Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro hands-on review

Camera

The Redmi Note 7 Pro has the Sony IMX 586 sensor on the back with 48MP resolution in a Quad-Bayer array. If you don't know how a Quad-Bayer array works, you can check out our explainer here.

The camera has an aperture of f/1.8 along with phase detection autofocus and a dual LED flash. Complementing it is a secondary 5MP depth sensor used for taking portrait images.

The camera application is similar to what we have seen on Xiaomi phones in the last couple of years. The UI is inspired by the iOS Camera app, so on the bottom, you have all the various camera modes and you can tap or swipe to move between them. On the top are toggles for the flash, HDR, AI mode, beauty and color filters.

Camera app

There's also an additional menu housing the options for tilt-shift mode, aspect ratio adjustments, countdown timer, and Google Lens. There's also the Straighten option, which uses the phone's accelerometer to automatically straighten the image even if you don't hold the camera perfectly level.

Among the various modes we have the standard Photo mode, a dedicated 48MP mode, Portrait mode, Night mode, Panorama and lastly Pro mode. For video there's the standard Video mode and also a short video mode that takes quick 15 seconds videos suitable for Instagram.

The Pro mode on the Redmi phones isn't as elaborate as on the Mi phones, which is a shame considering the sensor on this device. Here we find white balance adjustments, manual focus but without focus peaking, shutter speed and ISO. There's no option to capture images in RAW.

Pro mode

Image quality in the default photo mode during daylight is largely excellent. The camera has excellent color reproduction that even surpasses some of the more expensive phones on the market, along with really good contrast and exposure. Images captured in daylight have rich details with very little noise or over-sharpening. The only area where it struggles is in capturing bright highlights in moderately lit situations but apart from that there's not much else to complain about.

Daylight samples

Low light is a different ballgame, however. The images in low light come out way too soft at times. The noise reduction algorithm wipes out a lot of the detail and texture in the images. The lack of optical image stabilization also doesn't help, as the images can also tend to be shaky and the camera has to bump up the ISO instead of the shutter speed to compensate.

Low light samples

There's also a night mode, but it doesn't really do much and is basically useless.

Night mode

The HDR mode works quite well. Images shot in HDR mode have improved shadow and highlight detail without looking too over processed.

HDR mode

You can also choose to shoot images in 48MP mode; however, we didn't see much reason to. While in bright sunlight you do get some extra detail, it's not enough to justify the 2 seconds or so where the camera app freezes while it saves the image, nor is it worth the 2-3x increase in file size.

48MP samples

Also, the camera will only actually capture true 48MP images in bright light. In any other situation, it will simply upscale 12MP images, which as you'd expect, don't look any better than the default 12MP images.

The Redmi Note 7 Pro can also record 4K video. Unfortunately, there is no OIS on this phone and the electronic stabilization is also disabled in 4K mode. This results in a detailed but very shaky video and the camera shake, even when standing still, makes the video unwatchable.

The same is true for the 1080p60 mode, which also does not have any stabilization. On top of that, this mode also suffers from a very soft image as it's being captured at a fairly low internal resolution and then upscaled to 1080p.

The best mode in our opinion is 1080p30, where you get good image quality, at least in daylight, but also electronic stabilization.

You can also record 120fps slow-motion video in 1080p but the video is soft and there's no stabilization.

Overall, the camera on the Redmi Note 7 Pro is rather good for the price range. As with the other phones with this sensor, the 48MP description is a bit of a misnomer but even in 12MP mode the phone captures some good-looking images, provided there's enough light.