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2025 has been a great year for smartphone enthusiasts, especially for people who are looking for a mid-range. With phones under Rs 40,000 now offering flagship-like performance and features at less than half the price, the competition has significantly heated up in the last few months.
For years, Poco’s F series phones have been the go-to device for budget-conscious Indian users, but these phones are also known to compromise on build quality. However, that’s no longer the case with the Poco F7, the company’s newest flagship.
I have been using the phone for a couple of weeks now, and while it does have all the things that might make it the best mid-range device of 2025, there are a couple of nags here and there that pull it back. Here’s my experience with what may turn out to be the best mid-range phone of 2025.
One of the biggest gripes with Poco’s F series was that it had plastic back panels that made it look and feel like a budget device. But that’s no longer the case with the Poco F7. I got the Cyber Silver Edition of the phone, which stands out with its unique-looking back panel and Snapdragon branding.
In a world full of phones sporting faux leather and plastic backs, the Poco F7 stands out with its unique-looking glass back panel. It has a solid boxy feel, and the dual-tone design on the back gives it a very futuristic and cyberpunk type look.
The bottom half of the phone has a reflective silver coloured glass back with Poco branding on the bottom, which reminds me of the T2 robot from the movie Terminator. The top half of the phone has a lot going on. From triangle to rhombus, you see all sorts of shapes which give the phone a very cyberpunk-ish look. It is also home to the giant elliptical camera island, which is kind of separated in the middle by green accent lines.
Personally, I felt like the Poco F7 is the best-looking mid-range phone of 2025, but since looks are subjective, it might come off as too flashy for some. If you want a minimalistic look, I suggest you go with the other colour variants as they don’t have the futuristic-looking grills and shenanigans of the limited edition.
Another area where the Poco F7 stands out with its design is the frame. Unlike previous models in the series, which had plastic frames, the latest comes with an aluminium frame with a brushed matte finish that makes you feel like you are holding a premium flagship.
The phone’s design is undoubtedly impressive, but I noted that this was the smudgiest phone I have ever used. Lay one finger on the back, and you will immediately see fingerprints. Hold the phone with four fingers, and it feels like you are gripping it with greasy, oily hands. The box comes with a black silicone case, which is good, but I wish the company gave a transparent cover so that I could at least flaunt the flashy design.
It also happens to be the first F series phone to get both IP68 and IP69 protection, which means you won’t have to worry about water or dust getting in, even if you dip it in water or hold it directly under the tap. Weighing 215 grams without the cover, this is a pretty chunky device, and with the cover, it only gets heavier. If you are not used to heavy phones like the Galaxy S25 Ultra or the iPhone 16 Pro Max, you may experience hand fatigue after using it for an hour or more.
Coming to the display, you get a huge 6.83-inch 120Hz AMOLED screen, which has a 1.5K resolution. If you are someone who watches a lot of web series or movies on your smartphone, this is an easy recommendation as the colours are pretty accurate and vibrant. Talking of brightness, the company claims that the Poco F7 can go up to 1,700 nits in high brightness mode (HBM), and while I couldn’t verify the claim, the screen was very much readable even under direct sunlight in Delhi’s hot and humid afternoon.
Poco’s F series phones are always packed with the fastest chipsets in the segment, and the Poco F7 is no exception. Powered by the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4, it has the same performance as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which can be found on phones like the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
For a phone that costs less than half the price of the OnePlus 12 and the Galaxy S24 Ultra, this might sound impressive, but the chipset often throttles under heavy workloads. I played games like Wuthering Waves, Genshin Impact, Wreckfest, GRID Legends and others for hours on end, and while the performance was good, the phone did reduce frame rates to prevent overheating. Also, it does get warm without the cover, so you might want to put on a case.
In day-to-day usage, the Poco F7 performs well. Not once did I notice any lag or stutters, and in the last few years, I feel like Xiaomi’s HyperOS has matured to the point that the UI fluidity is on par with the likes of UI 8 and OxygenOS 15. Some of this can be attributed to the 16GB RAM variant I had with me, but I felt Poco has optimised the device really well.
If you are not a heavy gamer who plays the latest titles on the maximum settings possible non-stop for a couple of hours, this is a really good device, but it falls short of being the best gaming phone in its segment.
Poco F7 comes with HyperOS 2 based on Android 15, and will get four years of OS updates and six years of security patches, which is much longer than what other smartphone manufacturers are offering.
The phone also comes with numerous AI features, which can be found in the Settings app under Xiaomi HyperAI. Some of these features include AI writing, AI Gallery Editor, AI Speech Recognition, and AI Interpreter, to name a few. During my use, I wasn’t able to try all of these features, but those I used worked well most of the time. But as is the case with most AI features, I found some of them to be gimmicky.
Xiaomi’s HyperOS 2 might be intuitive for some, but I did not like the UI and found myself resorting back to my ColorOS phone and One UI tablet. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like HyperOS is not as user-friendly as other Android skins.
The Poco F7 has a dual rear camera setup, which consists of a 50MP primary lens in addition to a 12MP ultrawide shooter. This isn’t a camera phone by any means, but images captured from the main camera do come out sharp and crisp, given you have enough light. At night time, the phone manages to click decent shots, but as is the case with any performance-centric device, it often misses out on detail.
The 12MP ultrawide shooter is, once again, average at best. During the day, you can click good photos given there’s enough ambient lighting, but in low light, images are only good if you want to share them on social media. As for the selfie shooter, Poco has managed to pack in a 20MP sensor, which performs well in good lighting conditions but struggles in dark environments.
All in all, the Poco F7’s camera capabilities are on par with other phones in the under Rs 30,000 price bracket, but I recommend you look elsewhere if you are someone who takes photos and videos every now and then.
The Poco F7 might be one of the bulkiest phones of all time, but I feel it’s for good. It has a huge 7,550mAh Silicon Carbon battery, which can easily last you more than a day even if you constantly use the phone.
My typical usage involves browsing the web, listening to music almost all day and playing games for an hour or so. I also sometimes use navigation and social media apps like Instagram. I am a moderate user, so if you are like those who use the phone for these things and rely on mobile data, you will easily get more than 24 hours of usage on a single charge.
However, those on Wi-Fi can expect a longer battery life since mobile data is what drains most of the battery. But I noted that the battery life is a bit hit and miss. The phone sometimes lasted more than a day, while during my weekend gaming sessions, I noticed that it would lose more than half its juice in just three or four hours. I am not sure, but it does feel like a software issue Poco might be able to fix with future updates.
With a starting price of Rs 31,999, the latest Poco F series device once again emerges as one of the best value for money smartphones you can buy this year. The solid and power-efficient Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chipset, combined with the fluidity of HyperOS 2, makes this an easy recommendation for both casual gamers and normal users who just want a big battery phone. However, hardcore gamers can look towards alternatives like the Infinix GT 30 Pro (review), which is much cheaper and offers haptic triggers, or the iQOO Neo 10R (review), which has the same chipset sans the throttling issues.
If you are someone who is looking for a premium feeling mid-range device that stands out with its design and build, offers a great price-to-performance ratio, has a decent camera setup with a big battery and super fast wired charging, the Poco F7 is a really good phone. While it isn’t the best camera or battery phone, the Poco F7 is one of the best phones money can buy, and if the company addresses the battery drain issue, it might be the best mid-range phone of 2025.
