Realme 7 Pro Review – The Budget Performer

Realme comes up with new launches of its mid-range series every six months, and the new series 7 was launched on September 3, 2020. The new Realme 7 Pro packs in some good specs for an upgrade but it also misses out on some specifications over its predecessor, the Realme 6 Pro. It has a new super AMOLED display over the IPS LCD, but the screen refresh rate is the standard 60Hz as compared to the faster 90 Hz refresh rate on the Realme 6 Pro. It brings with it the 65-watt Superdart charging but has the same old chipset, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G (though an efficient and powerful chipset) as present on the earlier model. Overall, the Realme 7 Pro is like a slightly different take on the 6 Pro rather than a full-blown upgrade.

The Realme 7 Pro comes in two variants 6GB RAM and 128GB of storage and 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage. You can choose among the two colour options available, Mirror Blue and Mirror Silver. Realme has also introduced a new Sun Kissed Leather variant which was added a month later of the launch. The device is available on both Flipkart and Amazon India with a price tag of ₹19,999/- for the 6GB+128GB variant and ₹21,999/- for the 8GB+128GB variant.

Flipkart is offering a buy with an exchange offer with an exchange value of up to ₹14,500 on your old device, along with other deals and discounts. It includes 5% off on Axis Bank Buzz credit card, and no-cost EMI option is also available.

The box contents of the Realme 7 Pro looks as usual and include everything the same as before:

• Realme 7 Pro device
• Pre-installed 2D screen protector.
• Transparent Protective case.
• 65W SuperDart charger.
• USB Cable (Type-A to Type-C)
• SIM ejector tool and documentation.

Let me talk about the specifications of the Realme 7 Pro at first:

• Display: 60Hz Super AMOLED Display
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G, Adreno 618
• RAM & ROM: 6GB/8GB, 128GB
• Software: Android 10
• Rear camera: 64MP + 8MP + 2MP + 2MP
• Selfie camera: 32MP
• Battery: 4500 mAh, 65W SuperDart Charge
• Weight: 182g
• Dimensions: 160.9 x 74.3 x 8.7 mm

With key specs discussed, let’s jump right into the review of the Realme 7 Pro. 

Realme is famous for its eye-catching designs for all its smartphone lineups, and the Realme 7 Pro is no exception at all. The device sports a split-tone finish plastic back that looks great and feels pretty sturdy too. The matte finish gives it that smooth texture which feels nice to touch, and it also doesn’t attract too many fingerprints. The back is a bit curved towards the longer sides and made of plastic. The display is a 6.4 inch Super AMOLED which is protected by a flat Gorilla Glass 3+ to keep the screen safe.

The overall dimensions(in mm) of the device are 160.90 x 74.30 x 8.70. The device fits properly in average or small hands and weighs around 182 gms which is 20 gm less than its predecessor. Overall the in-hand feel of this device is pretty good.

The screen has very thin bezels around the top and the sides with an average size chin at the bottom. The display cut-out for the selfie camera is a tiny punch-hole around the top left corner. It’s good that Realme has dropped the pill-shaped dual camera setup for the front camera which was present on the Realme 6 Pro as many users find it quite prominent while watching videos and other content on the screen.

There is one very thin and long grille above the screen which is the earpiece cum speaker. The phone has a stereo speaker setup, and it sounds good. The camera module at the back is a fresh design on the Realme 7 Pro. It is rectangular with curved corners and houses the four cameras, ultrawide and macro snappers (top row), the primary camera in the middle, and the depth sensor and the LED flash (bottom row). The bottom is where you see the 3.5mm headphone jack, the mouthpiece, the USB-C port and the louder second speaker. On the right, the power button is particularly clicky, while the split volume rocker and the sim tray are present on the left edge. The top edge houses the secondary noise-cancellation microphone.

The display is what has been one of the significant changes in Realme 7 Pro over the Realme 6 Pro. While the Realme 6 Pro has a 6.6-inch 90Hz LCD panel, Realme 7 Pro features a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED panel with the standard 60Hz refresh rate. So while you miss on a faster and smoother display, you get more vibrant and brighter display colours on the Realme 7 Pro. Realme did not make this decision lightly, though. The smartphone manufacturer polled its fans over the social media platforms, and they voted for a 60Hz OLED instead of a 90 Hz LCD. Although for people who prefer higher refresh rate, the regular Realme 7 model comes with such display- so you can still have the 90Hz LCD panel there.

The FHD+ display on the Realme 7 Pro has a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels (411 PPI) with 90.8 per cent screen-to-body ratio and an aspect ratio of 20:9. The display seems to be plenty bright for an OLED with a maximum brightness of 460 nits, and it can go as high as 585 nits with Adaptive Brightness ON. With such a brilliant and bright display, you sure will have no problem at all while viewing the screen even in direct sunlight. Finally, the minimum brightness that the device can achieve is 2.4 nits which sure is an excellent result.

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Realme 7 Pro supports Widevine L1 DRM, so you will be able to enjoy the maximum video quality across all streaming services. It also supports DCI-P3 and sRGB colour spaces. One can choose between Brilliant (oversaturated), Vivid (default, DCI-P3), or Gentle (sRGB) colour modes. In each mode, there is a colour temperature slider going from cool to warm. Overall, the colour reproduction on the Realme 7 Pro is quite impressive with deep black and punchy colours.

Realme 7 Pro comes with the Snapdragon 720G under the hood which is the exact same processor as the Realme 6 Pro. The reason behind maybe Realme’s mantra of not fixing what isn’t broken. The 8nm octa-core chipset paired with the Adreno 618 GPU keeps the phone running smooth. It undoubtedly handles day to day usage quite efficiently. As for the gaming part, it performs satisfactorily well with minor frame drops sometimes. Over time the Snapdragon 720G has proved that it is quite an efficient chipset when it comes to handling battery drain and does not heat up as well. That goes with the Realme 7 Pro as well; you can enjoy longer gaming sessions without the device getting heated up which ensures good performance while running heavy applications and games like Call of Duty and Asphalt 9 even when the graphics settings are set to high. The device comes with 128GB of base storage with UFS 2.1 and 6GB/8GB LPDDRX RAM. It also has an expandable storage option with a dedicated microSD card slot.

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On the software end, the Realme 7 Pro ships with Realme UI v1.0 which is based on Android 10 operating system. The new launcher looks a lot like vanilla Android. An App drawer is available, with a clutter-free experience and it is optional too, i.e. one can opt-out of it if they want. Realme UI supports different icon packs to choose from if you are not satisfied with the default one. The dark mode is also available, and it can be manual or scheduled. There is also the option for a Smart Sidebar on the edge of the screen which is customisable to include the actions and app shortcuts of your choice. Realme also promises a 2-year update cycle for most of its devices which surely includes the Realme 7 Pro. The Realme UI promises to provide a clean user experience with fewer ads and no banned apps preinstalled in the device. There are a few apps which come preinstalled like the Amazon app and some Realme apps, but you can uninstall most of them.

The overall user-experience of the Realme UI is quite pleasant. The interface is snappy, clutter-free and easy to use.

The camera system in the Realme 7 Pro is a slight downgrade as compared to its predecessor. It lacks the telephoto lens and also the secondary ultra-wide camera at the front. Instead the Realme 7 Pro packs a 64 MP primary shooter with Sony IMX 682 Quad-Bayer sensor with f/1.8 lens, 0.8µm pixels with PDAF. The second is the 8 MP Ultrawide lens with f/2.3 aperture and 1.125µm pixels. The other two sensors are the 2MP Macro and a depth sensor. The selfie camera at the front is a 32 MP shooter with f/2.5 lens.

The main camera by default captures images in 16 MP and photos come out really good with enough details and true-to-life colours. The dynamic range is good with excellent contrast. While there is slight oversharpening and some noise visible here and there, but it doesn’t spoil the image quality. You can also shoot at the maximum 64MP resolution, which results in capturing some extra details. Shots taken in daylight look decent enough, and the camera performs well in artificial lighting conditions too. There is a definite loss of detail once the light starts dropping. It is recommended using the Night mode in the dark. At the expense of some fine detail, you will get much brighter photos and the colours are better rather than washed out.

The 8MP ultrawide lens captures photos which are poor in detail and noisy too. It does support the Night Mode, but unfortunately, the limits of the 8MP resolution are evident here. The images come out brighter, but the colours and contrast are not that great.

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Apart from the normal Night Mode, there is also a Tripod Mode which adjusts the shooting time (20 seconds, maybe 50 in some scenarios) according to the amount of ambient lighting. The results are pretty impressive with excellent colour retention. There is also an option of Starry Mode with which you can capture the night sky for people who love to take the pictures of stars, although you have to keep the camera stable for around 4-5 minutes.

The 32 MP selfie camera on the Realme 7 Pro captures images with rich details. The skin tones also come out good. Earlier, there were some issues in the dynamic range of the photos taken in portrait mode with the selfie camera, but Realme has corrected it with an update. Now, the selfies shot in the portrait mode come out really great with proper edge detection and good dynamic range. 4K video capturing at 60 fps is only available for the main camera. While you can record videos at 1080p/720p at 30 fps with the ultrawide camera. The front camera allows capturing at 1080p/720p at 60 fps. Support for EIS is present on all cameras.

The Realme 7 Pro has surely taken a step forward on the battery front as compared to the Realme 6 Pro. The 4,500mAh Li-Po battery is a step up from the 4,300mAh found on the earlier model. The phone delivers excellent battery life which can last a day and a half for normal usage, which involves calls, social media use and multimedia consumption. However, extended gaming sessions will definitely put a dent in battery life, but a full day of use should be easy enough.

Also, the 65-watt SuperDart charging further ensures that you can top up the lost juice in no time.
The device goes from zero to 100 per cent in just 37 minutes! And 10 to 12 minutes of charging takes the battery from zero to 50 per cent. The good thing is that Realme 7 Pro ships with the 65-watt charging brick and a USB-A to Type-C cable inside the box. The Superdart charging animation that activates upon connecting to the charger is really awesome!

The Realme 7 Pro includes a stereo speaker setup which is a nice upgrade over the mono speaker of the Realme 6 Pro. The bottom edge has the main speaker, which is louder than the one present on the grille above the screen, that houses both the earpiece and the second speaker. Both the speakers combined create the sufficiently loud stereo effect, but the audio output isn’t that stellar. It lacks depth and sounds tinny while playing heavy bass audio. POCO X3, its biggest competitor, has a sound output which is richer and certainly has more depth than the Realme 7 Pro. The audio output of the 3.5mm headphone jack is pretty good even when paired up with high-end headphones. Also, the Bluetooth audio is just as good as anything else in the segment. There is support for AAC, AptX HD, and LDAC, which ensures high-quality audio output no matter which headset you are using.

The earpiece used by Realme on the 7 Pro has a good quality output, and you will never have any complaints about it while on a call. Also, the noise cancellation is pretty good, and the receiver never complained of any ambient noise on call. The recorder app does a good job, and the recordings are clear, with minimal noise in the background.

Realme 7 Pro supports dual sim (Nano-SIM) with 4G enabled on both the sims. Other connectivity options on the Realme 7 Pro include dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.1, USB Type-C 2.0 and USB On-The-Go. Another good thing is that it supports India’s very own NavIC GPS along with A-GPS, BDS and GLONASS. You don’t get an FM radio antenna with this device, but all other sensors like accelerometer, gyro, proximity sensor and compass are present on the Realme 7 Pro.

Realme 7 Pro features an in-display fingerprint sensor which is fairly fast. You can also choose among the various animations available for the fingerprint sensor. As for the Face Unlock, it is pretty fast as well and detects your face accurately in almost every scenario. As usual, you can set up a 6-digit secure Password or PIN.

Pros

• 64MP quad-camera Setup
• Dual Stereo Speakers
• 65W SuperDart Charge
• TUV Rheinland Verified
• Beautiful & vibrant display

Cons

• Outdated processor
• Standard refresh rate
• No telephoto lens