POCO M7 Pro review: a reliable phone on all fronts
Review Summary
Expert Rating
The POCO M7 Pro was recently introduced as a successor to the M6 Pro (review), a popular handset in the mid-range segment. Following up on a successful product is usually quite hard as brands have to cater to customers’ high expectations. To tackle this difficult task, POCO has introduced quite a few upgrades to the new smartphone – 120Hz AMOLED display, more powerful processor, enhanced durability, increased battery capacity, and more.
With these improvements, does the new handset carry the torch forward successfully or fall short? I’ve now spent around two weeks with the new handset and can now share my thoughts.
Table of Contents
Verdict
POCO M7 Pro is a worthy successor to the M6 Pro and comes with improvements in all the major areas. The handset comes with a unique design, good build quality, a capable primary camera sensor, a vibrant display, a long battery backup, and a decent processor. This all-rounder would be a good fit for most people but the phone’s cameras struggle a bit in low-light scenarios. The phone could have had a better UI and fewer pre-installed apps, but other than that, this is a homerun.
Design and display
The M7 Pro comes with a unique design that has a desert sand pattern at the back. The camera bump, unlike some other phones, does not stick out like a sore thumb here and provides the phone with an elegant look. As I’m not a big fan of large protruding camera rings, I found the dual sensors to be a bit annoying but overall, I like the way this phone looks. With a metal frame, which is quite uncommon in this price range, the phone gives you a premium and sturdy in-hand feel.
| Smartphone | POCO M7 Pro | iQOO Z9x | Moto G64 |
| Thickness | 7.99mm | 7.99mm | 8.89mm |
| Weight | 190 grams | 199 grams | 192 grams |
| IP rating | IP64 | IP64 | IP52 |
The volume rocker and the power button are both located on the right side of the phone and are easily accessible even when using the M7 Pro with one hand. As the handset is quite sleek and lightweight, I didn’t have any issues using it for long hours or while carrying it around.
At the front, you get a 6.67-inch AMOLED display with a peak brightness of 2,100 nits and a hole-punch design that enables a screen-to-body ratio of over 92 percent. With thin bezels around the display, the phone offers a decent viewing experience and the high peak brightness ensures you can use it even under direct sunlight.
| Smartphones | Display size | Peak brightness |
| POCO M7 Pro | 6.67-inch (AMOLED) | 2,100 nits |
| iQOO Z9x | 6.72-inch (LCD) | 1,000 nits |
| Moto G64 | 6.5-inch (LCD) | NA |
As we’re talking about an AMOLED panel, you get deeper blacks and punchy colours here, which is still uncommon among smartphones in this range. One of the noteworthy inclusions here is that you get three colour profiles to choose from – Vivid, Saturated, and Standard. To me, it was a surprise that Vivid was the most balanced profile out of the three. While the Vivid colour setting in most devices offers you an over-the-top hypersaturated and vibrant look, here you get that with the ‘Saturated’ option. The Standard profile offers you a subtle look, which I preferred the most. This is a massive upgrade over its predecessor, which shipped with an LCD panel.
Talking about upgrades from the predecessor, you also get a 120Hz refresh rate panel instead of a 90Hz display. This results in smoother gameplay and general navigation within the UI also feels silky smooth.
Cameras
Let’s first get the nitty gritty out of the way. POCO M7 Pro comes with a 50MP Sony LYT-600 primary camera sensor with OIS support and f/1.5 aperture, which is quite impressive for this price point. The primary sensor is assisted by a 2MP macro camera. At the front, you get a 20MP selfie camera, which is a massive upgrade.
Daylight
In the daylight shot, the POCO M7 Pro managed to click a colour-accurate shot and captured details better than the iQOO Z9x. The iQOO handset produced an image with a warm tone for some reason.
POCO M7 Pro
iQOO Z9x
On the other hand, the Moto G64 produced an image with a noticeable amount of noise and even colours were quite boosted in comparison to the POCO handset. It could be a matter of preference as well, though I somehow prefer POCO’s natural appeal.
POCO M7 Pro
Moto G64
Portrait
In the portrait shots clicked by the POCO M7 Pro and the iQOO Z9x, there was hardly any competition as the iQOO handset failed terribly at edge detection. In comparison, the M7 Pro shot captured skin tones better too.
POCO M7 Pro
iQOO Z9x
Meanwhile, the Moto G64 offered better edge detection than the M7 Pro. However, the skin tones were better reproduced by the POCO handset yet again.
POCO M7 Pro
Moto G64
Selfie
While the iQOO Z9x still struggled with edge detection and colour accuracy, the POCO M7 Pro captured skin tones and details much better. The M7 Pro also showed better edge detection too.
POCO M7 Pro
iQOO Z9x
Separately, the G64 added a red tone to the skin for some reason. While the bokeh effect applied by the Moto handset was the most impressive out of the three, overall, the POCO M7 Pro delivered the best image if we consider the aesthetics.
POCO M7 Pro
Moto G64
Low-light
This was a tricky shot to call as the POCO M7 Pro produced an overall better picture but the iQOO Z9x handled light sources much better. Although there was some noise in both images, the M7 Pro gets the edge here.
POCO M7 Pro
iQOO Z9x
On the other hand, the Moto G64 struggled with details, light sources, and even colour accuracy. In comparison, both M7 Pro and the Z9x were much better on all fronts.
POCO M7 Pro
Moto G64
Night mode
The Night Mode seemingly had very little impact in the case of POCO M7 Pro while the iQOO handset took a sharper image in this mode. However, there was considerable grain in the image clicked by the Z9x.
POCO M7 Pro
iQOO Z9x
Meanwhile, the Night Mode image clicked with the G64 was the most improved out of the lot but still inferior to the other two handsets.
POCO M7 PRo
Moto G64
Performance and software
The POCO M7 Pro is powered by MediaTek Dimensity 7025 Ultra chipset. The base variant, which I am reviewing, has 6GB RAM and 128GB storage and sells for Rs 14,999. The top variant with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage costs Rs 16,999. This puts the handset up against competitors like iQOO Z9x (powered by Snapdragon 6 Gen 1) and Moto G64 (powered by MediaTek Dimensity 7025). We compared all three handsets on various benchmark tools to gauge their performance in comparison to each other.
Notably, the Moto G64 performed relatively better than the M7 Pro on the AnTuTu benchmark despite the latter using the ‘Ultra’ variant of the same chipset. The iQOO Z9x outscored both these handsets in the same benchmark. As you might already know, the AnTuTu benchmark evaluates the overall performance of any device by taking CPU performance, GPU performance, memory performance, and several other factors into account.
While benchmark numbers against the competition might not look amazing, in my general usage, the M7 Pro was quite reliable and I never faced any app crashes. The handset offered smooth performance throughout the duration of my review and even the gaming experience was quite a breeze. While I don’t always suggest this, you can safely ignore the benchmark scores in this case as the M7 Pro handles multitasking really well and will suit your daily needs irrespective of your use cases.
The phone ships with Android 14-based HyperOS and promises two years of major OS updates and four years of security updates. As you might expect, the brand has not missed out on the buzzword for 2024 and included some AI features to improve camera output. This means you get features like AI AF, which automatically adjusts the zoom level for the selfie camera up to 0.8x to ensure everyone in your group fits perfectly into a selfie. AI Night Mode adjusts the image settings to capture night shots better, while AI Eraser removes unwanted objects from the images. AI Sky Replacement tries to offer you a perfect social-media-worthy image even when the sky in the image is less than ideal.
All these features are hit or miss right now. Sometimes they work like a charm and some other times, they completely fail. I still believe it is better to have such options at your disposal than not.
| Pre-installed apps | OS updates (Android + security) | |
| POCO M7 Pro | 63 | 2 years + 4 years |
| iQOO Z9x | 54 | 2 years + 3 years |
| Moto G64 | 43 | 1 years + 3 years |
Out of these three phones, the M7 offers the best support in terms of software and will be secure with the latest updates for 4 years and offer 2 major OS upgrades. Unfortunately, the phone also leads the list in terms of pre-installed apps, which makes the OS feel a bit cluttered out of the box. In overall usage, the UI was fairly intuitive apart from the fact that general settings can’t be accessed from the notification shade itself (something that we’ve grown accustomed to with most UIs currently available on the market).
Battery and charging
The POCO M7 Pro packs an upgraded 5,110mAh battery with 45W wired charging support. The phone is fairly slim despite this large battery capacity. During my usage, the handset easily lasted more than a day of heavy usage. In casual use, this backup can easily be extended to two days with ease.
The handset achieves a respectable score in the PCMark battery test, lasting for 17 hours and 46 minutes. With the bundled charger, it attained a full charge in 53 minutes.
| Smartphones | Charging speeds | Charging time (20 to 100 percent) |
| POCO M7 Pro | 45W | 53 minutes |
| iQOO Z9x | 44W | 61 minutes |
| Moto G64 | 30W | 70 minutes |
Final verdict
The POCO M7 Pro is an easy recommendation for anyone who liked the M6 Pro. The handset improves on its predecessor in almost every way. With a 120Hz AMOLED panel, long-lasting battery life, and a capable processor, this handset is a worthy daily driver for most people. In terms of cameras, it performed quite well with a capable primary camera sensor but struggled in low-light situations and presented a lot of noise.
Despite its lucrative starting price of Rs 14,999, the M7 Pro barely compromises on any front. The phone’s UI could have been better and there could have been fewer pre-installed apps. In that case, the Motorola G64 is a better choice. But you’re already familiar with POCO’s UI, this is a reliable offering with the potential of becoming a popular choice in the segment.
Editor’s rating: 7.5 / 10
Reasons to buy:
- The POCO M7 Pro comes with a vibrant 120Hz AMOLED display.
- The handset comes with an impressive design and build quality.
- The phone offers a solid battery backup.
- It offers fast charging speeds.
Reasons to not buy:
- The Night mode needs improvements.
- The phone comes with loads of pre-installed apps.
