Realme 10 review

A dual-camera on the back, one selfie

The Realme 10 has a dual camera on the back with a 50MP primary and a 2MP depth sensor. That's a step down from the triple camera we saw on the Realme 9. According to Realme, the 50MP sensor should deliver photos that are on par with what the Realme 9 offered with its 108MP one. The ultrawide camera had to go, unfortunately, so Realme could be able to keep the price this low.

The 16MP selfie camera is probably the same as on the Realme 9.

The Realme 10's primary camera relies on a 50MP Samsung ISOCELL S5KJN1 1/2.76"" sensor with Tetracell filter and 0.64µmm pixels. The sensor is coupled with a 27mm f/1.8 lens and supports PDAF. Night Mode is available on this camera.

The second camera uses a 2MP OmniVision OV02B1 monochrome sensor for depth map purposes.

The front camera utilizes a 16MP OmniVision OV16A1Q 1/3.06" sensor with 1.0µm pixels and a Quad-Bayer filter. It sits behind a 25mm f/2.45 lens, and the focus is fixed. While this camera is supposed to capture 4MP images, it saves 16MP selfies instead - definitely not the first time we are seeing this.

Camera app

The camera app has a familiar UI, with most modes placed on a rolodex. The viewfinder in the default Photo mode offers AI Scene Enhancement (previously known as Chroma Boost or Dazzle Color) - it's like an advanced HDR mode, which may stack several images to offer even further improvements in the dynamic range. Still, the most prominent "improvement" is the higher color saturation. Auto HDR is available, too.

There is an Auto Night Mode, which appears only when using the camera in low light. You can opt-out of it by tapping on the moon icon.

There are also two zoom shortcuts - 1x and 2x.

In the Pro mode, you get to tweak exposure (ISO in the 100-6400 range and shutter speed in the 1/8000s-32s range), white balance (by light temperature, but no presets), manual focus (in arbitrary 0 to 1 units with 0 being close focus and 1 being infinity) and exposure compensation (-2EV to +2EV in 1/6EV increments). RAW is also available.

Camera app

The Street mode offers various filters if that's your thing.

Photo quality

The rear camera saves 12.5MP photos by default, and those look fine on the phone's display. Viewing those at 100% reveals they are heavily over-processed, though.

The photos we took on this beautiful autumn day offer high contrast and no noise. The dynamic range is okay but it could use a small boost in some scenes.

The resolved detail is mediocre, though, and the sharpening is way over the top, making for this over-processed artificial look. The colors are alright, too, but a bit washed out at times.

We did expect more from a phone advertised as photography-focused.

Default mode, 12.5MP

There is a 2x zoom toggle on the viewfinder, but there is no advanced zoom processing. What we got is a simple crop and upscale over the regular 12.5MP photos.

2x zoom, 12.5MP

The Realme 10 camera app supports a 50MP high-res mode. It offers some smart upscaling, as there is noticeably more detail than on the 2x upscaled images. We can also spot noise in areas of uniform colors.

The incredibly harsh processing once again gets in the way resulting in rather unpleasant artificial-looking images.

50MP samples

The 2MP depth sensor comes in handy when taking portraits with the rear camera. The ones we shot on the Realme 10 are solid - the subject is always detailed, colorful and well-exposed. HDR is involved when needed in the background keeping it from blowing.

The subject separation is perfect for this price range, and the simulated bokeh is quite pleasant.

We liked the portraits we took with the Realme 10, and we think most of the users will like them, too.

Portraits, 12.5MP

The 16MP selfie camera on the Realme 10 has a Quad-Bayer color filter, yet the camera app saves 16MP photos instead of 4MP. That's why you should expect little sharpness from the selfies.

The 16MP samples we took with the front shooter are alright - the detail is good for a budget selfie cam, the noise is low, the contrast and the dynamic range are great, and the colors are accurate.

You should know that when HDR gets involved, the photos will come out less detailed and a bit over-processed (all but the first and fifth photos). But the backgrounds do look good. Otherwise, they will be noticeably burnt. It's a tradeoff many would make.

Selfies, 16MP

The selfie portraits are even less detailed than the regular selfies, but the subject separation is good, and so is the faux blur. The HDR penalty stays in effect here, too.

Portrait selfies, 16MP

The Realme 10 camera supports Auto Night Mode, and it works the same way as on other phones - when the light conditions are poor, you will see a small moon icon appear on the viewfinder - this means the Photo will be shot with the help of Night Mode. If you don't like that, just tap on the moon to disable it.

The photos we took with the help of Auto Night Mode are bright, with great exposure, and commendable dynamic range. The contrast is good, too, the noise is kept low enough, and the color saturation is realistic.

The images are rather poor when it comes to resolved detail, noise is sometimes visibly smeared over some objects, and the over-processed look is again, noticeable. But we're perhaps more used to having such output from Night mode photos so the result doesn't strike us as nearly as bad as the daytime photos.

Auto Night Mode, 12.5MP

The photos we took without Night Mode are passable, but they are overrun by noise. Still, those appear to be the most detailed, as there are no traces of over-processing, on the contrary. The lack of heavy-handed noise reduction and exposure boost gave those a realistic look, and we liked them in spite of the visible noise. They are hardly good, but probably the most natural-looking the Realme 10 is capable of offering.

Night Mode OFF, 12.5MP

Finally, you can manually trigger Night Mode, and it uses even harsher processing than Auto Mode - the photos are a bit brighter but even more artificial and over-sharpened.

Night Mode ON, 12.5MP

And here are photos of our usual posters taken with the Realme 10. You can see how it stacks up against the competition. Feel free to browse around and pit it against other phones from our extensive database.

Realme 10 against the Realme 9 and the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G in our Photo compare tool

Video recording

The rear camera on the Realme 10 is capable of 1080p video capturing with 30fps and 60fps. The front camera maxes out at 1080p@30fps. There is no electronic stabilization available for either camera.

The 1080p videos at 30fps are shot with 20Mbps video bitrate, the audio is captured at 256Kbps, stereo.

The 1080p daylight video from the rear camera is great - there is enough resolved detail, the sharpening is just right, the noise is low, and the colors are accurate. We liked the contras, and the dynamic range also deserves some praise.

We have no complaints about this footage; it is quite good.

Thanks to the large sensor, the 2x zoomed 1080p videos are neatly as good as the regular ones. There is a minor drop in the resolved detail, but that's about it - they are still pretty good.

The low-light videos are usable, with good dynamic range and color saturation, but incredibly noisy.

Finally, the Realme 10 in our video comparison database.

1080p: Realme 10 against the Realme 9 and the Redmi Note 11S in our Video compare tool