Following the launch of the Realme X50 5G (Review) and Realme X50 Pro 5G (Review) in Singapore, Realme is now back with another attractive mid-ranger smartphone known as the Realme 7 Pro that’s already available for purchase in the local market.
As its name suggests, the Realme 7 Pro will be succeeding the Realme 6 Pro which was launched in Singapore during the second-quarter of the year. The new Realme 7 Pro is based upon the same success formula of inheriting flagship-grade features to mid-ranger phone while keeping its pricing amicable.
Previously, the Realme 6 Pro made its name by becoming one of the first mid-ranger smartphone to feature a smooth 90Hz refresh rate alongside a powerful 64MP quad camera system which was an absolute steal at that point of time.
Now, the new Realme 7 Pro took things even further by bringing in a more vibrant Super AMOLED display, as well as the company’s flagship 65W Super Dart charging support which will set a whole new standard for its future numerical series smartphones.
On paper, the Realme 7 Pro definitely sounds promising. However, does it have what it takes to become your next smartphone? Let’s find out in our Realme 7 Pro review!
Design
As usual, Realme doesn’t have a habit of recycling its design. As such, the Realme 7 Pro will depart from the attention-grabbing “lightning” design that we saw on the Realme 6 Pro.
Instead, it will feature a brand new mirror-split design that embodies an understated elegance which kind of remind me of the Realme X50 Pro (Review). On the outside, its dual-tone paint job is topped with a matte finishing that encompasses has some light-shifting elements that create a premium visual impression on the device.
Although currently not available in Singapore, but the Realme 7 Pro actually has a faux leather edition known as the Sun Kissed Leather edition which has one of the most stunning rear design I’ve seen so far for a mid-ranger smartphone.
As for its rear cameras, the Realme 7 Pro settles for a rectangular housing similar to most other recent smartphones including the Realme C17 which was launched in Singapore last month.
While its back panel is made of polycarbonate, it still feels sturdy and durable. Furthermore, it also has subtle curves along the two sides of its back panel to help improves the overall grip of the device.
Over at the front, the Realme 7 Pro will be featuring a minute hole punch cutout on the upper-left corner of the display to accommodate its selfie camera. As expected, it will be a flat panel which will be accompanied by slim bezels along its two sides.
Diving into the specifics, the front display will be a Super AMOLED panel that delivers vibrant and punchy colors for an immersive graphical experience. Since its an OLED panel, the “Always-on” display feature will be available on the Realme 7 Pro as well.
Of course, it could be better if the device comes with at least 90Hz refresh rate, but that would be overdemanding considering its price and the presence of a more expensive Super AMOLED panel – which will certainly make up for its slightly lower refresh rate.
In fact, the Realme 7 Pro is among the few smartphones below S$500 that features a Super AMOLED panel since the majority stick to a cheaper LCD panel in order to keep cost low. The benefits of a Super AMOLED panel over a LCD panel is obvious to the eyes with colors looking more realistic thanks to greater contrast.
On top of that, the front display also has sufficient brightness to ensure the content on the screen doesn’t appear washed out even when you’re directly under the sun.
Performance
Under the hood, the Realme 7 Pro is helmed by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G chipset which put it on par with other big guns like the OPPO Reno4 Pro (Review) at a fraction of its price.
In terms of performance, the Snapdragon 720G chipset is doubtless among the best performing mid-ranger chip in the local market which is comparable to the Snapdragon 730/ 732G chips, but sits slightly behind the Snapdragon 765G.
Therefore, you can expect a really consistent and reliable performance output that’s great for day-to-day usages. Coming to the gaming aspect, the Realme 7 Pro can easily handle every game titles unless you’re regularly pushing its limit by toggling to the highest game settings.
Otherwise, at default settings, you can enjoy a really smooth gaming experience on most popular games like PUBG Mobile and Brawl Stars. Similarly, there also isn’t any heating issue even when you’re gaming two or three hours straight despite the lack of a dedicated cooling system.
In the memory department, there’s also an ample 8GB RAM which is more than sufficient for most users. That’s the reason why flagship phones normally have 8GB RAM as their standard model instead of 6GB or 12GB RAM.
Cameras
For photography, the Realme 7 Pro relies on a quad camera system lead by a 64 megapixels (f/1.8 aperture) primary shooter alongside an 8 megapixels (f/2.3 aperture) ultra-wide lens, 2 megapixels (f/2.4 aperture) macro camera, as well as a 2 megapixels (f/2.4 aperture) depth sensor.
In the default shooting mode, the Realme 7 Pro employs the usual 4-in-1 pixel binning technique to produce 16 megapixels images with good exposure and dynamic range that are among the best in its price range. On top of that, the device also did a pretty good jobs in preserving highlight and shadow details within an image as seen in the sample (Default Mode #2) above.
For night shots, the Realme 7 Pro comes with a dedicated Night mode to help brighten the scene. In most cases, images taken using the Night mode offers good dynamic range and level of details. However, brighter areas within an image do have signs of overexposure occasionally. Other than that, I really like the night shots taken by the device.
To assist with landscape photography, the Realme 7 Pro also has dedicated ultra-wide camera that’s capable of clicking images with nice color profile and decent level of details. In fact, the image quality of the ultra-wide shots are comparable to those taken by the primary shooter unless you really do pixel peeking.
Just like most mid-ranger phones, the Realme 7 Pro lacks of a dedicated telephoto lens for zooming. As such, the device will make use of the usual cropping technique to achieve up to 10x optical zoom.
Overall, the device performs pretty well in terms of zooming. Even at the maximum zoom level, words and structures remain reasonably clear and doesn’t appear grainy at all. It do however, struggles a little under low-light environment.
Speaking of its close-up shots, the device has been reliable with its edge detection and clicks images with a nice bokeh effect at the background. Most of the time, it doesn’t encounter any issue with its autofocus function and is able to focus on the subject rather quickly.
Under low-light environment images may lack dynamic range and details, but there’s a “fill light” feature to help illuminate the subject with its built-in flash to pull off a crisp shot.
Finally for selfies, the Realme 7 Pro will be banking on a 32 megapixels front-facing camera. Although its camera count has been reduced from two to one, but that doesn’t seems to affect its selfie quality at all. Images are definitely Insta-worthy whether you click it using the default or portrait modes.
Battery & Charging
So far, most of the Realme devices I’d reviewed have great and consistent battery life. The Realme 7 Pro is certainly not an exception. Under normal usage condition with one or two hours of entertainment in between while commuting, the device will leave you with at least 20% battery remaining at the end of the day.
The main spotlight of the device however, is none other than its 65W Super Dart charging support that’s capable of delivering a full charge in less than 36 minutes – the fastest in the local market. This put the device on par with some of the mightiest flagship phone in the local market including the OPPO Find X2 Pro (Review), as well as the recently announced OnePlus 8T (Review).
In fact, its actually quite impressive how Realme managed to bring such advanced charging solution to the mix, since it was previously limited only to premium models with launch price S$899 and above in the local market. Therefore, even for flagship models, there’s really a lot of catching up to do when you look at the Realme 7 Pro.
If you’d experienced the 65W fast-charging, you’ll know that the benefits are real. A mere 30 minutes charge can get you 90% battery life that can easily last you through the day . Even you forget to charge you phone overnight, you can simply plug the wire in when you wake and get ready to be greeted with a day-long of battery life once you’re heading out.
Verdict
For those looking at a sub-S$500 smartphone, the Realme 7 Pro is surely the phone to recommend in the current market. It’s a well balanced mid-ranger phone that brings you an immersive display, good performance, versatile cameras, on top of an ultra-fast charging speed.
If you’re interested, the Realme 7 Pro is available for purchase at just S$499 on Shopee.
