The Realme 7 was launched back in September and since then Realme has sold a good chunk of devices of the same. This mid-range smartphone has everything a phone in this price should have including a high refresh rate display which is not at all evident in this segment except from Realme. This is just another phone from Realme among plethora of others launched under the Rs. 20,000 price point. But is Realme 7 the best midrange smartphone of 2020? I have been using the phone for a month and have some views on the same.
In-hand Feel of Realme 7: At least better than others
The phone weighs about 198 grams and on top of that when you will add a cover to, it will almost be near 220 grams. It feels hefty in the hand so if you like a light phone, I would recommend you not to go with this phone. The back of Realme 7 is made up of plastic which isn’t like the glossy ones found on Samsung phones precisely, Galaxy M and A series. The quality and material is not bad but won’t give you a good in-hand feel if expecting something premium (a back cover is always recommended for phones safety and longevity). On a side, this is not the best best midrange phone of 2020 in terms of in-hand feel as some of the brands are providing a glass back (Poco X2, Redmi Note 9 Pro series) which Realme clearly lacks, be it the Realme 7 or Realme 7 Pro.
Image credits: BGR.in
Display of Realme 7: Great picture quality, highly refreshing.
The display is 1080p IPS LCD which is some great colours along with decent picture viewing quality. You won’t complain much about the display as it’s pretty good as well as bright enough even in bright daylight. The phones doesn’t have an indisplay fingerprint scanner due to lack of an OLED one but fulfills this requirement by embedding the same in the power button on the side of the phone. The 90Hz does wonders in terms of smoothness and definitely a speedy sensation is felt during the usage. Also this phone is of the few midrange smartphones in 2020 with high refresh rate display. This is my one of the most loved aspect of the phone.
Performance: Great for winters
The phone is equipped with Mediatek G95 SoC which is the successor of Mediatek G90T. Which means it’s a 12-15% GPU boost than its predecessor though it’s still based on 12nm which means it’ll heat more than the 7nm processors found on some Redmi and Poco phones (Snapdragon 720G or 730G). Nonetheless processor is good for gaming and normal day to day usage. I played Call of Duty Mobile and there were no lag or stutters in the game. The only problem was that the battery was draining pretty fast similarly, could feel the warmth on the back of the phone. This clearly isn’t the best midrange phone in 2020 for gaming in this budget but still good enough for most people.
Battery: Battery champ
Realme 7 has a 5000Mah battery. I used the phone on 90Hz and it was easily giving me 25 to 30 hours of battery when I did not play any games. It will easily give a day of battery life even with gaming and if you want to increase the battery life you can switch to 60Hz which will significantly increase the screen on time. This device also supports a 30W Dart charging which tops up the phone from 20% to 100% within an hour which is extremely appreciated in this price. Couple of years back, 30W charging was only limited to the high-end phones, even Samsung till 2018 had only provided a 25W adaptor in the box. The good part is that others like Redmi Note 9 Pro and Poco X2 also provide fast charging out of the box. Fast charging tech has come a long way in best midrange smartphones especially in 2020.
Camera: Okay Okay!
The camera is average I would say because the photos were not that good. I felt the phone lacks sharpness in the pictures despite of having a 64MP main sensor which is Samsung one. Rest of the cameras include 8MP (ultra wide), 2MP (macro) and 2MP(depth sensor). The ultra wide angle does get the job done and the same goes here, the wide angle’s images are not sharp but that’s always been the case with wide angle sensors in midrange smartphones anyway. A great workaround is to install a GCam (Google Camera) port on the Realme 7 and voila! crisp and detailed images. The GCam makes lot of difference be it the normal camera, wide angle shots or even the portrait mode clicks, pretty much excels than the stock camera app. This is clearly my preference and you may not need to install any GCam port. The front camera is a single 16MP shooter which is above average for most of the photos. Clearly not the best mid-range smartphone for photography but every phone in this range has some or the other caveats in the camera department.
Software Experience: Pretty Joyful
As we all know by now, Realme utilizes Oppo’s custom UI skin and adds a bit of own elements here and which makes the Realme UI. The phone is currently running on Realme UI 1 on top of Android 10 and will soon receive Android 11 next year. Realme this year has adopted a different route this year by changing some stock apps with Google ones like the stock phone and messages apps have been replaced by the Google Phones and Google Messages respectively. This is both a good move and bad move and depends all on the features you utilize. For instance with the addition of Google Messages you need nod install the app from Play Store separately if want to utilise the RCS functionality but I am sure measly amount of people are interested in that anyway. This is more of a brand’s decision as being a Chinese brand, emphasize a lot on Google apps since the Huawei trade ban. On the other hand, the stock call recording is gone as Google Phone app doesn’t have any sort of call recording feature, even if it has the other party would get to know that the call is being recorded through a voice over the when the call recording is initiated. This defeats the purpose of call recording but is also in place for the privacy concerns. Google is also right in its place.
Other than that, the Realme UI is pretty smooth and complements well with the high refresh rate. Stutter and lags are bare minimum in day to day usage. With the arrival of Realme UI 2, it is set to get even more customizations.
The Final Verdict. Best Midrange Smartphone 2020?
The phone is priced at Rs. 14,999 whereas on sale you can get a discount of Rs. 1,000 on the various bank cards’ offers. At this price point this phone is unbeatable and a very good phone in almost all the aspect until and unless you really want a great camera, than better options are available like the Redmi Note 9 Pro or Poco X2. Also these smartphones have Snapdragon counterparts and will give slight better raw performance and better heat management during gaming. If fine with all that you can go for it as it’s a value for money and clearly one of the best mid-range smartphones in 2020.
You can purchase the Realme 7 from Flipkart or Realme’s own website
The article was contributed by Atul Tiwari
