Realme X2 review

Performance and Gaming

The main reason for the Realme X2's existence was the lack of a phone in the Rs 20K segment from Realme and a rival to Xiaomi's Redmi K20 series. It was able to kill two birds with one stone here by equipping the X2 with the Snapdragon 730G chipset. It not only makes it the cheapest phone to be powered by this SoC but also one of the most powerful phones you can buy in this segment.

Unveiled less than a year ago, the Snapdragon 730G is built on an 8nm manufacturing process, with a total of 8 cores spread over two clusters. That is paired with the Adreno 618 GPU clocked at a higher 575MHz.

In terms of real-life use, that translates to an extremely responsive experience that never really falters. Any combination of moderately heavy tasks such as social media, calls, photography, etc. will not slow the phone down. It handles everything you throw at it like a champ.

When it comes to gaming too, the Realme X2 held its own, even for extended durations. We've seen earlier generations of the Snapdragon 7 family struggle to provide a consistently smooth gaming performance, but it seems like Realme has done its share of optimizations. PUBG Mobile could efficiently run at over 30fps with barely any stutters. After about 15-20 minutes, the phone did get warm, but nothing too extreme. 

If you're contesting between the Realme X2 and the Redmi Note 8 Pro, especially on the gaming front, these phones are neck to neck, and neither will disappoint you.

Software

As with Realme’s entire lineup, the X2 runs on ColorOS over Android 9 Pie, with an update to Realme UI scheduled for the coming weeks. In its current form, ColorOS is a pretty heavy skin with loads of pre-installed apps and services. Even visually, it is pretty different from stock Android with large squircle icons in the notification drop-down, a mixed-up settings screen, and a healthy sprinkling of customizations on top.

The Realme X2 seems well-optimized for taking the best advantage of this beefy hardware to provide a very consistent and smooth user experience that rarely breaks a sweat. It’s also pretty frugal with the battery consumption on standby.

Realme UI will bring a significant visual overhaul to the mix, with new iconography, natural animations, improved audio and haptic feedback as well as performance-side changes.

Battery life

The Realme X2 houses a 4,000mAh battery, which combined with the 8nm Snapdragon 730G and ColorOS to provide pretty decent battery backup. In our regular usage, we could consistently get over a day’s use out of it.

To sweeten the plot, 30W VOOC 4.0 charging can take the battery from 0 to about 60% in 30 minutes, and full tank in a little over an hour. You will have to use the included USB Type-C charger for the best results. While the battery life may not be best in class, the charging speeds definitely are.