The affordable smartphone segment has seen a lot of commotion off late and popular vendors like OnePlus, Xiaomi and Realme have flooded the sub Rs 25K range with alluring offerings. We are, of course, talking about the Xiaomi Mi 10i (review), the Realme GT Master Edition (review) and the OnePlus Nord CE 5G (review), all of which ship with speedy 7-series processors from Qualcomm, fast wired charging, high refresh rate displays and the works.
Above all, the trio comes equipped with enticing cameras too which brings us to the topic at hand. You guessed it, today, we will be comparing the cameras on the Mi 10i, the Nord CE 5G and the Realme GT ME to see which handset is best suited for photography enthusiasts. What’s more, the winner will be decided by you, so make sure to vote for the photo you liked the most and don’t forget to chime in with your opinions in the comments below.
HDR Off
Let’s kick things off with what we believe to be the most common photography scenario i.e, a landscape shot. Do note that the images attached below have been snapped with the HDR mode disabled. In doing so, we’re limiting the post-processing on all three phones to a certain degree which should help ascertain the camera’s raw performance. We should also point out that the images were clicked around noon under extremely well-lit conditions. Consequently, we’d like you to pay closer attention to the colours in the frame – in particular, the leaves and the red flowers in the foreground. Furthermore, be on the lookout for any overexposed bits as well.
Xiaomi Mi 10i 5G
OnePlus Nord CE 5G
Realme GT Master Edition
HDR On
Next up, let’s compare the same shot with the HDR mode enabled. In doing so, you should be able to see better details in the shadows, or the darker parts of the scene. That said, a lot of phones are guilty of over-saturating the colours in the frame when clicking photos in HDR. Therefore, try and pick the photo that offers the most natural-looking colours.
Xiaomi Mi 10i 5G
OnePlus Nord CE 5G
Realme GT Master Edition
Portrait shot
Portrait shots are often considered a twofer, as they help determine the consistency of the blur effect and how well a phone handles human subjects. To that note, you should keep an eye out for the bokeh effect around the subject in the frame before casting your vote. While most devices can map the torso competently, they usually falter when it comes to separating the subject’s hair from the blurred areas. Furthermore, take the subject’s skin tone and facial details under consideration too – after all, you wouldn’t want to side with a handset that clicks overtly beautified images.
Xiaomi Mi 10i 5G
OnePlus Nord CE 5G
Realme GT Master Edition
Lowlight
So far, we’ve compared images shot during the day, but it’s also vital to see how each handset’s camera performs after the sun has set. Here, you will want to vote for the image that offers the least noise and the best sharpness in the frame. Lest we forget, you should also check for lens flaring from various light sources like a street lamp, etc.
Xiaomi Mi 10i 5G
OnePlus Nord CE 5G
Realme GT Master Edition
Lowlight with night mode
With the night mode enabled, all three photos should offer better visibility. On the flip side, night mode can skew up the colours in the frame, so we’d suggest you go back and take another look at the images snapped with the utility disabled to get a number on any superfluous colouration. Another handy tip for our readers is to check the detail retention and noise around the darker parts of the shot.
Xiaomi Mi 10i 5G
OnePlus Nord CE 5G
Realme GT Master Edition
Selfies
With the photos from the rear cameras out of the way, it’s time to turn our attention to the handset’s respective selfie shooters. First and foremost, you should know that the selfies were snapped under well-lit conditions and with each device’s respective beautification features disabled.
Xiaomi Mi 10i 5G
OnePlus Nord CE 5G
Realme GT Master Edition
Lowlight selfies
Last but certainly not the least, let’s take a look at the lowlight selfies captured by our three contenders. Much like the lowlight images from the smartphone’s main sensors, lowlight selfies can also be judged basis the level of noise in the frame. However, you should also look for the photo with the best facial details, as they are hard to come by when clicking selfies at night. Furthermore, we’d suggest you go back to the daylight selfies and compare the skin tones as well.
Xiaomi Mi 10i 5G
OnePlus Nord CE 5G
Realme GT Master Edition
And, that wraps up all the samples for this camera comparison. Make sure to cast your votes and stay tuned for our follow up post where we will talk about the winners and losers of the sub Rs 25K camera showdown!
