original materials.

Sound quality of the speakers is worse than the sound quality of the much cheaper and older Moto G4 Plus. It’s equally loud but the lower frequencies / bass tones are missing a bit and it sounds a bit “thin”. Really stupid to be stingy on such cheap parts.

Sound quality of microphone sounds a bit tinny and misses bass tones. In video recordings the sound tend’s to be a bit quiet. Even though it was quite loud when tested with a voice recording app.

SIP telephony (Session Initiation Protocol) missing in dialer/caller app & system settings:

It would be nice if SIP telephony would be integrated in the system so that we don't need any separate app. I already found hidden SIP account settings in the system settings. And after I enter my account data and SIP server data, the phone even registers/connects to the server. But unfortunately incoming calls aren't displayed/signaled at all and outgoing calls aren't possible with the stock caller app.

Timer in the Clock App:

Not possible to set more than 2 timers at once.

The timer alarm stops too early. I'd prefer if the timer rings for about 5 minutes or so.

I really don't like the timer sound. And I haven't found any setting to change it, yet.

I really would want to see running timers (at least the one which is going off next) on the lock screen and in the notification center.

Camera produces oversaturated videos and photos. I would prefer a slightly more neutral image.

I had temporal problems with Bluetooth:

I wanted to connect my Sennheiser HD 4.40BT headphones but it wasn’t possible. I just could not see the headset in the Bluetooth device list. I tried it several times. I even found Bluetooth protocol settings in the developer system settings and tried to change them a bit, but it didn’t help and so I changed it back to default. On the next day without doing anything special I finally saw the HD 4.40BT in the list and was able to connect to them. With my Moto G4+ it was just: turning headphones on, enabling BT on G4+, finding them, connect, done – within seconds. I don’t know what’s the problem here with the X2 Pro, especially since it works now.

Another strange thing I experienced while trying to find my Bluetooth headphones in the list: Almost every Bluetooth device is only displayed with its Bluetooth MAC address instead of its name. I mean, I don’t know all these other devices (I was on the go when I tried it first and it probably were headphones, smartphones, etc. from other people). So maybe a few of these unknown devices just didn’t had any name; But I assume at least a few of them had names. But at the other hand the X2 Pro finds more BT devices than the Moto G4+ so who knows.

Additional whishes:

Internet Connection Control option for each app should be included in App Info (next to permission). Maybe also Personal Information Protection, Game Space Settings and so on could be integrated in App Info.

I’d like to have a wider (higher) on screen navigation button bar. (I prefer buttons over the gestures, but with this large display even the bottom border is a bit uncomfortable to reach.)

Easy & discreet locking (e.g. double tap, long pressed back button,...):

It's a feature I only miss because I had a smartphone with physical fingerprint sensor on the front before, which could also be used to lock the phone (like pressing the power button). It was convenient to lock the phone when it lays on the table with just one slight one finger press, without grabbing the phone, without using gestures, no matter which app or whatever is open. It would be great if Realme could include any solution on system level. The app (icon) to fast lock the phone was a nice little idea but maybe there could be an even better option to achieve this.

Neutral things (decent, but could be better):

Battery capacity is OK:

I easily get through the whole day and night. But in my experience smartphone batteries lose significant capacity over 1 or 2 years and it would be nice to have still enough capacity after 2-3 years.

Display performance in general OK:

Minimum brightness is good. Maximum brightness seems to be good, too. Color accuracy seem to be average.

Display has a greenish tint (easily visible with low brightness, harder to see but still there with high brightness; DC dimming and warm/cold color temperature setting doesn’t make a difference here).

90 Hz actually looks a bit more smooth than 60 Hz and it looks more smooth than Moto 4G+ (60 Hz). But Realme X2 Pro on 60 Hz feels more choppy/laggy/unsmooth than Moto G4+ with its 60 Hz. I just use 90 Hz.

Under consistent heavy load (long time benchmarking) the phone gets really hot. But I haven’t experienced any hot parts during casual gaming or during normal usage.

The caller/dialer app has a blacklist but blocked calls are redirected to the mailbox. I would prefer them to be declined or ignored.

In general the camera is decent.

The app UI is quite self-explanatory.

It's even possible to zoom kind of smoothly in videos if you press and hold the 1x / zoom button. It would be useful if it (only really mild/gentle) snaps to 1x/2x position, because otherwise it's hard to set exactly 1x/2x (native/optical) zoom while zooming smooth.

Picture quality is decent. It’s better than my older & cheaper Moto G4 Plus (less noise, better in dark conditions) so you see the development but it’s not top notch compared to current competitors.

Few tiny translation issues:

Some literal translations; blocked call notification states “Neu gesperrt 1 Anruf€ gesperrt” instead of “Neu gesperrt 1 Anruf gesperrt” or “Neu gesperrt 2 Anrufe gesperrt”;…. But I think most of the translations are really good.

Double Tap to Wake works decent but not perfect. Sometimes I have to double tap 2 or 3 times before the screen wakes up.

I don’t like the dimensions.

I already mentioned the weight in the first impression. But I would prefer a slightly smaller phone with a more traditional aspect ratio. Unfortunately there are no interesting offers on the market. But with big hands it’s still possible (not comfortable) to use this phone mostly one handed.

All in all I'm undecided how much I like the Realme X2 Pro. On the on hand 429 EUR is a lot money for such few improvements over an cheaper and 3-4 years old smartphone I previously used. On the other hand the price-performance ratio is probably the best on the western market compared to all the other products. I think the X2 Pro is a valuable, good product for most people that search an up-to-date phone.

Let's just hope that Realme delivers frequent and good quality software updates.