realme 16 Pro+ elevates portrait art, is it the best mid-range camera phone?

Smartphone photography has reached levels of excellence unthinkable just a few years ago, but often to achieve high-quality shots you needed devices with prohibitive costs. Today, however, the rules of the game are changing.

With the new realme 16 Pro+, the company demonstrates how it is possible to pack a high-level photographic experience into an affordable device.

Not by chance nicknamed Portrait Master, this smartphone strides confidently to position itself as the best camera phone in the mid-range, offering a hardware and software package designed specifically to enhance every single shot.

Whether you are an amateur photographer in search of the perfect shot for social media or a casual enthusiast eager to immortalize your memories, this device promises not to disappoint, bringing with it a periscope telephoto lens and a main sensor of 200 MP.

realme 16 Pro+ costs half the price of the camera phones it wants to compete with

When you pick up the realme 16 Pro+, the first impression is that you are holding a refined design object. Fruit of the collaboration with the famous designer Naoto Fukasawa, the smartphone embraces the philosophy the company calls Urban Wild Design.

The back panel is made of soft bio-based organic silicone, an eco-friendly material that feels extremely pleasant, ensuring a secure grip. The available colorways, Master Gold and Master Grey, according to the company draw inspiration from nature, echoing the reflections of golden wheat fields and the delicacy of river pebbles.

To adorn it all, the camera module, named by the brand Volcanic Camera Deco, with its glossy finish and PVD processing gives the device a luxurious and sophisticated look. Despite these premium finishes and a huge battery, the profile remains slim, measuring only 8.49 mm thick and weighing 203 g.

Before diving into photography details, it is right to give a quick overview of the technical specifications that make this device a reliable companion. The front is dominated by a curved AMOLED display of 6.8 inches at 144 Hz, called HyperGlow 4D Curve+, capable of reaching a brightness peak of 6500 nits for perfect visibility even under direct sunlight.

Under the hood runs the efficient processor Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 at 4 nm, which ensures smoothness in virtually every operation. Supporting the hardware is a gigantic 7,000 mAh battery, supported by 80 W Ultra Charge.

What makes up the realme 16 Pro+ camera system?

Turning the smartphone around reveals its true vocation. The main camera is the one the company calls LumaColor with 200 MP, based on the Samsung HP5 sensor of 1/1.56″, featuring an f/1.8 aperture and omnidirectional autofocus on all pixels.

This lens captures superb daytime shots, supported by the sophisticated HyperRAW algorithm that processes high-resolution multi-frame RAW files to guarantee exceptional clarity and extremely fine details. Additionally, the system uses a dedicated anti-distortion algorithm to address edge distortion issues when shooting at ultra-high resolution in 200 MP mode.

Thanks to Super OIS stabilization, this camera proves to be very capable in any condition, capturing detailed scenes and surprisingly noise-free even when lighting conditions are challenging.

Obviously, the true crown jewel that makes this device an authentic Portrait Master is the periscope telephoto with 50 MP, a high-prestige integration and quite rare for this market segment.

It uses a Samsung JN5 sensor of 1/2.75″, with an f/2.8 aperture. Also supported by OIS stabilization, it offers an optical zoom of 3.5x that beautifully isolates subjects. It can also reach an extreme digital zoom up to 120x to capture very distant elements, but don’t expect the same quality as native optical zoom. Using up to 8-10x still yields appreciable shots.

To complete the rear trio, there is an 8 MP ultra-wide camera boasting a 115.5° field of view and introducing a welcome and essential feature: autofocus. This aspect greatly expands its versatility, allowing macro-wide shots as well.

Front-facing, finally, is a 50 MP camera based on the OV50D sensor of 1/2.88″. With its f/2.4 aperture, it is always ready to snap high-quality selfies, delivering images that are ready to share.

Our test

To test these ambitious premises, I decided to use the realme 16 Pro+ for a couple of weeks, taking it to extremely diverse contexts.

The first test was the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Among the fair pavilions, with complex artificial lighting and moving subjects, the main camera managed the exposure nicely. The optical zoom proved essential to capture the details of the new products.

The sunny streets of the Catalan city and the proximity to the airport allowed us to test in detail every sensor. I leave you some shots below, while here you can find the Google Photos gallery with all the images of this article at original size.