T Phone 2 Pro in the test: Telecom’s 5G smartphone is really good

The market for smartphones under 300 euros is highly competitive. OLED displays up to 120 Hz and 5G as a mobile communication technology are now standard in this price range. Telekom’s first smartphone, the T Phone Pro (test report), had a very weak display. With the second generation, the German mobile communications giant is now compensating for this weakness with a modern screen. But that would not be all. The T Phone 2 Pro now offers a 50-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization (OIS). This test shows how the T Phone 2 Pro performs in practice and what weaknesses it has.

The T Phone 2 Pro is not waterproof. However, it does have IP54 certification and is therefore at least protected from water splashes. The casing itself is made of plastic only, which is normal in this price range.

The design of the smartphone, which is only available in dark blue, is successful and looks elegant. The four lenses of the camera are arranged relatively flat in a rectangular element with strongly rounded corners. The element itself protrudes minimally, which means that it hardly bends when the smartphone is lying on its back. However, fingerprints are clearly present.

With a diagonal of 6.8 inches, a fairly large display is used. Unlike its predecessor, which only offered an LCD with a meager HD resolution, the T Phone 2 Pro’s display is first-class and very sharp with Full HD+. The OLED panel renders strong colors and rich contrast.

Thanks to a refresh rate of up to 120Hz, scrolling movements and animations look extremely fluid. The brightness is high enough to be readable outdoors. We were able to measure over 900 nits with automatic brightness adjustment.

The T Phone 2 Pro uses a quad camera. However, only the main lens with 50 megapixels and OIS stands out positively here. The wide-angle lens has only 5 megapixels, the macro lens and the lens for depth of field, each 2 megapixels, could have been given. The front camera is 16 megapixels.

During the day, the main lens produces sharp images and well-balanced contrast, even though dynamic range and image detail could be a little higher. The camera combines four pixels into one (pixel binning) to capture more image information, you can even access the full 50 megapixels if you want; we can only recommend digital zoom up to 2x magnification, after that it becomes too pixelated; in the dark, the quality of the main lens drops significantly.

The wide-angle lens, on the other hand, is mediocre, showing blurry images with a lot of noise. Also, the colours differ a lot compared to the main lens. Macro shots lack image detail and sharpness a little due to the low resolution, but they are still half-decent. Selfies with the front lens, on the other hand, look quite good; a beauty filter is used as standard, but you can also turn it off.

Videos with the main camera and 4K resolution at 60 fps (frames per second) are of good quality. Thanks to OIS, they are well stabilized and offer natural colors and high image sharpness. The front camera also produces good videos with 4K at 60 fps.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 is used as the drive, it provides enough power for all normal everyday tasks, so the smartphone runs smoothly and usually avoids long pauses for the user to think. This is also proven by a good score of 9500 points on PCMark, even if most competitors in this price range are slightly faster. The T Phone 2 Pro is less strong when it comes to 3D graphics, as about 2400 points in “Wild Life” in 3DMark shows. But it is enough for casual games.

The internal memory of 256 GB and 8 GB of RAM is quite large. It can also be expanded with a microSD card up to 2 TB. Dual SIM usage is also possible with one physical nano-SIM and one eSIM. Like its predecessor, the T Phone 2 Pro supports fast mobile networks with 5G. Things also get faster on home networks thanks to Wi-Fi 6E. Stereo speakers ensure solid sound. There is even a 3.5 mm jack plug input for wired headphones, something you rarely see anymore. Bluetooth 5.2 is used for wireless devices. Location is accurate enough at about 3 meters (according to GPS tests).

The operating system is Android 14. Telekom has left the user interface almost untouched, so fans of vanilla Android or Pixel phones will get their money’s worth here. At the time of testing, the security patch is dated July and is therefore sufficiently up-to-date. Telekom promises security patches for five years, as well as two Android updates (up to version 16). That’s neat.

The large 5000 mAh battery proved to be very long-lasting in the test. According to the battery test, we got about 16 hours in simulated operation, which is one of the best values ​​for smartphones in this category. But you need patience when charging; charging up to a maximum of 25 watts is possible. However, it takes about an hour and a half for the battery to be full. Wireless charging is possible with Qi at a minimum of 15 watts.

Telecom sells the T phone directly. The 256GB model is currently available without a contract 299 euros.It’s not a bargain anymore, but the features are really good for the price and competitive. They are also with option Tariffwhere only you 1 € Paid for T Phone 2 Pro.

With the new T Phone 2 Pro, Telekom has created a great smartphone that impresses with a good price-performance ratio. Compared to its slightly weaker predecessor, the second generation is now competitive. The biggest strengths are the 120Hz OLED display and the excellent battery life. Performance is adequate, although not too strong. At least the main camera and front camera take good pictures. The other lenses are of little use. Software support is exemplary in five years, and two Android updates are planned.

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