Poco X7 Pro review: this phone is a budget gaming champ, but how's the camera?

On paper, the Poco X7 Pro is ridiculously good value for money. Its MediaTek Dimensity 8400 Ultra processor is just a couple of notches below flagship-grade when it comes to gaming; it has a zingy, smooth 6.67-inch AMOLED screen, and the huge 6,000mAh battery that bests many top-tier alternatives. Going beyond spec, in vegan leather, it looks standout with its yellow and black finish, and it’s also durable with IP68 water resistance.

One area Poco phones haven’t typically shone is camera performance. However, the X6 Pro is a step in the right direction in a couple of areas. First, it ditches the terrible 2MP macro cameras that weighed down the Redmi Note 14 Pro series. Next, the primary camera looks like a solid 50MP module with OIS, suggesting this phone could actually check more than just gaming boxes.

There’s plenty of competition for the Poco X7 Pro, including last year’s excellent X6 Pro, the Redmi Note 14 Pro, and the slick Nothing Phone (3a), not to mention Honor’s battery-tastic Magic 7 Lite. Out of the gate, if you want power, the Poco X7 Pro beats out the competition, but is it our winner across the board?

Poco X7 Pro review: design and screen

The Poco X7 Pro is available in white, green, or a more standout yellow and black, which sets two textures of vegan leather against one another, looking eye-catching in the process.

As with most 2025 phones, the X7 Pro has a flat front and back, matched with a matte plastic frame that makes for a comfortable grip. The phone measures 8.3 mm thin and weighs 195 grams, so it strikes a balance between feeling solid and relatively lightweight. Impressive for the price, the X7 Pro is IP68 rated for dust and water resistance, and the phone has a pre-fitted screen protector, plus an opaque black case in the box.

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The X7 Pro’s 6.67-inch AMOLED display looks great, with a resolution of 2170 x 1220 pixels, making it nice and sharp. Gliding at up to 120Hz, the screen is smooth when scrolling and responsive when gaming, making the whole experience feel more premium than the X7 Pro’s price suggests.

With a peak brightness of up to 3200 nits when displaying HDR content, HDR and HD Netflix certification, and strong outdoor visibility in direct sunlight, visuals shine indoors and out, whether swiping through the UI or watching and gaming, and the phone also has a relatively hardy Gorilla Glass 7i display.

Poco X7 Pro Iron Man Edition

​The Poco X7 Pro is also available in a special Iron Man Edition in select regions, widely sold out but available if you shop around.

It's without a doubt one of the best brand partnerships we've come across, with the striking design echoing Iron Man’s armor and breastplate, complete with a red and gold color scheme and an almost trading card aesthetic around the back.

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The special edition X7 Pro comes in a collector's gift box that includes themed accessories, a custom USB cable, and an armor-like protective case. The UI is also customized with Iron Man-themed wallpapers, icons, and startup animations, and the phone packs the X7 Pro’s maxed-out spec of 512GB storage and 12GB RAM.

Poco X7 Pro review: camera specs

The Poco X7 Pro has two cameras around the back – a wide and ultra-wide – and a punch-hole selfie camera on the front. The wide camera is the best-specced, while the ultra-wide and selfie cameras lack autofocus.

26mm main camera: 50MP, 1/1.95-inch Sony IMX882 sensor with an f/1.5 aperture lens and OIS.

15mm ultra-wide camera: 8MP, 1/4-inch sensor with an f/2.2 lens.

25mm front camera: 20MP, 1/4-inch sensor with an f/2.2 lens.

The main camera supports video recording up to 4K at 60 frames per second, which is great at the X7 Pro’s price; however, the ultra-wide and selfie cameras cap out at 1080p. While there’s a Pro mode for manual shooting, none of the Poco X7 Pro’s cameras capture RAW photos natively.

Poco X7 Pro review: camera verdict

The Poco X7 Pro camera is good, not great. Poco phones tend to ramp up vibrancy and the X7 Pro is no exception. Blues in the sky are seriously amped, and grass takes on a warmth and zing that looks lively but less realistic than pricier competition, but despite this very enthusiastic processing, detail from the main camera and performance in most conditions is respectable.

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In its price range, all smartphone cameras have notable strengths and weaknesses, and the Poco X7 Pro's most marked quirk is how much better its main camera is than the ultra-wide camera. In most situations, if you can give the main camera a steady hand, it will capture a good-looking shot, whether outdoors in the day or night, or indoors in middling lighting.

The ultra-wide struggles in most environments, with low detail and muddy results, worsened as the lights dropped. Color consistency across the wide and ultra-wide are also off at times, so we would urge any X7 Pro owners to only lean on the ultra-wide in great lighting or at night when you can get the phone on a surface.

As you can see in the camera samples, the high-resolution main camera with its relatively large sensor, can take a great-looking shot. Close-up subjects create a sense of depth with subtle background blur, and the in-sensor zoom does a good job up to 4x, which is good going at the Poco X7 Pro's price.

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Dynamic range is also relatively strong from the main camera (and weak from the ultra-wide), and there's also enough contrast to avoid an excessive HDR look in most scenes. Poco applies a significant amount of sharpening, especially to in-sensor zoom shots captured in middling light, and having tested the Poco X7 Pro alongside the Samsung Galaxy A56 5G, it's hard not to draw comparisons between Samsung's traditionally punchy, slightly blunt photo processing and Poco's in the X7 Pro.

Video shot on the X7 Pro's main camera looks good in bright environments, and hand shake is kept at bay with OIS and EIS kicking in. Avoid switching to the ultra-wide in anything but ideal lighting; not only will the resolution drop, but noise is handled badly, so you're better off sticking to the primary camera.

The Selfie video does a good job of prioritizing a face while clinging onto a respectable amount of dynamic range. However, as with photos and rear camera videos, vibrancy being so ramped up can leave footage looking a bit too zingy.

In summary, if you're a casual photo and video taker, the Poco X7 Pro's primary and selfie cameras are good options. Still, for more discerning users who want to take photos in Lightroom and edit videos, Poco's processing takes things a step too far to pare back easily.

Poco X7 Pro review: performance and battery

Performance is where the Poco X7 Pro shines. Powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 8400 Ultra chipset and paired with either 8GB or 12GB RAM, the X7 Pro is the best option on the market for gamers on a budget.

With either 256GB or 512GB RAM, the X7 Pro packs plenty of space for huge titles like Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves – roughly 50GB between them both – and it also plays them back very well, even at higher graphics settings.

The main drawback of a Poco phone is the busy, bloated interface. Xiaomi's HyperOS gets an injection of bloatware to help lower the positioning of Poco and Redmi phones, so while the core functionality is competitive, you'll have to spend some time uninstalling apps and setting the phone up just the way you want it.

The X7 Pro's large 6,000mAh battery lasts a couple of days with standard use and a full day even with significant gaming, photo taking, and watching.

Poco X7 Pro verdict

The Poco X7 Pro is probably the best gaming phone at its price and a good enough camera phone for most. Discerning photographers, i.e. anyone who wants RAW capture, reliable results across cameras, and more subdued processing should look elsewhere, but if you don't mind vibrant shots, you can still lean on the primary camera with some confidence.

If Poco included RAW capture and Log video (i.e., ways to bypass the aggressive processing), that could have taken the X7 Pro's appeal a little further for imaging enthusiasts; however, the phone still has plenty going for it.

The star of the X7 Pro show is the Dimensity 8400 Ultra processor, with the 120Hz AMOLED display, standout styling, and large 6000mAh battery not far behind. With IP68 water and dust resistance, plenty of storage, and fast charging, despite not being one of the best budget camera phones of 2025, the X7 Pro is still one of the best budget smartphones, especially for gamers.

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