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Realme 7 Review : Do the small upgrades over the Realme 6 make it a perfect mid-ranger to be considered?


Realme 7

An upgraded Realme 6 with some more. 


Realme 6 series came out in February and was a massive hit as both the Realme 6 and the 6 Pro came with powerful specifications that were seen in the mid-range segment.

Realme 6 was one of the best devices as it was equipped with a 90Hz display, a Mediatek Helio G90T chipset, and a good set of cameras just under Rs.15000.

Now Realme has launched a successor to the Realme 6, the Realme 7. The Realme 7 is not a huge upgrade over the Realme 6 but comes with some substantial changes as it has all the features of the Realme 6 with some more.

It is the first smartphone in the world to be powered by the Mediatek Helio G95 chipset and has a newer main camera which is the Sony IMX682 sensor.

So do the powerful chipset, newer cameras, bigger battery makes it a promising mid-ranger to consider and also fill the gap where the older Realme 6 left?

Let's find out in the full review.

Realme 7 Design:



In terms of design, the Realme 7 is not much different from its predecessor, the Realme 6 which had a plastic back with a premium look to it. Realme 7 introduces a new design pattern at the back with a two-tone color that shines when tilted in different angles that too, a slightly different color.

The slightly matte finish feels a bit grippy to hold when compared to a glass back. The back catches fewer fingerprints and Realme has provided a plastic case within the box. 

On the front, you get a similar 6.5 inches panel straight from the Realme 6 with a single punch hole camera on the top left corner. There are minimum bezels to the sides except for the bottom, which has a slightly thicker one.




On top of the display, lies the earpiece and above is the primary earphone and coming to the bottom, there are the usual loudspeaker vent, a USB Type-C port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The volume buttons with the SIM card slot are present on the left and the power button on the right. There is also a dedicated microSD card slot for storage expansion.




Just like the Realme 6, the Realme 7 has the side-mounted fingerprint scanner embedded on the power button which makes it much more reliable than aback or an in-display one as mostly you will hit the power button whenever using the smartphone. 

On the back, the camera module is different as Realme has gone for a rectangular housing for all the four cameras on the Realme 7 instead of the vertical quad-camera strip to the right corner as seen on the Realme 6 with a slight bump.

The Realme 7 has P2i coating on the back i.e. it is splash resistant and weighs around 197 grams which is slightly heavier than the Realme 6 which is mainly due to the massive 5000mAh battery underneath. The design is a slight refresh over the Realme 6 but not a big change and looks good.

Check here: Realme 6 Review

Realme 7 Display:



The Realme 7 houses the same display as found on the Realme 6 i.e. a 6.5 inches Full HD+ (1080x2400 pixels) and is having a screen-to-body ratio of 90.5%. This is an IPS LCD panel and has the 90Hz refresh rate. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3 and it also has a 120Hz touch sampling rate.

The display is good considering it is an LCD panel with good viewing angles. However, when compared to an AMOLED panel, the display does feel short when it comes to viewing angles and color reproduction. The color levels are good but the level of brightness is not so good.


Scrolling through the applications and multitasking feels smoother to use. You can tweak the refresh rate between 60Hz, 90Hz, and Auto-refresh option that selects the best refresh rate for an application. This is one of the few smartphones to have a higher refresh rate at this price range.

The peak brightness is set at 480 nits which is lesser compared to the competition but under direct sunlight or at night, you would not feel much of a problem. The auto-brightness calibration needs some improvement.

There is support for Widevine L1 so you can stream HD content from third-party applications like Netflix, Prime, etc. The display does not have support for HDR content but what sets it apart from all its rivals is the smoother 90Hz refresh rate.




There are various color temperature settings that include Cool, Default, Warm, and also Vivid and Gentle. It all depends on the level of saturation of the display you want and the Realme 7 does not disappoint here.

With a higher refresh rate and a massive display. Realme 7 is a treat to use when it comes to playing games or view content on the display.

Check also: Realme X3 Superzoom Review 

Realme 7 Performance:



The Realme 7 is the first smartphone to incorporate the newer Mediatek Helio G95 chipset globally. This is essentially the same Mediatek Helio G90T chipset but the GPU has 100Mhz more clock speed. The Mediatek Helio G95 has 2x2.05 GHz Cortex A76 cores and another 6x2.05 GHz Cortex A55 cores built on a 12nm process.

It is coupled with a Mali G76 GPU which is clocked at 900MHz compared to the 800MHz speed on the Mediatek Helio G90T on the Realme 6. This might not be as efficient say a Snapdragon 720G which is built on the 8nm process, but what it provides good performance being a mid-range smartphone.

The smartphone handles all the casual activities like browsing the internet, social media like Facebook, Instagram, etc. with ease. Multitasking feels really good as the RAM management has been done pretty well.  

The Realme 7 comes with two variants, the base being the 6GB RAM and 64GB storage and another 8GB RAM and 128GB storage variant with UFS 2.1 storage speeds. The RAM here is of the LPDDR4X configuration. Plus the GPU has something called HyperEngine technology that improves gaming performance.

All heavy games like Call of Duty, Asphalt 9 Extreme ran smoothly where each game could max out at the highest graphics settings. The back of the smartphone did not feel much warm since the plastic back dissipates good heat compared to the glass back. Plus there is a carbon cooling chamber. 




The 90Hz display comes into picture while playing all heavy games as the controls feel easy to hand and the 120Hz touch input feels responsive. So coming to synthetic benchmarks like Antutu v8, the Realme 7 scored 297571 which is slightly more than the 283343 on the Realme 6 running the Mediatek Helio G90T.

Overall, the Realme 7 outshines all its rivals in this price segment when it comes to gaming and performance especially with the powerful Mediatek Helio G95 chipset and the 90Hz display.

Realme 7 Software:




The Realme 7 runs on the RealmeUI built on top of Android 10. As we all know RealmeUI is a cleaner iteration of ColorOS and provides user experience almost closer to Stock Android. There are a lot of third-party applications installed and can be uninstalled when needed.

You can customize the icons, there is the system-wide dark mode, a screen recorder feature with internal recording, side smart bar, and like the Realme X3 Superzoom, Realme 7 also comes with the Stock Google Phone, contact, and messaging apps.

There is also an App Cloner which lets you chose two different interfaces and the dedicated Game Mode works well. Then there is the Dual-Mode audio which you can use two audio devices connected at the same time.

Still, there are ads present but not too much like on the MIUI on Xiaomi smartphones. There is also a Recommendation in the settings application which can be turned off. Other than these, the RealmeUI feels smooth and easier to use.

With each software update, the RealmeUI feels improved and provides a good experience.

Realme 7 Cameras:



The Realme 7 feels an improvement over the Realme 6 when it comes to cameras. Now there is a newer 64MP Sony IMX682 sensor for the main camera whereas the other three cameras remain the same.

  • 64MP f/1.8 Sony IMX682 camera 
  • 8MP f/2.3 ultrawide camera with 119-degree field of view
  • 2MP f/2.4 macro camera
  • 2MP f/2.4 depth camera for portraits.
The 64MP main camera does a good job of taking images. The images have plenty of detail, colors look punchier and the dynamic range is wider. There seems some over-saturation is some of the images and Realme has the Chromaboost which over-saturates color making the images look artificial.



But when compared to the 64MP Samsung ISOCELL GW1 sensor on the Realme 6, the Sony sensor feels better. Using the 64MP mode, the images have a good amount of detail but the noise is present more when compared to pixel-binned photos at 16MP and have better details than the Realme 6.

At night, the 64MP camera works pretty well as the images have plenty of detail, colors look punchier but the noise is quite seen. The dedicated Night Mode and this does improve the background as it improves dynamic range, highlights the details in the shadows, and also improves noise.




There is also a Starry Mode that we first saw on the Realme X3 Superzoom and has different filter options which include Cyberpunk, Flamingo, and Modern Gold which is a good addition but not that useful.

The 8MP ultrawide camera does a decent job of taking wide-angle shots and like every mid-ranger under Rs.20000, it performs the same for all the smartphones. The images have good dynamic range and detail but the colors do not look as good as from the primary camera.



Similarly, at night, the ultrawide images have good detail but the images look softer with a lot of noise present. The dynamic range is pretty average but the Night Mode does improve the noise in the background and brings out the highlight in shadows better.

The 2MP macro camera does take good images as the camera can focus as close as 4cm and the details are good. The dynamic range is average but the images do look softer. The autofocus works well.




The 2MP depth sensor takes portraits with a good amount of detail and the skin tones look natural. It retains good color and the background blur is well maintained. While zooming in, we can find the tiny highlights with plenty of detail and good contrast. Still, the edge detection needs improvement.

On the front, the Realme 7 gets a 16MP f/2.0 front camera that takes very good selfies with plenty of detail and has good contrast and dynamic range. The skin tones looked a bit washed out and the beauty mode gets enabled by default.

You can turn that off and Realme has provided a new punch-hole Light Effect which lights up when using the front camera or unlocking the face. With HDR turned on, the colors pop out well and do not look over-saturated. But the contrast needs some improvement.

The portraits come out good from the front camera of the Realme 7 with proper background blur but when zoomed in, the images do look a bit softer and the noise is quite present. Here also the edge detection needs some improvement.

The Realme 7 can shoot videos up to 4k at 30fps. Here the videos come out good but the dynamic range takes a hit but the details are far better than the videos taken from the Realme 6. The stabilization may not be great but switching to 1080p at 30 or 60fps, improves stabilization.

The 1080p videos shot from the ultrawide camera come out good but the details are not so good as the colors do look a bit washed out. There is an Ultra Steady and an Ultra Steady Max stabilization which works well and reduces some amount of noise in the videos.

The videos from the front camera come out good with plenty of detail and with the HDR turned on, the background gets slightly oversaturated and the dynamic range is good throughout. The portrait videos come out good with proper background blur what Realme likes to call the Bokeh-Effect.

Overall, the cameras are good and it may not be a step up over Realme 6, but the newer Sony IMX682 sensor does bring in some improvement with details but other cameras are just average.

Realme 7 Battery Life:



The Realme 7 houses a massive 5000mAh battery which can easily last for two full days with normal usage when the display is set to 60Hz. It is 700mAh more capacity than the 4300mAh battery on the Realme 6. With normal usage, the Realme 7 can last for one and a half days with the refresh rate set to 60Hz.

With moderate usage to heavy usage that includes 3-4 hours of playing games, scrolling through webpages, browsing social media, the Realme 7 easily lasted for one single day with the display set to 90Hz. There are additional power-saving modes to stretch that extra battery life also.

The standard screen on time was around 5.5-6 hours with the display set to 90Hz and it further increases to 6-7 hours at 60Hz. However, the Mali G76 GPU is quite efficient and the RealmeUI provides good optimizations to the battery.

Realme 7 like Realme 6 comes bundled with a 30W SuperDart charger that can charge the smartphone from 0 to 100 percent in 1 hour and 20 minutes which is slightly more than the 55minutes charging time on the Realme 6.

This is due to the massive 5000mAh battery on the Realme 7, so it takes quite an amount of time to charge it. The first half an hour brings Realme 7 from o to 70 percent which is really good.

The bigger battery and faster charging make the Realme 7 a perfect powerhouse to own.

Realme 7 Audio Quality:

The Realme 7 houses only a single firing bottom loudspeaker which is adequately loud and clear. The sound does not feel distorted at the highest volume levels but seems a bit muffled when taken in a crowded place. The clarity is good though.

There is support for Dolby Atmos which enhances the sound further when you are watching movies or listening to songs by getting a far clear and better sound. The audio through the 3.5mm headphone jack is also good and gets the job done.

Verdict:



The Realme 7 is not a huge upgrade over the Realme 6 but does bring in some improvements that include the slightly faster chipset, newer set of cameras, newer design, and also a massive 5000mAh battery while keeping all the features of the Realme 6 in checks like the 90Hz display, RealmeUI skin, and the faster 30W charging. 

However, if you see as a mid-ranger, the Realme 7 offers a lot to the end customer. It has a Full HD+ display with a 90Hz refresh rate, a good set of cameras, a powerful Mediatek Helio G95 chipset, and combined with is the faster 30W SuperDart charging.

Still, there are some drawbacks like the plastic build when compared to the glass build on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro and then the ultrawide camera is not so good. The RealmeUI provides a good user experience but the presence of ads makes it cumbersome to use.

If you can look past the drawbacks what you are getting is a smartphone with a very good display, the one with the best gaming chipset, good battery life, and faster charging with good user experience. 

The small upgrades over the Realme 6 make it a perfect mid-ranger to be considered. Realme 7 is sure to create an impact on the mid-range segment and will mark itself as a success in the market.

See also: Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro Review





















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