Poco recently launched its X7 series of smartphones in India with the X7 starting at a price point of Rs 21,999 (before any offers), trying to make out in this competitive price segment. Does it have enough up its sleeve to be a recommendation? Let's try and check.
The Poco X7 has a 6.67-inch curved display with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on top for protection. The back has curved sides and is made up of plastic but isn't low quality by any means; the triple camera setup is near the top middle and a big Poco logo is near the bottom. The right side features the power/lock key and the volume buttons. The bottom houses the USB type C port, one outlet for loudspeakers, dual SIM card tray. It is an IP68 and 69 dust and water resistant device that weighs under 190 grams. Available in Cosmic Silver, Glacier Green (the one I tried) and Yellow (with soft leather back), it doesn't feel very slippery to carry around.
The 6.67-inch AMOLED (2712x1220) display with support for up to 120Hz refresh rates. This is a quality and bright display that does the job more than well enough for the price tag. HDR content in streaming apps also looks decent that I would not mind watching something on it considering the price tag with its good viewing angles and colour reproduction.
The device features a triple camera in the back - a 50MP (f/1.5) main camera (with OIS), an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera, and a 2MP (f/2.4) macro camera. It can take fairly detailed shots in daylight and seems to have tweaked in colours for low light shots with OIS coming in handy. There's decent portrait shots even at 2x though there's a bit shutter lag to be seen there. I found photos to be generally decent and usable for most occasions for the price tag. The front-facing 20MP (f/2.2) camera is also not bad and can be used for selfie shots in good lighting conditions while it can handle video calls fine.
Equipped with MediaTek's Dimensity 7300 Ultra chipset (up to 2.5Ghz octa core processor and Mali G615 MC2 GPU) along with 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB UFS 3.1 internal storage (there's also a 128GB base option). It runs in Android 14 based HyepOS 1.0.2 with the December security patch in place now. There are a number of third party apps pre-installed and require a bit of time to disable or uninstall them if you don't want to use them.
The phone handled day-to-day tasks without any troubles whether it is scrolling, navigating between social media apps and watching YouTube videos. For gaming, it can handle something like BGMI at extreme settings at around 40FPS and at 60FPS if at medium settings, which isn't too great but it is not bad either. Poco promises three years of OS upgrades and four years of security updates, so it would have been better to have the device running on Android version 15 out of the box considering the OS has been out for a while and we have had phones launched running on it, too.
Powered by 5,500mAh battery unit, the phone lasted me a full day quite frequently. With a single SIM card in use, two email accounts in sync and display brightness at 40 per cent, it didn't show any battery drainage issues. The bundled 45 watts (slower than the predecessor) charges the phone from 1 per cent to full in about 70 minutes.
Wi-Fi and GOs performance of the phone are satisfactory. The dual stereo speakers are quite loud and do not distort with volumes set at 89 per cent highest for most genres that I tried. Fingerprint scanner, though, is okay and can be a little unreliable when trying to use on the move.
In brief, the Poco X7 seems a recommendable device for those looking for a smartphone with a good display and reliable battery life around Rs 20,000 but not for those that prioritise software experience out of the box or even gaming performance as of now.
