Realme 1 camera review: Decent camera for the price

The Realme 1 is an Oppo-powered smartphone that, in its price range (6GB RAM version costs ₹13,990), is clearly on par with the Redmi Note 5 Pro, the current flagship smartphone among budget smartphones. Well, naturally, we wanted to see if the phone actually held up to being one of the most popular phones in the country right now. Realme 1 is taking shots with Redmi Note 5 Pro so I literally decided to take shots with Realme 1, Redmi Note 5 Pro and I threw ZenFone Max Pro M1 into the mix. Here are the results: Check it out.

Note : Realme 1 price starts from ₹8,990 for 3GB/32GB version. The phone comes in 6GB/128GB versions and is priced at ₹13,990. Obviously, all the phones have the same specs, except for RAM and storage.

Realme 1 rear camera specifications

The Realme 1 has a decent-sounding 13MP rear camera with what Realme calls “AI Shot.” I believe this is about post-processing the image to reduce noise and basically make it look better. If the results are good, there is nothing to worry about. In comparison, Redmi Note 5 Pro has dual 12MP + 5MP rear cameras, while ZenFone Max Pro M1 has dual 13MP + 5MP cameras on the back .

Bright shot during the day:

Realme 1 is a very clunky shooter. Some results in very good photos, while others come out weird. However, I’ll just let the pictures guide you, so please check out these pictures.

As you can see from the photo below, the Realme 1 actually performs as well as the Redmi Note 5 Pro. In fact, in some ways , Realme 1’s color balance is better than the other two smartphones .

However, in this second photo, it is clear that the Realme 1 is not good at exposing backlit subjects . The camera was clearly trying to expose according to BB-8 and ended up completely blowing out the background lights. Redmi Note 5 Pro performed very well here with great exposure and even ZenFone Max Pro M1 performed better than Realme 1.

This third photo is an example of how the Realme 1 can mess up the white balance of your photos . In terms of getting the white balance right, the Redmi Note 5 Pro photo is actually the closest, and the ZenFone Max Pro M1 is a close second with slightly warmer tones. However, the Realme 1 has a completely cool tint, giving the walls, posters, and everything a greenish tint that I hate.

Low light shot:

I’ve always wondered about the Realme 1’s camera performance in low-light conditions . In fact, Realme 1 has sub-par performance when it comes to shooting in low light .

In this first shot, it’s clear that the Realme 1 captures very little detail . The photos are noisy, the subject is out of focus, and the quality is poor overall. The Redmi Note 5 Pro does well here, letting in less light than the Realme 1, but ultimately resulting in a better-looking image. The subject is in focus and shows much more detail than what I saw on the Realme 1. At first glance, the ZenFone Max Pro seems to take better photos than the Realme 1, but those shots have a ton of noise. . However, I was able to focus on the subject a little better than the Realme 1, so there’s that.

This second photo tells a different story. Redmi Note 5 Pro definitely catches more light than Realme 1 and honestly, the photos look better on Redmi Note 5 Pro. However, if you look closely, the photos taken with the Realme 1 have much less noise than those taken with the Redmi Note 5 Pro , which is surprising considering how bad the last photos we looked at were.

Portrait mode:

This really surprised me considering that all three phones have portrait mode and the Realme 1 has a single camera. I really didn’t expect it to have a portrait mode at that price point, but it didn’t. bad. However, it is generally slightly worse than the Redmi Note 5 Pro.

Take this shot for example. The output of the Realme 1 is very similar to that of the Redmi Note 5 Pro. Edge detection on both phones is about the same, and the only place I feel the Realme 1 lacks is in facial details . Realme 1 has clearly smoothed out the details. But surprisingly, the ZenFone Max Pro M1 actually took the best shot here. Faces have a lot of detail, edge detection is on par (if not better), and even the background isn’t too blown out.

This second photo tells a similar story. The Realme 1 clearly tried to smooth out the details a lot and even messed up the edge detection on the hair that stood on end. Again, the edge detection is similar to the Redmi Note 5 Pro, and the ZenFone Max Pro M1 is once again the clear winner here, which is surprising considering it’s not even in the same price range as these two.

video shooting

Realme 1 front camera review

The Realme 1 has a single 8MP shooter on the front, but it fades away, at least on paper, when compared to the Redmi Note 5 Pro’s 20MP front camera with LED flash. ZenFone Max Pro also has an 8MP shooter on the front.

Selfies taken in bright light during the day

During the day, the performance is as expected and the Realme 1 does not disappoint with its front camera , although on paper it is much lower than the Redmi Note 5 Pro, the output image is usually on par with its biggest rival. The ZenFone Max Pro finds itself stuck with a phone that’s way out of its price range, but it’s also pretty good in its own right .

In this photo, you can easily see that both Realme 1 and Redmi Note 5 Pro take some really great selfies. The Realme 1 makes the colors a little more saturated than the Redmi Note 5 Pro , but it’s definitely not oversaturated and honestly it looks a little better than the Redmi Note 5 Pro’s output here. Although the ZenFone Max Pro wasn’t able to gather as much light as the other two phones, we applaud the way it handled background exposure in shots.

The second image is about the same in terms of quality and exposure. Both Redmi Note 5 Pro and Realme 1 are exactly on par when it comes to daytime selfies with similar details , with Realme 1 adding a bit of post-processing saturation.

low light selfie

When it comes to low light, Redmi Note 5 Pro has a big advantage over Realme 1 and that is the LED flash on the front. That said, I don’t usually use the front flash on my phone, but it’s still much better than the Realme 1’s front camera in low light.

I took a selfie with Realme 1 and to be honest, it turned out so bad that I’m not in the mood to click any more. However, for this article, I’ve included a few more of these terrible looking shots. All so you can see for yourself. Feast your eyes (even if it doesn’t, it’s actually really bad).

portrait mode

Realme 1 also comes with portrait mode, but as good as Realme 1’s rear camera was for portraits, the front portrait mode is equally bad . So, for some reason, the Realme 1 seems to completely wash itself out in the face. In comparison, Redmi Note 5 Pro is much better and ZenFone Max Pro M1 also completely ruins the picture.

See also: Redmi Note 5 Pro camera review: Decent camera on a budget

Realme 1 camera review: Pretty decent shots

Overall, Realme 1 is a great phone for taking photos. The rear camera takes pretty good photos in good lighting conditions, but the photos from the Realme 1 are usually a hit-or-miss idea. It’s not the kind of phone where you can just click a photo and know it’s going to work. On the other hand, the Redmi Note 5 Pro performs much better than the Realme 1 and produces better images in most cases. Even in low-light conditions, the Redmi Note 5 Pro outperforms the Realme 1, but neither phone is very good at low-light photography.

Redmi Note 5 Pro outperforms Realme 1 in most scenarios, while Realme 1 can outperform ZenFone Max Pro in various situations and even match Note 5 Pro in some cases. So, the 6GB version of Realme 1 at 13,990 yen may not be very comparable to the Redmi Note 5 Pro in terms of camera, but the 3GB version at 8,990 yen and the 4GB version at 10,990 yen are quite good when compared to the Redmi Note 5 Pro. Excellent. Competition in these price ranges.