The Realme 2 series is the company’s announcement that they’re no longer a sub-brand of OPPO. However, there are still plenty of traces of OPPO in these devices. The Realme 2 Pro is their top offering and for better or worse, it still feels like an OPPO phone.
If you think this looks and feels a lot like the OPPO F9, you can’t be faulted. Save for a few differences, these two phones are practically twins. From the form factor, to the notch, and even the cameras, these phones almost remind me of that famous Spider-Man meme.

The more obvious difference are the colors. The OPPO F9 went with the trendy gradient look while the Realme 2 Pro goes for more solid color options.
The unit we have for review is the more subdued Black Sea, but the phone is also available in Blue Ocean as well as the color I would have loved to have (hello, folks from Realme): Ice Lake.

Another key difference is the chip powering the devices. The OPPO F9 runs on a MediaTek Helio P60 processor while the Realme 2 Pro went with the Snapdragon 660. Further justifying the Pro on its name is the 128GB of storage and 8GB of RAM on our particular review unit.
For reference the Realme 2 Pro also comes in a 4GB and 64GB configuration, as well as a 6GB and 64GB configuration.
The steady
In that regard, the Realme 2 Pro felt about as snappy as you can expect from a phone rocking those internals. I don’t play a lot of mobile games and only really played Dragon Ball Legends in my little over a week with the device, and it handled it with zero problems.

Dragon Ball Legends is probably my favorite mobile game at this point
I have had experience with other phones with comparable specs and tested games like PUBG, and Iron Blade on them. Those phones handled the mentioned games nicely and I expect the same is true with the Realme 2 Pro.
I do consume a lot of media on my phone. Listening to my favorite songs and podcasts was a pleasant experience. The speakers on this phone do not deliver the best sound but they’re good enough and loud enough for solo listening sessions. It does have a headphone jack so that’s a thing you can take advantage of, as well.

CHNDTR is a Filipino band with major anime and Paramore feels
I also watch a lot of YouTube and Netflix (and chill right after), and I don’t have any major complaints. Would love the display to be more visible under bright sunlight, but I don’t really look at my screen a lot in those situations nor do I watch videos under strong light that often.

Colleen Wing on Iron Fist is a goddess. Fight me.
The bad
I was never a fan of ColorOS and that remains true even on technically a non-OPPO phone. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t make the phone slower or anything. I’m just not down with how it looks and feels in general. I appreciate that it incorporates gesture navigation (get with the gestures people, it’s great!) but other than that, I would switch to a different launcher. But that’s me. If you dig it, it’s all good. I won’t judge.
There’s also the nice touch of a quick access feature sitting on the display on the area right next to the power button. Swipe quickly and you get screen capture options as well shortcuts to some apps.
Silver lining for those like me that aren’t ColorOS fans: During the launch, Realme Southeast Asia Managing Director Josef Wang was asked if they’re planning on making their own and he said, “Maybe next year we’ll have our own OS.” A maybe is always better than a flat out no in OS options, life, and love.
The good-ish
Mostly good, to be more precise. I was pleasantly surprised by how the camera performed under favorable lighting conditions. Check out these two portrait shots taken around noon.
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Both images are sharp and you could be fooled into thinking these weren’t taken with a phone.
It doesn’t perform as well under low-light conditions, but it’s about as good as you can expect from a smartphone in this range.
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There’s also some fun stickers you can play with if that’s a thing you’re into.
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Here are a few more samples you can peruse.
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Recon phone
So who would want this phone? Realme said they’re aimed at the youth. I thought that was pretty vague so I asked for an age range. Wang had this puzzled look on his face but eventually said they’re probably looking at people in college or those just entering the workforce.

Will the youth opt for this phone?
During the media interview with the Realme executives, this is the impression I got. The company is still feeling their way through all of this. As Wang noted, they’re still studying the markets which is why as of writing, we’re still waiting on official pricing for other countries in Southeast Asia.
Realme played it safe with the Realme 2 Pro and for good reason. As a budding company who just spun off, they have plenty of ground to cover. They’re hoping the Realme 2 series will sell enough and give them sufficient data to develop a phone that’s more Realme than OPPO.
Is this your GadgetMatch?
As for the phone itself. Objectively it’s pretty solid. It performs pretty much the way you’d expect it to given the specs.
The UI is a big thing for me. I would have enjoyed this phone more if it had a different skin on top of Android 8.1 Oreo but if you’re used to ColorOS or something similar, the Realme 2 Pro is a solid option that will take fantastic photos under proper lighting conditions.