Poco X7 Pro Review
Pros
- Plenty of power
- Excellent charging speeds
- Great value for money
Cons
- Bloated software
- Average camera performance
- Some connectivity concerns
Key Features
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Review Price: £309
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Processor power With a Dimensity 8400-Ultra, there’s great performance for the price, well positioned for gamers who can’t afford the latest flagships.
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Really fast charging Although there’s no charger in the box, the Poco X7 Pro supports 90W charging which will see the 6,000mAh battery recharged in under an hour.
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Waterproofing This is the first Poco phone to get an IP68 rating, which is rare on phones at the affordable end of the scale.
Introduction
When Poco first popped onto the scene in 2018, it was all about affordability – almost laughably so. Sitting under the Xiaomi umbrella, Poco’s aim was to appeal to younger users and offer something more approachable.
Alongside Redmi – Xiaomi’s other affordable brand – the focus on value for money remains, with a leaning towards meeting the needs of younger users.
That puts a focus on gaming, where we find the Poco X7 Pro offering a comprehensive set of hardware to make sure that you’re in the game and not excluded because you can’t afford a flagship phone. Starting at £309 (8/256GB), it squares up against the likes of the Samsung Galaxy A35 or perhaps the Moto G85 price-wise, but what compromises have been made along the way?
Design
- First Poco with IP68 protection
- Yellow vegan leather option
- Case in the box
Poco is best known for its bright designs, particularly using yellow to make this phone stand out from the crowd. In the Poco X7 Pro there’s a two-tone finish to the rear with options for yellow, green or black. I think the yellow is the most fetching, but it’s still true that most people choose black when they buy a phone, because it’s safe.
That might not be the best choice, however, as the yellow version is vegan leather, so it looks premium and feels great (you can check out the yellow version here), avoiding fingerprints. The black and green have a plastic back so don’t feel quite as premium, while the flat plastic frame lends a contemporary look.
Poco isn’t rocking the boat here, using a flat back and flat display, paired with those flat edges, with the camera tucked safely in the top left-hand corner. It’s a two-lens camera, so the housing is smaller than on the Poco X6 Pro which had three cameras, although as I’ll explain below, the loss of that third lens is actually a good thing.
Speaking of safe, there’s a soft case bundled in the box to keep your phone protected, as well as device-level IP68 protection. While this is an expected feature on flagship devices, it’s the first time that Poco has offered it, meaning you have some protection against dust and water – which is great on a phone at the cheaper end of the price range.
At 195g this isn’t a heavy phone, while the 8.29mm thickness (for the plastic versions) is slim enough to not pose too much of a problem when using one-handed.
The Poco comes in a typical card box, with a USB-C cable included, but no charger in the box (depending on the region). Poco recommends that you use a 90W PD charger or its own Xiaomi 120W power adapter.
Screen
- 6.67-inch AMOLED display
- 3200 nits peak HDR brightness
- Stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos
There’s a 6.67-inch AMOLED display on the Poco X7 Pro. It’s a flat display, which fits with the most recent trends and is preferable for gamers as it gives more usable screen space, without having to deal with the vagaries of touch sensitivity on curved edges. The bezels are narrow enough and there’s a single punch hole at the top for the front camera.
It’s a 1.5k display, so it has a resolution of 2712 x 1200 pixels, resulting in 444ppi, which is suitably sharp. On paper, everything about this display makes sense – it has a refresh rate up to 120Hz and it boasts a 3200 nits peak brightness, setting it above some flagship devices.
Brightness has been a key trend over the past 12 months, not only for defeating reflections and staying visible outdoors, but to deliver striking HDR visuals, both from streaming content and from HDR photos from the camera. I fired up Netflix and found that the Dolby Vision delivery of Red Notice looked great on the Poco X7 Pro.
I found the display to err on the side of being a little dim – likely a measure to preserve battery life – and nudging up the brightness definitely helps bring out the best it has to offer. With that, it’s also worth heading into the display settings, as I found the “Original colour Pro” setting for the display colour to be a little timid – for me the “Vivid” setting bought the pop I wanted to colours.
There’s a factory-fitted screen protector on this phone and like many protectors, it’s a little soft, so I found it to have attracted a number of marks within a few days of using it. It gives protection on top of the Gorilla Glass 7i surface of the display, but whether you choose to leave it there or remove it is up to you.
There’s a speaker grille on the base of the phone, which works with the ear speaker to give you a stereo delivery. I’m not sold on the positioning of these: when playing landscape games like Call of Duty Mobile, it’s all too easy to block these with your hands leading to muffled audio. The sound is reasonable, with an option in the settings to engage Dolby Atmos, which gives a slightly richer performance.
Cameras
- 50MP main and 8MP ultra-wide camera
- 20MP front camera
- AI editing tools
I mentioned above that Xiaomi had reduced the camera count on its new flagship X device, removing the 2-megapixel macro camera that graced the Poco X6 Pro – as we said in that review “the macro is just too low-res to be considered in most situations.” So I don’t miss that camera and neither will anyone who uses the phone.
Instead we’re looking at a pairing of a 50-megapixel Sony IMX882 main camera with a wide f/1.5 aperture. As is typical of all phones, pixels are combined from that 50-megapixel sensor, resulting in 12-megapixel photos. If you want to shoot at full resolution you can, but as with all phones that offer this, your storage won’t thank you and you’re wasting your time if you’re uploading these to social media, so it’s perhaps not the holy grail of features that some might think it is.
The main camera is supported by an 8-megapixel ultra-wide, with f/2.2 aperture. It’s a little low in the resolution stakes and that’s where there’s a compromise in Poco’s offering – it pitches its strengths as gaming rather than focusing on photography and that’s what plays out.
The main camera is pretty good in normal daylight conditions, taking nice realistic shots with plenty of detail and benefitting from the HDR results in normal Photo mode. You’ll see in the Gallery in HyperOS and in Google Photos, as the HDR data brightens the image. Talking about brightness, Poco makes a big deal out of the f/1.5 aperture, which allows a lot of light in, but also shortens the depth of field, meaning that when you’re close to a subject, less of it is in focus.
For a landscape that doesn’t matter, but get closer to something to get a more detailed shot and you’ll find that not much is in focus. This is where a macro would help (assuming it was good quality), but the 2x zoom offered from the main camera gives good results and is worth using to avoid this depth-of-field problem.
The ultra-wide camera is mediocre at best. The colour temperature is totally different, which you can see in the sample photos, where the main camera image has a blue sky, but in the ultra-wide it’s a sort of grey-brown.
That’s evident through the viewfinder, with a yellow hue to the ultra-wide. Take a couple of pictures of the same scene and it looks like you’re there on totally different days. The ultra-wide also introduces noise in shadows even at low ISO and in reasonable light.
The front camera seems competent enough, able to pick out edges well for portrait photos, with the ability to adjust the blurring effect – “bokeh” – and with a range of beauty effects you can dig into, if that’s your thing.
The low-light performance is reasonable for the price, if you stick to the main camera. It suffers from lens flare and reflections fairly easily and this can obscure images. The use of high ISO levels means that details can be softened and darker areas really noisy. But it will likely get that snap you wanted so you can share it on social media. Although the main camera will detect low light and force a longer exposure, the Night mode is a lot more effective.
Poco offers a range of AI editing tools for its images, accessed via the Gallery app. This includes reflection removal, a one-touch photo enhancer, eraser, expander (to recrop the image), and the option to change the sky. This is very much in the vein of other AI image editors and although I tested a few of these out, at the time of writing, those features aren’t working – something other Poco owners are reporting.
Performance
- Powerful Dimensity hardware
- Great gaming performance
- Stays cool under load
There’s a MediaTek Dimensity 8400-Ultra powering the Poco X7 Pro. This hardware sits under the flagship 9000 series chips, but only just – so don’t think that because you’re looking at phone that costs a little over £300 that it’s going to be a slouch. This is where Poco really earns its points, with performance being the focus.
There are two versions of this phone, the 8/256GB or 12/512GB, the latter of which was the model I had in for review. Despite the higher RAM and storage model costing a little more – it lifts the price to £350 – it’s still frighteningly good value for money for the performance it offers. This phone is slick and fast in daily use and, unsurprisingly, it’s a great phone for gaming.
I spent far too many hours playing Call of Duty Mobile on the Poco X7 Pro and found it to be nice and responsive. That performance doesn’t seem to drop off either and I found that it didn’t heat up excessively when gaming. Some of that will come down to the larger liquid cooling system that Poco has in the X7 Pro – it certainly seems effective – as well as optimisation of the hardware.
The gaming experience is boosted by the gaming features, allowing access to common settings with a swipe, without having to leave the game. This means you can sort out things like pesky auto-brightness easily – but be warned that once you’ve finished gaming, that auto-brightness won’t be turned back on, so if you think your phone is excessively bright for the rest of the day, you’re right – it is.
That solid performance is reflected in the benchmarks we ran and from a performance perspective, the Poco X7 Pro can hold its own against flagship phones that cost twice as much.
Unfortunately, the performance of the phone was spoilt by connectivity problems, often dropping mobile phone connectivity for extended periods. I factory reset the phone to try and fix this problem, but still found that I’d lost my connection for up to 20 minutes, with intermittent access. This might be a fault with my review unit, or it could be a wider problem – something worth checking against other reviews.
Software & AI
- Xiaomi HyperOS 2.0, Android 15
- 3 OS updates, 4 years security
- Stuffed with bloatware
As Poco is a Xiaomi phone, it’s no surprise to find that it runs Xiaomi’s software, here presented as HyperOS 2.0, and based on Android 15.
Getting to the update situation first, Poco says you’ll get three Android version updates and 4 years of security updates, which puts Poco a long way behind the likes of Google, which offers 7 years on the Pixel 8a and Samsung, which offers 7 years on its flagship devices, but only 4 OS updates and 5 years of security on its Galaxy A35. Still, Poco is behind.
HyperOS 2.0 makes some changes to stock Android behaviour, presenting split notifications and quick settings when swiping down from the top, for example, while also splitting your apps into categories in the apps tray, allowing you to swipe between different types of apps. This makes the phone look really busy, but thankfully, you can turn that off and just have a clean apps tray instead.
Poco – or Xiaomi rather – loves its themes and something like changing the wallpaper is more fiddly than it needs to be, as you’re sent off into a minefield of wallpaper options, interlaced with adverts, as you try to find something attractive. Just using your phone images takes many more clicks than it should. I only mention this, because it’s a great analogy for the software experience as a whole.
It’s a complete workover and rearrangement of Android – if you’d rather have a cleaner software experience, you’ll find that in a phone like the Moto G85. You’ll also have to step around a fair amount of duplication – a second app store, a second gallery, a second and third browser – while there’s a wealth of pre-installed applications, including AliExpress, a handful of games, Booking.com, WPS Office and others.
On startup you’ll be prompted to install a full selection of “recommended” apps. I found this to also include app-du-jour DeepSeek, which you might want to think twice about before installing, as it’s already starting to raise questions about privacy.
You can uninstall a lot of this stuff, but you get the point – it’s a messy experience – and I especially dislike the fact that the camera icon looks like a colourful copy of the Chrome icon.
Add to that minor usability elements – like offering quick launch for the camera on a double press of volume down rather than the power button – just seems at odds with most of the rest of the Android market.
Long press the power button and Gemini will launch, offering Google’s on-device AI, but there’s a whole range of other AI features packed into the phone, which all trickle down from Xiaomi’s offering. That includes Call Boost, Notes, Recorder, AI subtitles, AI Interpreter and those AI features offered in the gallery.
As with most phones, it’s AI doing translation and summary in a number of native apps. Naturally, Google’s AI flows into its own apps, so this is Poco towing the AI line rather than offering anything unique.
Battery life
- 6000mAh battery
- Lasts all day, if not two
- 90W charging supported
One of the attractive features of some of the more affordable phones available is better battery life than flagship rivals. The Poco X7 Pro finds itself with a 6000mAh battery, which is large by any measure – nearly 20% more capacious than the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. In a device that’s potentially draining less power, that means lower demands on the battery and real endurance in day-to-day use.
The Poco X7 Pro will easily last the day. If you don’t charge it overnight it hardly matters, because it would last the next day too. One of the benefits of a larger battery is that it appeals to gamers who might be running intensive games for longer periods, which stresses the phone more.
But this is supported by 90W charging, which is a real asset. There’s no charger in the box – Poco recommends a 90W PD charger, or Xiaomi’s 125W charger for even faster charge speeds. I plugged it into the 90W charger from an old Huawei MateBook X Pro. It will get warm during 90W charging and there are settings to manage charging to preserve battery health – but if you’re in a pinch and have almost no time to recharge, then the Poco X7 Pro can recharge in a flash.
In my tests, I found with that 90W charger that I could get from 0-100% in under an hour, with a 50% charge taking around 23 minutes.
There’s no wireless charging, no reverse charging or anything else, but in reality, I’d rather take fast charging than those other features.
Should you buy it?
You want an affordable gaming phone
The Poco X7 Pro has plenty of power for games, a great display a great battery life.
You want a clean software experience
The Poco X7 Pro is heavily modified, loaded with bloat and adverts, lacking the clean Android experience you’ll find elsewhere.
Final Thoughts
The Poco X7 Pro delivers on its aim of offering gaming power at a lower price. It will out-perform more expensive rivals and I found it a great phone for games, backed by good battery life and that fast recharging. Premium touches like IP68 protection add to the package and is less common on affordable devices. The camera is ok, but it’s not a highlight of this phone.
But the software experience could be better. There are a lot of additional apps and services that are added to this device, with adverts appearing when you’re trying to do something simple like change the wallpaper. Some of this bloat can be removed, while many of the changes that step away from a typical Android experience can be turned off, but it’s still more work than it should be.
If it’s a cleaner experience you want, then look to Motorola – a phone like the Moto Edge 50 Neo offers a much cleaner experience for around the same price.
Trusted Score
How we test
We test every mobile phone we review thoroughly. We use industry-standard tests to compare features properly and we use the phone as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.
- Used as a main phone for over a week
- Thorough camera testing in a variety of conditions
- Tested and benchmarked using respected industry tests and real-world data
FAQs
The Poco X7 Pro comes with an IP68 rating, meaning it’s protected against dust and water ingress into the device.
Poco has confirmed that you’ll get 3 OS updates and 4 years of security updates on the Poco X7 Pro.
The Poco X7 Pro supports PD charging up to 90W. It doesn’t come with a charger in Europe.
Test Data
| Poco X7 Pro Review | |
|---|---|
| Geekbench 6 single core | 1575 |
| Geekbench 6 multi core | 5884 |
| Max brightness | 3200 nits |
| 1 hour video playback (Netflix, HDR) | 7 % |
| 30 minute gaming (light) | 5 % |
| Time from 0-100% charge | 48 min |
| Time from 0-50% charge | 23 Min |
| 30-min recharge (no charger included) | 71 % |
| 15-min recharge (no charger included) | 33 % |
| 3D Mark – Wild Life | 3706 |
| GFXBench – Aztec Ruins | 63 fps |
| GFXBench – Car Chase | 78 fps |
Full Specs
| Poco X7 Pro Review | |
|---|---|
| UK RRP | £309 |
| Manufacturer | Xiaomi |
| Screen Size | 6.7 inches |
| Storage Capacity | 256GB, 512GB |
| Rear Camera | 50MP + 8MP |
| Front Camera | 20MP |
| Video Recording | No |
| IP rating | IP68 |
| Battery | 6000 mAh |
| Fast Charging | No |
| Size (Dimensions) | 75.2 x 8.3 x 160.8 MM |
| Weight | 195 G |
| ASIN | B0DKP4M9DS |
| Operating System | Android 15 |
| Release Date | 2025 |
| First Reviewed Date | 31/01/2025 |
| Resolution | 1220 x 2712 |
| HDR | No |
| Refresh Rate | 120 Hz |
| Ports | USB-C |
| Chipset | MediaTek Dimensity 8400-Ultra |
| RAM | 12GB, 8GB |
| Colours | Black/Yellow, White, Green |
| Stated Power | 90 W |
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