Realme has unveiled earlier their latest phone in their number series. The Realme 7 is a lower mid-range smartphone with an excellent price over performance ratio. It boasts a large 6.5″ 90HZ IPS LCD screen powered by Mediatek Helio G95 gaming chipset and a large 64MP main cam. In this article, we will see if this is a worthy upgrade from its predecessor–Realme 6.
Table of Contents
Specification
| Realme 7 | |
| Design | 196.5g |
| 9.4mm thick | |
| Plastic Back | |
| Gorilla Glass 3 Front | |
| Mist Blue, Mist White | |
| Display | 6.5″ IPS LCD |
| 1080 x 2400 ,20:9 ratio | |
| 480nits | |
| 90Hz Refresh rate | |
| 405PPI | |
| Camera | 64MP f/1.8 Main Camera |
| 8MP 119˚ Ultrawide | |
| 2MP Macro | |
| 2MP Depth Sensor | |
| 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60fps, gyro-EIS | |
| Selfie | 16MP f/2.1 |
| 1080p@30fps/120fps | |
| Performance | Mediatek Helio G95 (12 nm) |
| Mali-G76 MC4 (900 MHz) | |
| Android 10, Realme UI | |
| 8GB | |
| 128GB | |
| expandable storage (up to 256gb) | |
| Battery | 5000mAh |
| 30W Fast Charging | |
| Features | Wi-Fi 802.11 (2x4GHz) |
| USB Type-C | |
| Bluetooth 5.0 | |
| Fingerprint (side-mounted) | |
| Face Unlock | |
| Price | P14,990 (8GB+128GB) |
Pros
- Large battery capacity
- Wider camera features
- Gaming Chipset
- 90Hz Fluid display
Cons
- Less heat management
- Prone to fingerprint smudges
READ: Realme 7 Unboxing and Hands-On – It became Premium
Build
The Realme 7 has a new design, especially on its camera module. It is now bulkier and inside the module, we will see a quad-camera setup and an LED flash. And you will notice that the yellow circle on the first lens has now gone. The color variant we have is the Mist Blue and to describe the texture, it is smooth matte with a metallic-like looking plastic with a gradient touch along with a vertical line design on the left. It is a fingerprint and smudge magnet but this texture adds a premium feel to the phone which is a great refresher.
Around the frame is still a gradient look and has no change in the button placements like its predecessor. It still has a power button with an integrated fingerprint scanner on the right, and on the right is the volume rockers and a simtray with dual nano sim and an expandable storage slot that can expand up to 256GB. Underneath is the speaker, USB Type-C port, microphone, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
READ: Realme 6 Full Review – Better than the Pro version?
Display
The display boasts a 6.5inch IPS LCD FHD+ (1080×2400) panel sports a 90Hz refresh rate and since it is a 20:9 aspect ratio the body is taller. The screen is protected by Gorilla Glass 3 and it has a hole-punch cutout location at the right spot that may be less distracting especially when watching movies and playing games. It has a great viewing angle with great contrast and the colors are punchier. The smooth fluid display plus the fluid animation of the Realme UI adds an immersive feel when navigating through the UI. When you’re from a 120Hz screen you will still see the motion blur when you scroll fast, but if you are from a 60hz refresh rate phone, switching to 90Hz is a great experience as it is definitely pleasing to look at.
Camera
Now heading to its camera, the Realme 7 is equipped with a Quad Camera setup,
64MP f/1.8 Main Camera
8MP 119˚ Ultrawide
2MP Macro
2MP Depth Sensor
READ: Realme 7 vs Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite Specs Comparison – 90Hz vs AMOLED!
Looking at the 16MP binned down main camera colors are great, contrast and shadow processing or dynamic range is impressive outdoors. It outputs a sharp image without any light leaks especially when shooting landscapes. What’s best is the contrast as it really made the image true to life by adding depth. This means that some parts of the photos are visible even it has shadows and is against the light.
Though shooting indoors we found that the auto white balance is a little less accurate. It detects higher kelvin resulting in a warmer scene. And we think that it needs a patch on the software update. When we capture close-up subject AI scene recognition really does a great job processing the exposure and color handling and it is still sharp at 2x and acceptable quality in 5x.
Shooting at full 64mp and focusing on the leaves it preserves the detail even against the light which is pretty impressive.
Shooting ultrawide it produces deep blacks resulting in quiet unusual contrast if the highlights are way blown out. Basically, it compensates for the sky’s highlight and the shadow resulting in an imbalance image. However, if you don’t want to process the photos like this you can try shooting at RAW in expert mode then edit it in 3rd party software. Turning on hdr will enhance the shadows so that it can output a better-balanced image.
Shooting macro, it has a bit grain when shooting on the main lens then getting closer to the subject, and AI will mainly auto-adjusting the scene. However, switching to a macro lens, it offers a fixed macro with 4cm apart from the subject. Details popped but it is a bit grainy as well. So better shoot macros in a very bright environment to reduce those noise and grains. Quality is the best but it is acceptable.
Now on the portrait lens, it uses the main cam so the quality is still the same. So what matters will be the edge to edge detection. And upon collecting some camera samples, I output great bokeh background and it really separates the subject. It has at least 98% accurate subject to background separation and it looks natural.
Now switching to the front cam, skin color is in a pinkish tone which isn’t natural but the contrast did a great job to enhance the overall image quality, it is bright and sharp thanks to the 16MP selfie cam. Subject to background separation on portrait mode made the image look more natural. And beautification mode did a great job to smoothen my face. As you can see there’s a small pimple in my upper lip, and this will be removed if we slide the AI beauty mode up to the very end. Beauty enhancement is sharp even smoothening the face’s texture.
Video Recording
Realme 7 shoots up to 4K@30frames and 1080p 30-60fps. Ultra Steady and Ultra Steady Max are available in the video tab but only give stable footages in 1080p 30fps. And shooting 4K and 1080p@60 still has no EIS. On the front, video recording is fine and it has a bright image, it only captures 1080p@30fps and this is the usual settings in this price point.
READ: Google Pixel 5 Specs Include SD 765G, 4000mAh, and 90Hz AMOLED
Camera Features
Taking you to the camera features, if you remember our review on the Realme 6, it has great lowlight capability and produces sharp images, however, camera features feel limited. But now the Realme 7 offers a 64MP AI Pro Mode, can now capture a RAW image, offers Ultra Steady and Ultra Steady Max video stabilization, offers Starry Night mode just like the Realme x3 Superzoom which is a great deal if you’re into astrophotography. And it can now shoot 1080p slow motion on the selfie cam. This was a better improvement aside from the specs incrementation. Other features remain like shooting slow motion in 240fps at 720p and 120fps at 1080p, and an Expert Mode that offers up to 6400 ISO and max 32s shutter speed.
Performance
This phone is the first to equip the new Mediatek Helio G95. This new chipset still has a 12nm architecture which can result in less heat management. Though Mediatek says that their G series has better heat dissipation than the last versions of the Helio series. So we tested some benchmarking and gaming, tracked the CPU temperature, and all the results are on our gaming test.
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Realme 7 Performance is a bit downgrade, I think? And that is because some games like Cyber Hunter and PUBG Mobile can run the game but with a lesser option in the graphic settings while Realme 6, can go up to HDR plus Ultra or Smooth plus Extreme in PUBG. This means that the device is compatible, so one reason will be the optimization because the Realme 7 is equipped with a newer chipset than the previous model.
Looking forward to its capability, it has an 8GB+128GB configuration and that is a large ram to experience smooth multitasking. If you’re likely to stream and do some multitask navigation Realme 7 is capable.
Also, it is running with a lightweight UI–Realme UI based on Android 10.0. If you’re familiar with Realme UI you will know that this skin is light and smooth, and it is close to stock android.
Battery
The battery is backed with a large 5000mAh. This is one of the great increments from its predecessor with 4300mAh only. Since it has a 90Hz screen and IPS LCD, the display is power-hungry hence the bigger battery will compensate. So this adds more gaming feel to the phone. Furthermore, we tested its performance, the Realme 7’s battery depleted in an impressive 6hrs 34mins, this result is with performance mode turned on while playing non-stop gaming. Then we tested the casual video loop test, gaming, and browsing at 90Hz the battery died in about 8hrs 19mins. The Realme 7 offers dart charging and surprisingly with just a 30W dart charger, it fully charged the 5000mah in just 1hr and 8mins.
READ: Realme 7i Now Official: 90Hz, 64MP Quad-Cam, 5000mAh for ~Php10,000
Audio
The audio is loud that you can feel the vibration on the whole phone when you are holding it. Though it is loud it feels like the Bass and Treble or the Highs and Lows isn’t balanced. We hear a more bassy sound and it overlaps the high tones which reduce the ‘crisp’ sound. The good side though is that it doesn’t get over distorted in full volume and the bass has a thug feel. Using headphones, there is a Real Sound Technology that Realme 7 offers, and this only works when using earphones it gives sound enhancement and equalizer for more boost in sound production.
Overall
Realme 7 is a great choice for gaming if you want the latest Realme phone. From Realme 6 you will get a large 5000mAh battery, premium refreshed Realme design, a more powerful chipset, and some tweaks in the camera capability. Basically, this will give you a better gaming experience compared to its predecessor. However, Realme 6 offers some extent due to the game’s compatibility.
So the price difference is really worth the price. Realme 7 is priced at P14,990, should you get this or the Realme 7 Pro? Well, just like our Realme 6 and Realme 6 Pro Review we will explain what is worth buying. But it feels like they are likely the same as the previous versions with just an increment. But we’ll see after we release the Realme 7 Pro Full Review.
READ: Realme 6 vs Realme 7 Specs Comparison – Pricier, But Is It Better?
