Poco X7 Pro.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
Xiaomi subsidiary Poco earlier this month launched the premium mid-range X7 series, the company's first smartphone of 2025 in India.
It comes with two variants -- Poco X7 Pro and Poco X7 with price starting at Rs 21,999. I used the Pro model for the last several days and here are my thoughts on Poco's latest Android mobile.
Design, build quality and display
In terms of exterior outlook, the Poco X7 Pro nebula green model looks like any other mid-range phone in the market. However, it has more to offer than what it appears to be.
I should note that the device also comes in two other colours -- obsidian black and Poco yellow. The latter looks way cooler than the other two variants and more unique than most of the devices in its class thanks to the contrasting yellow-black dual tones.
Poco X7 Pro.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
The device is made of fine quality build material and one can feel it when holding the device. The Poco X7 Pro comes with IP66/68/69 rating, meaning it can survive extreme temperatures of up to 55 degrees Celsius and also comes with a high-speed water jet with up to 1,450 PSI force.
It can even survive a drop in a water body like a swimming pool up to 1.5 metres (around five feet) in depth for close to 30 minutes.
Also, the display is protected by Corning's Gorilla Glass 7i, which is said to be two times studier in terms of scratch resistance and survive accidental drops compared to the predecessor.
Poco X7 Pro.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
And, the company offers a soft and sturdy silicone case with a retail box. Further, the display is pre-fitted with another layer of plastic screen guard.
The device is fully protected against daily wear and tear issues and ensures it serves the owner several years.
The sturdy flat rail offers a good grip for the fingers to hold onto the device.
The device also features a type-c port, infrared sensor, and dual SIM slots along with power buttons and volume rockers on the sides.
On the front, it sports a 6.67-inch 1.5K(2712×1220p) OLED display, 120Hz refresh rate, and offers up to 3,200 nits peak brightness.
Poco X7 Pro.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
It is good enough to read messages and watch movies outdoors under the shade. But, under direct sunlight, users will face reflection issues and may have to take the phone's display a little closer to the face to view content.
It boasts eye safety features that control the emission of blue light in low-light conditions or at night. This way, it protects the eyes from getting strained while reading long-form news articles or e-books or during binge-watching TV series episodes during a long overnight journey on a bus or a flight.
Poco X7 Pro.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
The device also boasts Wet Touch 2.0 technology, which enables the display to register touch inputs when the finger is wet or oily.
Further, the ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor on the Poco X7 Pro is super smooth. It works fast and unlocks the screen in quick time with a low false rejection rate.
Performance
Poco X7 Pro houses a 4nm class MediaTek Dimensity 8400 Ultra octa-core processor with Mali-G720 MC6 GPU, 8GB / 12GB LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB UFS 4.0 storage.
The phone is a smooth performer. Whatever the tasks, Poco X7 Pro walts through them with hardly any sign of lagging.
Further, the company has incorporated a large 5000 mm2 ultra-large cooling chamber. It has a 3D IceLoop system and Liquid Cool technology 4.0 to ensure the device remains cool and stable when performing heavy-duty tasks such as recording 4K videos or while playing graphics-rich games.
Besides the Google Gemini AI app, the device supports several Artificial Intelligence features to enhance the productivity of the device. It includes AI Notes, AI Record, AI Subtitles (offers closed caption for audio file), AI Interpretator (supports 29 languages) and AI call boost, which ensures the voice of the owner are clear to the person on the other side of the call.
Poco X7 Pro.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
It runs Android 15-based Xiaomi HyperOS 2. It has a whole lot of pre-loaded thirty apps and games, but thankfully, the company is a huge 256GB storage for the base model. There is plenty of space to add hundreds of new apps and games in addition to thousands of photos and short videos shot on the phone.
The phone is guaranteed to get three years of Android updates (up to Android 18) and an additional year of security software coverage for protection against emerging cyber threats and malware.
The device houses a 6,550mAh battery. The interesting thing about it is that it has Silicon carbon.
Poco X7 Pro's CPU and GPU performance scores on Geekbench 6.0 app.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
To put it in simple layman's terms, the battery with Silicon carbon has an additional mixture of silicon and graphite compared to a regular Li-ion battery
With a Silicon carbon anode inside, the battery cells will have more capacity to store the power and also last longer compared to conventional Li-Ion batteries.
Add to that, the Poco device comes with a dedicated Xiaomi Surge P2 charging chipset, which will help in charging efficiency and significantly reduce energy loss.
And, there is the Xiaomi Surge G1 chipset which helps in maintaining optimal battery cell health. Also, there will be less chance of the phone overheated while fast charging and ensure battery cell retains power for a longer time.
With normal usage (on Wi-Fi at the office and at home), the device consistently lasted one and half days. Even with extreme binge watching, the device will still be able to last till night.
With a 90W charger, which by the way comes with a retail box, it takes around 30 minutes to reach from zero to 50 per cent capacity. And, it takes a little over 70 minutes to hit the 100 per cent mark.
Poco X7 Pro's camera sample.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
Photography
It comes with a dual-camera module-- main 50MP (with 1/1.95-inch Sony LTY-600 sensor, f/1.5 aperture, OIS: Optical Image Stabilisation, EIS: Electronics Image Stabilisation) and an 8MP ultra-wide camera (f/2.2) with LED flash.
Poco X7 Pro's camera sample.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
Poco X7 Pro takes brilliant photos in all light conditions. The colours of the subject such as flowers come off a tad brighter than what they appear to our eyes. But, nobody would complain about this as they appear so much better.
Poco X7 Pro's camera sample.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
It supports ultra-wide photos and manages to get vast areas in the frame. It doesn't use any software tricks to bend structures just for the sake of accommodating more things in the photo.
Poco X7 Pro's camera sample.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
At night, the device takes fine photos with sharp details. Also, it does a fine job of reducing the noise in the background.
Poco X7 Pro's camera sample.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
It also supports AI Erase Pro feature to remove unwanted person or an object from the frame.
Poco X7 Pro's camera sample.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
With portrait mode, the phone is good at focusing on the subject and getting sharp details around the edges of the subject. And, it artfully blurs the background to get the perfect bokeh effect.
Poco X7 Pro's camera sample with potrait mode on.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
The primary camera can record up to 4K video at 60 frames per second (fps). The quality is good on par with others in the Rs 30,000 price range.
Poco X7 Pro's camera sample.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
On the front, it houses 20MP (with a 1/4-inch OV20B sensor, f/2.2). It takes a nice selfie in almost all light conditions.
With subjects like human faces, they tend to be photogenic in terms of skin smoothness. Add to that, there more tools within the native camera app to further change the face's attributes in terms of eye size, cheek size, nose size and more.
Poco X7 Pro.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
The front camera can record full HD (1080p) videos and the quality is decent.
Final thoughts
Design-wise, though there is no 'wow' factor, the Poco X7 Pro is a really good performer in terms of functioning smoothly and delivering long battery life. It also does a fine job with photography.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
It is available in two configurations -- 8GB RAM + 256GB storage and 12GB RAM + 256GB storage- for Rs 27,999 and Rs 29,999, respectively.
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