Realme was formerly a sub-brand of OPPO, the Chinese smartphone company best known for its mid-range phones and marketing around their phone camera capabilities. The former vice president of Oppo decided to step down and take the Realme brand with him, establishing it as an independent brand that focuses primarily on the Indian and SE Asia markets. Although it gets really confusing here, as the Realme C1 was launched as the OPPO A3s.
The Realme 2 was recently launched as the second flagship device for the Realme brand, featuring a 6.3” IPS display, Snapdragon 660 SoC, and 8GB RAM / 128 GB internal storage. These are actually fairly powerful specs for a budget-range focused company.
In any case, Realme promised they would be developing a bootloader unlock process when the phone was released, and its finally here. Though the entire process seems a bit odd. First, they are referring to it as “in-depth testing”, so the official website says things like “In-depth testing may modify some of the system functions” instead of “Unlocking your bootloader may [etc]”.
Secondly, the entire process involves applying for an OTA update that enables bootloader unlocking, then installing the OTA and applying for actually unlocking the bootloader. Its 2 applications for 1 goal, which is quite strange. In any case, follow our guide to unlock your Realme 2 Pro, and comment if you encounter any issues.
Notes: Create a backup of all your important data before proceeding. Unlocking the bootloader will trigger a factory reset on your device. Also, no custom recoveries such as TWRP or custom ROMs are available yet for the Realme 2 Pro, which may make unlocking the bootloader kind of pointless, for now. The kernel sources were just released January 15th, so Android developers may be working on them as we speak.
Requirements
- ADB & Fastboot (see Appual’s guide How to Install ADB on Windows)
- You must first fill out this official bootloader unlock request form from Realme. On the website, they are referring to the act of unlocking your bootloader as “in-depth test”. Yes, we have literally never heard bootloader unlocking referred to as “in-depth test”.
- The form simply asks for your IMEI (which you can find by dialing *#06# in Dialer app).
- Realme should respond within 1 – 7 days. If you are approved, an OTA update will be pushed to your phone. The OTA enables “in-depth test” (bootloader unlocking) on your device. You need to accept and install the OTA.
- Now you must download and install the official unlock tool APK on your Realme 2 Pro.
- Once you install the APK, launch it and tap the “Submit Application” button. Yes, you are applying to have your bootloader unlocked after you already applied for the OTA to enable bootloader unlocking.
- Your application should be approved within an hour, but some XDA users are reporting waiting times of several hours.
- When the unlock tool displays “Review Successful”, you can tap the text “Start the in-depth test”.
- Press and hold the power key, and your device will reboot into Fastboot Mode.
- Now connect your Realme 2 Pro to your PC via USB, and launch an ADB terminal (hold Shift + right click in your main ADB folder, choose “Open a Command Window Here”).
- In the ADB terminal, type: fastboot flashing unlock
- On your device screen, use your volume key to highlight “Unlock the Bootloader” and the power key to confirm.
- Your device will now unlock the bootloader while factory resetting itself. When its done, it should reboot to the Android system.
Realme 2 Pro Secret Codes
While waiting for the development of custom recovery and ROMs for this device, you may enjoy tinkering with these secret codes for the Realme 2 Pro. You can enter them in the Dialer app to launch the corresponding menu.
- *#800# – Enter Engineering mode
- *#801# – Enter switch test mode
- *#802# – Enter automatically engineering TTFF GPS test mode
- *#803# – Enter Engineering networks test mode
- *#804# – automatic disconnect test mode
- *#805# – engineering Bluetooth test mode
- *#806# – engineering aging test mode
- *#807# – Enter Engineering test mode
- *#808# – Enter manual engineering test mode
- *#809# – Enter Engineering echo test mode
- *#888# – view hardware PCB versions
- *#900# – test photography RGB
- *#99# – screen light long bright
- *#6776# – machine info
- *#1234# – view software details
- *#36446337# – test function introduction
- *#06# – check IMEI number