Poco M7 Pro Review: Rock-solid performance makes this a mid-segment rockstar

The mid-segment in the smartphone world is a very competitive zone, packed with a number of brands and models. Standing out in this crowd where cut-throat specs and pricing are the rules is quite a task. The Poco M7 Pro, however, takes this challenge head-on. The phone brings some impressive specs to the mid-segment table at a starting price of Rs. 14,999. But will these be enough to take on some well-entrenched competition?

Poco M7 Pro Looks and appearance: Solid, not particularly stunning

The first thing that hits you when taking the Poco M7 Pro out of the box is how sturdy the phone feels. Even though it has a polycarbonate body, the phone feels pretty solid in hand. It is 162.4 mm tall, and while it is not particularly compact, its 8mm slimness ensured that it sat quite well in our hands and was comfortable to hold and carry (it is not too heavy at 190 grams), even through hour-long calls.

The phone has a very typical Poco design with a trademark big-ish rectangular camera unit with rounded edges. The camera unit has a glass-like appearance and protrudes just a little bit. It comes with two big lenses, which are even more raised than the camera unit itself, with an LED flash next to them and Poco branding right below. We received the Lavender Frost color, which comes in dual tones – the phone’s back is vertically divided into two parts, one slightly thicker than the other. The first half of the back is a plain lavender color, while the other, as the name suggests, is a bit frosted.

The phone comes with a tall display on the front with thin bezels, a chin that is just a smidge thicker, and a punch-hole notch front, which is home to the front camera. Keeping up with industry trends, the phone brings flat sides to the table in the same metallic lavender shade as the back. The right side houses the volume rocker and power/ lock button, while the left side is bare. The top is home to an IR blaster and a 3.5 mm audio jack, and the base carries the dual SIM card tray along with space for a MicroSD card, a USB type C port, and the speaker grille.

The phone is built quite well and even comes with IP64 dust and water resistance, but it scores on being solidly built rather than being exceptionally good-looking. It might just be the lavender color of our unit, but we were not quite sold on the divide on the back and the contrast between the frosted and plain sides.

Poco M7 Pro Spec and performance: Star display backed by steady performance

It is common to see brands cutting corners in this price segment, but surprisingly, the Poco M7 Pro does not feel compromised in terms of either specs or performance. The phone comes with a 6.67-inch OLED full HD+ display with 120 Hz refresh rate and 2100 nits peak brightness, which Poco claims is the segment’s highest. The phone feels bright, and the content on it is visible regardless of the light you use it in, which is quite impressive at this price point.

Powering it is the MediaTek Dimensity 7025 Ultra chipset paired with 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage, which can be expanded using a microSD card (you also get an 8 GB/ 256 GB variant). These enable the phone to run smoothly through everyday smartphone chores. Jumping from one app to another feels quite breezy, and while there was the odd app crash and minor split-second lags here and there, nothing persisted. Casual gaming, content consumption, and social media scrolling on the device were a delight, scrolling feels smooth, and colors are punchy, while the stereo speakers make the M7 Pro a great device for multimedia content consumption. The in-display fingerprint scanner works well, and so does 5G (call quality is quite good). The IR blaster is a handy remote substitute in times of need, and there is a 3.5 mm audio jack for those who still prefer to use old-school wired earphones.

The phone comes with Android 14 out of the box instead of the latest Android 15, which, in our opinion, is a big miss. While Poco promises two years of major OS updates, it kind of loses its charm when one of those updates is to get to an already existing Android variant. The Poco M7 Pro’s interface comes with a layer of Xiaomi’s HyperOS on top of Android 14. It runs smoothly, is easy to use, and comes with a number of Xiaomi utilities as well as customization options. There is some bloatware on the phone, which can be uninstalled, but its presence is definitely irritating.

Poco M7 Pro cameras: Main camera game

There is a dual camera set up on the back of the Poco M7 Pro – a 50-megapixel main sensor with OIS and a 2-megapixel “depth” sensor. With this setup, it is hardly surprising that the main sensor is the star of the Poco M7 Pro’s camera show. It delivered some very good shots, packed with a lot of detail and vibrant and punchy colors as well. You get 2x digital zoom in the camera without too much quality loss, which can be handy at times. Those accustomed to covering bigger horizons with an ultrawide sensor will miss it here, but that is hardly a negative in this price segment.

Another area where the main sensor shines is the Portrait mode, delivering images with deep bokeh and edges that are more often well-defined than murky, something that is often a big problem with phones in this price band. The camera takes 12.5-megapixel snaps by default, but you can take 50-megapixel shots right from the camera app itself, thanks to a dedicated mode. The 50-megapixel pictures are visibly sharper, and we found that the colors seemed more natural than the 12.5-megapixel shots.

The quality of photos dips a bit as the light dims. A visible amount of noise creeps in, as in low-light shots, and the phone reproduces images that are yellower than the real settings in an attempt to brighten up the shot. You can capture 1080p at 30fps, and videos turn out pretty decent – nothing exceptional, but definitely usable. The 20-megapixel front-facing camera smoothes out the skin a fair bit (no pun intended), even if you turn the beauty mode off. Do not expect a lot of detail or color accuracy here, but the phone can deliver usable enough shots that can be put up on social media platforms.

Poco M7 Pro Battery: Day-long battery that charges fast

The Poco M7 Pro comes with a 5,110 mAh battery, which supports 45W fast charging. The phone can easily handle a day of heavy to moderate usage. If you are a little careful, the device can survive about a day and a half. The 45W charging might not seem as impressive as some of the bigger numbers floating around in the market, but the phone can go from 0-60 percent in under half an hour, which can easily last you a day of usage unless you indulge in extensive gaming or binge-watching sessions. The 45W charger in the box gets the phone all the way to 100 percent in little more than an hour, which is not too bad either.

Poco M7 Pro Review Verdict: Nothing quite like it at sub-Rs. 15,000

For its starting price of Rs. 14,999 for 6GB /128 GB (Rs 16,999 for 8 GB/ 256 GB), which can also be reduced by offers, the Poco M7 Pro is a superb option for anyone looking for a decent 5G phone without any major compromises. The phone delivers a beautifully bright and speedy display, stereo speakers, steady performance, a great main camera, impressive battery life, and sturdy build as well. Its drawbacks (a slightly clouded UI, ordinary second camera) are not deal breakers.

It faces competition from the CMF Phone 1, which comes with a good main camera, stand-out design, and a beautiful display, and the Redmi 13, which brings a 108-megapixel main sensor to the camera battle. However neither of them comes close to the overall package that the Poco M7 Pro provides. It simply ticks all the mid-segment phone boxes.

Buy Poco M7 Pro