Realme, the sister brand of Oppo and OnePlus, debuted a new mid-range phone with photography this year at CES. The Realme 12 Pro+, which will go on sale later this month, appears to be a first in the price segment to offer a 3x periscope zoom camera with optical stabilization, as well as a relatively larger sensor to improve low-light performance. The candy bar is the work of Swiss luxury watch designer Ollivier Savéo, complete with a gold fluted bezel surrounding a stunning polished sunburst dial, adorned with a 3D jubilee bracelet on vegan leather in blue or white.
The periscope zoom camera here is powered by a 64-megapixel OmniVision OV64B and comes in at 1/2-inch wide. Realme says that compared to the 3x zoom camera on the iPhone 15 Pro (12MP) and the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (10MP), the sensor on the Realme 12 Pro+ is at least 2.6x larger, allowing for more than 1.8x the size. it catches light. In other words, telephoto cameras aren’t that popular in mainstream flagship phones. The comparison photos we saw at the launch event were very convincing, with Realme retaining an impressive amount of detail even in the full product, but we’ll obviously have to wait for our hands-on later.
With such an upgrade, this mid-range phone can stick to the periscope camera even in darker environments, where other phones with regular 3x telephoto cameras (read: smaller sensors) will automatically switch to the main camera and rely on digital zoom instead. But of course, there’s still a limit to how dark this camera can handle; for something more impressive, you’ll need a flagship-level 3x periscope zoom camera with a larger sensor. Realme’s GT5 Pro model, Oppo’s Find X7 Ultra and it appears OnePlus 12 also.
The Realme 12 Pro+ also has a decent 50-megapixel primary camera (as seen in the image) equipped with a 1/1.56-inch Sony IMX890 sensor. OnePlus 11), f/1.8 aperture and optical stabilization. The phone also has a 0.6x ultra-wide camera, though Realme stopped short of sharing additional information. Likewise, the Chinese brand won’t share which Qualcomm mid-range processor powers this device, but Realme’s “MasterShot Algorithm” here is specifically designed to enable computational photography capabilities. This enables RAW processing, which until now has been mostly exclusive to flagship smartphones, meaning that even mid-range devices will benefit from more editing options in the near future.
The rest of the Realme 12 Pro+ — including the rest of the specs and pricing — is still under wraps. While the brand may not be in the majority of our readership, Realme’s aggressive growth in recent years should be impressive enough to set the benchmark for mid-range phones in 2024. Hopefully this will also put pressure on companies like Apple and Samsung. putting more effort into improving the core features of their flagships.
We’re reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas, January 6-12. Stay up to date with the latest news from the show here.
