The Realme X7 marks the debut of the Mediatek Dimensity 800U chipset in India with a lot of anticipation from power users in the mid-range segment. Realme has managed to pack in a very sweet package with the X7 including 5G connectivity, making it ideal for long term usage. With its rainbow glory back, triple rear cameras, and Realme’s signature fast charging abilities, is the Realme X7 the perfect device at Rs. 19,999? Let’s find out in our full review of the Realme X7!
Design and Display – Swipe and Wipe
The Realme X7 features a plastic unibody design, with a slight camera bump. The edges are slightly curved which makes for a perfect in-hand feel, and the weight distribution is pretty balanced as well. The ‘Nebula’ variant of the Realme X7 will surely turn a few heads when you hold it in your hand. Then there’s big ‘Dare to Leap’ embossing vertically on the rainbow back, which appeals for the tagline of Realme, but we feel that this was not necessary and a clean back would look much better.
Speaking of colors, we have the Nebula variant of the Realme X7 with the ‘Dare To Leap’ text on the back. Good right? Not really as the plastic back is so glossy that it attracts a lot of fingerprints. When it’s kept clean, it looks awesome and if you are someone who likes to keep your device shiny, then you will have to wipe it multiple times a day to clean the smudges off and retain the gloss. There’s also a silicon case included in the box, which can help you know.
The Realme X7’s display is a perfect example of how a good AMOLED panel with a standard refresh rate has its place in this race of higher refresh rate displays. Yes, the device is capped at 60Hz only but the 6.4-inch Full HD+ panel, being AMOLED, has a very rich color output that looks very pleasing to the eyes. Even in direct sunlight, the visibility is great with readable texts outdoors. You will realize that it’s a good panel once you start consuming media on YouTube, Netflix, or other platforms because it’s impressive!
Performance – The Leap!
The Realme X7 shines when it comes to the performance department with its Mediatek Dimensity 800U chipset, based on 7nm. Well, that sounds expensive? Yes, it does but the Realme X7 brings this down under 20K. The chipset is coupled with the Mali G57 MC3 GPU, which we tested to its core in our gaming review as well.
When it comes to day to day tasks, the Realme X7 snaps through them with great app opening speeds, and the ability to even retain them in the memory. The device runs on Realme UI 1.0 out of the box, and Realme says that it will soon receive the Realme UI 2.0 update. There’s slight bloatware that can be uninstalled with a few clicks, and most importantly there’s no nuisance of ads in the UI at all. The software is very responsive and we found it to be neat with its easily accessible menus.
We took no time and conducted multiple performance-oriented tests on the Realme X7 to test the Dimensity 800U chipset. We played games like PUBG Mobile Korean and COD Mobile for extended sessions and this is how the device performed. The default settings in PUBG Mobile Korean supported on the Realme X7 are Smooth+Ultra, where the device gives you 40fps gameplay. The frame rate remained stable at around 37-40 fps throughout Erangel where we took several close combat fights. In the Sanhok-Bootcamp, the frame rate takes a slight dip during landing but stabilizes as the game progresses.
You can have a detailed look at our dedicated gaming test that we conducted on the second channel GamingJosh, where we also included a Live FPS meter as well. You can also read about it from here, which will give you every bit of information regarding the gaming performance of the Realme X7.
Overall, we were impressed with the performance and memory management of the Realme X7. It is very good to see such kind of performance with 5G connectivity at this price, and this also reflects that the gap between price and performance of 5G devices has started to narrow with the Realme X7.
Cameras – Any questions?
The Realme X7’s triple camera setup to its back follows this pattern – primary, wide-angle, and macro. Each lens has its function and makes its presence surely justify. The primary camera is a 64MP sensor with an f/1.8 lens, the wide-angle camera is an 8MP shooter with an f/2.3 lens and the macro lens is of 2MP.
The primary camera shoots images at 16MP using pixel binning to allow more light in, and there’s a dedicated 64MP mode in the camera app. The primary camera produces good images during the day, with natural colors and a great dynamic range. It is also very quick to focus and locks onto it accordingly without going for a hunt. The colors sometimes take a little shift from what your eyes see, but the camera gets it right in the majority.
After a half clock cycle, during the night the Realme X7 does struggle a bit and outputs slightly grainy images. The night mode does brighten images by a certain margin and the images look good for posting on social media. You can also manage the exposure manually and take some cool shots during the night with the Realme X7.
Coming to the wide-angle lens, it has a very minimal fish eye effect and does a good job of increasing the field of view in necessary conditions. The colors, however, are slightly different than the primary camera, but it’s not a huge difference. You need to compare them side by side to point this out, but we felt this was worth mentioning. The macro lens also does a fine job in close-up shots, and you can get as creative as you want to be with it. We too gave it a shot, and here are the results.
Videos on the Realme X7 can go all the way to 4K, with support for Slow Motion on lower resolutions. The videos from the primary camera have a very food dynamic range, and the focusing was also very accurate. There’s also support for EIS at 1080p which helps while shooting handheld.
The selfie camera is placed in the hole-punch to the left side and is a 16MP shooter. Selfies shot during the day have really good details, and the camera does a decent job of adjusting the dynamic range if a bright source of light is in the background. There’s also support for portrait mode, which has pretty good edge detection. Videos from the selfie camera are capped at 1080p, which also retain a nice dynamic range, with adequate details.
Realme UI – 1 or 2?
The Realme X7 runs on Realme UI 1.0 out of the box, with the company stating the next major update very soon. The software feels very nourished, and with the expanded portfolio of Realme, they surely have got good experience, which reflects here as well.
The device feels snappy, offers a plethora of customization features like a system-wide dark mode, app locker, secondary space, and more. You can also record calls, and do a lot more with Realme UI which vanilla android can’t. Want us to give the Realme X7 another shot when the Realme UI 2.0 rolls out? Do let us know on our social media handles, we are always active there!
Battery Life – Makes you blush!
The Realme X7 follows the same fast-charging line-up and supports 50W SuperDart charging. Wait, isn’t SuperDart rated at 65W, then why is it 50W here? We had the same question, and we asked Realme about this. The Dimensity 800U, even after being a fantastic chipset has its own set of limitations which restricts the charging speeds at 50W only, but Realme X7 ships with the actual 65W SuperDart adapter, which is insane!
But hey, what about battery life? Yes, we are getting there. The Realme X7 runs on a 4300mAh battery, which is non-removable. The device consistently gives a screen on time of over 6-7 hours, which includes a couple of hours of gaming, an hour of video streaming, social media browsing, a few calls, and regular device usage. In this pattern, the Realme X7 easily takes you through the day, with over 30% juice left.
The battery drain during extended gaming sessions was also under control, and the device does not thermal throttle as much. The balance between temperature, performance, and battery life is perfect, and we have no complaints in this department.
The 50W SuperDart charging takes around 40-50 minutes to charge the device from 0% to 100% We completed around 10-12 charging cycles on the Realme X7, and the results were very consistent as mentioned above.
Connectivity – Affordable 5G!
The Realme X7 is so far the most affordable 5G device in India, Yay! But we couldn’t test it as there’s no 5G network rollout yet in our nation. So what, that didn’t stop us, we tested the Realme X7 on Airtel 4G, and the cellular reception was very good. There was no network lag in the SIM card, and the WiFi connectivity on both the 2 4GHz and 5GHz bands was good.
The in-display fingerprint scanner is very accurate, and it never misjudged unlocking. However, if your fingers are slightly wet or oily, the device may not recognize it, so this is something you should take care of. But it works fine whenever your fingertip is clean. The only complaint we have is the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack, so you cannot plug your favorite set of earphones directly.
Verdict
The Realme X7 is a great device with attractive aesthetics, 5G connectivity, and impressive performance with its chipset. These factors not just make the device stand out against its competitors, but also makes it a safe deal to have with 5G networks to roll out in India very soon. A potential set of triple rear cameras, good battery life, and fast charging make the Realme X7 the only device that offers everything one can ask for at Rs. 19,999/-
The drawbacks you ask? The lack of headphone jack pulls out a few goodie points, and that fingerprint magnet back is something we feel Realme could have done better, but the Realme X7 makes for a really good deal as an overall package!
