Poco M7 Pro review: Value-for-money mid-range phone

Last week, Xiaomi's subsidiary Poco launched the M7 Pro along with the budget phone C75 in India.

The new Poco M7 Pro is available in two configurations- 6GB RAM + 128GB storage and 8GB RAM + 256GB storage-- for Rs 14,999 and Rs 16,999, respectively.

I have been using M7 Pro for the last several days. Here are my thoughts on Poco's latest mid-range Android phone.

Design, build quality and display

The Poco M7 Pro comes in a completely new design language compared to its predecessor. The M6 Pro successor sports a dual-tone colourway. One- part (in vertical orientation) of the back panel comes in a matte finish and the other has a glossy design similar to a marble stone-like wavy finish.

. With a unique exterior look, the Poco M7 Pro stand out among the rivals in the sub-Rs 20,000 price range.

Our review unit is lavender frost. It is one of the prettiest of the lot. The company offers the device in two others --lunar dust and olive twilight.

Poco M7 Pro is not just a pretty pretty-looking phone, but also well-built to sustain daily wear and tear. The device comes with an IP64 rating. It can survive accidental water splashes. Also, on the front, the company has incorporated Corning's Gorilla Glass 5 shield, which is more than enough to protect it from getting cracked during an accidental drop on the floor.

Add to that, the company has pre-fitted another plastic-based guard on the display to safeguard it from scratches when kept in close confines of the pocket with coins and keys.

Further, Poco offers a sturdy cover case with the retail box. It is soft and sturdy, capable of withstanding drops on the floor and protecting the device from getting dents. Also, at the corners and edges, it protrudes a bit and this protects the display even if it falls on the flat surface.

The company has covered all bases to ensure the device doesn't suffer any damage and is able to serve the customer for several years.

. The M7 Pro is one of the very few in the market to sport a 3.5mm audio jack. With wired earphones, the music or the audio of a movie/TV series is more clear and crisp compared to what we hear with wireless earphones.

Also, the stereo speakers of the device is of high quality. It manages to deliver audio clearly even when the volume is put the max.

The Poco phone sports a 6.67-inch full HD+ (1080×2400p) super AMOLED display with variable refresh rate (60/90/120Hz), Dolby Vision and HDR10+. It supports up to 2,100 nits peak brightness and comes with a pixel density of 395 ppi (pixels per inch).

The display quality is good. I had a great time watching food vlogs on YouTube. The colours come off near natural and I managed to watch videos without any issues for hours.

. It has features to control blue light emissions so that we can read long-form news articles or e-books without any issues of strain to the eyes.

Thanks to the super fast 120Hz refresh rate, the scrolling on social media platforms such as X and Instagram, is smooth on the Poco phone.

The device also features a Type-C port, a hybrid dual SIM (nano SIM-1 + nano SIM or microSD), and an infrared sensor. The latter comes in handy to control smart home gadgets such as ACs and smart TVs.

Also, the on-screen fingerprint sensor works without any major issues. But, ensure the finger is clean and dry to avoid false rejection.

Performance

The Poco phone houses a 6nm class MediaTek Dimensity 7025 Ultra octa-core processor with IMG BXM-8-256 GPU, 6GB / 8GB LPDDR4X RAM with 128GB / 256GB UFS 2.2 storage (expandable).

The mid-range phone works smoothly in terms of day-to-day tasks without any pressing issues to complain about.

It supports almost all battle royale games including BGMI and remains stable for long hours. Though it gets warm a bit, but never overheated while playing at home. Also, the soft covercase also plays its role as an insulator and most users won't feel much heat.

. However, the sensors in the device, if they notice the temperature crosses a threshold, will shut down the device. In my case, the phone never showed such signs.

The device runs Android 14-based Xiaomi HyperOS. It is way cleaner and neater than MIUI. It will soon get the Android 15-based HyperOS 2. The company has confirmed to offer two years of Android updates (up to Android 16) and four years of security software support for protection against emerging cyber threats (up to 2028).

The device comes with a 5,110mAh cell capacity. It consistently delivered a full day of battery life under normal usage. With the 45W charger, it can charge up from zero to 100 per cent in a little over one hour.

. Photography

Poco M7 Pro houses a dual camera module-- main 50MP (with 1/1.95-inch Sony LYT-600 sensor, f/1.5 aperture) and a 2MP depth sensor (f/2.4) with LED flash.

. It takes pretty good photos in the daylight with natural sunlight. Like most phones in its class, the native camera app uses software tricks to brighten the subjects particularly, the colourful flowers and human faces.

. I am not complaining. It does amazing work with getting vibrant pictures.

. It does not have wide-angle mode as such, but even with standard 1x mode, the phone's camera manages to cover a vast area.

It supports 2X optical zoom. The picture quality is decent.

The phone can digitally zoom up to 20X.

. At night, it takes pretty decent images, on par with other phones in its class.

. With portrait mode, the phone does a nice job of getting sharp focus on the subject and delivering a blurred bokeh effect in the background.

. On the front, it features a 20MP sensor for selfies and video calling.

. The picture quality is good with natural sunlight conditions. But, can't be said the same with low light conditions. But, having said that, the picture quality is not too bad. It is on par with rival brands.

. Also, it offers several superficial tools such as cheek resizer, alter nose size, the option to adjust eye size, and smoothened skin tone to make the face photogenic.

. Both the front and the back camera can record videos up to 1080p full HD at 30 fps (frames per second). It is of decent quality.

. Final thoughts

Poco M7 Pro is a really good value-for-money mid-range phone. It comes with a premium build quality, and has a reliable processor to perform regular day-to-day tasks smoothly.

Also, the camera takes pretty decent pictures and the device manages to deliver long battery life.

.Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 review: Solid all-rounder phone. Get the latest news on new launches, gadget reviews, apps, cybersecurity, and more on personal technology only on DH Tech .

Poco M7 Pro review: Value-for-money mid-range phone

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