Poco F7 Review: Big Power, Bigger Battery, Tiny Compromises

After a noticeable gap in the Nepali market, POCO has officially returned with three new smartphones — the POCO X7 Pro, POCO F7, and POCO F8 Pro. Among them, the POCO F7 is positioned as the performance-focused option, targeting buyers who want near-flagship power without crossing the NPR 70,000 mark.

With an official price of NPR 69,999 for the 12GB + 512GB variant in Nepal, the F7 competes directly with strong upper midrange contenders like the Samsung Galaxy A56 (review), OnePlus Nord 5 (review), and Vivo V60 (review). That makes one question important: Is the POCO F7 truly worth its price in Nepal? Let me tell you all Poco F7 review in detail!

Poco F7 Specifications:

• Design, build: 7.98mm thickness, 222g (India variant), Glass front and back (Gorilla Glass 7i), Aluminum frame, IP66/IP68/IP69 rating
• Display: 6.83-inch AMOLED, 1.5K (1280 × 2772), 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+, Dolby Vision
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4, Octa-core (1× 3.21GHz Cortex-X4), Adreno 825 GPU
• Memory: 12GB LPDDR5X RAM, 256GB / 512GB UFS 4.1 storage (no card slot)
• Software & UI: HyperOS 2.0 on top of Android 15
• Rear Camera: 50MP (Sony IMX882, f/1.5, OIS) + 8MP ultrawide (f/2.2)
• Front Camera: 20MP (f/2.2)
• Security: Under-display fingerprint sensor
• Audio: Dual stereo speakers
• Connectivity: 5G, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, NFC, Infrared port, USB Type-C OTG
• Battery: 6,500mAh, 90W fast charging, 22.5W reverse wired charging
• Price in Nepal: NPR 69,999 (12/512GB)

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Poco F7 Review:

Design and Build

Alright, let me start with the areas Poco has improved the most, and one of those has to be the design. If you remember, the Poco F6 (Which didn't launch in Nepal by the way) had a plastic body and was not exactly the most attractive design to look at.
 

But this year, we get an aluminium frame as well as a glass back on the Poco F7. So, it feels so much more premium than something like the IQOO Neo 10, which has a plastic back and frames. I accidentally dropped this phone last week, and there’s a big dent and discoloration, which is something aluminium frames would have somewhat protected against.

In any case, I like how the Poco F7 looks like – it has a squared-off, edgy design that all of my gamer colleagues have given a thumbs up to.

The one I am using is the special Silver Colour edition, which looks quite refreshing, and we also have a tiny Snapdragon logo over here – how cool is that? However, if this isn't your style, you can also opt for the standard Black or White colour options.

IP ratings

Another improvement this time is that we also get proper IP68 dust and water resistance here. However, Poco has not exactly disclosed which glass protection it has included at the back, but I am guessing it’s a Poco Shield glass, like the one they had with the more expensive Poco F7 Ultra (review). Likewise, we get a downgraded Gorilla Glass 7i vs the Gorilla Glass Victus we had on the Poco F6.
 

Anyway, what I appreciate about Poco is that they have always been one of the brands that provide a cover, a pre-applied screen protector out of the box, so you don’t have to worry about getting an aftermarket one.

But one thing I experienced during my one week of use is that this is not your typical one-handed usage kind of phone; it's slightly heavier and wider than a standard phone, so at times, I felt like holding this phone was a bit of a muscle exercise.

Big battery

We get a really big 6,550 mAh Silicone Carbon Battery here. And it provides insane battery life. But the Indian variant takes it even further at 7550mAh.  Even with a smaller 6,500 mAh battery, it provides around a day and a half of endurance. Charging speed, however, is the same as before, at 90 watts, but we do get one inside the box that takes the phone around 1 hour and 10 minutes to charge fully.

Great display

Moving on, with most Poco and Redmi devices, you also get a great display experience on this phone. Apart from having super accurate colours and contrast, the Poco F7 also has all the other high-end qualities like Dolby Vision support on OTT platforms, 3840 Hz PWM dimming, and sufficient brightness for both indoor and outdoor use. I especially love how well Poco has optimised HDR video playback on this device; the F7 really shines while watching dark scenes on Netflix and such.

Even when it comes to interacting with this screen, the haptic feedback is really strong and precise this time, so whether you are gaming or just casually typing, the vibration feels so much better than last year’s Poco F6. I don’t have many complaints regarding its speakers either. It is not the best I have heard in this price range, the iQOO Neo 10 has a louder output, but it's more than good enough for casually listening to music, watching movies or playing games.

Performance

Talking of playing games, the Poco F7 has the best gaming performance you can get in this price range, thanks to the latest Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chipset, LPDDR5X RAM, and UFS 4.1 Storage it has. Now, the SD 8s Gen 4 is not a huge upgrade from the 8s Gen 3, & also nowhere near the 8 Elite we get on Flagship phones, but for the price, I think it is unfair to complain.
 

In all the games I played, I got the most stable FPS in the highest settings here. PUBG ran at an average of 89.9 fps, and the 5% lows were 89, which means there wasn’t much deviation in fps throughout gameplay. 

The same goes for games like Mobile Legends and even heavier titles like Genshin Impact; the Poco F7 rarely stutters while gaming. But there is a catch, even though there is a huge vapour chamber cooling system on the Poco F7, I found this phone heats up pretty quickly while gaming.

The IQOO Neo 10 with the same chip did not heat up as much in any of my gaming tests, but as you can see from this screenshot, there were some noticeable frame drops on IQOO but I didn't face the same issue on the Poco F7.

So, Poco is clearly aiming for better stability Vs higher temperature. Nevertheless, I hope Poco finds a way to manage the heating via software updates. Because once or twice, I even got this overheating message on the screen.

Software

While we are on the topic of updates, Poco has promised 3 years of OS and 4 years of security updates on the F7, which is not bad for a mid-range device. And for the most part, the software experience on this phone has been good enough, too.

But let me be honest, you know I’m not the biggest fan of Xiaomi’s software. And here too, there are still a ton of pre-installed bloatware apps, among which apps like Get apps, Mi Video, and others can’t be uninstalled.

Even in terms of the overall look and feel, I think Xiaomi & Poco need a little revamp.

Although when it comes to customisation, you get a lot of options here. In fact, if you want this phone’s UI to look like the iPhone’s new Glass design, you can download the Hourglass theme from the theme store. You will be surprised to see how similar it is.

How are the cameras?

Ok. Finally, let’s talk about its cameras now, and if you look at the past, Poco has chosen to go with mediocre Omnivision sensors on its F series, but on the Poco F7, we finally get a Sony sensor, a 50 MP Sony IMX 882 with OIS, and an 8MP ultra-wide lens.

I compared its cameras with the IQOO Neo 10, but I am thinking of making a comparison among these phones separately, so right now, let me tell you about the core performance of Poco F7’s cameras.

Daylight

Just like with most Poco and Redmi devices, here too, the images come out a bit contrasty with a lot of whites in them. I did not notice the phone's oversharpening artifacts, and hence, there were decent details in most photos I took with it, but at the same time, the photos don't have the most natural color reproduction either.

If I have to speak from experience, the primary lens here definitely performs better than the Poco F6. The F6 had dynamic range issues, which have improved, but given the superior image sensor this time, I guess the images couldhave been a bit better optimised.

Portraits

Especially the portraits, because sometimes the skin tones in them are great, but sometimes the phone messes up. Hence, you need perfect lighting for this phone to bring out good portraits. If there is insufficient lighting, you may not get a good portrait image from it.

Nighttime

I am happy with its nighttime images, though -- they are on the warmer side, yes, but there are decent details, and there isn’t much difference between the color science of the normal and ultra wide images.

Ultrawide

Of course, with an 8MP sensor, the ultra-wide lens isn’t able to gather as much detail as the primary lens. Day or night, you will only get average-looking ultra-wide photos with the Poco F7.

Selfies

Its selfie camera is better. I like the punchy contrast it produces, the details are there, the photos aren’t overly beautified, and the skin tone is not bad either.

Videos

Even the selfie videos appear nice and lovely with good colors and decent stabilization. But the one thing that sucks is that you can only shoot at 1080p from Poco F7’s selfie camera, no 4k option.

From the back camera, you can shoot up to 4k 60fps videos, and for a performance-centric phone, the output is not bad – it’s good enough, but I have to tell you, you will notice movement jitters and a slightly cropped field of view in the 4k 60 fps mode.

Overall, the camera performance on the Poco F7 is a decent B – usable for casual photo/video.

POCO F7 Review: Conclusion

Okay, conclusion time! And after using the Poco F7 for a week, I must say it’s another great device from Poco for performance-centric users. Besides that, I like the kind of improvements that Poco has made on the design side. The F7 definitely feels like a more premium device than its predecessor and even its competition. Likewise, it features an awesome display, has not cheaped out on speakers and haptics either, and the battery life you get with it is just great for long hours of gaming.

So, unless you are someone who absolutely needs great cameras, the Poco F7 is a good all-arounder device for casual users, too.

POCO F7 Review: Pros and Cons

Pros

• Superb performance with SD 8S Gen 4
• Vibrant display
• Long-lasting battery

Cons

• Okayish cameras
• Bloatware