Realme 11 Pro+ 5G primary camera samples (tap to see full size)
The 4X lossless quality claim by Realme turns out to be true as long as you’re shooing in well-lit environments. However, put the camera in a challenging situation and it loses some details when you zoom.
The primary camera is inconsistent when it comes to human skin stones in Photo and Portrait modes. Many times, I noticed the camera making the skin appear red in photos. Also, 2X portrait mode offered consistent background blur compared to 1X, which often blurred out parts of the subject’s face.
Realme 11 Pro+ 5G primary camera’s lossless zoom test (Tap to see larger size)
The camera app also has a new Moon mode, which automatically kicks in if you have AI Scene recognition enabled. It is more of an astronomically gimmicky feature (pun intended) if you ask me. Once you point the camera towards the moon and zoom in at 20X, the camera will capture an AI-assisted photo of the moon. However, if some objects like leaves or branches of a tree gets in the way, that portion of the moon that gets covered is blurred out, whereas the rest of it looks sharp. Fun, but gimmicky.
Realme 11 Pro+ 5G 20X zoom, Moon mode samples: Without obstacles (top), With obstacles (bottom)
Images shot using the ultra-wide camera have a different colour temperature compared to the main camera. That being said, the dynamic range performance is good.
The front camera is quite good when it comes to skin tone accuracy and dynamic range. However, there were times where it too blurred out my ear or hair in portrait mode shots.
Realme 11 Pro+ 5G camera samples (Top: Ultra-wide, bottom: Selfie portrait mode)
In terms of video, the Realme 11 Pro+ can shoot up to 4K 30fps videos using the rear camera. The front camera can shoot only 1080p 30fps videos. Both do a good job of exposing the subject well. However, the rear camera offers a better dynamic range and colours.
Verdict
The Realme 11 Pro+ 5G tries to level-up over the Realme 10 Pro+ 5G with an improved camera and design, while providing incremental performance, battery, and charging improvements. It certainly is one of the best designed phones in this segment and also offers a great multimedia experience and long battery life. The performance is quite good too for the price but the completion — Motorola Edge 40 (Review), iQoo Neo 7 (Review) and the Poco F5 5G (Review) — does fare slightly better in this regard.
Where the phone struggles is the camera department. While the main camera’s daylight performance is quite good, I cannot say the same about low light and there is inconsistency when it comes to the post-processing. The software too is a bit of a mess. While Realme UI scores high on features, the mix of bloatware and ads scattered across different parts of the interface are quite intrusive and take away from the a good user experience.
The Yin and Yang concept is the first thing that comes to mind with the Realme 11 Pro+ 5G. While the phone has some excellent hardware and features (the Yang), the bloated and ad-heavy software, along with the not-so-consistent rear cameras pull it down a few notches (the Yin).
Motorola’s Edge 40, one of the closest rivals to the Realme 11 Pro+ 5G, has a sleek design, a curved-edge display and a slightly more powerful performance unit. It even comes with an IP68 rating and wireless charging. While its cameras could have been better too, the software is much cleaner. On the other hand, if you simply want the best-in-class performance and don’t care about aesthetics, the Poco F5 5G (Review) should be the one to consider.