Realme 10 Pro+ review

Triple-camera with lossless zoom

The Realme 10 Pro+ features a triple camera similar to the one on the Realme 9 Pro+, but with a twist. There is the usual high-res primary cam, a basic ultrawide shooter, and a 2MP macro eye. The front camera remains a 16MP with a Quad-Bayer color filter.

For this new model, Realme has used a 108MP sensor, up from 50MP on the 9 Pro+, but its lens has lost the optical image stabilization. There is also 3x lossless-like zoom, up from 2x on the 8 Pro+.

The primary camera on the Realme 10 Pro+ relies on a 108MP Samsung (S5K)HM6 1/1.67" sensor with 0.64µm pixels and a Nona-Pixel color filter. This sensor is paired with a 6-element 24mm f/1.75 lens. There is no OIS. Night Mode is available for this camera. This camera seems to be offering a 3x lossless zoom.

The ultrawide camera uses an 8MP Sony IMX 355 sensor behind a 16mm f/2.2 lens. There is no autofocus. Night Mode works on this camera, too.

The third and final camera on the back is the macro one with a 2MP OmniVision OV02B sensor with an f/2.4 aperture lens and a fixed focus at 4cm. This camera cannot capture videos, and there is no Night Mode.

The selfie camera is identical to the one we saw on a couple of previous Realme phones - it uses a 16MP Sony IMX 471 1/3" Quad-Bayer sensor with 1.0µmm pixels and an f/2.45 lens. The focus is fixed, naturally.

Camera app

The camera app is the familiar Oppo/Realme one. There are fewer menus - most of the modes are now on the main rolodex, which is good.

The viewfinder in the default Photo mode offers AI Scene Enhancement (also 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 are also three zoom shortcuts - 0.6x, 1x, and 3x.

You can use both the main and the ultrawide camera in the Pro mode, you get to tweak exposure (ISO in the 100-6400 range and shutter speed in the 1/8000s-30s 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 available only on the main camera.

Camera app

Photo quality

The main camera saves 12MP photos by default, and those turned out pretty good. There is enough resolved detail, and there are no traces of noise. Even better - the contrast is outstanding, the dynamic range is adequate, and the colors are easily likable, even if a tiny bit warmer than they should have been.

We have surely seen more detailed photos - but we think the processing has done a solid job in smoothing out areas of random detail (foliage, the castle's painting) in a way that it makes you think there is nothing more to be resolved in there. Indeed, this is not your typical oil-painting-like mess, even if the oily look is still here.

So, while not flagship-grade, the Realme 10 Pro+ photos are still among the better ones we've seen lately, with potent and balanced processing across the board.

Main camera, 12MP

Shooting in 108MP is available, but it will not wow you with the results. The photos are more than just upscaled from the 12MP output, though. There is more resolved detail than we expected; we can see many artifacts from the debayering process, noise too, while the colors, contrast and dynamic range match the default photos.

But these photos are also unprocessed, and resizing them down to 12MP will yield slightly more detail and sharpness in areas of high complexity like foliage, building blinds, castle's front decoration. The difference is not that obvious, though.

Each 108MP image is about 40MB, and it will take some effort to get it on a PC, resize it, and then put it back on the phone. So, our advice would be to use the 108MP only if you want to capture all the possible details of a particular well-lit scene. Otherwise, the default output would do just fine.

Main cam, 108MP

The HM6 sensor offers 3x lossless zoom as per Samsung's specs, and a 3x zoom shortcut is present on the Realme 10 Pro+ camera viewfinder. The 3x zoom is good, indeed, as it is not a crop and upscale affair.

The 3x zoomed photos we took during the day are quite nice - there is enough detail, and you can see what's in there very well. They are a bit noisy, but the rest is a match to the non-zoomed photos - colors, contrast, and dynamic range.

The 3x zoom isn't exactly 100% lossless as there is some loss in detail for sure, but it is safe to say it's, well, nearly lossless. And that's more than enough for a smartphone camera that lacks a dedicated image sensor with a telephoto lens.

Main cam 3x zoom, 12MP

The 12MP portraits we've taken with the primary camera are great. The subject is well-exposed, detailed and sharp, the colors are accurate, and the contrast is great overall. We also want to acknowledge the lack of noise.

The subject separation is really good, especially considering there is no depth sensor on the phone. And, finally, the background blur is likable and convincing.

Portraits, 12MP

The 8MP photos coming from the ultrawide-angle camera are surprisingly good. The resolved detail is bit higher than the average we've seen from such basic shooters, the extreme corners are straightened rather proficiently, and they are the only softer areas across the photos.

The ultrawide photos exhibit excellent contrast, good noise reduction processing, and overall great colors, even if slightly warmer than they should have been. The dynamic range is not over the top, but not low either, and we liked what we saw.

Ultrawide camera, 8MP

The 2MP macro camera has a fixed focus at 4cm away. Its photos are alright. The resolved detail is okay, the noise reduction is quite gentle, and thus there is often visible noise. The colors are good.

The 2MP photos have low dynamic range, and there are often blown parts.

These small photos will do for, say, Instagram, but after you apply some filters and only when you learn to shoot from exactly 4-5cm away. This is the polite way to say we find these 2MP macro eyes rather pointless.

Macro camera, 2MP

The Realme 10 Pro+ uses the same 16MP Quad-Bayer camera with a fixed focus we've seen on previous models, and if you expect good selfies, we'd have to disappoint you.

The 16MP photos are okayish but far from great. The detail is average, and the photos are rather soft. There is visible noise, and some artifacts are present as well.

The subject's exposure is good, the colors are accurate, and the dynamic range is mostly great. But being this soft and lacking in detail, we can't qualify these selfies anything than just okay.

Selfies, 16MP

Portrait mode works on the selfie camera, too, and its subject separation and faux bokeh are good. The subject may become even softer and noisier, though.

Portrait selfies, 16MP

The Realme 10 Pro+ camera supports Auto Night Mode (probably as part of Realme UI 4). 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 want that, just tap on the moon to disable it.

Oddly, the Auto Night Mode works only on the main camera at 1x zoom - the moon disappears when you switch to 3x zoom or the ultrawide camera.

The photos from the main camera we took with the help of Auto Night Mode are bright, with great exposure, and good dynamic range, even if we can see some blown highlights here and there. The contrast is good, too, the noise is kept low enough, and the color saturation is realistic.

The resolved detail across the photos is alright, but far from the best on the market. It is enough for low-light purposes, though, and we think most people will be happy with the results.

Main camera Auto, 12MP

Manually forcing the Night Mode sometimes leads to better dynamic range, slightly more detailed and less noisy photos - that is because sometimes it appears the manual Night Mode uses longer exposure time.

Main cam Night Mode, 12MP

Opting out of the Night mode will give you more detailed photos with less noise. The color saturation is truer to life here, but the dynamic range is much lower. These photos are much more realistic, and if you want a real-life look, this is the way.

Main cam NM OFF, 12MP

The 3x zoomed photos we took with the main camera are cropped and upscaled from the default (no Night Mode) output. They look fine on the phone's display, but are seriously lacking in detail otherwise.

Main cam 3x, 12MP

When we switched to Night Mode, we found out that instead of 3x zoom, the shortcuts shows 2x zoom. The photos we shot at 2x with Night Mode also turned out cropped and upscaled from the default Night Mode photo.

Main cam 2x Night Mode, 12MP

The 8MP ultrawide photos we took at night are rather poor. They are dark, the resolved detail is below average, and the photos are quite soft. There is noise, too. The colors are somewhat desaturated, and the dynamic range is extremely poor.

Ultrawide cam Auto (NM off), 8MP

Using Night Mode on the ultrawide camera helps a lot - it is responsible for much better exposure and overall brighter photos. The color saturation gets a boost, and the same goes for the dynamic range.

The detail in the photos remains low, though the noise is often quite visible.

Ultrawide cam Night Mode, 8MP

If you have a tripod, you will get a slightly sharper and more detailed photos when using the Night Mode.

Main cam • 2x zoom • UW cam

And here are photos of our usual posters taken with the Realme 10 Pro+. 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 Pro+ against the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G and the Poco F4 in our Photo compare tool

Video recording

The Realme 10 Pro+ captures videos with all but the macro cameras. The main camera records video up to 4K at 30fps, and there's 1080p at both 30fps and 60fps. The ultrawide and the selfie shooters are limited to 1080p@30fps video capturing.

There is also an Ultra Stable option available on the Realme 10 Pro+, which uses the main camera with 1080p@60fps and heavily crops, so it can achieve action camera-like footage.

You can choose between the h.264 and h.265 codecs.

Electronic stabilization is always-on, but it is available only for the 1080p and 720p modes at 30fps for the main and ultrawide cameras. There is no stabilization on the selfie shooter, unfortunately.

The camera app is super generous with the bit rates - the 4K footage gets 50Mbps while 1080p/30fps is allocated a similarly above-average 20Mbps when using the h.264 codec. The audio bitrate is 250Kbps, the sound is stereo.

Let's start with the main camera. The 4K videos we shot with it are simply incredible - the resolved detail is outstanding, the sharpness is superb, and we cannot see any noise. The dynamic range is impressive, contrast is pretty great, too.

The 4K footage has accurate and lively colors, even if it's a bit hard to notice on this cloudy day.

The main reason behind the 4K video greatness is the lack of EIS, which would have cropped a bit from the FoV and made the camera processing compensate for it.

And here is a 1080p video from the main camera shot at 1080p resolution, which has always-on electronic stabilization enabled.

The 4K low-light videos from the main camera are equally impressive. The one we shot on the Realme 10 Pro+ has a lot of resolved detail, tolerable noise levels, good exposure, and excellent color saturation. The dynamic range is good, too.

The Realme 10 Pro+ also offers AI Highlight video mode. It is shot in 1080p and doesn't offer much improvement rather than literally highlighting some of the light sources by giving them a slightly better look and color saturation.

The 3x zoomed videos from the main camera, be it shot in the day or at nighttime, are simply cropped and upscaled version of the 1x output and are lacking in detail.

Finally, the ultrawide camera takes good 1080p videos with enough detail, low noise, likable contrast, and accurate colors. The dynamic range is balanced and not too extreme.

Finally, the Realme 10 Pro Plus in our video comparison database.

1080p: Realme 10 Pro Plus against the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G and the Poco F4 in our Video compare tool