Poco X7 Pro review: Throwing a sure-win game

Note: This article was first published on 9 January 2025 and was edited on 10 January 2025 to add in a benchmark.

Is it too good to be true?

Everybody loves a good, value-for-money deal, and that’s why midrange phones have been all the rage over the last few years. How can one say no to a phone with flagship-esque hardware specs at a fraction of its price?

Enter the Poco X7 Pro. 

This might be Poco's most impressive release to date. It uses the new 4nm Dimensity 8700-Ultra chip and 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage, which are hardware specs we typically only see in flagship devices that usually costs 4-5x more.

Corning Gorilla Glass 7i protects the large 6.67-inch AMOLED display (it has 120Hz refresh rate, 12-bit colour, 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut). There's also peak brightness of up to 3,200 nits.

Tl;DR version:



Truly good value for the components offered, but it's sadly full of apps you never asked for.  It is available via the Mi Store and Lazada. 

Poco also didn't neglect many of its basics, like a 50MP main camera on the rear paired with an 8MP ultrawide camera. Everything is powered by a huge 6,000mAh battery inside. It also has all the little things that are just as important when you're not gaming on the phone, like NFC, Dual SIM, Dual Standby, Bluetooth 5.4, and IP68-rated water and dust resistance. 

And of course, this phone runs on Xiaomi’s HyperOS 2 operating system, which is based on Android 15. 

While everything looks lovely on paper, how does the S$449 phone perform? Is there a catch? Let’s find out.

Design and handling

Hopefully, I’m not showing my age here, but when I first unboxed the Poco X7 Pro, Wiz Khalifa's Black and Yellow immediately started playing in my head.

The X7 Pro's yellow livery is striking. Its faux leather back is split between black and yellow and has different textures. The material choice offers plenty of grip, which is great considering the phone's bulky build.

Other small yellow accents around the phone (like the camera rings, Poco's rear logo, the power button) provide a nice touch, and that's even considering that I’m not a big fan of the colour.

The phone's sides are flat, offering a a firmer grip when handling it. The 3D curved glass gives it zero sharp edges. It's also rated IP68, so getting the phone a little wet poses little issue.

Display and audio

The 6.67-inch display (2,712 x 1,220 pixels resolution) can refresh at up to 120Hz. Although the default mode is supposed to be adaptive, the display preferred a 120Hz refresh rate most of the time. The only times I saw it dip to 60Hz were when I watched videos on streaming apps like Amazon Prime Video or YouTube.

This might drain the battery quicker than usual, so we’ll be paying attention to the battery test results down the line.

Otherwise, the display has vibrant colours and is excellent for watching videos or playing games. The X7 Pro's panel was nice for playing Stardew Valley, Honkai: Star Rail, and more, thanks to the large display and responsive input. When Game Turbo mode is activated, the touch sampling rate is 2,560Hz. 

The phone's dual speakers provided decent audio, which is passable for streamed movies. However, we still think a good pair of wireless earbuds would serve better for enjoying music.

User interface and experience

The Poco X7 Pro comes with HyperOS 2 out of the box. This interface is actually Xiaomi's (Poco’s parent company) reskin of the Android 15 operating system.

HyperOS 2 is relatively similar to HyperOS 1 but has a refreshed look in certain apps, such as Weather, new system animations, and a more seamless experience when using multiple devices in Xiaomi's ecosystem.

GenAI is also built into HyperOS 2, with new features like AI Interpreter, AI Notes, and AI Recorder for better productivity and convenience.

Unfortunately, while AI Notes and AI Recorder were available out of the box, I couldn’t find the AI Interpreter app (or Mi AI Translate app, if you want to see it yourself) on the phone. 

A quick search in Settings pulled up some options, however, and I was able to add a Home Screen shortcut so I could access it.

If you swipe down from the right corner, you can add shortcuts for AI subtitles and Translate conversation. There’s a decent amount of languages available and a Detect Language setting, but honestly, it didn’t seem to work well (which was crucial, since the review was done in Japan).

The translation is decent at conveying the general meaning, but I wouldn’t rely on it if you need an accurate translation for work or important matters. 

The AI subtitles feature was also pretty useful, especially for videos without English subtitles, although it lagged behind at certain times.

The Google Gemini app also comes pre-installed on the phone, which is convenient if you’re interested in using Google’s AI assistant. 

We also tested the AI photo editing features, such as AI Erase, which worked well in recognising removable objects and extra humans. However, the result still leaves a bit to be desired, as it leaves behind smudges on the textured floor.

The AI Expand feature also still requires much work, with rough-looking results.

Aside from the AI features, HyperOS 2 is pretty polished and very familiar if you’ve used a Xiaomi device in the last year or so.

But...

Unfortunately, because it’s a Poco phone, many ads and bloatware exist.

Right out of the box, you get about eight games preinstalled, along with apps like TikTok, WPS Office, LinkedIn, Amazon Shopping, and more that you’ll have to manually uninstall if you don’t want them taking up space. 

When using the phone, you receive perpetual notifications from GetApps or the App Mall recommending games every couple of days—in this case, the same game three times. It’s ridiculous, and we hope that Poco stops this practice entirely.

When setting up the phone, it will ask you to download many “Recommended apps.” For people speeding through the setup process, this could easily result in unwanted downloads.

To verify, we also checked other Poco X7 series devices held by Xiaomi in our region, and confirmed that preinstalled apps unrelated to Poco and Xiaomi are also on these handsets. Xiaomi/Poco further confirmed by saying that "application installed in the smartphone is different country by country", which does not refute the presence of bloatware.

We don’t like these avoidable anti-user experiences, so Poco receives a huge penalty point for this review.

Imaging performance

The Poco X7 Pro uses Sony’s IMX882 50MP primary camera (f/1.5 aperture, 1/1.95-inch, OIS) alongside an 8MP ultrawide camera (f/2.2) while sporting a 20MP selfie camera on the front.

The cameras, housed in a vertical array, don’t protrude too much from the phone. However, niceties like a rear microphone, depth sensor, or telephoto lens are missing, in favour of a lowered price tag for a gaming-centric handset.

The main camera takes surprisingly good outdoor shots, especially if you’re in well-lit situations. Colours are accurate, and the processing is rather tastefully done. It’s not overly saturated or too HDR-esque. A decent amount of detail is retained, especially when zooming in at the 2x option. 

Low-light shots are also very nicely exposed, although we found that the preview image on the phone has very overexposed highlights that don’t translate to the final image (since we moved its files from phone to PC to upload this review).

Because of the overexposure on the preview image, we took a separate shot that looked correctly exposed for comparison, only to find that it was much darker when the final shot was done. It’s a strange software quirk that’s not great, but at least the final image shot automatically does come out decent if you upload to social media, and not overexposed like the previews.

The ultrawide camera is merely passable. It does provide a wide field of view, but there’s noticeable distortion around the sides and corners, chromatic fringing, and noise in situations that might not be as well-lit.

Benchmark Performance 

The Poco X7 Pro uses the new midrange Dimensity 8400-Ultra flagship-lite chipset, announced in late Dec 2024. For reference, MediaTek's flagship tier is the Dimensity 9000 series (with the OPPO Find X8 Pro carrying Dimensity 9400).

Because it’s such a new chipset, we don’t have any other phones running the same SoC to compare against. But, we’ll be comparing the Poco X7 Pro to some midrange alternatives running chips like the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 and more. 

Putting it to the test

To find out how the competitors line up specs and price-wise, check them out in this link.

To find out more about the tests we conduct and what they relate to, we've jotted them down here.

Benchmark Performance remarks

Unfortunately, the Poco X7 Pro blocked access to UL’s servers, so we couldn’t perform the GPU benchmarking for 3DMark Wild that we typically do. The benchmark is also conspicuously missing from UL's recorded list of scores, so we know this isn't an "us" problem.

This isn’t a new problem, with other phones like the Xiaomi 14 that we tested previously having the same issue before reaching out to Xiaomi for special access. We’ll keep trying to get access, and once we do, this article will be updated with the scores. 

Note: The 3DMark score has been added above.

The phone performed very well against the competitors, even against the Poco F6 Pro, which uses an older flagship Qualcomm 8 Gen 2 processor. Day-to-day usage was also smooth and fluid, with no lag even when multiple games and apps were left open simultaneously. Also, as mentioned, the phone had no problems wanting to keep 120Hz refresh rate going nearly all of the time.

It’s great performance for a phone that retails for S$499 at the highest configuration, showing how competitive the midrange segment is.

Battery Life

Our new battery benchmark uses PCMark for Android’s Work 3.0 Battery Life test to determine a modern Android-based smartphone's battery uptime in minutes. This controlled benchmark simulates real-world usage with a combination of both web and social media browsing, video and photo editing, parsing data with various file formats, writing (on documents), and more. 

Thanks to the massive 6,000mAh battery inside and its choice of MediaTek chipset, we expected the Poco X7 Pro to perform well in the battery benchmark, and it didn’t disappoint.

With almost 16 hours of uptime, the phone kept pace with impressive competitors like the Nothing Phone (2a) and the Vivo V30. 

The phone also supports 90W HyperCharge fast wired charging, with a compatible charging head and cable in the box. There’s no wireless charging, however, but it’s not a big issue since we’re expecting some cuts to an affordable device anyway.

The 90W fast wired charging allows the phone to juice up from 0-50% in just 27 minutes and from 0-100% in 55 minutes, which is fantastic. Even flagship phones can't manage a full charge under an hour most of the time.

The battery drain while idling is also minimal, with the phone consuming just 5% over 12 hours with occasional notifications. If you’re gaming intensively, it will run down a bit faster. Still, you’ll be able to get at least a good 5 or 6 hours of gaming with a fully charged phone. 

Conclusion

There are many nice things to like about the Poco X7 Pro, that’s for sure. The large, bright 6.67-inch display is great for consuming brainrot video content or gaming, which we reckon most of Poco’s target audience is most interested in. 

The processor inside is capable, and the large battery provides enough juice for all but the most intensive gamers. It’s doubtful you’ll be gaming longer than 6 hours at a stretch since you’ll probably need to get up to use the washroom or grab a bite. Those small intervals provide opportunities to grab a quick charge, which is super speedy.

Unfortunately, it has distractions that detract from the overall experience.

Bloatware and ads are major issues in our book. While it doesn’t affect the actual performance of the phone, it makes the day-to-day use rather irritating. If the Poco X7 Pro did not have bloatware, we would easily recommend it wholeheartedly, seeing how it's such good value for specific needs.

To a smaller extent, the cameras aren’t the best around, primarily due to the poor performance of the 8MP ultrawide camera. Other midrange offerings like the Vivo V30 and the Honor 200 Pro had relatively better camera performance for a similar price point, so it’s not as if all midrange phones have to cut back here for cost savings. 

Similarly, while the AI features are a bit inaccurate (making them less useful for serious content), they are not the main draw of the Poco X7 Pro. 

However, we acknowledge that the Poco X7 Pro primarily targets people who want to play mobile games while on a strict phone budget. The only bugbear that qualifies is the excessive bloatware that hinders user experience.

In gamer parlance, it's like having a good teammate with the fundamentals and potential to pull off highly skilled plays. However, the fool loves throwing the match at the last possible moment by listening to their intrusive thoughts or making counterintuitive decisions when pressured. 

A midrange phone that starts at S$449 and performs well even with tempered expectations is undoubtedly good value for money. The outstanding hardware inside meets a gamer's needs. Sadly, bloatware and ads leave much to be desired, even if HyperOS 2 is better than MIUI and well-polished for a midrange device. If you don't mind spending a bit of time to get rid of them and clean the phone out, the Poco X7 Pro would serve budget mobile gamers very well.

The Poco X7 Pro retails in Black, Green and Yellow and is priced as follows:-

• 8GB+256GB: S$449
• 12GB+256GB: S$469
• 12GB+512GB: S$499

 It is available via the Mi Store and Lazada.