Xiaomi released the Xiaomi Redmi Pro a few months back and I’ve been playing around with the dual camera smartphone.
If you have been reading GizChina for any length of time then you will know that I do love a decent camera phone! Chinese smartphone cameras have come on a very long way since the early years, and I feel that Chinese smartphones have some of the best cameras and features in the business.
When Xiaomi announced the Xiaomi Redmi Pro I was pretty impressed, not only is this a smartphone that looks like a premium phone with good hardware, but it’s also an affordable device with 2 rear cameras!
The rear cameras on the Xiaomi Redmi Pro are designed for depth rather than one being a colour camera and the other a monochrome unit. From the MIUI camera app you have the option of switching to ‘Stereo Mode’ which gives you control over the aperture size to give photos the feeling of depth.
After shooting a ‘Stereo’ photo you can then view a 3D effect of your photo or you can choose to change the focus of your photos. We’ve seen a similar effect offered in Meizu phones in the past, but with the Xiaomi using two cameras photo capture is much faster.
So those are the basics but how does the camera perform? Below are a few samples from various lighting conditions, plus I’ve thrown on a GIF made up from a burst capture too. Take a look and let me know what you think.
I think it’s what you would expect from a good f2.0 sensor.
Details are there, low light performance are… Well, you can’t expect miracles! Noisy as it should be, but even then it’s a good result after all (maybe the sw is too much aggressive, don’t know).
Dynamic range isn’t convincing me the most, colours doesn’t look vibrant as you would expect (but maybe the original colours and lights were like that so it’s accurate, you tell me).
The second sensor is basically useless, so this set up is not the most convincing imho. As usual, it’s used mostly for bokeh, and, as usual, it’s sometimes weird: just look the pic with ducks… In the central coloumn, the second from the top: you can literally tell the sw wasn’t sure about how to handle it, so it ends up looking a bit strange, like some kind of blurred, rudimental hologram or something.
Tl;dr
A step above your average chinese f2.0 camera. The second sensor is useless. Bokeh comes (or, at least, it should) with a “learn how to use it before using it” disclaimer, but that’s something valid for every dual camera phone.
Average joe’s mental process like “double the cameras, double the quality” totally isn’t something fitting here (nor it is into every other dual camera phone).