Since its launch in 2018, Realme has been growing steadily. Its sales reached record levels in Q3 2021 when it shipped over 16 million units amidst a world-wide component shortage. Ever since Realme announced its first flagship phone last month — the GT 2 Pro — we’ve been eager to know when we can get our hands on it. Thankfully, we now know when it will be available, at least in China.

The company tweeted out the news early this morning: the official launch date for China is January 4, 2022. While we don't have further details just yet on international plans for the GT 2 Pro, the company has made no secret of its desire to expand its markets.

This news lands on the heels of the Realme’s Innovation Foward GT 2 Series special event on YouTube, published earlier this week. The 25-minute video covered new hardware details about the upcoming phone series. We’d heard some whispers about camera specs, but the video gives us our first confirmation of a 150° ultra-wide camera and a new fish-eye mode.

Realme also teases some fancy antenna tech for GT 2 phones, with an array on all sides, as well as technology to allow fast switching between them to optimize signal reception. The new phones will also have three-antenna, "360°" NFC, ostensibly allowing for easier and faster touch-to-pay purchases.

What about that very different look for the GT 2 Pro in the renders we checked out last month? Those images came to us from OnLeaks, and although he still stands by his images, he has since deleted the original post. In a response to another tweet, OnLeaks says there will be three GT 2 variants: regular, Master Edition (the one pictured in this article), and a “camera performances” model which is supposedly the one we looked at earlier.

Realme is calling its design philosophy here "Paper Tech Master Design" and it's again enlisted the help of award-winning industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa to create a sleek white design with a back case made of a bio-based material. The company is extending this eco-centric design to its product packaging, reducing the plastic content from over 21% to less than 1%, and switching to a sustainable soy-based ink.

Although we don’t know when the GT 2 Series will see a global release, if the launch of the GT earlier this year is anything to go by, we may have to wait a few months.