Realme 11 Pro review

Dual camera on the back with a 100MP primary

The Realme 11 Pro, just like the Realme 10 Pro, has just one usable camera on its back since the second one is just a depth sensor. The good news is that the main camera employs a new 100MP sensor with OIS, as well as 4K video capturing, so we expect some good results, hopefully.

The primary camera on the Realme 11 Pro features the 100MP OmniVision 1/1.8" sensor with 0.612µm pixels. It sits behind an f/1.8 26mm lens, supports PDAF, and there is SuperOIS.

The new OmniVision sensor allows for 2x lossless zoom in photos and features Auto Zoom, where the camera auto zooms and crops on a subject and tries to keep it at the center of your frame, so you don't need to move your phone frantically when taking photos. The improved stabilization also enables handheld Starry Sky mode.

There is also a 2MP depth sensor and a single LED flash.

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 1.0µm pixels and a 24mm 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 two zoom shortcuts - 1x and 2x.

There is a Pro mode for the main camera - you get to tweak exposure (ISO in the 100-8000 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, too.

Camera app

There is also a Street mode, where you can try some automatizations like Auto zoom and various filters. The Auto zoom crops on a selected subject and tries to keep it at the center of your frame, so you don't need to move your phone frantically when taking photos.

Camera app

Daylight photo quality

The main camera saves 12MP photos by default. The sensor bins 4 pixels to make one, which should spit a 25MP images. Instead, we got 12MP photos, so further resizing is happening down the lane.

The 12MP photos we got from the main camera's default Photo mode are solid. They are of high detail, low if any noise, great contrast, and adequate dynamic range. The colors are a bit over-saturated but we suspect many people do prefer them this way.

The images are heavily over-sharpened though and look quite artificial, over-processed if you will.

Main camera, 12MP

The 2x zoomed photos are pretty good and you can see detail that was previously invisible in the regular 1x images. The samples we took definitely fall into the lossless category.

The 12MP 2x zoomed photos offer enough detail, they are still low on noise, with punchy colors, good contrast and dynamic range.

The over-sharpening is even more evident here, unfortunately, and these samples look quite artificial at full 100% view. Luckily, few users if any, would enjoy them this way.

Overall, another solid performance.

2x zoom, 12MP

The 100MP high-res photos look like they have been upscaled from the 25MP output even if it is not available to the end user. They are not useless though as for one, they are not processed. This means they have natural colors and are not over-sharpened that much, so if you are to downsize them to 25MP or 12MP, you'd get flagship-grade photos worthy of a €1000 smartphone.

Main camera, 100MP

And here are the same photos but resized down to 12MP. They offer more detail and a much more natural look than the default ones.

100MP-to-12MP

The Realme 11 Pro has a secondary camera on the back - a 2MP depth sensor that comes in handy when shooting portraits. The ones we shot on the phone are likable - the subject separation is adequate, the blur is good, and the photo is detailed enough, clean of noise, and of wide dynamic range. We've seen better portraits, sure, but we've seen much worse, too.

Portraits, 12MP

The Realme 11 Pro uses the same 16MP Quad-Bayer camera with a fixed focus we've seen on previous models. The camera saves 16MP photos instead of 4MP, which means the selfies have been upscaled.

Well, the ones we took are good, even if soft. The detail is passable, the subject is well exposed, the dynamic range is wide, and the noise is kept low. The colors remain punchy.

Selfies, 16MP

If the Auto HDR kicks in, it will dramatically improve the dynamic range when needed, but it will halve the detail and you will get incredibly soft but still usable photos.

HDR selfies, 16MP

Low-light photo quality

The Realme 11 Pro camera supports Auto Nightscape. 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 Nightscape. If you don't want that, just tap on the moon icon to disable it.

The Auto Nightscape works only on the main camera at 1x zoom. The moon disappears when you switch to 2x zoom.

The photos shot on the main camera with Auto Nightscape are okay, but nothing that impressive. They are bright and exposed well, with a wide dynamic range and pleasant color saturation. The detail is rather average, though, and noise is still visible whether it has been smeared or just left there.

Auto Nightscape

If you manually opt for the Nightscape mode, you will get even brighter photos because it uses a bit longer "simulated exposure". The detail gets a minor boost over the Auto mode, the noise is lower and less evident.

Nightscape ON

Turning the Nightscape OFF will lead to more detailed and sharper photos, but one with a narrower dynamic range and many blown highlights. Those look quite natural though and we can imagine quote a few users would prefer them over the heavily processed Nightscape ones. Plus, this is the only way to shoot moving subjects at night.

Nightscape OFF

The 2x zoomed photos we took with Auto Nightscape had no Night Mode involved whatsoever, as we established. The photos show low detail, high noise, but still good exposure and color saturation. We suspect those are cropped and upscaled from the regular output instead of being done the lossless way.

2x zoom

You can use Nightscape and the select 2x zoom there, but the photos are incredibly artificial and of poor quality. They are brighter, sure, and with a wider dynamic range, but they are notably poor in detail as the lossless zoom is no longer at play here.

2x zoom with Nightscape

And here's how the main camera stacks up against the competition in our extensive Photo compare database.

Realme 11 Pro against the Redmi Note 12 Pro and the Galaxy A34 in our Photo compare tool

Video capturing

The Realme 11 Pro captures videos with its main and selfie cameras. The main camera records video up to 4K at 30fps, and there's 1080p at both 30fps and 60fps. The selfie shooter is limited to 1080p@30fps video capturing.

There is also an Ultra Stable option available on the Realme 11 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 for the main camera and optional for the selfie one, but it doesn't work in 4K resolution.

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 256Kbps, the sound is stereo.

The 4K videos (and 1080p, too) from the main camera are great - they offer plenty of resolved detail, great color presentation, and a wide dynamic range. There is no visible noise.

We also appreciate the lack of excessive sharpening and the overall look of the foliage and the buildings is quite natural.

The 2x zoomed videos are not lossless, though, but cropped and upscaled from the regular 1x footage and hence - their detail is halved.

The stabilization doesn't work at 4K resolution. We tried it at 1080p and while we can see it is working, it is not the best implementation we've seen and the video looks abrupt and shaky and may lead to motion sickness. Bummer!

The low-light video from the main camera is good - the clip is well-exposed, with adequate detail and pleasant colors. It is noisy though, and the dynamic range is a bit narrow.

Finally, the 1080p stabilized selfie video looks good - the resolved detail and the overall sharpness are passable, the colors are realistic, and the dynamic range is enough for the selfie purposes. The electronic stabilization is once again rather bad.

Here's how the Realme 11 Pro compares to other devices in our vast video compare database.

Realme 11 Pro against the Redmi Note 12 Pro and the Galaxy A34 in our Video compare tool