Realme GT Neo 2. Realme GT Neo 2 Review: Tuned for tech enthusiasts

If you like your phone to have some startle value and look playful and youthful, check out Realme’s new GT Neo 2 in its sizzling green variant. Unfortunately it has a big black strip on one side and Realme’s beloved tag line, Dare to Leap. But even with these interruptions, many will be attracted to the sheer liveliness of the green model which Realme refers to as Urban Design. I however get to check out the more sedate black variant which looks business-like and quite elegant though not greatly distinctive. There’s also an interesting blue colour variant.

The black GT Neo 2 has an interesting smooth glass back which has a silky satin sheen on it. Smudges really don’t show and the phone looks clean all day for the most part. You can use a case, but you really don’t have to. On the back of our variant, there’s nothing but the Realme logo and a big camera unit that has an amusing way of looking like a surprised face when viewed sideways. The camera bump doesn’t stick out too much bit it does prevent the phone from lying absolutely flush on a surface. All those are minor quibbles though. The phone looks fine, though maybe a little staid, with the black version.

This phone is no different to hold than countless others. It’s averagely weighty but could have been more because it has a big 5,000mAh battery. There’s nothing unusual going on around the edges and there’s no 3.5mm jack.

The display, a 6.6 inch E4 AMOLED, is great. Extra strong colours, perfect angles, and more than enough brightness that goes to 1300nits at peak. We have a 120Hz refresh rate present and accounted for and that, of course, is a good thing. There’s dual speakers on board and support for Dolby Atmos. They are loud and just ok.

This device not only feels fast because of this, it is fast because of the Snapdragon 870 5G chip it runs on. If that sounds just below the Snapdragon 888, it is and it shows in the fluid and fast performance. It’s well optimised with RAM management being quite good as well.

We have Android 11 and Realme UI 2.0 running the show. The interface is straightforward with no real offensive elements other than the unwanted apps and notifications from the theme store and browser that one has to try and tame. The Neo 2 is fast enough to be a gaming-oriented phone. It’s tuned to run high-end games and its special Game Space menu lets you set up for sustained gaming sessions and includes a really high touch sampling rate so that everything is more responsive. The haptic feedback is satisfyingly strong as well. You can get the GT Neo 2 with 8GB or 12GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB. There’s a stainless steel vapour cooling system that adopts diamond thermal gel as a cooling material. I didn’t find the device heating up at all.

The cameras on the GT Neo 2 have a lot of software features but in the end are just middling. The main 64MP lens is accompanied by an 8MP ultra wide and a 2MP macro. Photos in daylight are adequate as usual but colours are saturated, dynamic range is inadequate and there’s often less detail than expected. Night mode pics are too often grainy. Selfies are not always with the correct skin tones. Video is good enough from both front and rear cameras.

Given that the Neo 2 has such a big battery, it still charges in 36 minutes with its 65W ‘Super Dart’ charging.

This phones is available in two storage variants, priced at ₹ 31,999 (8GB+128GB) and ₹ 35,999 (12GB+256GB). It competes with the OnePlus Nord 2, iQOO7, Mi 11X, and Samsung M52 among others.