Realme 13 Pro+ early hands-on and camera samples

04 July 2024

Realme believes that optics – at least packages that fit in smartphone form factors – have reached their ceiling and further improvements in image quality can only be achieved with advanced AI image processing. The company invited us to a showcase of its upcoming Realme 13 Pro+ and even let us take photos with it.

Update: we've published a second set of camera samples - this time from night shooting.

The Realme Number series has a long history of bringing camera innovation to the masses. This will continue as Realme announces a strategic partnership with Sony, which is the supplier for the sensors in the main and the periscope cameras.

The Realme 13 Pro series will be the first to use the new Sony LYT-701. Details on this sensor are scarce for the moment, but the proof is in the pudding – we have camera samples.

The Pro+ model will also feature a periscope lens with a LYT-600 behind it. This is the first time this sensor has found itself in such an arrangement, but is otherwise well-known – it’s a 50MP 1/1.93” sensor.

The periscope lens offers 3x magnification (73mm) and combined with the in-sensor zoom on the LYT-600, it can do 6x lossless zoom (146mm) too. Realme claims that the image quality holds up at even 10x magnification. As for the other two cameras, the Realme 13 Pro+ has a 24mm main and a 16MP ultra wide (0.6x).

Before we get to the camera samples, let’s have a peek at the phone itself. Just a peek, Realme isn’t ready to reveal the design of the 13 Pro+ just yet. For now, all we can tell you is that it will have a curved screen – small surprise, so did the 12, 11 and 10 Pro+ models.

We should also mention Hyperimage+, Realme’s AI-based image processing pipeline. It has three components, starting with cutting-edge optics to capture the best raw data possible. Then comes the on-device AI image processing algorithms, which enhance light and shadow, ensure natural skin tones, render realistic-looking bokeh and even have a mode for group shots. The third component is AI-based image editing in the cloud, if you want to touch up some of your images.

Without further ado, here are the camera samples we took with the Realme 13 Pro+ in the specially-prepared photo area.

In the first scene, we used the main camera at its native focal length, then 2x magnification, plus the telephoto at its native 3x and in 6x modes.

The next scene was shot with just the telephoto camera, starting at 73mm (3x) and going up to 239mm (that is 10x magnification).

The next scene was shot in low light, which is an issue for most zoom cameras. We start with the main and a photo with the periscope. Each shot has the key settings printed on the bottom of the image: focal length, aperture, shutter speed and ISO.

Realme is particularly proud of the performance of its portrait mode in low-light scenes, so we gave that a try. It does indeed look promising.

Okay, back to Lego town. The next four shots go from 1x to 6x:

Here come some more 6x shots. These combine the 3x optical magnification of the periscope with in-sensor zoom on the LYT-600 sensor:

The cameras can also be used for close-ups. Here are some treats shot with the main and the periscope cameras:

And close-ups of rambutan fruits:

Realme even let us outside to snap a few photos of Bangkok. The event stated in the afternoon and by the time it was over, the sun was already beginning to set. This made for beautiful if tricky lighting conditions.

Here’s the view from our high perch, starting with the 16mm ultra wide camera and going up to 6x with the periscope.

We pointed the camera in another direction and covered the 16-144mm range once again:

This is a rooftop bar and they had some decorative lights, so we used the main 24mm Sony LYT-701 camera to capture the scene.

And here’s the same scene, this time through the 16mm lens of the ultra wide camera

The Realme 13 Pro series is coming soon, though the company still hasn’t publicly set the date for the announcement yet.