Undoubtedly good value

Review: Xiaomi Poco F7 - Top model for under 5000 kronor

Xiaomi Poco F7 is a mobile with top performance for less than half the price of what top models usually cost. We look at what has been saved on.

Published 9 December 2025 - 16:19 Modified 9 December 2025 - 16:25

Poco is Xiaomi's brand for slightly cheaper mobile phones. Or rather one of them, as we also have Redmi. Poco focuses primarily on providing a lot of performance for the money, at least in the F7 series launched in Sweden this year.

Xiaomi Poco F7 is the third and cheapest Poco mobile I am testing this year, after Poco F7 Pro and Ultra. It is also the cheapest with a price of 4790 kronor with 256 GB storage. If you want 512 GB, it costs 500 kronor more. Both variants have 12 gigabytes of RAM, but there is no memory card slot. Regardless, it is really good value for money already here. The phone is also waterproof with IP class 68, just like the most expensive top models.

The chipset in the mobile is Snapdragon 8s Gen 4, a new chipset from Qualcomm made specifically for this type of slightly cheaper top models. We have also seen it in Nothing Phone 3. In our performance tests, it is roughly on par with or just below last year's top models, which means so fast that you never think about it being limited in performance.

Impressive screen and battery

The screen is also not an area where they have skimped. It is a large screen on a large phone, 6.83 inches, but the bezels around the screen are quite thin so the mobile still doesn't feel so bulky. The screen is of the AMOLED type, has a slightly higher resolution with 2772 x 1280 pixels, and a refresh rate of 120 Hz so that the graphics are sharp even when you swipe across the screen and scroll. This screen is also very bright, with a sunlight mode that has a maximum brightness of 1700 nits, it works well even outdoors in the sun.

The battery is also unusually generous. They use the new Si/C battery technology, where they boost the capacity in lithium-ion technology with an improved recipe for the anode. The battery is 6500 mAh, which is almost a third more than the 5000 mAh that has long been standard in mobiles. The large battery might not be as noticeable as I hope, the bright screen probably consumes more battery too, but I certainly get above average both in screen time and practical use. The EU has started a mandatory battery test where the mobile goes through a number of steps with app running, video playback, and pauses on repeat, and in that test, the phone gets 64 hours and 3 minutes, higher than any other mobile we've tested since the tests were introduced in June.

A large battery takes longer to charge, but Xiaomi includes a 90-watt charger that can charge the mobile up to half in 20 minutes. However, wireless charging is missing.

The phone naturally has NFC for contactless payment with NFC, and also a fingerprint reader in the screen with good response and stereo speakers with quite good sound.

Limited camera that performs reasonably well

Somewhere they must have cut costs to get the price down like this. It's of course the cameras.

The main camera on the back is a 50-megapixel camera with a relatively small sensor of 1/1.95 inches, not in any way flagship class in terms of specifications. The wide-angle camera is even weaker with a quarter-inch sensor of 8 megapixels. The camera setup clearly distinguishes Poco F7 from F7 Pro and F7 Ultra.

I notice less of this than I expected when I compare the camera. I think it performs quite okay compared to the Samsung Galaxy S25 and Pixel 10. The sharpness is fine even if the colour reproduction is a bit dull sometimes. The smaller sensor is mainly noticeable in images with high contrast where the picture can sometimes be a bit over- or underexposed. Also when photographing in the dark. In semi-darkness, the Poco F7 still keeps up, but in darkness, you notice a clear difference compared to the other phones I compare it with. Still quite okay. The wide-angle camera, on the other hand, is as bad as I expect, with low resolution, even though the colours are quite okay.

If you want to take zoomed-in pictures, it also stops quite quickly. An image at two times magnification becomes a bit sharper thanks to using the high pixel count to increase the resolution at the expense of brightness. You can zoom in up to ten times with the phone, but after 2-3 times magnification, I think the pictures become too poor.

The phone comes with Android 15, not the latest version of the operating system. Xiaomi promises four major system updates. This could be seen as a cost-saving measure to keep the price down, but it is not worse than what is offered on their top model, Xiaomi 15.

Xiaomi's user interface for Android, Hyper OS, is a bit confusing. If you come from another Android phone, everything is renamed and located in different places. Xiaomi has quite a few of its own apps that sometimes duplicate the function of Google's apps. A bit like Samsung does, but with the feeling that I get less enjoyment from it. The phone also has a lot of third-party apps installed from the start that you have to sit and remove if you don't like that sort of thing.

As long as your focus is not on taking really good pictures, the Xiaomi Poco F7 is fantastic for its price. Both the screen and battery life are excellent, and the phone is probably the fastest you will find for under 5000 kronor.

Questions and answers

Are any accessories included? An opaque rubber case and a 90-watt charger are included in the package, no savings here either.

Does the Poco F7 feel plasticky? Not in the slightest, it has an aluminium frame and glass back like most top models. The camera island has a stylish design with a prism-like diagonal.

How many updates are promised? Four major system updates, but one will be used to take it to this year's Android 16. We have no information on how long it will receive security updates.

An alternative

The Poco F7 Pro costs a thousand kronor more, and then you get an even sharper screen and better camera. The performance is slightly better, but the battery is a bit smaller.

Camera example

I expected the limited camera sensor to be more noticeable, but I think I get sharp and detailed images that usually have nice colours.

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