Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G review

Triple camera on the cheap

The Redmi Note 10 5G has three cameras on its back, but the setup is the most basic one imaginable. There is a 48MP primary imager accompanied by a 2MP macro snapper and a 2MP depth sensor. A single-LED flash is also around.

The Redmi Note 10 5G offers a high-res primary camera. It uses a 48MP OmniVision OV48B 1/2" sensor with 0.8µm pixels, Quad-Bayer filter and PDAF. The lens is 26mm f/1.8. Night Mode is available on this camera.

The macro camera uses a 2MP Hynix Hi-259 sensor with large 1.75µm pixels. The lens is f/2.4, while the focus is fixed at about 4cm distance.

Finally, there is a 2MP GalaxyCore GC02M1B monochrome depth sensor.

The selfie camera has an 8MP OmniVision OV8856 1/4" sensor with 1.12µm pixels. It sits behind an f/2.0 lens, and the focus is fixed.

The default camera app is a typical MIUI affair - switching between modes is done by swiping left and right, and all available modes but Macro are on this rolodex. There are no zoom shortcuts here.

On the opposite end of the viewfinder, you have a flash mode switch, an HDR switch, an AI toggle, and a magic wand with beauty effects and filters. You'll find some more options behind a hamburger menu, including the Macro mode, plus the shortcut to the settings. What you won't find is an option to set the output resolution.

There is a Pro mode for the main camera. Manual 48MP pictures are also an option. You can use up to 30s shutter speed and ISO up to 6400.

Redmi Note 10 5G camera app

Photo quality

So, the standard 12MP photos we shot on the Redmi Note 10 5G's main camera are absolutely brilliant for this class. They are sharp, the resolved detail is plenty, the colors stayed true to life and the dynamic range is commendable - Auto HDR did not trigger the HDR mode even once. The noise levels are impressively low, too.

The foliage presentation is not perfect, but we've seen far worse on more expensive phones, and, in fact, the Redmi Note 10 5G did better than we expected, so kudos to Xiaomi's balanced image processing.

Main camera, 12MP

Xiaomi's camera app offers an AI option on the viewfinder. It recognizes the usual scenes - Buildings, Sky, Greenery, Night, Pets, etc. and tweaks some parameters for "better" look. Well, if oversaturated colors, over the top contrast and blown highlights lead to better look by your book, you should try it. Otherwise, we advise leaving that thing off.

Main camera with AI, 12MP

You can shoot 48MP photos and those turned out okay, but not really worthy of saving for the ages. The high-res images aren't that sharp and a bit noisy. We tried downsizing a bunch of these to 12MP, but we did not notice a significant improvement in the detail, just less sharpening, which makes for a more natural look.

The way we see it - you should use the 48MP mode and then resize manually down to 12MP if you want to avoid the camera processing and get more natural-looking photos, but it doesn't necessarily mean those will be better than the default ones.

Main camera, 48MP

The Redmi Note 10 5G features a 2MP monochrome camera acting as a depth sensor. This means the phone should be able to offer good portraits with more proficient subject separation. And it does! The separation is pretty good for this class, the photos are detailed, with accurate colors and good dynamic. We liked the blur job, too.

Portraits, 12MP

The 2MP macro camera shoots some lovely photos, but it takes a while to get used to its fixed focus. At first, it took us at least 5-6 tries to get one sharp photo, but in time you get better at learning the correct distance.

And once you get the gist of this macro shooter, you can save good photos, detailed, with punchy colors and adequate contrast. Note that when the light conditions aren't ideal, the noise levels spike, and the photos will be rather unusable.

Macro camera, 2MP

The 8MP selfie camera snaps outstanding photos. The resolved detail is plenty, the colors are punchy, the contrast is great, and the noise levels are low. We expected mediocre results for a selfie on the budget, but what we got is near flagship-grade quality.

The white balance may not be the camera's strong suit, the purple t-shirt looks different across all photos, but other than this minor thing, we loved the Note 10 5G selfie photos.

Selfie camera, 8MP

The 8MP selfie portraits are okay, though not as good as the regular images. First, they are noisier. And then the separation is not ideal as there is no depth sensor, but though probably okay for this class.

Selfie portraits, 8MP

And that's a wrap for our daylight camera shoot. Let's look at some low-light photos now.

The 12MP low-light photos from the main camera are good considering the budget class. The detail is enough even if some of it was smeared by the noise reduction. The photos present good color saturation, and the contrast is okay, too.

These were shot without HDR or similar enhancements and thus you can spot the occasional blown highlights.

Main camera, 12MP

The Night Mode brightens the whole photo, and it looks better on the phone's screen. But if you are looking at 100% zoom, you'll see that the better exposure comes at the expense of reduced fine detail, occasional soft spots, and even more aggressive noise reduction.

Night Mode, 12MP

If you want a brighter picture, with better saturated colors, but you don't want to lose fine detail - then we suggest using the AI mode. It triggers a more conservative Night Mode, which does not rely on the "long-exposure" simulation, but instead does some additional post processing after taking the photo. And it's worth it. The sharpness remains the same, but the exposure and the colors are improved enough to make this mode worthy of our recommendation.

AI mode, 12MP

And here are two HDR shots. Some Xiaomi phones do improve the photo quality when using HDR at night, but that's not the case with the Redmi Note 10 5G. They are noisy and barely usable.

HDR, 12MP

And here are photos of our usual posters taken with the Redmi Note 10 5G. Here's how it stacks up against the competition. Feel free to browse around and pit it against other phones from our extensive database.

Redmi Note 10 5G against the Realme 8 5G and the Galaxy A32 in our Photo compare tool

Video capturing

The Redmi Note 10 5G supports video capturing at up to 1080@30fps with its main camera. There is no 4K mode, 60fps shooting is not available either.

The video bitrate is 20Mbps, while audio is recorded in stereo at high 256kbps bitrate. Optional electronic stabilization is supported, and it does a great job at the expense of minor loss of FoV.

The footage from the main camera has great colors and contrast, the dynamic range is quite nice, too. The level of detail is good for 1080p footage in this price range.

And here is the Redmi Note 10 5G in our video comparison database.

1080p: Redmi Note 10 5G against the Realme 8 5G and the Galaxy A32 in our Video compare tool