Realme 7 Review

Realme sticks to its scattergun launch routine and has released a new mid-ranger today, helming the latest Mediatek G95 chipset. The new silicon was announced recently and is a derivative of the G90T with a slightly overclocked GPU. The preceding processor is the one inside Realme 7’s predecessors, ie., Realme 6 (born 9 March 2020), and Realme 6i (born 24 July 2020). As such, when I received the package, I opened it up expecting a run-of-the-mill iteration. But that isn’t entirely the case here. C’mon, you’ll see what I mean. (Realme 7 Review हिंदी में पढ़िए)

Inside the cardboard and bubble wrap, was a different-looking box. Different as in it is now mostly white in color with the branding and photo of the brand ambassador stamped on the front. However trivial this maybe, I like this one over the rest of Realme phone boxes because (quoting Coldplay) “Yeah, they were all yellow”.

And here’s whatchyu get inside the box —

Realme 7 Unboxing

• Handset
• 30W Dart Charger
• USB Type-C Cable
• Protect Case
• Protect Film
• SIM Card Tool
• Important Info Booklet with Warranty Card

And this is what the phone has to offer on paper:

Realme 7 Specs and Price in India

I’ve used the phone for quite a while now and here’s what I feel about the phone. This is the Smartprix Review of the Realme 7.

Starting with the…

Realme 7 Design and Display

The satin two-tone finish of the 7 looks both suave and sophisticated. It also offers a smooth feel on the hand. There is just a quad-cam stadium and the brand logo here. Overall, I love the shimmering design, and is by far my favorite on a Realme phone.

Using it alongside the Oppo F17 Pro (review), made it feel a bit heavy. But, otherwise, it’s alright. Also, thanks to easily accessible (and tactile) buttons, the phone is handy enough. Speaking of buttons, the volume rockers are on the left and the power plus print key on the right. You can rely on both face and fingers if passwords, pins, and patterns are old-school for you.

Rest, resting on the foot are a 3.5mm jack, a USB-C port, and a speaker vent.

Coming to the fore, the Realme 7 dons a 6.5″ 90Hz LCD display with a punch-hole by the top left corner. It does cut some on-screen elements in certain apps and websites. I wish brands come out of these black holes, or at least place ’em in the center. But, that’s just a pet peeve of mine.

As for the screen quality, the white balance is a little off and color reproduction isn’t the best. But, that’s true for most affordable phones. And it doesn’t make a big difference in general use. The good thing is you get a color calibrator within the display settings. Even better, you get FHD+ resolution, slim bezels, 90.5% screen to body ratio, and that 90Hz silky smoothness is noticeably pleasing. I had an enjoyable experience bingeing a few episodes of the Hindi crime drama, Aashram on it.

Lastly, on the design front, Realme claims the handset is splash-proof and TÜV Rheinland Reliability Verified. The TUV Rheinland Smartphone Reliability Verification apparently contains 23 major and 72 minor tests, covering many common usage scenarios. Comforting to know, I guess.

Anyway, let’s unlock the device and see how the rest of the phone performs.

Realme 7 Performance and Software Experience

Realme 7 bags the Android 10 based Realme UI with its set of good and not-so-good things. You get to pick and choose from a buffet of features. And it’s mostly snappy. 👍🏻 I say mostly because I did face some jitters while browsing on chrome. Can’t pinpoint the reason though. 🤷🏻 There is some bloatware 👎🏻 which you can easily dispose of. Rest, stuff like Realme Share, Clone App, sidebar, etc are all nice to have.

Realme is pretty punctual with Android security updates, which again is something very important yet underrated. This assures a long life cycle for your phone.

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That said, the thing that really matters is the actual nuts and bolts, i.e. hardware. Inside the Realme 7, you get the MediaTek Helio G95 chipset backed by up to 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM, and 128GB of UFS 2.1 storage. A setup, fairly similar to the Realme 6, and to some extent, the 6i. The difference is that the 7’s GPU can push better graphics, which should please the gamers. Realme has also placed carbon fiber cooling inside for heat management.

Although it doesn’t matter now, PUBG (RIP…) was running at about 40 fps. I had a good time playing PES Mobile 2020 and Asphalt 9 as well.

Here’s how it fares in synthetic benchmark tests:

Now, these are some decent scores for the segment. And compared to the competition carrying G90T, SD730G, and SD720G, this one has a clear benefit in 3DMark graphic tests. It is impressive in Androbench storage speeds too. But, when it comes to Geekbench and PCMark, it is behind by some points. Now, does it matter? Perhaps no, not in real-world use, that is.

I did also check HD content support. Even though the DRM Info app shows L1 security certification and HDCP 2.2 support, for some reason, Prime Video wasn’t streaming HD videos.

And that’s about it for this section. Let’s move on to the…

Realme 7 Cameras

The camera configuration is not all different from the Realme 6. You have the 64MP quadruplet by the back (which is now led by a Sony IMX682 sensor) and a solo 16MP snapper to the front. Within the camera app, you get tricks like 64MP mode, Super NightScape, Starry Mode, and Chroma Boost.

Here are the camera samples:

Under sufficient natural light, the photos expectedly perform with ample details. Even indoors, the camera managed to produce vivid shots with sharp contrast and saturation.

Turn on the Chroma Boost mode, and you’ll have better colors and light in the frame.

If you want, you can broaden the canvas using the 8MP ultrawide shooter, although, you may have to live with poor dynamic range, fewer details, and fish-eye distortion around the edges.

If the macro sensor was any better, the above images would have looked better. That’s all I gotta say.

Both front and rear cams take good photos, although the latter has definitely better results. The facial details are softer on selfies unless you turn off beautification.

If you ought to shoot in low light, you better use the Night mode as it outs substantially brighter and detailed pics.

Video recording maxes out at 4K at 30fps from the rear and 1080p at 30fps from the front camera. You also get features like slofies, ultra steady video, etc.

Let’s now move to…

Realme 7 Audio, Battery and Connectivity

A major upgrade is on the battery size which is now 5000mAh. In our tests, the phone clocked 8 hours and should easily stretch till its bedtime. The 7 ships with a 30W adapter inside the box, which takes slightly above an hour to juice up the tank.

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The audio output from the speaker grille is decently loud and the earpiece is okayish. And yup, the luxury of the midrange — 3.5mm headphone jack is also here.

Lastly, the connectivity options comprise of the usuals like WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, and GPS.

With that, it’s time to hit the gavel.

Realme 7 Review: Verdict

The distinct air about this device starts off with the box and extends to the phone design. I repeat ’tis a beaut!

The rest of the phone isn’t much of a “leap” from the precursor, but that doesn’t really matter. Realme has used many of the same ingredients, that were good, to begin with, and are still relevant like the large AMOLED 90Hz display and fast 30W charging. If it ain’t broke, why fix it, and heck, why not reuse it.

Moreover, the upgrades, however little they may be, are meaningful like the bigger 5000mAh battery, improved graphics for gaming, the thermal solution, and a promising primary camera.

So, to sum up, Realme 7 is definitely an iterative refinement, but one that’s got improvements in all the right places. And is worth the starting price of Rs. 14,999.

Pros

• Snappy 90Hz display
• Reliable performer
• Long battery endurance
• Versatile camera setup

Cons

• Mediocre selfies
• Inaccurate white balance