Realme 7 5G review

Budget quad-camera setup

The Realme 7 5G is rocking a very familiar quad-camera setup. It consists of a 48MP, f/1.8 main Quad-Bayer camera, alongside an 8MP, f/2.3, 119-degree ultrawide, and a pair of two 2MP snappers - one dedicated macro and the other a black and white unit used for depth info, which Realme refers to as a Portrait lens.

A bit of a closer inspection reveals that the main camera on the Realme 7 5G uses a Samsung S5KGM1ST sensor - a less-popular variation of the vanilla S5KGM1 one found in many handsets. However, the raw specs are all the same - you still get 0.8µm pixels in a 1/2" sensor. The S5KGM1ST is a Quad-Bayer sensor and, by default, produces 12MP stills.

Aside from that, nothing is really all that noteworthy about the Realme 7 5G main camera setup. It gets a simple PDAF system and a single LED flash. Video capture is capped at 4K@30fps, with EIS going up to FullHD and producing some rather impressive results. But, we'll get to that.

Video capture Ui

The selfie camera over at the front packs a 16MP Sony IMX471 sensor with what seems to be a Quad-Bayer filter and f/2.1 aperture. The focus is fixed.

The camera app is the familiar Oppo/Realme one with a few tweaks here and there. There are fewer menus than older versions - most of the modes are now on the main rolodex, which is good. There are two zoom toggle levels (2x and 5x) available as part of the main UI, which is odd on a phone that lacks a dedicated telephoto camera.

Camera UI

There are some notable differences in options here, compared to the vanilla Realme 7. We would say that the Realme 7 5G has a few extras, overall. Chrome Boost is a notable omission on the 7 5G, but we can't say it will be sorely missed given our previous experience with it.

The Realme 7 5G does have Ai scene enhancement, though. It can get tripped up from time to time and recognize and trigger an inaccurate mode, but only rarely. One particularly annoying part of the Ai is detecting rectangular shapes in the frame, which then leads the camera to automatically assume that you are trying to capture a sheet of paper or something similar. That would be fine in itself if the resulting photo wasn't auto cropped to match said recognized rectangle.

Ai scene enhancement

Expert mode on the Realme 7 5G is available on both the main and the ultrawide cameras, as well with digital zoom, up to 5x. You get to tweak exposure, white balance, manual focus, and exposure compensation. The exposure controls include ISO (100-3200 range) and shutter speed (1/8000s-32s range). There is also a RAW toggle on the left side.

Expert mode

Here is what the general camera settings look like. Instead of opening up an entirely different menu depending on whether you enter from a photo or video mode, Realme went for a different strategy of graying-out the non-relevant options. It is a bit weird, but we guess it makes some sense.

Camera settings

Photo quality

The 48MP Quad-Bayer Sony snapper we have here has proven its salt in more than a few devices. However, just like with other Realme devices, like the vanilla Realme 7, it suffers from quality inconsistency. Often, stills tend to come out in a series of a couple of over-sharpened images, followed by a couple of soft ones. This seems to mostly affect shots from the main camera and not so much the ultrawide.

Sharp • Soft • Sharp • Soft • Sharp • Soft

We can't exactly be sure precisely what the cause of this is. Perhaps processing can't catch-up on occasion, and the soft shots are just left untouched, or the Auto HDR and/or Ai, scene enhancement feature, misbehaves from time to time. If you take only one photo - you will get the over-sharpened one. But if you shoot two or three samples - the chance is that you will get at least one of each type.

However, the issues are a lot less-pronounced on the Realme 7 5G than the vanilla Realme 7 model. Realme has clearly been implementing some tweaks.

When the sharpening is present, it is a bit harsh and even extreme at times, while the dynamic range is somewhat limited. The resolved detail is nothing impressive, but it is enough for this budget class. Colors on the primary camera often come out a bit too warm - a fact that can easily be noticed when compared to still from the ultrawide. Finally, noise is present in areas of uniform color like the sky.

Main 12MP camera samples

All of these photos were taken in full Auto mode, which includes both HDR on Auto and Ai scene enhancement ON. Both of these have solid detection and tend to kick-in at the opportune moment. Despite suffering from a few issues, we mentioned, Ai scene detection is clearly pulling its weight. Here are some sample shots with Ai scene enhancement turned off.

Main 12MP camera, Ai scene enhancement off

You can capture stills at the full 48MP resolution of the Realme 7 5G if you are so inclined. This offers fairly-limited advantages in terms of detail, though. And you have to work with relatively large files in the process.

Main 48MP camera samples

Realme 7 offers 2x and 5x zoom toggles on the viewfinder, but the zoom is purely digital. You can also freely zoom to any other arbitrary level, up to 5x. And since there is no real demosaicing 48MP mode, shooting in 48MP and then cropping its center won't yield better results than the ones you see below.

Main camera 2x digital zoom samples

Main camera 5x digital zoom samples

The Realme 7 5G has a dedicated portrait mode. It is a bit low on additional features and bells and whistles and just has a set of simple filters. The black and white ones tend to look pretty mince, though, which could be explained by the fact that Realme claims its so-called 2MP portrait camera is core than just a depth sensor but can also enhance portrait contrast. That is likely just PR-talk, though.

Still, portraits look competent for the class. The background blur is convincing, and subject separation is decent, even if more complex backgrounds tend to throw it off. Overall, the shots are great for a budget-friendly device.

Main 12MP camera portrait samples

Portrait mode is a bit particular when it comes to distance from the subject. But once it kicks in, it seems to work just as well with non-human subjects.

Main 12MP camera portrait samples with non-human subjects

The 8MP photos from the ultrawide camera are good for this class - the dynamic range is wider than usual as the Auto HDR did trigger often, the contrast is pretty good, too. The colors look quite lively, which we appreciate, but also noticeably different than the main camera. That's probably a stab at the main snapper and its tendency towards warm colors, though. Regardless, we would have appreciated a bit more consistency across cameras. The detail is nothing impressive but in line with the budget 8MP ultrawide shooters.

Ultrawide 8MP camera samples

Ai scene enhancement is arguably working even harder on the ultrawide camera. Here are some shots with it forced off.

Ultrawide 8MP camera, Ai scene enhancement off

The Realme 7 5G, just like many recent Realme phones, offers a 2MP macro camera with a fixed focus at a 4cm distance. You should be indeed close to the subjects, precisely 4cm way, but even then, the detail isn't that great, and the photos are a bit dull.

Macro 2MP camera samples

Before we move on to low-light video performance and the selfie camera, here is now the Realme 7 5G stacks-up against competitors in our vast photo compare tool. We are including it in its main 12MP mode, as well as at 48MP. Feel free to pixel-peep.

Realme 7 against the Realme 6i and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S in our Photo compare tool

48MP: Realme 7 against the Realme 6i and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S in our Photo compare tool

Low-light performance

The main camera on the Realme 7 5G holds its own surprisingly well in low-light conditions. Contrast is decent, and so is exposure. Just like the vanilla Realme 7, the processing on the Realme 7 5G seems to err on the side of caution when it comes to noise suppression, electing to leave more behind and not plaster-over some potential detail in the process. We personally prefer this approach a bit more than the alternative.

Main 12MP low-light camera samples

Mind you, shots still tend to suffer from occasional over-sharpening, just like during the day. Even extreme over-sharpening, however, can arguably look good from a distance when it comes to low-light.

One of the things Ai scene enhancement does with admirable consistency is recognizing low-light conditions and poping up a Night Mode notice on the UI. This is not the full-featured Night mode, as available as a camera mode carousel. It doesn't boost exposure times nearly as much. Still, even this "half" auto Night mode makes a difference. Here are a few low-light shots with Ai scene enhancement turned off.

Main 12MP low-light camera samples, Ai scene enhancement off

Night mode is present on the Realme 7 5G, and it dramatically improves everything, including the exposure. Now we have more resolved detail, less noise, and even better colors and contrast. Overall, the photos taken with Night Mode are noticeably better, and the only cost you'll pay is the 3-second or more wait for the Night Mode to do its magic.

Main 12MP camera Night mode samples

The 8MP ultrawide camera should be used at nighttime only on some in some extreme cases. Usually, you will get underexposed shots with plenty of noise and little detail.

Ultrawide 8MP camera, low-light samples

Night Mode is available on the ultrawide snapper, too, and it makes for brighter and less noisy pictures. The photos are still relatively mediocre, though.

Ultrawide 8MP camera Night mode samples

You can also get Night mode at any zoom level, up to 5x, including the 2x and 5x presets. Sharpening artifacts naturally increase with the zoom level, so you have to decide for yourself where the usefulness cut-off point is.

Main camera 2x digital zoom samples, low-light

Main camera 5x digital zoom samples, low-light

Main camera 2x digital zoom samples, Night mode

Main camera 5x digital zoom samples, Night mode

Selfies

The Realme 7 5G has a 16MP, f/2.1 selfie snapper. Another familiar sight, seemingly borrowed from the vanilla Realme 7. It is a fixed-focus shooter, devoid of any reals bells and whistles. When there is enough light, you'll get good selfies even though they are not very detailed. The colors are nice, and the contrast is excellent.

Selfie 16MP camera samples

The Realme 7 5G has portrait mode for its selfie. It also produces 16MP stills, which is a bit of an odd discrepancy compared to the vanilla Realme 7, which shot 4MP selfie portraits in our review. Perhaps it's a change Realme decided to make later down the road and one that might even be dissipated to that phone as well, via update.

Regardless, the shots themselves are surprisingly good - they are detailed with proficient separation, nice blur, and lively colors. There is no HDR in portrait mode.

Selfie 16MP portrait samples

Understandably, the selfie camera suffers a bit in low-light shots. Due to its relatively high-resolution, it still manages to do alright in terms of details. It even does alright with details in particularly darker areas, gathering a decent amount of light. Its major Achilles' heel is the limited dynamic range. When it manages to properly expose the dark areas, any light sources tend to get really blown-out. Luckily, Night mode is available and, while a bit inconsistent, generally offers a massive overall improvement to selfies.

Selfie 16MP low-light: Regular • Night mode • Regular • Night mode

Video quality

The Realme 7 captures videos with its main camera and ultrawide snappers. The main camera records video up to 4K at 30fps, and there's 1080p at both 30fps and 60fps. The ultrawide shooter is limited to 1080p@30fps video capturing.

You get the option to choose between the h.264 and h.265 codecs. You get stereo sound, with a pretty high 320kbps bitrate all around. The video bitrate is also notably high, with 4K@30fps footage getting around 50Mbps and about 16Mbps for 1080p@30fps.

At its full 4K resolution, the primary camera offers plenty of detail for a budget-friendly device. Dynamic range is a bit limited, with plenty of blown-out detail, and there are some noise and fringing visible in small object, like leaves. Colors look quite appealing, though.

The drop down in resolution to 1080p is a bit harsh in terms of detail.

At its maximum 1080p resolution, the ultrawide camera does alright, in relative terms, but objectively the video is very soft.

Zoomed-in videos are available at various zoom levels, including the 2x and 5x presets. 2x is surprisingly usable, especially at 4K. Dropping down to 1080p muddies things up quite a bit.

5x zoom is definitely pushing things. At 4K, the footage is already too soft to be of real practical use, and at 1080p, it's more akin to a painting than actual video footage.

The Realme 7 5G has two levels of electronic image stabilization - Ultra Steady and Ultra Steady Max. Both modes produce FullHD video. The interesting bit is that Ultra Steady uses the main 48MP camera, while Ultra Steady Max captures from the 8MP ultrawide. That explains the relatively small difference in framing between the two.

Looking at the unstabilized footage next to the two EIS modes clearly shows that Max does a better job overall. The footage from the regular Ultra Steady is notably choppier. Perhaps Realme decided to leave it as an option for low-light scenarios.

The 16MP selfie camera does surprisingly well with video capture. It caps out at 1080p and has surprising levels of detail.

You can use EIS on the selfie camera, and it works rather well, though still cropping-away quite a bit of the frame. Still, it is quite nifty for video calls on the move or vlogging.

Low-light performance on the Realme 7 5G is solid for a budget-friendly device.

Here's a glimpse of how the Realme 7 5G compares to rivals in our Video compare tool.

2160p: Realme 7 against the Realme 7 and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S in our Video compare tool