Poco M7 Pro 5G review: when advertising on a cheap phone gets on your nerves
7.5.2025
Translation: Elicia Payne
Pictures: Jan Johannsen
The Poco M7 Pro 5G may be cheap, but there are even better phones for a similar price.
Having recently been very impressed by the CMF Phone 2 Pro, I wanted to take a look at the similarly priced Poco M7 Pro 5G. But Xiaomi’s low-cost brand is a disappointment. The features are bad, the software too.
Decent display
The Poco M7 Pro 5G may not cost much, but Xiaomi’s made an effort to make it look less like a boring mass-produced device. My test device colour is «Lavender Frost» and slightly more than half of the back is marbled, which might not appeal to everyone. The finish of the plastic casing is good and the entire phone is protected against splash water in accordance with IP64.
The 6.67-inch AMOLED display is good enough for me. The refresh rate is high at 120 hertz and 2400 × 1080 pixels provide a sharp image with a pixel density of 395 ppi. It’s also bright enough for use in the sun – it reaches up to 2,100 nits at its peak. The only thing that signals «cheap phone» to me here is the outdated Gorilla Glass 5. But, I suppose it’s still more scratch and break resistant than without safety glass.
Just one camera
Although there are two lenses on the back of the Poco M7 Pro 5G, there’s only one camera. The main lens can take photos with up to 50 megapixels. The second lens with a resolution of two megapixels only provides depth of field information for portrait shots.
When I reviewed the CMF Phone 2 Pro, I criticised it for having too much yellow but Poco has even more of it. In terms of detail accuracy, minimal blurring is only noticeable on the Poco when you view the image in its original size.
On the flip side, the camera copes well with contrasts. Slight blurs remain, but these aren’t noticeable when viewed on the phone itself.
When it gets dark and I activate night mode, the level of detail in the Poco and the CMF Phone 2 Pro is identical. In terms of colour, I actually prefer Poco’s less red image.
The comparatively short focal length is noticeable when taking selfies with the 20-megapixel front camera. The image colours are good and, with the depth of detail, presentable.
Suitable for everyday use, but little power
The M7 Pro is equipped with the Mediatek Dimensity 7025 Ultra. The chipset, which is supported by eight gigabytes of RAM, isn’t something I seem to have any issues with in everyday use. The phone runs smoothly for daily activities – it’s not intended for people who want to do computing-intensive things.
Yet, in benchmark tests, the Poco performs significantly worse than the competition. The CPU offers 25 per cent less performance across the board than the cheaper CMF Phone 2 Pro with the Dimensity 7300 Pro 5G, for example.
The Poco then almost completely fails in graphics benchmarks. Only Antutu can test the GPU. Geekbench aborts the measurements and 3D Mark doesn’t have enough hardware for its tests either. This isn’t great, but conversely it doesn’t mean that the M7 Pro can’t perform any graphics processing at all. There are just no measured values and you shouldn’t expect too much.
The battery in the M7 Pro 5G has a capacity of 5110 mAh and the charging speed goes up to 45 watts – both of which are very average figures. The measured battery life of 10:04 is neither particularly short nor particularly long either. Still, average is good when the price is below average.
Welcome to advertising hell
Pre-installed third-party apps are nothing unusual and can also be found on the Poco M7 Pro 5G. As most of their names begin with A or B, they’re still at the top of the app overview. It may only take a few clicks to delete them but I count 15, which is a lot. There are also annoying suggestions of other apps and games that I could install.
However, the fun really begins when you get in to the system apps or the settings of Xiaomi’s HyperOS user interface. Advertising crops up, filling part of the screen or sometimes even the entire screen. Xiaomi says they use the advertising revenue to keep the price of the device low. I still don’t want it.
The fact that the M7 Pro still runs Android 14 ex works and hasn’t been updated to Android 15 has made me lose all interest in the phone. I don’t even want to know how many years the phone will receive updates, because I’ve long since decided on a different device. But if you’d still like the answer, it’s four years.
In a nutshell
Stands no chance against the competition
The Poco M7 Pro 5G has a good display, the performance is sufficient and the camera’s usable – if one camera’s enough, that is. However, Xiaomi’s low-cost brand has completely lost me with it’s advertising-heavy software.
And even more so when I look at what else I can get in this price range. The CMF Phone 2 Pro costs a little more, but has three cameras, a good display and an eye-catching design. Not to mention the fact that it comes without annoying ads. And if that means I have to put up with a camera with worse night mode then so be it.
Pro
- Good display
Contra
- Advertising in the settings
- Weak hardware
- Only one camera
Header image: Jan Johannsen
As a primary school pupil, I used to sit in a friend's living room with many of my classmates to play the Super NES. Now I get my hands on the latest technology and test it for you. In recent years at Curved, Computer Bild and Netzwelt, now at Digitec and Galaxus.
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