Introduction
The year 2021 is something else for Realme as it is rolling out smartphones ranging from budget to flagship with cutting-edge design formula and more. Realme X7 Pro arrives with its non-Pro version this year after it was launched in China last year. It packs in a powerful Dimensity series 5G chipset along with super-fast charging, a high refresh rate, and more up its sleeves. It is competing against the likes of OPPO Reno 5 Pro 5G and OnePlus Nord.
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But hey, you can’t just depend on the specs on paper but its review is crucial. Here’s a hands-on review that you must read to know about how it actually performs when tested in real use cases.
Prices in India, Variants, Availability
Realme X7 Pro 5G is available in India in just one trim i.e. 8GB+128GB at Rs.26,999/-. You can choose between Mystic Black and Fantasy colour variants. Avail of multiple deals and discounts on the purchase such as No Cost EMI with up to 3 and 6 months on Bajaj Finserv. Get your hands on Realme X7 Pro 5G with an exchange offer with a discount of up to Rs 14,600/-. The units will be available soon. It is available on Amazon India as well at Rs 28,974/-.
Specs at a glance
Before we talk in detail about the Realme X7 Pro 5G, let’s see what the on-paper specs look like?
- Display: 16.64 cm (6.55 inch) Full HD+ 120Hz sAMOLED Display
- Processor: MediaTek Dimensity 1000 Plus
- Storage: 8GB/128GB
- Software: Realme UI 1.0 (Based on Android 10)
- Rear cameras: 64MP + 8MP + 2MP + 2MP
- Selfie Camera: 32MP
- Battery: 4500 mAh, 65W SuperDart
- Weight: 184g
- Dimensions: 160.80 x 75.10 x 8.50 mm
Design - Much of a Style Statement
Even though I am a big fan of Realme smartphones when it comes to design, the Realme X7 Pro 5G looks like Realme 7 Pro and that’s something I cannot get my head around. The phone weighs just 184 grams and has an 8.5mm thickness that enhances its one-handed usage. A vivid display that we will be getting to soon, has a 21:9 aspect ratio and tiny bezels running across its perimeter.
Flip the phone and you get a giant “DARE TO LEAP” insignia in caps letters and I must say, I am not a fan of it, I despise it. The back panel has a new AG Glass design that gives it an iridescent colour effect when held under light hitting it from different angles and no doubt it looks more premium than ever. It also has a Corning Gorilla Glass 5 to prevent any scratches and protection against drops as well.
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Talking about I/O ports and buttons, you get a volume rocker on the left and the right has a power button with an excellent tactile feel to it. There’s a dual SIM card slot, a bottom-firing loudspeaker, a primary mic, and a USB-C 2.0 port at the bottom and finally, a secondary mic on top with an earpiece doubling as the left channel in a stereo speaker setup.
Realme X7 Pro 5G is a well-designed smartphone irrespective of its resemblance to an affordable smartphone series. This fact won’t sure for sure.
Display - As Good As It Should Be
About the display tech, the Realme X7 Pro 5G sports a 6.55-inch Super AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, 1080×2400 pixels resolution, and a 402 PPI density. A punch-hole to the top-left corner, the display on-board Realme X7 Pro 5G has a 20:9 aspect ratio and has a Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on top for protection against falls and drops.
Perhaps Realme X7 Pro 5G hasn’t cut any corners when it comes to the display tech. It is a 120Hz Super AMOLED panel with an FHD+ resolution which is incredibly sharp. The 120Hz refresh rate does add the oomph factor you would want with an OLED panel. It refreshes the display 120 times a second which is twice what a standard display would refresh.
As usual, the refresh rate alters based on the app you are using which is homologous to what other OLED panels offer. But be sure, you get an exceptional viewing experience like no other.
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Apparently, the display is vibrant, has excellent colour accuracy, and offers the best colour reproduction you would see on an OLED panel. I was blown away by the excellence the display offers thanks to the 100 per cent DCI P3 colour gamut coverage among others.
The phone supports both HDR and HD content streaming for OTT and other platforms which is something that will blow your mind if you aren’t used to this definition. The display has a brightness of a peak of 1200 nits which are way better than many other OLED panels so there’s no issue in viewing even under harsh sunlight so just chill.
Powerful Performance With Some Caveats
Realme X7 Pro has a powerful powertrain under the hood. I am talking about the Dimensity 1000+ 7nm chipset with octa-core arrangement at a max 2.6GHz with Mali-G77 MC9 GPU. The device has multiple storage configurations, however, only 128GB UFS 2.1 plus 8GB is available in India. There’s no hybrid or dedicated memory card slot either.
One of the most crucial aspects of choosing a smartphone is to look after its powertrain aka chipset. Luckily, Realme X7 Pro 5G uses a MediaTek Dimensity 1000+ 5G chipset which I earlier saw with Oppo Reno 5 Pro as well. The phone scores around 770-points and 3,014-points on single-core and multi-core tests on Geekbench. It had an AnTuTu score of 515,025 which makes it closer to last year’s Snapdragon 865 from Qualcomm.
The chipset can handle a lot that you can throw at it without breaking a sweat. Day-to-day tasks such as calling, texting, browsing, social media, and media consumption are something of a piece of cake and you wouldn’t even feel any jerk when traversing from one app to another even if you have multiple apps running in the background.
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The GPU setup is equally muscular taking on even the high-graphics and intensive games like PUBG Mobile or Call of Duty: Mobile albeit with available highest Graphics Quality. It doesn’t allow maxing up the graphics and frame rate which is a bit of disappointment but overall, it is nearly as powerful as a Snapdragon 865 with some caveats.
Software - Few Special Realme UI Features
Realme X7 Pro 5G arrived with Android 10-based Realme UI 1.0 when it was launched in China. Cut to now, it is available with Realme UI 2.0 based on Android 11 in India that gives you the best of both worlds. Sleep Capsule, mini and floating windows, a robust Dark Mode, Dual-mode audio are some of the best features from Realme UI 2.0 that I can mention here. You do get bloatware but with 8GB of RAM and the ability to uninstall some if not all bloatware, you are in for a treat.
Cameras - Sure Shot Winner
Realme X7 Pro has a rectangular camera bump at the back housing a quad-camera setup along with an LED flash. The rear camera assembly packs in a 64MP primary shooter with 8MP ultrawide, a 2MP macro, and a 2MP monochrome sensor. On the front side, there’s a punch-hole cut-out that houses a 32MP snapper. These were the specifications w.r.t. the camera assembly listed on paper. Now let’s see how it performs in real life.
Realme X7 Pro 5G is a sure-shot winner in the camera department as well. It uses a 64MP Sony IMX686 sensor that has a 16MP binned mode to capture shots with better sharpness and details among others. During daytime conditions, I found out that the primary sensor captures crisp images also thanks to the new ISP mounted on Dimensity 1000+ chipset. The dynamic range is decent allowing the exposure to be well-handled even when put across scenes with bright areas such as the sky.
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Colour accuracy isn’t always on-point but it is something you as a casual photographer wouldn’t even tell apart. You can switch between 16MP binned or go full bananas with the 64MP mode although I would still stick to the binned mode for better shots in some scenarios. The macro sensor mounted on the device lets you capture the tiny objects and subjects up close revealing more details than what a primary sensor could capture. It is still 2MP so give it some courtesy if not much.
Switch to the ultrawide snapper and you can capture decent images at a 119-degree field of view. You can capture more than what you can on a primary sensor. The colour temperature is almost comparable to the primary sensor. Even with that, the shots aren’t detailed as the primary sensor also because of the ginormous gap in the sensor size. In general, you get softer but satisfying images using the primary snapper.
When it comes to low-light photography, using the primary sensor will solve most of the issues with these types of photography. Realme X7 Pro comes with a dedicated Nightscape 4.0 that assists with better exposure and post-processing. It retains focus, highlights, and details on low-light shots although the shots are overexposed at times and the system fails to smooth out the noise. Perhaps future software updates could sort the issue.
The last is a 2MP monochrome sensor that simply isn’t that useful. I would rather discount the rear camera assembly.
You get a 32MP selfie camera which is more than enough, to be honest. The sensor captures photos with soft background blur although the edge detection isn’t on point all the time. You also get a NightScape mode on the front sensor which although is average, is better than not having it at all. Plus, Realme X7 Pro 5G arrives with an AI beauty mode just in case if you need it.
Pretty Impressive Battery
Realme X7 Pro arrives with a whopping 4,500 mAh battery. This may not sound like too much if you are into larger batteries but it’s quite a lot. I was able to save some juice even after a day of full moderate and heavy usage. In fact, the phone reaches 16 hours and 42 minutes on HD video loop test which is phenomenal and there’s no doubt about it. You can easily take it to the next day with light to moderate usage.
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Plus, the phone arrived with 65W SuperDart Charge so that you don’t have to worry about charging anymore. Simply plug the phone into the charger for 5 minutes and you get an hour on battery for watching videos. A 15 minutes charge would juice up the battery to 50 per cent while another 15-20 minutes for the rest of the battery and that’s pretty impressive.
Audio, Connectivity, Biometrics
There’s no comparison between having a really good but single loudspeaker and having a dual stereo setup. I would rather go with the latter and Realme X7 Pro 5G offers it. With Dolby Atmos support, both speakers produce an immersive audio experience that you would love when watching movies and playing games, etc. Plus, the phone has Hi-Res certification that imparts high-quality sound on supported earphones or headphones.
Moving on, there’s no 3.5mm headphone jack here which is pretty disappointing. The phone supports the latest Wi-Fi 6 with dual-band, Bluetooth v5.0 with A2DP, LE, and aptX HD; GPS including support to dual-band BDS, QZSS, Galileo, Glonass, and A-GPS. There’s NFC as well. Finally, charge and transfer data using superfast SUB Type-C 2.0 port and that’s all about the connectivity on the device.
Of course, you cannot forget the 5G support mounted on Realme X7 Pro. It supports multiple 5G bands on its international variant including both SA and NSA 5G network with download speeds maxing at 2.3Gbps.
An under-the-display fingerprint scanner takes the helm of the reliable authentication method. It is a light sensor and one of the thinnest ones according to Realme but has a larger surface area. It works flawlessly allowing you to register biometrics every time you tap on it. The facial recognition on Realme X7 Pro is quick and works flawlessly to recognize the user even in poor lighting which is something not all units have been able to do for now.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- The charging capacity of 65W
- 120Hz Super AMOLED display
- Gorilla Glass 5 protection
- NFC enabled
- 4500 mAh battery
- 5G connectivity
Cons
- The gaming experience is average
- There is no wireless charging
- The 3.5 mm headphone jack has been omitted
At the end of the day, it is the pros and the cons that you will have to weigh and decide whether to buy Realme X7 Pro 5G or any smartphone available in the market. X7 Pro 5G is undoubtedly a solid flagship killer with too many pros to complement its ‘few’ cons. It has a vibrant and vivid display, an exceptional camera setup for daytime shooting, fast charging support, smooth performance, and so on.
Similarly, there are some cons like the design looks reminiscent of a 7-series smartphone from Realme. Low light photography on the device isn’t that impressive either. The phone shares the stage with Oppo Reno 5 Pro 5G and OnePlus Nord among others as its rivals so if you are interested in X7 Pro 5G, do a comparison with these two smartphones before deciding anything.
