POCO M7 review: A feature-rich budget 5G smartphone good for everyday use

The POCO M7 5G offers modest performance to get users through the day with light to moderate usage, making it a good budget smartphone

Chinese smartphone brand POCO recently launched in India a budget 5G smartphone, the POCO M7. Starting at Rs 10,499, the smartphone ticks the right boxed with regard to performance and features. It is a common assumption that smartphones in the budget segment won’t ideally have impressive cameras but things might look different with POCO M7 5G. Let us find out if it fares well in the day-to-day operations or not.

 

Design

 

The POCO M7 5G features a flat frame with rounded edges, seamlessly adjusting in users' hands, especially if they are gamers who like to stay hooked to the smartphone for hours. The rounded edges won’t make you feel any discomfort, but the large display form factor make it feel like you are holding a brick.

 

The POCO M7 5G sports a dual-tone design on the back with the lower side offering a matte finish and the upper half sporting a glossy finish. It creates an eye-catching effect but, as expected, the glossy finish makes it a fingerprint magnet and prone to smudges.

 

One of the most noticeable or should I say unmissable aspect of POCO M7 5G is its gigantic camera island, which makes it look like it is housing four camera sensors but, in reality, it doesn’t. The huge display and large bezels, especially the lower one, make it look heavy but it weighs 205.39 g and measures 8.22mm in thickness.

 

On the upper left side, there’s a dual-SIM tray with a separate slot for a microSD card. On the right side, there’s a power button along with the volume rocker. At the top, it has a 3.5mm headphone jack, something that’s becoming uncommon in newer smartphones, and if one is a fan of wired earphones like I am, then this will be a treat for them. At the bottom, there’s a USB Type-C port, microphone, and speaker. 

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  Display and Audio

 

The POCO M7 5G is claimed to offer the biggest screen in this price segment. The smartphone sports a 6.88-inch HD+(720p resolution) LCD display of 120Hz refresh rate and up to 600 nits of peak brightness. Despite sporting an LCD panel, the colours on the screen are punchy and vibrant.

 

It offers good viewing angles and contrast ratio; however, had the huge bezels not been there, this device would have offered an impressive viewing experience. The high refresh rate is capable of handling games like Temple Run, 8 Ball Pool, and Candy Crush efficiently.

 

Coming to the audio, the loudness is quite apt but as for the clarity, it wasn’t that great. Other smartphones in this price segment have offered better audio clarity.

 

Camera

 

The POCO M7 5G has a single 50MP (Sony IMX852) primary sensor of f/1.8 aperture on the rear sie and an 8MP camera on the front. Both the main camera and the selfie camera can record up to 1080p videos at 30fps. The humongous camera island and the lenses have left me with mixed feelings.

 

If the lighting is adequate and it's a bright sunny day then the POCO M7 5G will be able to capture decent pictures. Shots will have details and clarity in sunlight but in low-light conditions, the smartphone will struggle a bit to capture as clear pictures as it would during the daytime. The night mode then attempts to save the day but isn’t able to have much success.  ALSO READ | Soon, WhatsApp will let you share 'motion photos' captured on Android phone

 

The same story is applicable to the front camera. If the lighting condition is adequate then users will be able to capture slightly above-average pictures (thanks to the 8MP lens). However, as the light starts to dim, users will end up with blurred and hazy images that would make them question their decision to click a selfie. Additionally, if users attempt to capture something while even walking slowly then videos will turn out far better than pictures as the image stabilisation here is missing.

 

POCO claimed that the device features a 50MP AI camera but apart from a few filters, AI was not able to work its magic on the POCO M7 5G. The zoom-in capacity is decent. The smartphone offers up to 10x zoom levels, with a fair amount of details being captured in shots up to 2x zoom level. The 50MP mode fares slightly better than the normal photo or portrait mode. Overall, it would be safe to say that given the price segment of this smartphone, the cameras have performed well.

 

Performance

 

The POCO M7 5G is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 2, paired with up to 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB UFS 2.2 storage, which can be expanded up to 1TB via microSD.

 

Throughout the review, the POCO M7 delivered a consistently smooth experience during everyday activities. Apps loaded quickly, multitasking between various apps felt seamless, and tasks like web browsing, using the camera, scrolling through social media, or streaming videos on YouTube were handled effortlessly.

 

Considering the price range, this is quite impressive. The smartphone is easily able to handle light multitasking including gaming and multimedia viewing. Notably, if users play too demanding games then they will notice heating issues kicking in.

 

Software

 

The POCO M7 boots Xiaomi’s Hyper OS, based on Android 14. POCO has promised two major Android updates, meaning users can expect updates up to Android 16, along with security patches for four years. While four years of security support is impressive for this price range, it would have been nicer if the phone had launched with Android 15 instead.

 

The software includes several useful tools. Users get a ‘Dual Apps’ feature, allowing two separate logins within the same application, an ‘App Lock’ for added privacy, and a ‘Game Turbo’ which is designed to enhance gaming performance by blocking interruptions and prioritising resources. Additionally, there’s a built-in ‘Security’ app to clear junk files, scan for malware, and improve device performance by freeing up memory.  ALSO READ | Poco F7 Pro and F7 Ultra to debut globally on March 27: What to expect

 

There is also one major downside to this smartphone, the heavy presence of pre-installed apps, annoying ads, and frequent spam notifications. Many games come pre-loaded, and the built-in app store (GetApps) tries aggressively to prompt users into installing more. Ads are scattered across the user interface—including the app drawer’s search bar and the system apps updater. Even apps like ‘Themes’ regularly push notifications. Thankfully most of these unwanted elements can be disabled.

 

Battery and charging

 

The POCO M7 5G is powered by a 5,160 mAh battery, supporting 18W fast charging. Interestingly, POCO includes a faster 33W charger in the box.

 

Charging from zero to full takes a little over two hours, which is okay for a smartphone in a budget segment. Once fully charged, the battery can easily last for up to a day with light to moderate usage.

 

Verdict

 

The POCO M7 5G is a decent phone that you can consider as a daily driver, if the usage is limited to essential tasks. If someone is looking for a valued proposition that they can rely on, is good for calling, some video streaming, and listening to music or playing casual games like Candy Crush then this smartphone might be the right pick.