Realme C55 review

Dual camera on the back

The Realme C55 has a dual-camera setup on its back with a 64MP primary and a 2MP depth sensor. The selfie camera is 8MP.

The primary camera relies on the 64MP OmniVision OV64B sensor with a Quad-Bayer filter. The sensor has 0.7µm pixels, and after the 4-in-1 binning, you'd be getting a 16MP photo with 1.4µm equivalent performance. This sensor sits behind a 25mm f/1.79 lens, it supports. A high-res 64MP mode, Pro Mode, as well as Night mode, is available for this camera.

The depth sensor uses either 2MP OV02B10 or GC02M1 2MP sensor.

Finally, the selfie camera uses either a Samsung S5K4H7 or an OmniVision OV8556 8MP sensor behind a 26mm f/2.0 lens. The focus is fixed.

Camera app

The camera app has a familiar UI, with most modes placed on a rolodex. The viewfinder in the default Photo mode offers Chroma Boost - 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 - 1x, 2x and 5x.

In the Pro mode, you get to tweak exposure (ISO in the 100-6400 range and shutter speed in the 1/8000s-16s 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). There is no RAW mode.

Camera app

Photo quality

The main camera saves 16MP by default, and these photos are good. The resolved detail is enough even if we've seen better on the Redmi Note bunch, and the noise is kept low. The contrast is excellent, and the dynamic range is wide enough but not over the top (Auto HDR was ON).

The colors are a bit oversaturated, but likable.

Note that during our review, the Realme C55 received a camera update, which improved the photo quality by toning down the processing, which was previously producing quite over-sharpened photos. The samples below are all taken after the update.

Daylight photos, 16MP

There is a 2x and even a 5x zoom toggle, but the zoom is a simple digital one. The phone does not offer in-sensor magnification.

2x zoom 16MP

The 64MP photos are mediocre in detail and a bit noisy, but the colors, the contrast and the dynamic range are good. These make sense if you want less processed photos - downsizing these to 16MP yields a bit more detail and a more natural look - less sharpened, even if there is more residual noise.

64MP photos

There is a 2MP portrait sensor on the Realme C55. The subject separation sometimes works well, sometimes - it doesn't. If you have enough light, the subject will always be well exposed, detailed, and colorful. The background blur is likable, too.

Portraits, 16MP

The 8MP selfies are good - the detail is okay, and they are sharp enough; the colors are great, and so is the contrast. The Auto HDR did help a lot, and yet it didn't go over the top, which is nice.

Selfies, 8MP

The default photos at night are okay - the gentle noise reduction helps keep enough detail on these, the contrast is good, and the dynamic range is wide, as the Auto HDR often triggers. The colors are good, though a bit desaturated. There is visible noise, obviously, but the photos are quite usable.

Low-light photos, 16MP

The Night Mode takes about 3-4 seconds to shoot and 2-3 seconds to process and save. It greatly improves the exposure, the dynamic range and the color saturation, but it doesn't produce any more detailed photos - if anything, the noise is even more in the Night mode photos.

Night Mode, 16MP

Here are photos of our usual posters, taken with the Realme C55. 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 C55 against the Moto G53 and the Redmi Note 12 4G in our Photo compare tool

Video recording

The Realme C55 supports up to 1080p@60fps with the rear camera and up to 1080p@30fps with its selfie camera. There is no electronic stabilization on either of these shooters.

The 1080p@30fps clips are captured with about 17Mbps video bitrate. The audio is stereo with 280Kbps bitrate, even if we didn't see a second microphone on the Realme C55, and the sound is, well, awful.

The 1080p footage from the rear camera is great - there is plenty of detail, great dynamic range and contrast, and saturated colors. There is a lot of sharpening applied, but it looks well on the phone's screen. Our biggest concern, however is that the audio is rather bad in the recordings, though.

The low-light videos are usable, too, with good detail and tolerable noise.

The selfie camera takes good 1080p videos, but the lack of stabilization pretty much ruins them if you are walking.

Finally, the Realme C55 in our video comparison database.

1080p: Realme C55 against the Moto G53 and the Redmi Note 12 4G in our Video compare tool