Realme officially unveils its GT 2 series at MWC – and the Pro model looks amazing

We got our hands on the Realme GT 2 Pro ahead of its MWC announcement, so check here for our early impressions of the device.

Burgeoning mobile-maker Realme has officially lifted the international lid on its GT 2 series of premium smartphones – and the Pro model, in particular, looks like it could give the Samsung Galaxy S22 a run for its money. 

The still-young Chinese company first announced the new handsets at a launch event back in January, but waited until this year’s MWC (Mobile World Congress) trade show to properly unveil both the Realme GT 2 and Realme GT 2 Pro on the global stage.

Billed as Realme’s first major foray into the premium flagship market, its GT 2 smartphone series is intended to rival competitors like the Oppo Find X4 and OnePlus 10 Pro, while still maintaining the relative affordability that has established Realme as a major mid-market mobile player in recent years. 

The standard GT 2, which will be available in versions up to 12GB RAM and 256GB of storage, will begin shipping to the UK and Europe on March 15, with pre-sale prices starting at €449.99 (around £399 / $530 / AU$740) before rising to an RRP of €549.99. The Pro variant will arrive slightly earlier on March 8 for a pre-sale starting price of €649.99 (equating to around £599.99 / $800 / AU$1100) before rising to €749.99.

The latter will also be available with 12GB RAM and 256GB of internal storage for €749.99 (around £630 / $840 / AU$1160) before rising to €849.99 following the same pre-sale period, which runs between March 8 and March 16.

In any case, Realme’s GT 2 series undercuts the price of rival flagship ranges like the Samsung Galaxy S22 and iPhone 13 by some margin (the former starts at $799 / £769 / AU$1,249 and the latter at $699 / £679 / AU$1,199), living up to the brand’s reputation as an affordable alternative to mainstream mobile brands.

Those lower prices don’t come at the expense of premium features, mind. The standard GT 2 ships with a 6.62-inch 1080 x 2400 AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, a Snapdragon 888 chipset, a triple-lens rear camera headlined by a 50MP sensor and a 5,000mAh battery with 65W charging. That’s a stellar crop of premium features akin to other high-end flagships on the market right now. 

The Realme GT 2 Pro, though, goes several steps further. In addition to a slightly larger 6.7-inch 1440 x 3216 AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, users will get a top-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset – the fastest offered by Qualcomm today – and a triple-lens camera boasting a 50MP main sensor, 50MP ultra-wide sensor and an impressive microscope camera capable of magnifying objects by up to 40x. Check out our first impressions of the device to see just how good these camera features are in practice.

Incidentally, the GT 2 series also highlights Realme’s eco-friendly ambitions. Not only are these phones supposedly the first-ever to be manufactured using a paper-like bio-polymer material, but for every GT 2 series smartphone sold from the company’s official website, Realme will plant a tree. For every tree planted, Realme says, it will take less than 24 months to offset the amount of CO2 produced by manufacturing the device in the first place.

Those might seem like empty marketing promises, but at least Realme customers can rest a little easier in the knowledge that their purchase will be a sustainable one – on paper, at least. 

Stay tuned to TechRadar for our full reviews of both the Realme GT 2 and Realme GT 2 Pro in the coming weeks, and check out our MWC 2022 live blog for the very latest mobile news emerging from the show right now. 

• MWC (Mobile World Congress) is the world's largest showcase for the mobile industry, stuffed full of the newest phones, tablets, wearables and more. TechRadar is reporting on the show all week. Follow our MWC 2022 live blog for the very latest news as it happens and visit our dedicated MWC 2022 hub for a round-up of the biggest announcements.