POCO M7 Pro 5G Review: What Is Xiaomi Thinking???

The POCO M7 Pro 5G is a very affordable phone that you can get for under $250 which varies a bit by market. We reviewed it extensively. It accompanied us on a city trip to Munich, we took vacation photos, watched YouTube and Netflix, and also played games.

Some things really disappointed us, many made us wonder what Xiaomi was thinking. But there’s also one redeeming factor which caught us off guard.

Design and Build Quality

But first, let’s start the review with the design. The exterior of the POCO M7 Pro 5G is made entirely of plastic. It’s 6.67 inches diagonally, 8 millimeters thick, and weighs 190 grams.

The display on the front has very narrow bezels, but the back has a more “striking” design; About half of it has a shimmering metallic texture printed on the cheap plastic which certainly won’t appeal to everyone.

The cameras are housed in a plastic base that protrudes significantly. Unfortunately, this causes the phone to wobble significantly on flat surfaces when you try to use it. Yes, more than usual.

The buttons on the side feel a bit loose but work like intended.

On the plus side, POCO includes a matching gray rubber case, which makes the phone 

more stable on the table.

Cameras

The main camera has a resolution of 50 megapixels with an f/2.4 aperture and it’s supported by a 2-megapixel depth sensor. The front camera has a resolution of 20 megapixels and an aperture of f/2.2. Videos can be recorded in up to 1080p at 30 frames per second. Yes, 4K is not supported.

Besides the standard photo and video modes, there is a portrait, night, documents, and 50 MP mode. In the latter, you can take photos using the full megapixel count of the sensor. Otherwise, photos are always downscaled to 12 megapixels.

Honestly, Xiaomi could have skipped the 50-megapixel mode entirely. The lens is just not good enough to take advantage of the full resolution. Photos in the 50-megapixel mode are noticeably less sharp than other smartphones with the same resolution.

There is a pro mode where you can manually adjust white balance, focus, shutter speed, ISO, and exposure compensation. You can also save your favorite settings and access them quickly via a shortcut.

The photo quality is fine, and with a bit of tuning in pro mode, you can get pretty good photos.

But we really missed an ultra-wide-angle camera. It’s a pity that you can’t zoom out when trying to take group or landscape shots. But well, that’s just not included in a budget device like this.

We also compared the POCO M7 Pro with the Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy A36. Often the photos from all three look very similar, at least in 12-megapixel mode, which is what most people will use anyways.

In a direct comparison, though, the Phone 2 Pro is clearly better. It also has an ultra-wide-angle and a telephoto camera, and you can even shoot in RAW format. The POCO can’t do any of that.

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Hardware and Performance

The POCO M7 Pro 5G packs a MediaTek Dimensity 7025-Ultra chipset. In everyday use, the system runs stable, and common apps like WhatsApp, Instagram, or Chrome work smoothly.

Issues arise with graphics-intensive games, video rendering, or multitasking with several performance-heavy apps. For example: Larger projects in Canva with multiple layers sometimes cause stuttering. For simple edits in the Lightroom app, however, the performance is more than sufficient.

By the way, we tested the 8 GB RAM version, but there is also a version with 12 GB RAM. Both versions have 256 GB of storage, which can be expanded via microSD card.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t get Geekbench 6 to run properly, as the processor does not support the necessary rendering technologies.

In the AnTuTu benchmark, the POCO M7 Pro 5G is on the same level as the Redmi Note 14 5G and the Motorola Moto G84 and achieved 465,000 points in our test run. The POCO X5 is also in a similar performance range.

Gaming Test

In the 3DMark benchmark test, only the Sling Shot test can be run, and the POCO M7 Pro 5G achieved a rather weak result. By comparison: The Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro scores more than double as high.

In the real world, games like PUBG Mobile, Wild Rift, or Minecraft run smoothly and are pretty enjoyable despite the weaker performance. Lighter games and indie titles can be played pretty well.

More demanding titles like Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone, or Once Human can’t even be installed, as the hardware just isn’t good enough. That’s a shame, because we were able to play Fortnite very well on the Samsung Galaxy A36.

Software

The M7 Pro launches with Android 14 and Xiaomi’s HyperOS 1.0. That’s last year’s Android version. Xiaomi has promised two years of Android version updates and four years of security updates. At least it will get updates, but the fact that it launches with an older Android version really bothers us. Our comparison devices came with Android 15 right away.

We also found the bloatware incredibly annoying. Many preinstalled apps and services send unwanted push notifications. While most of the software can be disabled or uninstalled, that’s not the case with everything — and it’s still annoying to have to deal with that and ruins the first impression after setup.

Display

The AMOLED display of the POCO M7 Pro 5G measures 6.67 inches and offers a resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels. And it supports up to 120 Hz, so everything feels quite smooth.

In daylight mode, it gets up to 2100 nits of brightness, but usually, the peak is around 500 nits. To be honest, the brightness outdoors positively surprised us, especially compared to the Samsung Galaxy A36 and CMF Phone 2 Pro. We were really amazed at how bright it is in comparison, and that’s definitely a highlight of the POCO. Maybe the only one.

The display is protected by Gorilla Glass 5, by the way.

Speakers

The Poco is quite suitable for watching movies thanks to the display, and the stereo speakers are okay too. Nothing special, more like average, but at this price that’s totally fine.

We like that it has a headphone jack.

Ports and Connectivity

It also has a USB-C 2.0 port with fast charging up to 45 watts. A power adapter is not included.

The dual SIM feature is implemented by a hybrid slot, allowing either two SIM cards or one SIM card plus one microSD card. The latter can be up to one terabyte in size. That’s actually better than the Samsung A36, which lost its microSD slot.

It’s a shame that there’s no NFC, so you can’t use it for payments with Google Pay. But it does have a fingerprint reader.

Battery Life

The POCO M7 Pro 5G has a 5,110 mAh battery. In our battery test, it only lasted 18 hours. For this test, we always run an HD YouTube video in a loop with the brightness set to max. 18 hours is okay, but also not particularly good. 

Conclusion

Ultimately, the POCO M7 Pro 5G is fine if you don’t have high expectations and want to spend as little money as possible. As mentioned, you can get it for under $250. The display impressed us, and the rest is just barely acceptable, though only because of the price. For everyday tasks, emails, WhatsApp, and YouTube, it’s going to be good enough.

But it’s very disappointing that a brand new phone comes with Android 14, has no NFC, and some games can’t even be installed. You also can’t record 4K videos. Especially with Android 14 — we really wonder what Xiaomi was thinking. Sure, it’s under $250, and you probably have to live with things like this.

For just a bit more, you can get the Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro, which has a better camera and newer software. And if you’re looking for a gaming phone, the Samsung Galaxy A36 offers significantly better performance for a small extra cost. We think for most people, it’s worth paying just a little bit more and skip this Poco phone.

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