Realme GT 5G (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)

Realme is gearing to launch what it says will be its “most premium” flagship smartphone to date, the Oppo spin-off brand announced on Monday, November 29^th. The phone in question will be called the Realme GT 2 Pro.

This phone is expected to be one of the first phones to launch with the brand-new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 or as some reports are calling the Snapdragon 8Gx Gen 1, the same chip that Qualcomm will—most likely—announce on November 30. Clearly, Realme is jumping the gun to hype its next phone. Whether—or not—it will have something to share on Qualcomm’s big launch day, is something only time will tell.

Realme to join the big league soon

Realme isn’t sharing any granular details at this point of time, but the Realme GT 2 Pro will apparently mark “the starting point for the brand’s journey into the high-end global market.” Now, Realme has recently dropped the ball on its future ambitions, that it is wanting and working relentlessly to join the big league and come out with phones akin to a high-end Samsung Galaxy or an Apple iPhone.

That would invariably also mean that some Realme phones will start to climb up the price ladder in order to pack innovations seen only at the highest end of the smartphone spectrum. These phones could be priced at $800 and higher which is roughly around Rs 60,000.

Also Read | The Realme GT 5G jumpstarts the flagship killer, a category that OnePlus abandoned years ago

“As the first creation under Realme’s most premium flagship GT Pro series, the Realme GT 2 Pro bears our mission to bring top-tier experience to our young customers with performance, design and camera – all beyond expectations,” Realme founder and CEO Sky Li said in a statement, adding “we have always been cognizant of our consumers’ needs, and are working towards developing best-in-class smartphones for Realme fans across the globe.”

Sister brands Oppo and Vivo have carefully orchestrated a dedicated line-up of premium flagship phones over the years but only OnePlus—another BBK brand—has been able to taste some success in the category though that may change—going forward—as OnePlus phones come closer and closer to Oppo phones in touch, feel and all-round experience.

Realme, on the other hand, is new and growing, known largely for its budget and mid-range phones that almost always punch way above their weight class. Many see it as an only viable alternative to Xiaomi when it comes to value proposition. Xiaomi took the plunge this year with a phone called the Mi 11 Ultra, its moist ambitious and most expensive phone to date, though its availability was short-changed due to certain unavoidable circumstances, primarily the chip shortage and India’s tight control on China imports.

Realme looking to join the big league isn’t new or surprising but whether it will be also successful will totally depend on how it plans to break perceptions especially in India.

Regardless, there’s no denying that Realme phones pack immense potential. The Realme GT 5G single-handily jump-started the flagship killer, a category that OnePlus abandoned years ago. If anything, expectations will be sky-high from whatever it is that it is currently working on.

Realme GT 2 Pro expected specs

Perhaps the most expected—and anticipated—feature of the Realme GT 2 Pro will be its chipset. Qualcomm is on course to give its mobile chips a major makeover even as it looks on to the next frontier—which is to try and usurp Apple’s M-series chips with its next-generation PC processors. Qualcomm mobile chips—at least the high-end ones—will have simpler names. The next one, set to be announced on November 30^th, will be the first one to carry the new naming. More power and specs are almost always a given.

As for the Realme GT 2 Pro, well, rumour has it that Realme’s “most premium” flagship smartphone will come with a fast 120Hz AMOLED display, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC paired with up to 12GB RAM and up to 512GB storage, Android 12-based Realme UI 3.0, 50MP primary back and 32MP front camera, and 125W fast charging.

Realme is yet to reveal a probable timeline for when it will launch the Realme GT 2 Pro. Watch this space for more.

Also Read | Realme set to join the big league, plans to launch premium smartphones over Rs 50,000