How good is this flagship rivalry between OnePlus and Realme?
The battle for the flagships has been increasing with each smartphone manufacturer releasing their respective flagships with all the top-end specifications each year. Brands like Samsung, Xiaomi, Apple, OnePlus, etc. have delivered their top-end flagships that do come with a premium price tag. Now, this year Realme is also out set to make a big entry with its top-end flagship i.e. Realme GT 2 Pro (Review).
Realme came up with its GT series in 2021 and this year we have the popular Realme GT 2 Pro which packs all the flagship specifications like a premium-looking design. a 120Hz LTPO AMOLED display, a powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, a good set of triple cameras, and a large 5000mAh battery with 65W fast charging. Realme has also priced this smartphone aggressively making it a very good deal.
OnePlus flagships are one of the most popular premium smartphones that bring all the flagship specifications this year we have the latest and greatest from OnePlus i.e. the OnePlus 10 Pro (Review) which brings in a premium build and design, a 120Hz LTPO AMOLED display, a powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, a great set of triple cameras, and a 5000mAh battery with 80W fast charging and 50W wireless charging.
When you compare the price, the Realme GT 2 Pro is significantly cheaper than the OnePlus 10 Pro. So can the OnePlus 10 Pro be the best flagship by paying that extra premium out there or will the Realme GT 2 Pro takes away the honors and be the valuable premium flagship that you want? Let’s find out in the full comparison.
Realme GT 2 Pro vs OnePlus 10 Pro Design:
In terms of design, both smartphones have a different design philosophy going for them. The Realme GT 2 Pro sports an interesting design where the back is made up of bio-polymer material which is almost like paper, and Realme claims that this design helps it keep it lighter and the back has a textured finish that provides great grip, but it does lack the premium feel of a glass back which is present on the OnePlus 10 Pro.
On the other hand, the OnePlus 10 Pro has a striking design at the back with that squarish camera module that house the triple cameras. The back definitely feels premium like a proper flagship with a simple matte finish that does provide good grip and does not attract many fingerprints. But it is slightly heavier at 201 grams compared to 189 grams weight on the Realme GT 2 Pro.
Both the smartphones lack IP rating but do have P2i coating at the back to prevent splashes of water. The back of the OnePlus 10 Pro does support wireless charging which the Realme GT 2 Pro lacks. To the sides, both have an aluminum frame that houses the power button and the volume buttons but the OnePlus 10 Pro gets an alert slider like all other OnePlus smartphones.
The top of both smartphones has a secondary noise-canceling microphone. To the bottom, both smartphones have a dual SIM card slot, speaker grille, primary microphone, and a USB Type-C port. The Realme GT 2 Pro has an older USB 2.0 port whereas the OnePlus 10 Pro has a faster USB 3.1 port. Neither of them has a 3.5mm headphone jack nor a microSD card slot for storage expansion.
Overall, the build and design are a personal preference but considering both smartphones side by side, the OnePlus 10 Pro feels more premium than the Realme GT 2 Pro.
Realme GT 2 Pro vs OnePlus 10 Pro Display:
Both the smartphones have a similar screen size of 6.7-inches and a Quad HD+(1440×3216 pixels) LTPO 2.0 display with a screen-to-body ratio of 20:9. As both these displays are AMOLED, you get great viewing angles and color reproduction is very good. As both these have LTPO displays, the refresh rate can scale from as low as 1Hz to all the way up to 120Hz depending on the application in usage.
With the 120Hz refresh rate, both smartphones have a faster 360Hz touch sampling rate which provides faster touch responses during multi-tasking and gaming. Both these displays are protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus on the front. The display on the Realme GT 2 Pro is flatter whereas the display on the OnePlus 10 Pro is curved to the sides.
In terms of brightness, both these can achieve a peak brightness of 1300nits but in some scenarios, the Realme GT 2 Pro could go as high as 1400nits. Both these displays are easily visible under direct sunlight and you can set the color temperature on both displays. Both also get MEMC technology that makes the fps smoother in videos.
The display on both smartphones has support for Widevine L1 so you can stream HDR content on OTT platforms but currently, only HDR support is present on Netflix on the OnePlus 10 Pro whereas Netflix still does not support HDR on the Realme GT 2 Pro. Both displays have support for HDR on YouTube. Both these displays have an optical in-display fingerprint scanner which is accurate and fast.
Realme GT 2 Pro vs OnePlus 10 Pro Performance:
Both these smartphones are powered by the latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset and in all daily tasks, both could handle light to heavy multi-tasking easily whether rendering videos, streaming social media, web browsing, and also while playing games. BGMI ran smoothly on the Ultra HD frame rate with Ultra graphics on both smartphones in terms of gaming.
After long hours of gaming, both the smartphones did heat up quite a bit around the sides and also the camera module as there were some minor frame drops noticed. In CPU throttling both of them could only maintain a sustained performance of around 70-75 percent and both do come with a vapor cooling chamber to dissipate heat faster.
In terms of benchmarks, the scores on both smartphones come out good. Both come with 8/12GB LPDDR5 RAM with 128/256GB UFS 3.1 storage. Both also have Dynamic RAM using which you can expand RAM for better multitasking. In terms of network connectivity, both have good carrier aggregation and support for 11 bands of 5G.
Overall, the performance and gaming remain flagship-level on both smartphones but they do suffer from overheating.
Realme GT 2 Pro vs OnePlus 10 Pro Software:
Both smartphones have Android 12 out of the box with their respective skins RealmeUI and the OxygenOS thus sharing the same design elements as both of them are derived from Oppo’s ColorOS. There is the Personalizations tab under settings where you can change the icon shape and size, different styles for the Always-On display, fingerprint scanner animation, etc.
Other features include an Enhanced Dark Mode on both smartphones that has three different settings – Enhanced, Medium, and Gentle, Privacy Dashboard is present which shows the applications that are using the camera and microphone by accessing a particular location, Smart Sidebar, etc. With the 120Hz LTPO panel on both, multi-tasking feels very smooth.
There are some unique features in each of the smartphones where in RealmeUI there is a Realme Labs section where there is a heart rate monitor which works by placing the figure on the fingerprint scanner, Dual Music Audio, etc. OnePlus OxyegnOS provides Zen Mode, and Work-Life Balance 2.0, and also both have a Game Mode for a better gaming experience on each of them.
In terms of the software experience, the OxygenOS holds the edge as it does not have any bloatware present whereas RealmeUI has a considerable amount of bloatware that can be uninstalled. In terms of software updates, both smartphones will receive another three years of AndroidOS updates and four years of security patches. So overall software experience feels slightly better on the OxygenOS compared to the RealmeUI.
Realme GT 2 Pro vs OnePlus 10 Pro Cameras:
In terms of cameras, the OnePlus 10 Pro houses the 48MP f/1.8 Sony IMX789 sensor on the main camera, a 50MP f/2.2 Samsung JN1 sensor for the ultrawide camera, and an 8MP f/2.4 telephoto camera with OIS. On the other hand, the Realme GT 2 Pro houses a 50MP f/1.8 Sony IMX766 sensor for the main camera, similar to the ultrawide camera on the Realme GT 2 Pro, and a 3MP f/3.3 microscope camera.
On the front, there is a 16MP f/2.2 camera for selfies. The images from the main camera come out with good details on both but the dynamic range is slightly better on the OnePlus 10 Pro compared to the Realme GT 2 Pro. The colors look natural on both and there is no oversharpening in the background. The noise is slightly prominent on the Realme GT 2 Pro compared to the OnePlus 10 Pro but by a very little margin.
Taken on Realme GT 2 Pro
Taken on OnePlus 10 Pro
At night, the images from the OnePlus 10 Pro come out with slightly better details than the Realme GT 2 Pro but the latter one has natural colors whereas the OnePlus 10 Pro does oversharpen the background slightly. With the Night Mode turned on, the level of details comes out equally good with very less noise and both images also have a good dynamic range.
Both smartphones have a similar ultrawide camera setup and images from them come out with a good dynamic range and details also look good but slightly softer compared to the main camera on both smartphones. You can use the 150-degree field of view on both smartphones and there is also the fisheye effect using this effect, images come out with good details and dynamic range.
Taken on Realme GT 2 Pro
Taken on OnePlus 10 Pro
The ultrawide camera on both smartphones does a good job in terms of dynamic range and details also look good though slightly softer. However, there is a larger amount of noise on both and if you turn on the dedicated night mode on both, the dynamic range does improve slightly and the noise also reduces. However, some oversharpening takes place in the background in both the ultrawide cameras.
The third camera is different on both smartphones where the Realme GT 2 Pro has gone for a microscopic camera and the OnePlus 10 Pro has a dedicated telephoto camera with OIS. The images from the telephoto camera come out with good dynamic range and details look sharper with very less noise in the background. You get 3x optical zoom and 30x digital zoom.
The images from the telephoto camera come out with good details and dynamic range at 5x, 10x but beyond 20x, the details come out softer and there is noise present in the background. Since there is OIS present, noise is also lower and this camera also performs much better during the night also. The Realme GT 2 Pro, on the other hand can do 2x digital zoom using the main camera.
The 2x zoom imaged from the main camera sinply cannot match the level of details and dynamic range with that of the 8MP telephoto camera on the OnePlus 10 Pro. Rather, the microscopic camera on the Realme GT 2 Pro seems to be an interesting one. This microscopic camera can go as close as 40x and the images have an excellent level of detail and dynamic range.
However, still, a telephoto camera would have done the job better compared to the microscopic camera. In terms of portraits from the main camera, the dynamic range and edge detection are slightly better on the OnePlus 10 Pro compared to the Realme GT 2 Pro. The skin tones on the OnePlus 10 Pro look more natural and the noise is also slightly lower compared to the Realme GT 2 Pro.
The background blur is equally good in both the portraits. On the front, both smartphones come with a 16MP camera and the details come out with good dynamic range and look sharper with natural-looking skin tones. In terms of selfie portraits, the edge detection is better on the OnePlus 10 Pro and there is no such oversharpening in the background as that of the Realme GT 2 Pro.
In terms of videos, the rear camera on both smartphones can record 8K videos at 24fps and since both have OIS, the details come out sharper and the noise is also very much lower. The dynamic range on both videos comes out good. At 4K resolution, you do get Ultra Steady Mode and this also works for the ultrawide camera also. The videos from the ultrawide camera come out with good details and a dynamic range.
However, the front camera on both smartphones can only record 1080p videos at 30fps which is sort of disappointing as even the mid-range smartphones do have 4K video recording on the front camera. The videos from the front camera come out with slightly softer details and the dynamic range is also good. Both have EIS which results in less noise.
Overall, both have very good cameras but in the end, it is all personal preference whether you want a telephoto camera or a microscopic camera. However, still, the OnePlus 10 Pro holds the edge in terms of camera performance by a slight margin compared to the Realme GT 2 Pro.
Realme GT 2 Pro vs OnePlus 10 Pro Battery Life:
Both the Realme GT 2 Pro and the OnePlus 10 Pro have a larger 5000mAh battery and both could easily last for around two days with normal usage and the display is set to 120Hz. With medium to heavy usage that includes web browsing, rendering videos, and playing games like BGMI for 4-5 hours continuously, both lasted a single day and had to be charged around the night.
The standard screen-on time was around 4-5 hours on both due to the thermal throttling of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset though it is built on a 4nm process. But still, the battery does last slightly better on the OnePlus 10 Pro compared to the Realme GT 2 Pro. In terms of charging, the OnePlus 10 Pro also takes the lead as it supports 80W fast charging compared to 65W fast charging on the Realme GT 2 Pro.
The 65W fast charger takes around 40 minutes to charge the Realme GT 2 Pro from 0 to 100 percent whereas the OnePlus 10 Pro with the 80W fast charger charges from 0 to 100 percent within 35 minutes. The OnePlus 10 Pro also has support for 50W wireless charging and 5W reverse wireless charging which the Realme GT 2 Pro lacks.
Realme GT 2 Pro vs OnePlus 10 Pro Audio Quality:
Both the Realme GT 2 Pro and the OnePlus 10 Pro have dual stereo speakers that sound very loud and clear. None of them have a 3.5mm headphone jack. Both also get Dolby Atmos for enhanced sound output.
Verdict:
Both the OnePlus 10 Pro and the Realme GT 2 Pro are very good flagships that provide most of the necessities and there are many things that are common like a 120Hz LTPO AMOLED display for media consumption, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset is present that provides flagship-level performance and gaming, a good set of triple cameras, and also both have 5000mAh battery with support for faster charging.
There are a couple of differences between both smartphones. In terms of build and design, the OnePlus 10 Pro definitely holds the edge as it brings a premium glass back compared to Realme GT 2 Pro’s bio-polymer back, the OnePlus 10 Pro gets a telephoto camera and the main camera performance is slightly better than the Realme GT 2 Pro, and in software experience, the OnePlus 10 Pro holds the edge.
So comparing both smartphones side by side, if you want the telephoto camera, features like wireless charging, and software experience with no bloatware with all the top-end flagship specifications, then with the slightly premium price, the OnePlus 10 Pro is a great deal but if you can live with the bloatware and do not want features like wireless charging and glass back, then the Realme GT 2 Pro is an excellent smartphone to choose.
The Realme GT 2 Pro is also significantly cheaper compared to the OnePlus 10 Pro making it a proper value flagship. So choosing either of these smartphones is not an issue because at the end of the day it all depends on personal preference.