Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro Review

Rear cameras, photo and video samples

Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro is equipped with two rear cameras. Unlike the Redmi Note 7, which features Samsung's 48MP sensor, the Redmi Note 7 Pro employs the 48MP Sony IMX586 sensor for its main camera. This 1/2" image sensor uses the Quad Bayer colour filter array, where adjacent 2x2 pixels come in the same colour allowing high-sensitivity shooting at low light conditions. Put simply, the signals from the four adjacent pixels are added, raising the sensitivity to a level equivalent to that of 1.6 μm pixels (12 megapixels). When shooting in native resolution, the photos have a resolution of 8000 x 6000 pixels. The sensor is complemented by a 6-element lens with an f/1.79 aperture and Phase detection AF with Dual Pixel. The camera shoots 4K videos at 30 fps, 1080p videos at 30/60/120 fps, 720p at 120 fps. It also supports hardware re-mosaic. The two rear cameras are aided by a dual-LED flash. The same sensor is used by the main camera of Xiaomi Mi 9. The second rear camera is the same as found on the Redmi Note 7 - with a 5MP Samsung S5K5E8 ISOCELL Slim sensor with a 1/5" optical format and 1.12um pixel size. The second rear camera is used only when the smartphone shoots in Portrait mode. It has also been used for the second rear camera on Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite, Redmi S2, Xiaomi Redmi Pro, Meizu m3 note. This sensor has also been used by Xiaomi quite often to power the front cameras of a number of its previous smartphones.

Front camera, photo samples

Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro features the same front camera used by the Redmi Note 7. It combines a 13MP OmniVision OV13855 sensor with an f/2.0 lens. The same sensor is used by the front camera of Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 with Snapdragon 636. The camera shoots photos with a resolution of 4224 x 3136 pixels and 1080p videos at 30 fps. It supports AI portrait mode with background blur, AI smart beauty and face unlock.

Camera app

Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro arrives with the company's in-house designed Camera application, which is adjusted to each particular model to address its shooting capabilities. As usual, the main screen of the app has a circular shutter button at the bottom's centre with a shortcut to the list of photos and videos to its left and the camera switch to its right. Above those buttons, you will see the list of shooting modes - Photo, Portrait, Video, Short Video, Night, Square, Panorama, Pro. The Photo mode is the default one and allows you to add a beautification filter accessible from the small "magic wand" in the utmost right corner above the shooting modes. On the top of the screen, you get the flash and HDR option for photo shooting as well as on/off icons for AI and the filters. The hamburger menu icon opens additional photo shooting options and camera settings - timer, tilt-shift, straighten, group selfie. There's a new option here, which allows you to switch to 48MP shooting as the default one is 12MP. This is also available from the Pro mode. Video shooting is the second mode with time-lapse and slow-motion videos as additional shooting options. The Short video mode is next in line and with it, you can only choose from a set of filters. The Portrait mode supports studio lights effects and beautification. The Night Mode was introduced with the launch of the Mi MIX 3 and, of course, has found its way on the Redmi Note 7 Pro. For this mode, the main camera is used, which makes 12MP photos. The Pro mode allows you to adjust the white balance, f-number, ISO, and shutter speed. The Camera settings are one and the same for the front and rear cameras and include toggles for camera sounds, location info saving, save the previous mode, add a time stamp on photos, device watermark, show gridlines, focus and shoot, scan QR codes, save original photos as well. You can also set the camera frame and picture quality as well as image properties such as saturation, contrast, sharpness, auto exposure settings, etc. When shooting videos, the settings allow you to set the resolution and fps, the video encoder, time lapse interval. The rest of the video recording options are the same as for the photo shooting ones. The interface for the front camera is almost entirely identical to the one for the rear cameras. Whenever you choose a mode that's not supported by the front shooters (the Night mode, for example), the device simply switches to the rear cameras. The Photo mode of the front camera includes a Magic mirror and Age & Gender options and the beautification effects are further enhanced, offering beauty level and advanced beautification effects. The Portrait, Short video, Video modes are the same as for the rear cameras. When you open a photo with the Gallery app, you can edit it by applying a beautification effect depending on the scene (food, portrait, landscape and so on), cropping, adding filters and/or stickers, doodling, placing text, adjusting the brightness, sharpness, contrast, saturation, vignette, etc.