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Realme 7 Pro review: A mid-range phone chock-full of features

By PY Ho - 12 Feb 2021
Launch SRP: S$499

Imaging and Video

Imaging Performance

Similar to the Realme 6 Pro, the Realme 7 Pro’s back camera system consists of four camera modules. It is however laid out in a rectangular block. The housing protrudes much like the Note 20 Ultra’s, so the phone is not able to lie flat on the surface. This is easily resolved by putting the TPU cover provided in the box.

The front camera also sees some changes with the Realme 7 Pro touting a single 32MP camera, located within the tiny punch hole in the top left-hand corner of the display.

Here’s a rundown on Realme 7 Pro’s rear camera array:

  • 64MP, Sony IMX682, 1/1.73-inch sensor size, f/1.8, 6P lens (main camera)
  • 8MP, Ultra-wide-angle, 119-degree FOV, f/2.3 5P lens
  • 2MP, Monochrome Portrait, f/2.4 3P lens
  • 2MP, Macro lens, 4cm focus, f/2.4, 3P lens

One notable difference between the 7 Pro and the 6 Pro is that monochrome portraiture lens was used in favour of a telephoto lens. According to Realme, this choice allows for better and creative photos. We shall explore that claim later. Interestingly, we see a trend of phone manufacturers doing away with the telephoto lens in non-flagship phones launched this year. This was done in favour of incorporating other types of lenses or, even reducing the total number of cameras altogether. Presumably, advances in image processing saw improvements in digital zooming, so there’s a lower priority for dedicated telephoto hardware outside of flagship-tier handsets.

The main rear camera module uses Quad Bayer pixel-binning technology to process photos. As such, photos output at 12MP resolution by default, with an option to take 64MP photos without pixel-binning.

 

Day Photos

The image quality offered feels slightly above expectations of what we’d typically expect from a mid-range phone. The photos are clear. However, zooming in will reveal slight over-sharpening near the edges in the photo. There is negligible grain. We deem the photo quality 'good enough' for social media sharing and casual photo printing.

Shooting at its native 64MP resolution (click to view this 19MP original image) yields slightly sharper photos at the cost of slightly increased graininess with the Realme 7 Pro. You can see that text is indeed sharper, but the photo in 64MP had more noise.

The Realme Pro 7 can take up to 10x digital zoom shots. There’s some fuzziness, but there are also fewer photo artefacts caused by zooming in during photo-taking. Overall, the performance is not bad for digital zooming (at 10x no-less) and it certainly feels usable when needed. Here's the cropped image for reference:-

To add some snazziness to your photos, Realme 7 Pro’s camera offers AI Dazzle Color. You can compare the difference between a normal shot, and a shot taken with AI Dazzle Color on:-

 

Portraits

The Realme 7 Pro can take beautiful bokeh shots. Perhaps it has something to do with the dedicated black and white lens, which usually helps phone cameras supply depth information. The phone, however, does remind users that such portrait shots work best with only one subject.

 

Night Mode

Despite being a mid-range phone, the Realme 7 Pro performs better than expected when it comes to night mode. For night shots with some ambient light available, the quality is decent, as long as you don’t zoom in.

At even darker shots though, you must stand really completely still to capture a decent night shot. Even then, the quality is barely good enough for social media consumption.

 

AI Colour Portrait Videos

The Realme 7 Pro comes with a few surprises for videography, one of which is AI Colour Portrait Video. Simply put, the phone can colourise the subject while rendering everything else black and white.

This leaves an artistic effect on your videos and it works on both rear and front camera, though there is obvious lag and loss of quality if you choose to use this effect on the front camera.

The one perplexing question arising from this feature is: if it can be implemented for videography, why is this feature not available for photo-taking? It’s an enjoyable shooting option, and we sorely miss it in photography.

 

Bokeh Video

The bokeh effect can also be applied to videos. It also works for both front and rear cameras, though the resulting video from using front cameras has a much lower quality, and there was a faint hue surrounding the subject. For both cameras, the bokeh video effect exhibits some stutter and some loss of frames, presumably the processor unable to catch-up with the real-time processing needs.

Note that by including both AI Colour Portrait and Bokeh effects into videography, the resulting video’s resolution would be drastically reduced to 1,280 x 720 pixels, regardless of original video selection.

 

UIS Video (and Max Video) Stabilisation

UIS Video is Realme’s take on EIS, and there is even a Max Video Stabilization mode in Realme 7 Pro. We took the phone for a brief run in various modes and even attached a Zhiyun Smooth X gimbal as baseline comparison of image stabilisation.

With normal stabilisation, the phone struggles to contain longitudinal shifts. In contrast, lateral shifts are somewhat well contained – thus yielding a rather unnatural video of the phone being shifted to and fro sideways. Max Video stabilisation seems to stabilise somewhat better – but at a huge cost of video quality. Conclusion: don’t bother turning on video stabilisation.

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8.5
  • Design 7.5
  • Features 9
  • User-Friendliness 8
  • Performance 8.5
  • Value 9
The Good
Quad camera setup with 4K recording
128GB storage with microSD expansion
Blazingly fast 65W charging
Under-display fingerprint sensor
TUV Rheinland Smartphone Reliability Verification
Strong performance
Good price point
The Bad
Feels hefty
Ads in system apps (can be disabled)
AI colour portrait not available in photo mode
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