HIGHLIGHTS
- Realme 7i comes with a large display with 90Hz refresh rate but a 720p resolution.
- It is powered by a Snapdragon 662 processor which has a mixed performance.
- Realme 7i seems like an unnecessary successor to the Realme 6i.
Realme’s number series cannot be complete without the affordable ‘i’ variants, which offer almost the same features as the top-level model for much less price. Realme 7 series, too, has that variant, called the Realme 7i. This smartphone sits at the lowest rung but that does not mean it is any less in terms of specifications and design than its bigger siblings. Per its price, the Realme 7i brings several hardware and features that will appeal to you.
The Realme 7i brings a 90Hz display, much like its predecessor Realme 6i but everything is either more or less in the specifications sheet when both phones are compared. The Realme 7i has a 64MP main camera while the 6i has a 48MP main sensor. It has a Snapdragon 662 processor, as opposed to the MediaTek Helio G90T on the Realme 6i, and finally, the change in battery capacity, which is 5000mAh on 7i while 4300mAh on the 6i. But Realme 7i has only 4GB of RAM while the 6i has the base RAM of 6GB.
Among so many close comparisons between the specifications of both Realme 7i and Realme 6i, it becomes difficult to pick one, especially when both are only Rs 1,000 apart in the market. I overcame that difficulty to find the answer for you, which I have explained in this review for the Realme 7i.
Realme 7i review: Attractive design
Realme is continuing with its streak of creating wonderful patterns on its phones. The Realme 7i brings a striking in-the-face design, which cannot appeal to everyone. You will either love it or avoid buying this phone because of how it looks if the design is an important deciding factor for you. The glossy finish on the back of Realme 7i’s polycarbonate body is divided by a slant line that goes through the fingerprint sensor. Each part is coloured differently.
I like this design because it is eye-catching but I have one reason to hate it, as well. Because of all the gloss, there is, the back panel is prone to catching fingerprints very easily. Unless you apply a mobile case, you will spend half your smartphone time cleaning the smudges.
The phone is not too heavy; it weighs only 188 grams, which is lower than 191 grams of the Realme 6i. Given the phone packs a larger battery than its predecessor does, this is an interesting move by Realme. The low weight ensures I can hold the phone for longer without tiring my palm. Moreover, the phone is ergonomically good when it comes to holding it in hands.
Everything else, such as the USB-C port, fingerprint sensor, and the 3.5mm headphone jack worked perfectly fine in my usage. Design-wise, these elements are located in the right places, which is how they should be on a good phone.
Realme 7i review: Decent screen
Realme has packed a 6.5-inch screen on the 7i along with a 90Hz refresh rate. This means scrolling on this phone is smoother than you would experience on the regular 60Hz screens. Gaming on this phone also becomes better with the high refresh rate. But while everything is okay here, one thing is not.
The screen resolution maxes out at 720 pixels, which is significantly lower than the 1080p resolution there is on the Realme 6i screen. This is a bummer considering the phone is not much cheaper than the Realme 6i, if that is what could somehow justify the change. In my usage, the display showed decent colours but text sharpness was missing sometimes, making me realise it is a 720p display.
It is not a big issue if you do not watch a lot of videos, in which case all of them will be capped at 720p quality on all streaming platforms unless you store and play 1080p videos on this phone.
The brightness on the Realme 7i display is good except when I was using the phone under direct sunlight. I think the brightness of the display should have been a little higher than it is. There are three colour temperature settings for the display, as well.
Punch-holes are common now, which is why there is nothing good or bad about the one on the Realme 7i display. I did not feel distracted by it when watching YouTube videos. But there is one thing good here, the phone has narrow bezels, giving more real estate on the sides. Overall, the display is decent and adequate for gaming and media consumption for its price, but you will be left wanting more in terms of resolution.
Realme 7i review: Mixed performance
Realme has set standards for itself when it comes to phone’s performance. Its choice of processors for phones often seems correct, but maybe Realme made a bad decision this time. The Realme 7i is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 processor, which, although is a fine piece of hardware for phones, gives an underwhelming performance.
Sometimes apps open just fine, rendering all animations and short duration for the blank screen between transitions, which is something passable for smartphones at this price point. Multitasking also seems fine when juggling between around four to five apps. All of this is good unless the processor begins to show its hidden side, which is that it stutters a lot.
These stutters are most visible when scrolling between app drawer pages or the home screen pages. Opening some settings also takes time sometimes. Image processing for night mode or video processing also takes time, which can be annoying when you are in a hurry.
All of this is intermittent but there is one thing that is more prominent than others: gaming.
Gaming on the Realme 7i is not very enjoyable. The reason why I am saying that is the booting delays, bad response to some actions when gaming, and lags during the gameplay. I played Call of Duty Mobile for about 20 minutes on the phone, only to find that only medium-level graphics are supported and that there are frame drops in the game. This would often lead to me getting shot in the head in the game. Some low-memory games such as Angry Birds or Temple Run would run all well.
The bottom line is that this is a decent processor that will follow its course mostly until it decides to stray away and give you issues. For playing first-person shooting games such as Call of Duty Mobile or Garena Free Fire, Realme 7i is not the smartphone to go for.
Calling on this phone is per the expectations. Listening to music can be avoided on this phone because the sound is not rich and low enough to be easily subdued. You have the 3.5mm headphone jack to use your wired earphones but otherwise, if you have wireless earbuds, you can pair them as well.
Realme 7i review: Nothing special about cameras
If you have a Realme 6i and are considering the Realme 7i just because you want better cameras, do not. There is nothing different between the photo quality on shots clicked from Realme 7i and the photographs the Realme 6i cameras can click.
The main 64MP sensor on the Realme 7i is as good as the one on Realme 7. But the photos clicked from it look very similar to those your Realme 6i can click. The daylight shots are detailed and retain good colour accuracy. The HDR is decent but could have been a little better. I think you will like the photographs that the main sensor clicks on the Realme 7i.
IMAGE SAMPLES
For example, look at this photo of the yellow flower that retains vibrant colours among green leaves, which are well detailed, showing tiny follicles on them. It is a good example of how good-looking your daylight shots of objects will turn out to be.
Another shot is the moonlight globe that shows the HDR capabilities of the camera, which is good according to me. The way the left portion of the light is glowing despite not being exposed to direct sunlight tells about the good camera quality.
But the photo quality takes a dive when you click photos in low light. The colour accuracy steers away too. For example, the photo of the bell artefact against the red curtain seems extremely untrue to how their original colours look. This is when the night mode was used. See the same image shot in daylight.
The selfie clicked using the front camera and the portrait mode looks good enough for social media. But there is skin smoothing that the camera software has done to the photo. This is when the AI Beauty mode was off. If you like such photos, Realme 7i can give you them.
Video recording is as expected, except the part where the phone takes some time to process the video and save it to the phone’s memory. It can shoot up to only 1080p resolution, which is a major downgrade over the 48MP camera, which can shoot 4K 30fps videos, on the Realme 6i. There is EIS for some stability, which works fine unless there are a lot of jitters. The front camera can also shoot up to 1080p resolution with HDR.
My two cents on the Realme 7i camera will be that they are pretty good for most conditions but if you are upgrading from a Realme 6i or some other Rs 10,000 phone, maybe you should not.
Realme 7i review: Long-lasting battery that takes ages to charge
The Realme 7i packs a 5000mAh battery, which is quite impressive both on paper and in real-world performance. A fully-charged battery on the Realme 7i can last for over 24 hours with medium to heavy usage, which, in my case, included about one hour of gaming, clicking photos for a while, using Instagram, Twitter, and WhatsApp for around two-three hours, and watching one or two half-an-hour long episodes on Netflix. The battery died on me the next day after using for a while.
The battery is impressively good but charging it is a pain. The Realme 7i took over two hours to fully charge the battery. This is because the company has opted for 18W charging on the Realme 7i, which is, again, a serious downgrade from the 30W fast charging on the Realme 6i. I do not think this is a reasonable tradeoff especially when Realme has emerged as a company that has democratised fast charging, by bringing smartphones such as Narzo 20 Pro with 65W charging for less than Rs 15,000.
Realme 7i review summary
Realme has created some really good phones in the past, which I do not hesitate recommending to my friends and family but with Realme 7i, the company seems to have gone into overdrive. I cannot find the right word to say this, but what comes to my mind is irrelevant.
Realme 7i does nothing extraordinary over Realme 6i, except for having some glorified specifications on paper. Of course, that difference is justified with the Rs 1,000 price gap, but I think you will get a better deal by spending that Rs 1,000. Chuck that. Realme was selling the Realme 6 for the same price as the Realme 6i in recent sales and this offer might return. So, if you are, anyway, going to spend that Rs 1,000, why not spend it on the more capable Realme 6?
But if you are short of Rs 1,000, Realme 7i is a decent phone for its price that you can buy for Rs 11,999.
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