Revisiting realme 7 - Still attractive with a new and lower price tag

realme 7 arrived in the Philippines in September last year. It is a mid-range device that is now made more attractive with a recent price drop.

Is it still that good?

Today, we will revisit the realme 7 after 6 months of tenure in the country. How does it hold up?

Build Quality/Design

realme 7 has a pretty back with a shiny sheen and metal frame

The realme 7 has a polycarbonate back with a smooth yet grippy finish with a shiny sheen. It has a metal frame that adds heft to it that in turn makes the device feel more premium in the hands. In terms of fingerprint smudges, it is pretty resistive to it.

The top and bottom of the device respectively

You'll find the power button with the side-mounted fingerprint reader, the volume controls with the SIM card tray on the left, and the speakers, mic, USB-C port, and 3.5mm headphone port at the button.

SIM card slot and volume control on the left

The camera bumps are oriented on the top left of the back panel. Other than that, there's just a small realme logo at the bottom left.

The fingerprint reader on the right

Overall, the realme 7 looks good, especially in the Mirror White colorway. It feels and looks more premium than other devices in the price range as well. The screen is flatter than the norm in 2021 while the back curves a bit.

The ergonomics of the device still feel good in the hands.

Multimedia Experience

The 6.5-inch screen is great for both gaming and multimedia

The realme 7 has a 6.5-inch 2.5D curved LCD screen with a 90Hz refresh rate, 2400 x 1080 FHD+ resolution, 405 ppi pixel density, and an unspecified Gorilla Glass protection. In terms of normal usage, the 90Hz refresh rate provides a very smooth experience when navigating and scrolling the news feeds and webpages.

FHD+ 90Hz display!

Let's talk multimedia content then. For watching videos and shows, the screen provides ample contrast, saturation, and brightness to provide an immersive experience. Being an IPS screen, it does not provide the same deep blacks as an AMOLED panel but it is respectable.

For gaming, the 90Hz refresh rate is a game-changer. More frames are important especially for PUBG, COD: Mobile, and Wild Rift. Again, the colors pop during gameplay which provides a more immersive experience.

In terms of audio, the bottom-firing speaker gets fairly loud but can easily be covered when playing. It does not suffer from audio distortion even at louder volumes too. Dolby Atmos also improved the experience with its simulated surround sound.

It also has a 3.5mm headphone jack for wired audio. It was able to drive my JBL Quantum 600 competently with rich audio and great bass. Dolby Atmos also provide a simulated surround experience which works better in headphones. We enjoyed watching Netflix shows that do support Dolby audio. 

It connects to TWS earbuds using Bluetooth 5.0. Connection is strong and consistent. I was able to leave my phone in my room and go to our living room without the connection dropping. The sound quality is great with good volume and clarity as well.

Cameras

realme 7 has a 64MP quad-camera setup

realme 7 has a quad-camera setup with a combo of 64MP f/1.7 Sony IMX682 w/ EIS + 8MP f/2.3 119-degree ultra-wide-angle + 2MP f/2.4 4cm macro + 2MP f/2.4 mono + LED flash. For camera modes, it normal Photo, Video, Night mode, Portrait, 64MP mode, Time-lapse. Slo-Mo, Google Lens, Pro Expert Mode, Ultra-Macro, Starry mode, and Panorama.

The 16MP selfie camera

It also has a 16MP f/2.0 Sony IMX471R sensor for selfies. You can use Night Mode, Video, Photo, and Portrait with the front camera.

The realme 7 takes great photos under different light conditions and situations. With the 64MP main camera, the colors are great and the details are crisp. The Portrait modes edge detection is great as well since it was able to accurately separate the subject from the background.

The ultra-wide shot retains a lot of details and has great colors as well. It still has the fish-eye effect you get from ultra-wide shots but it is not that jarring. In terms of zoom shots, it can go up to 5x zoom which produced decent shots but it does lose some detail the closer you zoomed in.

For the macro shots, we can say that it is decent. The 4cm focus is real and you can take some creative shots with it. There's also an Ultra-macro moe that retains even more details as seen on the sample shot below.

The difference between the normal Photo mode and Night mode is huge. More details are retained in Night mode. Bright signages are not blown out and readable. Colors are also more natural in Night mode.

Rear Camera Samples

Normal wide shot in daylight

As you can see, the 64MP main camera can capture great images with good colors, details, and exposure. Take note, this was shot on a gloomy, rainy day.

Ultra-wide-angle shot, daylight

The same can be said with the 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera. You can take well to amazing photos given that there is ample lighting. Details are still decent with good colors and contrast.

Daylight shot, normal mode

As you can see here, once it gets brighter, the image came out better with better colors, better exposure, and a sharper image.

Ultra-wide-angle shot mode, daylight

The same goes for the ultra-wide shot. It captured better images when it became brighter. It shows how much good lighting helps in photography.

2x zoom, daylight

This is a 2x zoom shot that is still able to maintain a lot of detail. However, 5x zoom will start to show some image quality deterioration due to the lack of a dedicated telephoto lens.

Indoors with warm, dimmer lights, normal mode

This is shot using the 64MP main camera while indoors. The color of the lights seems to be a bit muted compared to the ultra-wide shot as seen below.

Ultra-wide shot, indoors

As stated before, the ultra-wide shot of the same indoors setting came out with a  warmer tone. This was not apparent in the outdoor shots.

Portrait mode

Using the Portrait Mode here, you can see that the realme 7 has great edge detection to produce a close-to-natural bokeh. It successfully and beautifully separates the subject from the background with the use of depth of field.

Indoors, close-up, food shot

For mobile food photographers, realme 7's takes food shots decently. It has poppy colors but still maintains an authentic look that represents what the food look-like in real life.

Ultra Macro mode

There's also the Ultra Macro mode. As you can see, you can even shoot objects as small as the fly above. You can see the grooves in the wings and eyes.

Normal mode, low light shot

At low light conditions, the 64MP main camera performed pretty well. The parts that the light hit is detailed with great colors, contrast, and details.

Ultra-wide angle, night shot

When it comes to ultra-wide-angle shots at night using normal mode, the details start to deteriorate when you zoom in. But when you look at it at face value, it is still a good shot on its own.

Normal mode, night shot

Here, you can see that the Edsa Shangri-La sign looks to be blown out. It almost looks like it is just one light. Colors also washed out as well.

Night Mode

Using the Night Mode, you can see that more details are retained. You can easily read the Edsa Shangri-La sign and the clouds are much more visible. Even if it has artifacts and a bit oversharpened, we highly recommend that you use this during lowlight situations.

Selfie Camera Samples

Selfie mode, daylight

The 16MP selfie camera takes amazing photos in daylight. It has great colors, depth, contrast, and details.

Normal selfie, indoors, dim lights

In dimmer lights, you can see that it captures images well., However, some of the colors are a bit muted compared to a well-lighted shot.

Portrait mode

Using the Portrait mode, you can see that the realme 7 even has decent edge detection even in selfies. However, if you can see the man's shoulder behind the subject, the image processing mistook it as part of the subject. The right ear was also blurred out. It can be improved but overall we are pleased.

Normal mode, warm dim light, indoors

Here is another indoors shot. Yes, it has a dim light setting with a warmer hue but it is brighter than the shot above. You can see that there is more detail in this shot that colors are on the warmer spectrum due to the lighting. Given that consideration, it is pretty accurate.

Night mode

Selfie Night Mode is effective as well. As you can see above, realme 7 was able to take a picture with decent colors and details with just our monitor as the light source. It was also able to bring back some of the backgrounds that were almost submerged in darkness.

Performance

Performance and battery benchmark

Under the hood, it has a 12nm 2.05GHz MediaTek Helio G95 octa-core processor, 900MHz Mali-G76 3EEMC4 GPU, 8GB LPDDR4X RAM, 128GB UFS 2.1 expandable storage, and a 5,000mAh battery with 30W Dart Charge.

Pretty fast performance for the price!

In AnTuTu it was able to get a score of 294,726 with a CPU score of 98,210. In terms of battery life, it was able to last 10 hours and 9 minutes in our PCMark Work 2.0 battery life benchmark.

However, benchmarks are different from real-life usage. First off, r. In terms of gaming, we were able to test it in League of Legends: Wild Rift and COD: Mobile. In Wild Rift, we were able to maintain smooth framerates even at Ultra High Definition settings.

Game settings can go to their highest settings with realme 7

In terms of COD: Mobile, we were able to put the graphics quality too High to achieve the Max settings for framerate. However, we were experiencing some frame drops in the Battle Royale mode mainly because of the map size. Switching to Team Deathmatch, the framerate is smoother since it has a smaller map.

Thermal management is amazingly good. We played games for a couple of hours and while the phone did get warm, it did not reach the point of alarmingly hot. For daily battery life, we were able to squeeze more than 10 hours out of the realme 7. We usually end the day with around 40 percent after using it for social media, YouTube, and some gaming.

In terms of connectivity, the presence of dual-band WiFi is great since we can utilize it with our router. The difference is fairly big between the two. With 2.4GHz, I was only able to get around 45Mbps while 5GHz was able to maximize the 150Mbps that we have. 4G LTE connectivity was more stable compared to our other phone too.

realme UI

realme UI looks really good out of the box. It is one of the more gorgeous and intuitive Android skins. There are a few bloatwares but these can be removed. The notification panel along with the quick settings tabs have a realme UI skin but is kept to look as close to stock Android as possible. There is a built-in dark mode as well for those who prefer that as well. Dark Mode affects the UI elements as well as the essential apps such as Settings, Dialer, and Messages. It is also snappy and we did not experience any lag or hiccups during our usage.

Overall, realme 7 is packed to the brim with performance, especially for its price. It is more than enough for a casual user and even some gamers on a budget.

realme 7 Specs

Display: 6.5-inch 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass protected LCD screen w/ 90Hz refresh rate, FHD+ 2400 x 1080 resolution at 405 ppi

CPU: 2.05GHz 12nm MediaTek Helio G95 octa-core processor

GPU: Mali-G76 3EEMC4 (900MHz)

RAM: 8GB LPDDR4X

ROM: 128GB UFS 2.1 expandable via microSD card slot up to 256GB (dedicated)

Back Camera: 64MP f/1.7 Sony IMX682 w/ EIS + 8MP f/2.3 119-degree ultra-wide-angle + 2MP f/2.4 4cm macro + 2MP f/2.4 mono + LED flash

Selfie Camera: 16MP f/2.0 Sony IMX471

Battery: 5,000mAh w/ 30W Dart Charge

OS: Android 10.0 w/ realme UI

Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz/5GHz), 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.0, OTG, FM Radio, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, dual SIM

Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic

Others: Fingerprint fingerprint sensor, face unlock, Dolby Atmos, dual-mic, USB-C, Colors: Mirror White, Mirror Blue

Dimensions: 162.3 x 74.8 x 9.4 mm

Weight: 196.5 g

Price: PHP 14,990 (PHP 11,990 new SRP)

Quick thoughts

Now down to PHP 11,990, the realme 7 just made itself a very viable smartphone for those looking for an awesome deal. It is a beautiful device packed with a 90Hz FHD+ screen, a gaming chipset, a huge battery, and a 64MP quad-camera setup.

This is a good balance between a budget-friendly device and a capable mid-ranger. You are getting a machine capable of gaming on top of a respectable social media and multimedia experience.

It is a superb choice made even more irresistible due to the new price drop.

What do you guys think?