POCO F7 Review: Amazing Performance & Crazy Overheating 🔥

If you’re looking for a powerful smartphone without spending flagship money, the POCO F7 looks very promising. Powered by the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4, it delivers performance close to last-gen flagships for around $460.

We put it through its paces to see how it holds up in real-world use. And while it impressed in many areas, one major issue stood out. Let’s get into it.

Hardware & Performance

Under the hood, the POCO F7 is equipped with the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4, backed by 12GB of RAM and 256GB of fast UFS 4.1 storage. In benchmarks, this chip sits just below the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 that powers devices like the Galaxy S25 Ultra — and it gets surprisingly close.

In GPU-heavy benchmarks like 3DMark Steel Nomad Light and Solar Bay, the POCO F7 even outperforms the S25 Ultra by about 10% in graphics performance. Geekbench results are equally impressive: it scores roughly 50% higher in multi-core and 80% better in GPU than the Google Pixel 9a, while single-core performance is around 20% ahead.

Compared to the Xiaomi 15, the F7 is about 30% slower in graphics and a third behind in single-core performance. But considering that one is powered by a Snapdragon 8 Elite, it’s quite impressive.

What’s more surprising is how well the F7 handles demanding tasks. Exporting a 10-minute 4K/60fps video in SDR with Instagram Edits just 8 minutes and 37 seconds. That’s about 45% slower than the Xiaomi 15. But it’s still quick enough to make the F7 a viable option for light video editing.

But here’s the catch: thermal management is a real issue. During heavy stress tests, the phone gets hot — hot enough to crash the system. In the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme stress test, the POCO couldn’t complete the loop because it shut down at a critical temperature.

In contrast, the Galaxy S25 Ultra completed it without breaking a sweat. We noticed that with a couple of Xiaomi devices recently. The Xiaomi 15 with the same chipset as the S25 Ultra also crashes.

Throttling is also clearly noticeable during extended use, like with gaming. We assume that Xiaomi lets the POCO F7 and Xiaomi 15 running for longer at higher clock speeds to get better benchmark results. But the result is real overheating.

Gaming Test

On paper, the POCO F7 has everything it needs to be a legit mobile gaming device. And in practice, it mostly delivers — as long as heat doesn’t get in the way. That’s not just a benchmark issue.

In Fortnite, the game runs at 60 FPS on “Epic” settings with full 3D resolution and stays there, even after 45 minutes. That said, the phone gets noticeably warm.

Things get trickier in Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile, where the game starts at an impressive 90 FPS on max settings but quickly drops to around 40 FPS. After 15 minutes, the device gets hot enough to feel uncomfortable in the hand.

Dialing back the graphics helps. In Warzone, dropping the settings yields a more stable 60–70 FPS without the phone overheating as much.

Other titles like Wuthering Waves also run smoothly at 60 FPS on ultra settings; the phone still warms up, but not to worrying levels.

If you plan to game extensively on the POCO F7, some tuning is recommended. Capping the frame rate can help avoid overheating. Also, the “Overclocked” mode in Xiaomi’s Game Boost app doesn’t really improve performance and just makes the phone run hotter. Best to leave it off.

Bottom line: the POCO F7 offers impressive gaming performance for the price. But the lack of effective cooling makes it less ideal for hardcore gamers who want to push their phone for long sessions.

Display

The POCO F7 features a 6.8-inch FHD+ OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and HDR support. It boasts a 94.2% screen-to-body ratio thanks to slim bezels, and Xiaomi claims a peak brightness of up to 3200 nits and 1700 nits in high brightness mode. It’s protected by Gorilla Glass 7i, which is a more budget-friendly alternative to Gorilla Glass Victus.

In practice, the display looks fantastic. It’s bright, contrast-rich, and super sharp. Colors are vivid, blacks are deep thanks to OLED, and visibility in sunlight is excellent. This panel can genuinely hold its own against high-end smartphones.

Cameras: Compared to Galaxy A36

The main camera uses a 50MP sensor with OIS and can shoot RAW at 12MP as well as 4K60 video. There’s also an 8MP ultra-wide camera that records 1080p at 60 FPS, and a 20MP selfie cam that captures the same kind of video.

We compared the POCO F7 directly with the Samsung Galaxy A36, taking side-by-side shots. The POCO tends to produce more neutral images due to its different image processing, while the A36 goes for punchier colors — sometimes a bit too much, especially with skin tones in selfies and portraits.

The POCO’s main camera captures sharp, detailed photos. RAW files look great, though noise becomes noticeable in dimmer scenes. JPGs look great too and there’s not much noise visible here due to noise reduction.

Even without using the 50MP mode, images look crisp, though maybe not quite on the level of the Google Pixel 9a, which we recently tested.

Surprisingly, the $250 Galaxy A36 holds its own against the POCO. It also has a 50MP sensor and produces lively, sharp images. You only really notice the difference when pixel-peeping, where the POCO retains slightly more detail.

The ultra-wide camera is decent but noticeably weaker than the main lens. Zoom in, and the lack of resolution becomes obvious.

The POCO does have the edge here against the A36 despite both phones having 8MP sensors. POCO’s ultra-wide delivers cleaner videos and sharper stills than the A36, which struggles with artifacts and noise.

We know the comparison with the Samsung isn’t ideal but we still have to build up an inventory of phones we can use for comparison.

The front camera is better than expected at this price. Selfies look sharp and detailed, and the portrait mode does a solid job with edge detection. The only real downside is that the POCO tops out at Full HD video, while even the Galaxy A36 supports 4K selfie video at 30 FPS.

Read: CMF Phone 2 Pro Review: Amazing Sub $250 Camera?

Battery Life

With a massive 6500mAh battery, the POCO F7 is an endurance champ. In our YouTube HD  video playback test with max brightness, it lasted an insane 29 hours. That’s a new record in our testing.

To put that in perspective, it beats the Pixel 9a by 5 hours, the Xiaomi 15 by 4.25 hours, and even the Galaxy S25 Ultra by 2.75 hours.

Charging is also speedy: with 90W fast charging, it goes from 0 to 90% in about 30 minutes. However, the phone does get warm during charging. Important note: fast charging is off by default and must be enabled manually in settings. There’s no wireless charging, by the way.

With regular use, we consistently got around three days of battery life. That kind of longevity makes a real difference and gives the F7 an edge over much of the competition, especially at this price point.

Design & Build

Design-wise, the POCO F7 looks a lot like the Galaxy A36 — similar size, similar vibe. It has a glass back and flat aluminum sides, which give it a premium feel. Despite weighing 215.7g and measuring 8.2mm thick, it’s surprisingly comfortable to hold. That said, the glass back loves fingerprints and dust.

Design depends on the color variant. The white and black models are clean and understated, but the silver version stands out with a black triangle design and Snapdragon branding on the back — very gamer-core, and definitely not for everyone. If you like minimalism, go with the other options. The green accent stripe on the camera bump makes it stand out, even with a case on.

It’s also IP68 certified, so the Poco should easily survive a drop into a pool or puddle. Plus, Xiaomi’s “Wet Hand Touch 2.0” tech ensures the screen still responds accurately when wet. The front has slim bezels and a small punch-hole camera for a modern look. Xiaomi includes a pre-applied screen protector and a soft case in the box, which both feel decent. 

The SIM tray supports two physical SIM cards but there’s no eSIM support. There’s also no microSD slot for storage expansion.

On the bottom, you’ll find a USB-C port — but sadly, it’s just USB 2.0, meaning slow data transfers and no video-out.

Read: Sony Xperia 1 VII Review: Huge Disappointment for Sony Fans?

Unlocking Methods

The under-display fingerprint reader is fast and reliable, though it’s positioned a bit lower than we’d prefer. Face unlock is quick as well, but since it doesn’t use 3D scanning, it’s not as secure as something like Apple’s face-id. 

Speakers

The stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos sound good overall; they’re loud enough for Netflix, YouTube, or music. Compared to the Galaxy A36, the POCO is slightly quieter, but the quality is about the same.

It doesn’t match flagship-level richness or depth, but for a midrange phone, audio performance is more than solid. There’s no 3.5mm headphone jack.

Software: 5 Years of Security Updates

The POCO F7 runs HyperOS 2 based on Android 15. Thanks to new EU regulations, it’ll receive security updates through at least 2030. Xiaomi hasn’t confirmed how many major Android version updates it will get, though.

HyperOS feels smooth and modern, with plenty of customization. But Xiaomi still preloads a ton of its own apps — many of which duplicate Google apps — and there’s quite a bit of bloatware.

Apps like Temu, random games and LinkedIn come preinstalled with no choice to opt out, for example. You’ll also encounter ads in menus and system apps and recommendations when browsing wallpapers.

Of course, the ads and bloat apps can mostly be disabled or uninstalled, but we would still prefer if they weren’t there in the first place. 

On the plus side, there are some handy AI features: Google Gemini, Circle to Search, and Xiaomi’s own live translate, live captions, and AI photo editing tools. They work well, though most require an internet connection. 

Final Verdict

The POCO F7 is a performance monster for the price. It delivers strong hardware, a top-tier display, and near infinite battery life — all for around $460. The cameras are solid, the audio is decent, and the update policy is finally up to standard as well.

The biggest weakness is thermal performance. Under load, the phone heats up quickly, which limits its gaming potential. And while the software is powerful, the bloatware and ads distract from the overall experience.

Still, if you want a fast, long-lasting all-rounder that won’t break the bank, the POCO F7 is one of the most compelling options out there right now. And we can recommend it.