Realme 7 Review - The most convincing mid-range smartphone of the moment
The real battleground of the various smartphone OEMs is the mid-range of the market. For some, what is proposed does not live up to the name, such as for example OnePlus with the Nord N100 model, device that has left us rather perplexed but also the same POCO than with the M3 model did not fully convince. To do justice to the mid-range Realme 7, which beats many other models that offer similar performance and price but after having tried it thoroughly I can tell you that he is the best choice you can make if you have a limited budget below. the 200 euros, and now I'll tell you about it in this review.
As always, let's start with the sales package, which in the case of the Realme device comes with a colorful canary yellow, which recalls the color of the brand logo, inside which the following equipment is contained:
- Really 7;
- USB Type-C cable for charging and data transfer;
- Power supply with European wall socket, with maximum output of 30W;
- Soft TPU cover in smoky color;
- Protective plastic film for the screen;
- Pin for removing the SIM tray;
- Instruction manual;
- Cardboard of TÜV Rheinland certification;
SAR VALUES: 0,972 W / Kg (Head), 1,218 W / Kg (Body).
The company has staked everything on concreteness for this Realme 7, without giving up an aesthetic pleasure, which, although it does not stand out for its originality, still manages to assert itself net of materials used, both for the back cover and for the frame. runs along the perimeter of the smartphone, in polycarbonate. Specifically, on the rear we find a double processing of the plastic which consists of a wide strip in matte paint and another strip more reduced in width instead of glossy. When Realme 7 is hit by direct sunlight, pretty light effects are emitted that appear to form Vs, but apart from what they like is the smooth design of the rear, which in addition to interrupting for the printed logo of the company, it also does so due to the presence of the photographic sector, a rectangle that houses 4 lenses and a single tone LED flash.
The edges are curved and in their way facilitate the handling of the device, although it is not really one of the strong points, due to the dimensions of 162,3 x 75,4 x 9,4 mm and a weight of 196,5 grams, all justified by the presence of a 5000 mAh battery, which I will talk about later with regard to autonomy. The upper profile is devoid of elements while specularly we find the 3,5 mm jack input, main microphone, Type-C input for charging with OTG support, but no video output and the mono-type system speaker, which offers a good listening volume, without ever distorting the sound at the maximum listening level, but lacking in expressing the low tones, which for certain musical genres are somewhat flat, but fortunately you can take advantage of your favorite wired earphones or at the most TWS earphones. Moreover, at the software level we have the Real Power Sound function, developed by the collaboration between Realme and Dirac Research AB, which will allow you to set sound effects and best equalize the sound in the headphones. As for the audio quality on call, nothing negative to bring to your attention, since the performance has always been excellent.
On the left profile of Realme 7 there are the volume rocker and the SIM tray which offers 3 slots, 2 of which are dedicated to the SIM in nano format and the third to the micro SD to expand the integrated memory with support up to 256 GB. Personally, using the Iliad operator, I never hooked up the 4G + signal, but I had no navigation problems thanks to the integrated LTE modem of cat. 12, reaching peaks of 110 Mbps in download and over 60 Mbps in upload, therefore much better than terminals that boast 4G + or even 5G.
The right profile instead gives us the presence of the power button inserted in a groove, since it also offers the integration of the fingerprint sensor A good choice, first of all because the appearance of the phone is even more premium but then also for the the fact that the position of the same has been specially designed to ensure that the right thumb or the index finger of the left hand coincide perfectly with this sensor, which has therefore proved to be quick and reliable in unlocking.
Frontally Realme 7 stands out for a beautiful display that covers 90,5% of the available surface, interrupting its look due to the punch hole positioned above on the left side, in which the selfie camera has been inserted. We are talking about a 6,5-inch IPS panel in Full HD + resolution (2400 x 1080 pixels), 405 PPI, protected by Corning Gorilla Glass (the company does not specify the grade, but it should be a third generation) but above all that it is boasts a 90 Hz refresh rate and support for Widevine L1 DRMs, thus allowing the viewing of content on streaming platforms such as Netflix, in high definition.
Unfortunately the Widevine L1 certification is not recognized by Prime Video but poco bad because we can instead benefit from support for HDR content. The refresh rate value can be chosen in the settings, ranging from fixed values such as 60 or 90 Hz or let the system better adapt the refresh rate based on the contents shown on the screen. Moreover, always at the software level we can also adjust the color temperature and enable or not the visual OSIE effect, which allows you to improve the contrasts of the images. Other software goodies are the ability to wake up or turn off the display with a double tap, or turn it back on by simply lifting the phone.
And made the jerk of the specifications, I just have to pronounce myself on the quality of this display, which, moreover, with its 480 nits of brightness, also offers excellent readability in direct sunlight. The colors returned on the whole are pleasant and rather faithful to reality, excellent white balance and rather deep blacks also at different inclinations. In short, Realme 7 enjoys one of the most performing panels that I was able to appreciate in the mid-range of the market, standing out on an aesthetic level also due to rather contained frames, where in the upper one we find the ear capsule and the proximity and brightness sensors that they work perfectly in the various scenarios, while the absence of a notification LED should be emphasized.
The navigation buttons are of course virtual and inserted on the display, but if necessary we can take advantage of the comfortable navigation gestures in full screen, as well as being able to take advantage of a sidebar that allows some quick functions as well as the recall of certain applications and if really we are addicted to gestures, we can exploit them even when the screen is off, by drawing a specific letter to activate or recall functions and applications.
In short, the fact that Realme has not left out anything to chance at the software level is taking shape, basing everything on Android 10 by means of the Realme UI customized interface, with patches updated in December 2020. The firmware is full of features and not at all annoying in terms of design, indeed the same is very accurate at a graphic level, such as the beautiful animation that appears when we put the selfie camera into operation, for taking a photo or for the unlocking function through face recognition, which occurs quickly and precisely even in unfavorable lighting conditions. Moreover, Realme is one of those brands that constantly updates its devices and among the first to bring the innovations introduced by the Android releases.
Ok all very nice, but how does this Realme 7 turn, because sure someone will turn up their nose for the presence at the processor level of a solution provided by MediaTek. Well, they are wrong because Realme 7 does not give up performance and reliability thanks to the SoC Mediatek Helio G95, a "gaming" chipset that is based on an octa-core structure with a maximum clock of 2.05 GHz and is joined by the graphics part. the quad-core ARM Mali-G76 MC4 GPU with clock up to 900 MHz. Therefore excellent performance even in more complex conditions such as gaming, allowing you to start applications such as Call of Duty Mobile, Asphalt 9, Genshin Impact etc .. at best of the playful experience, although the graphic details are not always at their best, but what matters is that you never feel drops in frame rates and above all overheating, since the company has equipped the Realme 7 with a fiber cooling system carbon.
For the rest of the daily operations we can then count on the presence of a RAM of the LPDDR4X type with cuts from 6 (the one we tested) or 8 GB, while the internal memory (expandable) is of the UFS 2.1 type with cuts from 64 ( the one we tested) or 128 GB, therefore not of the latest generation but rather fast to cover every task that you are going to carry out with the phone, also enjoying a good and always reactive multitasking management.
The rest of the specifications see the presence of a dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS / AGPS / Beidou / Glonass, gyroscope and acceleration sensors but also NFC for mobile payments with full support for Google Pay, while the FM radio. Everything works wonderfully and overall the optimization of the software towards the hardware has a positive impact also in the battery autonomy, which I repeat is expressed with 5000 mAh and its support for fast charging Dart Charge from 30W, which allows in just 26 minutes to recharge your smartphone by 50%, while with poco less than an hour we get full of energy. Of course the actual yield depends on the use you make of a phone, but in a maximum line I personally have always brought my day to an end, getting to get almost 8 hours of active screen with still 20% of remaining charge, nothing really bad !!!
In my reviews I almost always leave the photography and video chapter for last, perhaps one of the most important for a smartphone, so much so that some users the first thing they ask is just how a phone clicks without even thinking about the rest of the specifications. Well Realme 7 defends itself well in this area too, offering a 16 MP selfie camera on the front, with Sony IMX471 sensor and f / 2.1 aperture while on the rear the optics used are 4, whose primary sensor is a 48 unit. MP, f / 1,8 to which is added an ultrawide 8 MP lens, FOV 119 °, f / 2,3 and two additional elements with f / 2.4 aperture that perform bokeh (B / W) and macro with focus activities from 4 cm.
ULTRAWIDE STANDARD ZOOM 2X ZOOM 5X
Unfortunately, I confirm what is generally said about the presence of bokeh and macro sensors, that is, that they were inserted only for marketing, but overall I must appreciate that Realme has made significant progress in the photographic field. Compared to the Realme 5 Pro that I reviewed over a year ago and was unpleasantly disappointed with, this Realme 7 delivers great shots, with good collection of details, well-balanced colors and dynamic range that amazes for the price range it is offered. terminal.
Even the shots with the wide-angle camera are not "degraded" in terms of color, at least in good lighting conditions, while in night mode I must say that the shots that the smartphone takes out are quite valid, at least for scenarios where there are no subjects in movement.
MOD. NIGHT MOD. NIGHT MOD. NIGHT MOD. NIGHT MOD. NIGHT MOD. ULTRAWIDE NIGHT MOD. NIGHT MOD. NIGHT
The night mode is also available for the selfie camera as well as the automatic HDR and overall the software is quite complete and full of functions, while the yield of the selfie optics unfortunately suffers from a too pronounced beauty effect even when this is deactivated. . The videos can then be recorded up to 4K at 30 fps but at 1080p at 30 fps we can also take advantage of the UIS stabilization as well as the UIS Max function, obtaining very stabilized videos, but in this case the quality drops slightly. On the other hand, the audio capture by the microphone is excellent and overall the photographic sector was better than many other rivals, often even with higher costs.
MACRO MACRO MACRO MACRO MACRO MACRO
PROJECTED IMPACT
Realme 7 starts from a price base of 179 euros for the Mist Blue and Mist White colors in the 6/64 GB version which is the one I recommend because it would make no sense to spend more money as the amount of RAM is more than right for every work situation and the internal memory is expandable, so you can maybe reuse a coupon you already own. But apart from that the smartphone is the perfect balance in terms of quality / price ratio, with excellent performance, really excellent autonomy, good photographic shots and therefore unless you are a professional who needs who knows what specification, Realme 7 is the smartphone to focus on especially if you have a limited budget but don't want to give up almost anything.
