Earlier this month, Poco added a vanilla variant to its M7 series. Poco M7 is one of the most affordable 5G smartphones around, priced at Rs 9,999. Its Pro variant, which we reviewed soon after it was launched, fetches Rs 13,999. The base variant in the M7 series flaunts a big display, a Snapdragon processor, and a respectable 50MP main camera. We’ve been using this smartphone for the last week to figure out whether it moves the needle in its category. Here is our Poco M7 5G review.
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In This Article
Poco M7 5G Review: Design and Display
Here’s what you get inside Poco M7 5G’s retail box.
- Smartphone
- 33W power adapter
- USB Type-A to Type-C cable
- SIM ejector
- Quick start guide
The Poco M7 5G’s design is similar to the Poco C75 (our review here) and Redmi 14C (our review here). The area around the giant camera panel has a glossy finish. A smooth matte texture graces the rest of the back panel, lending it a nice in-hand feel. Unlike the Poco C75 and Redmi 14C, the M7 5G’s back panel has a consistent pattern. The circular camera panel houses the main camera and the LED flash.
The plastic frame of the smartphone has the volume rocker keys and the side button on its right edge. At the bottom lie the microphone, USB Type-C port, and speaker grille. The 3.5mm headphone jack is positioned at the top edge. The left edge houses the hybrid SIM tray with microSD card support. The side key doubles up as the fingerprint sensor and puts up a snappy performance.
The 6.88-inch IPS LCD panel on the Poco M7 5G has a 120Hz refresh rate and it can reach 600 nits in High Brightness Mode. It is surrounded by sizeable bezels that get thicker around the chin. The selfie camera is housed in a dated waterdrop notch. The display is super legible and bright indoors but struggles to overcome the surrounding brightness in outdoor conditions with harsh sunlight. The smooth touch response of the LCD panel facilitates a very enjoyable browsing and scrolling experience.
During the review period, we used the Poco M7 5G to stream movie titles across OTT platforms like Netflix, Prime Video, and JioHotstar. The smartphone awed us with a delightful viewing experience. While its LCD panel cannot recreate the deep blacks of an AMOLED display, its punchy colours and impeccable details impressed us. The sole bottom-firing speaker produces a tinny audio output but it can reach a very loud volume level.
Poco M7 5G Review: Performance and Cameras
Powering the Poco M7 5G is the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 SoC. This chipset is based on a 4nm process. It is a nice respite from the Unisoc chips we often see in this category. On the Geekbench 6 app, the M7 5G scored 920 and 2,221 points in the single-core and multi-core tests respectively.
Poco M7 5G handles routine tasks fairly well. Sure, the apps take some time to load, but that’s something that every smartphone in this price bracket suffers from. Switching back and forth between apps does not present a problem. Overall, the performance is smooth and jitter-free. Tasks like calling, IMing, social media browsing, and media streaming are handled well.
The gaming performance of the Poco M7 5G is on par with other smartphones in this segment. You can play games like Call of Duty Mobile and Asphalt Legends Unite on this device, but the gameplay is riddled with lags and frame drops. Games like Candy Crush Saga and Subway Surfers are handled well.
Poco M7 5G runs the Android 14-based HyperOS out of the box. Poco has promised 2 major OS upgrades for this device, but one of them will be used to bring it on par with the current-day Android 15 devices. On the bright side, the software experience offered by HyperOS is very enjoyable. There are plenty of customisation options for the home screen, lock screen, app icons, fonts, and more. The device also has a very handy app locker. The custom dialer app allows users to record incoming and outgoing calls. There are a lot of bloatware apps that come pre-installed on the device, but that’s something we expect from all budget smartphones.
With a 5,160mAh battery under its hood, this smartphone puts your battery anxiety to rest. Our daily tasks on the Poco M7 5G during the review period consisted of video calling, emailing, texting, media streaming, social media browsing, and even a bit of gaming. We finished each day with a screen time of over 5 hours and almost 20% charge left in the bank. The smartphone supports only 18W charging even though it ships with a 33W charger. It took up 90 minutes to fully charge the device.
The rear camera panel houses a 50MP primary shooter alongside a secondary sensor. The LED flash also finds its way into this panel. The 8MP front-facing camera is positioned in a waterdrop notch on the display.
The 50MP primary shooter serves up some delightful shots in outdoor daylight conditions. The images are bright and vivid with all the important details. Being an entry-level smartphone, the M7 5G does not take the most detailed shots, but it more than makes up for it with deep, punchy colours.
In limited lighting conditions, the main camera struggles to properly light up the subject. The images are dim and grainy. Given the affordable pricing, we don’t hold the subpar Night Mode against the smartphone. The native camera app has Timelapse and Portrait models baked into it as well. The portraits taken by the camera are decent, but the blur effect applied to the images is very mild. The 8MP front-facing camera takes good selfies with vivid colours.
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Verdict
The Poco M7 5G is a very reliable choice under Rs 10,000. The Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 processor at the heart of the smartphone handles routine tasks expertly and puts up a rock-solid performance day in and day out. The large LCD panel is great for enjoying video content. To top it off, the 50MP primary camera takes delightful pictures in well-lit conditions. Ticking these essential boxes, the smartphone leaves very little room for complaints. Sure, you can argue that it doesn’t run HyperOS 2 out of the box, but many budget offerings are available with Android 15 right now. At the end of the day, the shortcomings of the Poco M7 5G are the shortcomings of the segment. For an entry-level smartphone, this is as good as it gets.
Poco M7 5G: Pros
- Big display
- Good everyday performance
- Great camera
Poco M7 5G: Cons
- Does not come with a phone cover in the box
