Realme X7 5G Review - Best Smartphone 

under 20000 in 2021

Can you get everything you would like for under Rs. 20,000?

The new Realme X7 5G and X7 Pro 5G are aimed toward the mainstream and “flagship killer” market respectively, and both are priced to bring some serious competition to longstanding favourites. We've just seen what the higher-end Realme X7 Pro 5G (Review) has got to offer, and now it is time for a full review of the cheaper Realme X7 5G. Launched at Rs. 19,999 for the 6GB RAM/ 128GB storage variant and Rs. 21,999 for 8GB of RAM with 128GB of storage, it'll need to deal with the Mi 10i (Review), Samsung Galaxy M31s (Review), and even the Realme 7 Pro (Review), amongst others.

While many of those competitors have gone all-out with the cameras, Realme is focusing more on design and performance with the new X7 5G, which has just been launched. There are a couple of little touches that add value, but also some interesting choices which may cause potential buyers to consider . Read on to ascertain if this is often the proper upgrade option for you.

Realme X7 5G design

No one can say that Realme has played it safe with the X7 series, but whether that's an honest thing or a nasty thing are going to be a matter of private taste and a really subjective call. The signature ‘Nebula' finish may be a swirl of multiple colours – peach, pink, blue, purple, gold, and yellow, which all kind of blend into one another and appear to vary as you progress this phone around under the sunshine . If this looks familiar, you would possibly have seen news of the Realme V15 launching internationally – this is often essentially an equivalent phone with a special name.

Realme calls this a “non-spectral gradient” which suggests that the colors aren't exactly following a VIBGYOR sequence. The finish is supposed to refract light through multiple stages, and it does have a really shimmery, iridescent quality thereto . On the downside, the rear surface is incredibly glossy and susceptible to smudges. there is no thanks to use this phone without it getting completely covered in fingerprints.

The big polarising issue are going to be Realme's decision to emblazon its “Dare to leap” slogan across the whole rear, that too during a contrasting finish that basically catches the sunshine . it isn't something I'd want to measure with a day , but an opaque cover would defeat the aim of selecting the Nebula finish. i feel tons of individuals will accompany the much less flashy Space Silver option which, consistent with Realme, won't have this slogan across the rear .

The Realme X7 5G is fairly compact by today's standards. The Nebula version is 8.3mm thick and weighs 179g while Space Silver shaves that right down to 8.1mm and 176g. the rear and therefore the frame are made from polycarbonate, and therefore the front is an unspecified quite glass with a protective film pre-applied. Realme also says this phone is splash-resistant, but there is no IP rating. this is often a simple phone to use one-handed; the 6.4-inch screen has narrow borders apart from the chin at rock bottom , and therefore the rear is rounded to satisfy the edges .

Realme has placed the facility button on the proper and therefore the volume buttons on the left. There's an in-display fingerprint reader, plus the front camera is embedded within the upper left corner of the screen. On rock bottom , you will see a USB Type-C port, single speaker, and dual-Nano SIM tray (with no space for a microSD card). The three cameras on the rear are extruded individually, which is more or less the present style.

Interestingly, Realme has gone with more elaborate packaging than usual, and there are some neat extras within the box. additionally to the X7 5G itself, Realme includes a 65W charger (more on this later), USB Type-C cable, clear plastic case, a SIM eject pin, and a Type-C to three .5mm dongle.

Realme X7 5G specifications and software

A little under a year after launching its first high-end 5G-enabled phone, the X50 Pro 5G (Review), the new X7 5G and X7 Pro 5G aim to form this new standard more common. There are not any 5G networks in India (yet) but this is often becoming somewhat of a must have feature anyway. Realme promises dual-sim, dual-standby plus support for all major bands, though it remains to be seen which of them operators in India will use. 5G is enabled by the MediaTek Dimensity 800U SoC which is sort of new and certain to become popular.

The Dimensity 800U may be a 7nm octa-core processor with two high-power ARM Cortex-A76 cores clocked at up to 2.4GHz, plus six efficient Cortex-A55 cores clocked at up to 2GHz. It also features an integrated Mali-G57 MC3 GPU, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.1, and multiple satellite navigation systems.

Realme has gone with a 6.4-inch full-HD+ 1080x2400-pixel Super AMOLED panel. Immediately, we notice that a high refresh rate isn't mentioned on the spec sheet, which may be a bit surprising considering the worth and positioning of this phone. However, Realme does list a 180Hz touch rate . you'll choose from variants with 6GB and 8GB of RAM, but both have 128GB of UFS 2.1 storage and there is no microSD slot for expansion.

The battery capacity is 4,310mAh which is less than average lately , but that is the tradeoff for the low weight of the X7 5G. This phone supports 50W fast charging but comes with a 65W adapter which is great to ascertain – it's quite the other of what many other companies do. this suggests you'll charge even higher-end phones like the Realme X7 Pro 5G quickly with an equivalent charger, but Realme's “SuperDart” tech doesn't appear to be compatible with the industry-standard USB Power Delivery so you cannot as an example use an equivalent charger together with your laptop and carry one less thing around.

The Realme X7 5G ships with Android 10 and Realme UI 1.0, but the corporate promises updates to Android 11 and a “more minimalist” Realme UI 2.0 within the very near future. If these are released by the time you purchase this phone, your experience are going to be different, but I'm getting to review what the corporate has sent at launch time and rate this phone accordingly. My unit had the December 2020 Android security patch which is comparatively recent.

The UI looks very similar to stock Android but there are added features and customisations like App Cloner for running multiple accounts, optional navigation gestures, and Smart Sidebar for shortcuts to apps and tools. there is a category of “experimental” features within the Settings app, which as of now include smooth scrolling (though how this is often achieved isn't clear), Super Nighttime Standby which reduces network activity to save lots of power, and DC Dimming which may reduce flickering to ease eye strain, but may need unexpected side effects like colour shifting and auto brightness not working.

Realme has added a touch of bloatware including its own Music and Video apps, a topic store, HeyFun game store, SoLoop video editor, Amazon, Facebook, and Flipkart. There also are Realme's own Community, Store, Paysa and Link apps. Most aren't too intrusive and lots of are often uninstalled but you'll still get tons of unnecessary notifications. You'll also see some advertising in built-in apps, and on the lock screen via the “Magazine” feature, though this will be disabled within the Settings app.

Realme X7 5G performance 

With even budget phones performing smoothly lately , it's no surprise that the Realme X7 5G was smooth and responsive in everyday tasks. The setup process was simple enough but there are several defaults you'll be wanting to vary manually later, like advertising preferences. The X7 5G is pleasant and cozy enough to use with none hassles. It did get slightly warm when charging rapidly, but that was about it for heating. The in-display fingerprint sensor and face recognition were usually quick but there was some hesitation sometimes.

As the first phone in India with a Dimensity 800U SoC, benchmark scores should be interesting. The X7 5G managed 3,35,698 overall in AnTuTu, also as 599 and 1,800 respectively in Geekbench 5's single-core and multi-core tests. It also ran GFXBench's Car Chase and Manhattan 3.1 graphics tests at 18fps and 31fps respectively, while 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme and Wild Life tests returned many 3,137 and 1,589.

These scores mean that the new X7 5G handily beats the Realme 7 Pro₹ 19,999 which still sells for precisely the same prices. The Dimensity 800U seems to be roughly on par with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 765G and 750G, trading blows in several tests.

As for games, I found both Call of Duty Mobile and Asphalt 9: Legends to be smooth. They ran at Medium and Default quality settings and were quite enjoyable. The screen is comparatively crisp and hues are punchy, but this is not the simplest quality I've seen at this price index . Widevine L1 DRM has been implemented so you'll watch HD-quality streaming videos through your favourite services. there is a single speaker on rock bottom and sound quality is pretty good by smartphone standards. This phone is Hi-Res Audio certified but you'll still get the simplest results with an honest pair of earphones.

Battery life should not be a drag in the least . The Realme X7 5G can easily run a over full day albeit you throw tons of heavy tasks at it, including gaming and using the cameras. Our HD video loop test ran for a really impressive 20 hours, 45 minutes. Charging is additionally pretty quick – it took only 25 minutes to urge from zero to 50 percent, and a full charge took 1 hour, 3 minutes using the bundled “SuperDart” charger.

Realme X7 5G cameras

Interestingly, Realme seems to possess bucked the pressure to possess “quad cameras” as a point for this phone. I'm proud of that, since a low-grade fourth camera, like the 2-megapixel “B&W portrait” filter one on the Realme X7 Pro 5G, would be of very limited use anyway. Even the 2-megapixel macro camera that the Realme X7 5G has is essentially for entertainment and doesn't capture ok results to be used for serious photography. You'll spend most of some time with the 64-megapixel, f/1.8 primary and therefore the 8-megapixel f/2.3 ultra-wide-angle cameras.

Realme's software is fairly easy to use and customary modes are accessible, resolution settings, which you would possibly need often, are at rock bottom of the most menu and one layer deep. within the daytime, the Realme X7 5G was generally quick to lock focus and appeared to had best with metering exposures, a minimum of at its default 16-megapixel binned resolution. there have been some signs of oversharpening in post-processing, and details at a distance were a touch too murky for my liking. On the opposite hand, close-ups came out well with vivid colours.

When taking shots at the native 64-megapixel resolution, shots were a touch washed-out and therefore the colour tone was a touch off. The wide-angle camera isn't bad, but detail does suffer and there's some warping at the edges of frames so you'll be wanting to use it sparingly. Portraits begin with decent background separation, but surprisingly, you cannot adjust the blur intensity after taking an attempt .

Shots taken in the dark had decent detail, and again, the wide-angle camera is best avoided unless there is a lot of sunshine around. Some close-up shots crazy the most camera were surprisingly good, but others looked a touch artificial. Night mode crops the frame a touch but there's still an opportunity of motion blur. Results could be brighter, but aren't always overall better using Night mode. there is a tripod toggle that would assist you get even better results if you'll keep the phone steady.

You also get a 16-megapixel f/2.5 front camera embedded within the upper left corner of the screen. Beautification is enabled by default for selfies. it is a bit too aggressive and makes skin look artificial. Portrait selfies have effective background blurring. Quality overall is pretty good within the daytime and in the dark .

Video are often recorded at up to 4K 30fps. there is a lot of shake if you progress about while recording, but quality is sort of good overall within the daytime and in the dark , even when using the wide-angle camera. you cannot switch between cameras while recording. there is a slow-motion 120fps mode as wel

Verdict

The Realme X7 5G offers excellent overall performance, and aside from a couple of minor annoyances with the software, the usage experience is smooth. Hopefully, Realme UI 2.0 eases abreast of the bloat and spam. This phone is additionally relatively light and compact without sacrificing battery life. If you would like to play games and stream videos throughout the day, it might be an honest choice. The cameras are almost average, but this is often the sole area during which I'm not particularly impressed, considering the worth .

Speaking of price, the Realme X7 5G is currently India's most affordable 5G-capable phone, but it's still too early for that to be a serious think about your purchase decision. It seems to be more polished than the Mi 10i₹ 21,999 for a rather lower starting price, and will also undercut the OnePlus Nord₹ 29,999 (Review). it is also very clear that you simply should choose the X7 5G over the Realme 7 Pro at these prices – just be very sure that you're willing to measure with this design before you purchase the ‘Nebula' version online.