Xiaomi Redmi 7 review

Cameras

Redmi 7 has a dual camera setup on the back which is a good offering at the price. The dual cameras consist of a primary 12MP sensor with an aperture of f/2.2 along with a secondary 2MP depth sensor. On the front, there’s an 8MP selfie camera that doubles up as face unlock sensor.

For its price, the cameras on the Redmi 7 are pretty decent. Pictures created in natural light came out to be detailed and with accurate colours. Turning on the AI mode tweaks the contrasts and saturation a bit which wasn’t too much to my liking. Xiaomi’s AI Scene Detection can recognize upto 33 scenes to provide automatic optimizations to the pictures. 

The pictures look detailed but it's not until you zoom in to find otherwise. Even after that, the camera on the Redmi 7 is capable of creating some good pictures in optimal lighting.

In a low-lit environment, focusing on a particular object becomes challenging as the camera isn’t able to zero in on the subject. Additionally, pictures lack texture and sharpness.

Portrait pictures created by the Redmi 7 in good lighting were good and the edge detection definitely seems to be improved than previous versions. 

The rear cameras are also capable of recording 1080p at 60fps, albeit without any kind of stabilization.

At the budget, the Redmi 7 has decent cameras and if you’re looking for something more than that, the Redmi Note 7 series could be an option, but it starts at Rs 9,999.

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Performance

Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 632, the Redmi 7 has an octa-core CPU with Adreno 506 as the GPU. There are two variants of the Redmi 7 that are available to purchase, the base model with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage and the other variant with 3GB of RAM. You can further expand the storage via microSD card slot by upto 512GB.

During our time with the phone, it was able to sustain a comprehensive usage consisting of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Gmail and Whatsapp. While the overall experience was smooth, we noticed a bit of lag here and there. These could be optimization issues that exist within the MIUI build and is nothing that cannot be fixed with an update.

While casual users will not be dismissive of the performance, if you’re looking to buy the Redmi 7 for playing games, you’re in for a stroke of bad luck. Suffice to say, this is not the best phone for you to play games on. PUBG Mobile runs best on low settings and even after that, it isn’t playable.

Redmi 7 runs on MIUI 10 which is based on Android 9.0 Pie and offers a lot of customizations which can make the phone a lot easier to use. Having said that, the interface is loaded with advertisements- top, bottom, left, right and center. It makes for a botched experience whenever odd adverts appear on your screen out of nowhere. Xiaomi needs to take a step back and introspect at the direction it's heading towards keeping the end-user at the forefront. It’s no secret that Xiaomi rides high on its community of users that it has garnered throughout the years and its time to listen to them.

Over time, the general performance of the phone remains decent and well, for its asking price, it performs consistently throughout.

The Redmi 7 has a 4,000mAh battery at its disposal and can be used for two days keeping the usage as minimal as possible. For moderate users, the phone will get you through with a day worth’s of usage, with a bit of charge left till you go to bed.

With the charging adapter provided in-the-box, it took around 2.3 hours to fully charge the Redmi 7 from 0%.

Verdict

Starting at Rs 7,999, Redmi 7 brings an all-new design to the table with efficient performance and a big battery. The display is one of the best in the price and is a great option to consume content on. While we noticed some stutters here and there, the phone provided a good performance throughout my usage which was consistent enough for me to recommend this phone to you.

If you’re looking for a smartphone that offers a great value for your money, then the Redmi 7 is the one to go for. If you’re a casual user who wants to watch videos on the phone, this one is for you. 

With a refreshed design and minimal bezels around the display, the Redmi 7 is one modern looking phone that everyone can afford.

Image Credits: TechRadar India

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