I’m a proud owner of a realme 7. But before I start with my review. Let me tell you a short story about my realme smartphone journey.
I’ve been a realme user since the C1 launch few years back. Then fast forward to year 2019 when realme 5 series was launched, I upgraded to their flagship phone which was the realme 5 Pro(given by my boyfie-now husband as a birthday gift). Unfortunately, before it reached its 1 year(last October 12), I lost the said phone when my purse accidentally fell off our car without me noticing it. Sad right? Losing something with sentimental value kinda hurts, but I still believe that when you lose something, God will replace it. Even better.
And so, just recently, I was able to get my hands on one of the newly released smartphones of realme under their 7 series. The realme 7. Thank you realme fam for being a channel of blessing. ????
Ok enough with the drama hahaha! ????. So I finally opened the the realme 7 box package and here’s what’s inside.
- realme 7 smartphone unit
- Quick Guide booklet
- Important Information Guide booklet
- Silicone Protective Case
- Ejector Pin
- 30W Dart Charger
- Type-C USB cable
After using and exploring this newest smartphone from realme, I’m so excited to share with you my hands-on experience and all the things that I like about realme 7. I hope I could help you decide whether if you’ll get this device for your next smartphone. If you are planning to buy one.
1st: DESIGN/DISPLAY
As always, realme delivers when it comes to the design of their smartphones. It’s always eye-catching. Inspired by the space in nature, the realme 7 series features a brilliant mirror design that brings a new visual impact. It’s soooo pretty! ????
Though realme 7 is under the mid-range smartphone level, the AG processing with classic CD textures makes the phone premium-like. It is mostly constructed with plastic, but it is pretty!. Look how stunningly reflective it is when you move the device from different angles. Compared to the previous realme series of glossy type and fingerprint-magnets, this smartphone has a matte finish which I think way better(less finger marks).
Now the front. With realme 7, It has slim bezels and a holepunch notch(upper-left corner) which maximizes your viewing experience. You’ll also get to enjoy a 6.5-inch IPS Full HD+ display with a 1080 x 2400 resolution and a pixel density of 405ppi. Capable of producing 90 frames per second, the 90Hz Ultra Smooth screen display has a 50% higher refresh rate when compared to a conventional 60Hz display, giving a seamless and smooth visuals with every swipe on the screen(thanks also to realme UI which is based on Android 10).
The screen is also made by Corning Gorilla Glass 3 which provides up to 4x improvement in scratch resistance. There’s a pre-installed screen protector as well in the realme 7 unit itself for added protection.
Note:All of realme 7’s ports are tightly waterproof through protective sealing silicone to effectively prevent splashing.
Just like its predecessors, button placements such as volume up and down, sd/sim tray slot, 3.5mm audio jack, mic, type-C port, and speaker are the same, except for the fingerprint scanner which is now fused with the power button.
I’m actually impressed with the speed of the capacitive recognition system of realme 7’s fingerprint scanner. Once you touch it, even lightly, it instantly unlocks the phone. The face recognition is pretty fast too. Almost instant recognition.
2nd: EASY SET-UP
Thank God for features like this. I did not have a hard time copying my files(apps, settings, photos, videos, etc.) from my other android phone to my realme 7 smartphone. Of course the bigger the file size the longer it will take to transfer. But you know what? it is totally worth it. No more re-installing the apps one by one, that’s usually the hardest part when acquiring a new phone.
3rd: CHARGING SPEED/BATTERY MANAGEMENT
realme 7 is powered by a 5,000mAh battery which is quite sizeable and suitable if you are a heavy user. The charging speed is really fast considering the battery capacity. I started charging at 3%(7:13A.M.) and then it was charged up to 49%(7:35A.M), and got fully charged(100%) at 8:18A.M which is just a little bit more than an hour. Very good!
The battery management is quite impressive. After using the phone for about more than 2 hours straight playing ML, watching at Netflix, browsing social media apps and more, look at how many battery percentage left. 69% which can still last up to 1 day 3hrs and 49mins.
You may also customize the setting of the Power Saving Mode where it can turn on on your specified battery level. You may set it to turn off automatically once the battery is charged at 60 or is fully charged.
If there’s Power Saving Mode, there’s also Super Power Saving Mode where system performance will be reduced and only a few apps can run at a time.
4th: STORAGE & MEMORY
In the Philippines, realme 7 is available in one storage variant: 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage. The storage for me is big enough to save lots of photos, videos, and download applications even without an SD card. I actually have lots of space left. It is also equipped with a 3-card slot for two nano SIM cards and one SD card which is expandable up to 256GB.
5th: CAMERA
One of the things that you should consider when buying a smartphone is the camera. Like me, I’m not that much into mirrorless and DSLR cameras. A smartphone camera would do. But of course, I need one that can produce nice and decent quality photos. And realme 7 does this.
For those who love taking selfies, this 16MP In-display Selfie Camera of realme 7 is something you would enjoy using.
It has F2.0 aperture which supports different features such as smart beauty and bokeh mode. The new beauty algorithm developed for different genders, skin types and facial shapes allow users to easily enhance their look and take natural-looking selfies. It also has Night Mode, Portrait, Slo-mo, Selfie Panorama, Time-Lapse features too.
Lovin’ the quality of the front camera. The color is vibrant, and you can see the sharp details. What I noticed though in the natural mode is that my skin looks pretty smooth, which is a bit different than my normal skin appearance. But it’s just ok. I want to slightly cover my facial blemishes so I really don’t mind????. Check out my photos above. The first two photos is Natural and the last one in Beautification mode. Click here to see high resolution photos.
For the rear camera, realme 7 houses a Sony 64MP f/1.8((primary sensor), 8 MP f/2.3(ultra-wide), 2MP f/2.4 (macro), 2MP f/2.4 depth sensor quad-rear camera setup. In fairness, realme 7 rear camera can really produce very decent quality photos especially in well lighted environment. It has very good color reproduction(real colors)- not over or under saturated, balanced contrast and dynamic range plus the details are precise. Even in low light, pictures will come out bright. Noise is present which is understandable.(even high end phones and DSLRs have this)
realme 7 rear camera can also detect if the subject is a dog(puppy), cat(kitty), plants, macro, scenery, text, food, etc.. realme have this camera feature as well on their other smartphone models.
Shooting photos on the Ultra-clear 64MP Mode will give you a much higher quality photo result. You may choose to use AI option if you want a boosted color results or the Pro option to manually set the camera parameters like ISO, shutter speed, White Balance, AF, and EV.
You may also enjoy other realme 7’s rear camera features such as follows:
- Night mode(with three built-in special night filters: Cyberpunk, Flamingo and Modern Gold). Also included in the night mode is the Starry option where you can utilize AI algorithm combined with ultra-long exposure and multi-frame synthesis that enhance the sharpness and brightness of the stars, giving users professional starry photos. (I suggest use a tripod when you use this feature.)
- Portrait mode
- Panorama
- Ultra Macro
- PRO(expert mode)
- Time-Lapse
- Slo-Mo
- Google Lens
Check out the realme 7’s rear camera sample photos below. Click here for high resolution version.
For video recording, the device can shoot up to 4K at 30fps and 1080p at 60fps. For a mid-range phone shooting on 4K quality video, this is really something to look forward to.
realme 7’s front and rear cameras support many trendy and fun video features as following for the front camera: 120fps slo-mo video recording; for the rear camera: UIS Video Stabilization, UIS Max Video Stabilization, Ultra Wide-angle Video, 4K/30fps video recording, 1080P/120fps and 720p/240fps slo-mo video recording.
6th: PERFORMANCE
Powering the realme 7’s performance is the world’s first MediaTek Helio G95 octa-core gaming processor(2 Cortex-A76 core up to 2.05GHz and 6 high-efficiency Cortex-A55 core up to 2GHz) along with 900MHz Mali-G76GPU that has 300K+ benchmark in AnTuTu. Designed as the core of an incredible smartphone gaming experience, the processor is made using 12nm process making it more powerful and efficient.
I’m loving realme 7’s performance so far. When it comes to gaming, I tried it on Mobile Legends in HIGH settings(see photo and video above) and did not experience any lag. No jitters at all. Haven’t tried it though on a much more graphically intensive games to see if there will be hiccups. Will try it soon. 🙂 But as of now I’m a Mobile Legends game type. And this device serves me well in that matter.
Usually when you play games on mobile devices on high settings, they usually heats up pretty fast. realme was able to address this dilemma with their cutting-edge superb carbon fiber cooling systems that can cool up the device up to 8.6%. As a result, It’s not heating up too much which has a very good impact on the phone’s performance.
Multitasking is not a problem with this smartphone. Everything is functioning smoothly too even if I have multiple running apps in the background. No delays.
Overall, the realme 7 is a great value for money if you would want to consider buying a mid-range level smartphone with high battery capacity. How much? realme 7 is now readily available in all realme kiosk and other partner merchants nationwide for just 14,999 and available in 2 colors: Mist White and Mist Blue.
Would I recommend it? Definitely Yes!. Based on my experience, after using this smartphone for quite some time, I find mostly Pros than cons.
PROS:
- Easy to set up.
- I find it really efficient especially when it comes to battery management.
- You’ll definitely enjoy watching movies and playing games for a longer period of time because of its 5,000mAh battery and its smooth display.
- The charging time is pretty fast because of the 30Watts Dart Charge feature.
- Aesthetically, it has a very eye-catching and youthful looking design.
- Photo quality is also good.
- It does not heat up so fast.
- Fast gaming processor.
CONS:
- Only one storage variant. I hope they would release the lower version (4GB RAM +64GB) storage for those in a budget but want to enjoy realme 7 features.
- The sound quality is not yet stereo.
- Selfie photos is quite smoothen even if Beautificaton is off.
Check out below the FULL SPECIFICATIONS of the realme 7:
-Processor-
MediaTek Helio G95
CPU：Octa-core, Up to 2.05GHz
GPU：ARM Mali-G76 MC4 900MHz
-Storage & RAM-
8GB + 128GB
RAM: 8GB LPDDR4x dual-channel
ROM: 128GB UFS 2.1
-Display-
90Hz Ultra Smooth Display
16.5cm (6.5”) Fullscreen
Resolution：2400×1080 FHD+
Screen-to-body ratio：90.5%
Corning Gorilla Glass
-Charging & Battery-
30W Dart Charge
5000mAh（typ）
Includes an 5V/6A charger & cable
USB Type-C port
-Camera-
64MP Quad Camera
Rear Camera
64MP Ultra high-resolution wide-angle camera
f/1.8, 6P lens
Sony IMX682, 1/1.73”
8MP Ultra wide-angle Lens: FOV 119°, f/2.3, 5P lens
2MP B&W Portrait Camera f/2.4, 3P lens
2MP Macro lens 4cm focus, f/2.4, 3P lens
-Photography functions-
64MP Mode, Super NightScape, Starry Mode, Panoramic view, Expert mode, Timelapse, Portrait mode, HDR, Ultra wide mode, Ultra macro mode, AI scene recognition, AI Beauty, Filter, Chroma Boost, Slow Motion, Bokeh Effect Control
-Video recording-
UIS Video Stabilization, UIS Max Video Stabilization, 4K/30fps video recording, 1080P/30fps, 60fps video recording, 720P/30fps, 60fps video recording
-In-display Selfie-
16MP Primary camera
FOV 79.3°, f/2.0, 5P lens
-Photography functions-
Portrait Mode, Timelapse, Panoramic view, AI Beauty, HDR,
Face-Recognition, Filter, Bokeh Effect Control
-Video recording-
1080P/30fps video recording, 720P/30fps video recording
-Cellular & Wireless-
3-Card Slot
2 SIM Slot + 1 MicroSD Slot
Wireless network
2.4/5 GHz
802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 5.0
-Navigation-
GPS / AGPS/ Glonass / Beidou
-Size & Weight-
Height: 162.3mm
Width: 75.4mm
Depth: 9.4mm
Weight≈196.5g
-Sensors-
Magnetic Induction Sensor
Light Sensor
Proximity Sensor
Gyro-meter
Acceleration Sensor
-Operating System-
realme UI
Based on Android 10
realme 7, including the realme 7 Pro, is the first smartphone that passed the TÜV Rheinland Smartphone Reliability Verification. What is TÜV Rheinland? TÜV Rheinland is a global leader in independent inspection services,which aims to go through and check the quality and safety of people, technology and the environment in nearly all aspects of life.
