POCO F7 Ultra Review

The POCO F7 Series is out and what’s really interesting with this new release is the addition of an “Ultra” variant: the POCO F7 Ultra. As the name implies, it’s packed with the most powerful specs and features that we’ve ever seen on a POCO device.

Under the hood, it’s got the latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Elite, and it’s priced competitively compared to proper flagships running the same chip.

But aside from that, what else the POCO F7 Ultra has in store? You’re about to find out in this full review.

Design and Construction

The first thing you’ll definitely notice is the updated look, and the changes they made here are quite drastic.

Gone is the rectangular slab from the POCO F6 Series and is now replaced by a circular camera island. It’s not centered unlike new recent models from other brands, and it’s relatively smaller, too. The lenses are still positioned on the upper left corner while the dual-tone LED flash sits beside the circular module.

Our unit is in the classic Black and Yellow motif, and taking a closer look, the phone appears to have a two-tone finish. The upper part has a glossy effect while the bottom half is matte to the touch.

Just like before, the glass back panel curves out to the edges making it more comfortable to hold despite the flat frame. Speaking of the frame, it’s still made of metal with a black matte finish.

While the F7 Ultra’s design is decent in its own right, it doesn’t really give out a premium look in my humble opinion—at least in this Yellow color option. I know, yellow is POCO’s branding, but it’s kind of too loud here. Thankfully, there’s a Black option for a more muted look.

This honestly made me appreciate the design from last year’s POCO F6 Pro more, especially the White colorway. The F6 Pro’s camera layout looked way better for me, and the addition of a marble-like pattern surely made the phone look more interesting than the new model.

Not to mention, the POCO logo here (on the F6 Pro) is a bit more subtle and smaller than that of the F7 Ultra.

Design is ultimately subjective, and I still appreciate the revamped look of the F7 Ultra. Besides, its primary focus isn’t about its appearance, but rather its flagship-tier performance—more on that later.

Notably, a solid improvement to the F7 Ultra is having an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. This is currently the highest level of protection, matching that of an actual flagship device. To recall, the F6 Pro only had an IP54 rating for dust and splash resistance.

For I/Os, the power button along with the volume rocker sits on the right while the top and left sides are clean. While the SIM tray, USB-C, and the speaker grill are found at the bottom. The phone does have dual stereo speakers albeit the second loudspeaker is integrated into the earpiece.

You may be wondering, there’s no IR blaster anymore? There still is, but it’s now placed within the camera island (I think). So, there’s that.

Display, Multimedia, and Biometrics

Flip the phone over and you’ll be greeted by its 6.67-inch 2K AMOLED display with a smooth 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 3200 nits. Interestingly, this peak brightness is slightly lower than the F6 Pro at 4000 nits. Although, such brightness is only applicable to HDR content, so it’s not that big of a deal.

The POCO F7 Ultra display looks about the same as last year except it has a new POCO Shield Glass on top instead of a Gorilla Glass. In terms of visuals, the F7 Ultra delivers a satisfying viewing experience. It’s got vivid colors and deep blacks thanks to its AMOLED panel.

As expected, it supports Widevine L1 for binge-watching HD content on Netflix, and up to 4K Ultra HD (2160p) streaming on YouTube.

Adding to that is the phone’s stereo audio offering crisp detail with a nice balance across the lows, mids, and highs. The bass is there too, though not as punchy as a proper flagship, it’s deep enough for an enjoyable listening experience.

For biometric security, the F7 Ultra utilizes an in-screen fingerprint sensor, but instead of an optical sensor, it now has an ultrasonic one. This is far more secure and is slightly faster at recognizing my fingerprint. Plus, it’s positioned more comfortably now, closer to the center on screen.

Camera

Now, let’s talk about the cameras. The F7 Ultra comes with three cameras at the rear: a 50-megapixel primary sensor with OIS, a 50-megapixel telephoto also with OIS, and a 32-megapixel ultrawide. For selfies, it has a 32-megapixel shooter up front.

From the spec sheet alone, these are some really good upgrades. You now have the ability to capture zoom shots of up to 5x, and ultrawide shots are clearer now. The addition of telephoto lens also means that you get better macro shots.

The image quality is superb with good dynamic range and accurate colors. Night shots look sharp too, though the contrast can be a little overdone at times.

Check out some of our sample shots right here.

For video capture, this phone can shoot up to 4K at 60 fps, and the results? Pretty solid. You get nice contrast and colors, too.

Both the main and telephoto sensors come with OIS, which definitely helps for stable shots, but a quick note—if you’re shooting at 5x zoom in low light, you will notice some noise creeping in. Still, in well-lit conditions, the F7 Ultra’s video performance really pops off.

Performance and Benchmarks

Moving on to performance, the POCO F7 Ultra is an absolute beast of a device. It boasts the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite flagship chipset from Qualcomm—it’s running the full version, mind you—so you can easily imagine what this thing is capable of.

For config, our unit comes with 16GB RAM and 512GB of storage.

In ANTUTU, the POCO F7 Ultra easily surpassed a score of 2.3 million points which is really impressive, considering this ain’t even a proper flagship device. The phone also crushed it on other tests garnering very high scores in ANTUTU Storage, and in Geekbench.

With these numbers, you can expect top-notch performance, especially when it comes to gaming. We mostly played Zenless Zone Zero with all the graphics settings cranked up to High and it did not stutter one bit.

Also, the phone debuts the so-called VisionBoost D7 display chip which provides “smart frame rate” at 120 fps, enhanced graphics, and Game HDR—or so POCO claims at least.

Perhaps, the only indication of this feature is when playing Asphalt Legends Unite, where there is an option to set the frame rate to 120 fps. This is something like the POCO F6 Pro didn’t have. Although, this could also mean that the F7 Ultra’s chipset is powerful enough to handle such high frame rates consistently.

It does get a bit warm after several minutes of playing, but not too hot to the touch.

OS, UI, and Apps

Turning onto software, the POCO F7 Ultra runs Xiaomi’s latest HyperOS 2 based on Android 15.

Since it’s got a very powerful chipset, animations are buttery smooth and snappy, and you can appreciate all the blurring elements across the UI. So far, we haven’t encountered any issues or bugs whatsoever.

Similar to Xiaomi’s flagship, the F7 Ultra comes with nifty AI features. An overview of them can be found on the Settings under the Xiaomi HyperAI tab. There’s Google Circle to Search and AI app boost referring to built-in AI features inside system apps like Notes, Gallery, and Recorder.

There’s a handful of bloatware here, though you can easily remove or uninstall them.

As of writing, there’s no info yet about how long Xiaomi will provide software support for the POCO F7 Ultra. But for reference, the POCO F6 Pro is promised to get three years of major OS upgrades and four years of security patches.

Connectivity and Battery Life

In terms of battery life, the POCO F7 Ultra performs decently. It packs a slightly larger than usual battery, rated at 5300mAh.

During my use, the handset usually lasted half a day of use. This includes watching content on YouTube and Netflix, as well as playing a couple of matches in games like Honor of Kings and doing dailies in ZZZ.

In PCMark, the phone managed to get 14 hours and 16 minutes of runtime. That might not be as impressive, but in case the phone’s battery drops low, charging it to full takes less than 30 minutes.

The phone supports 120W of fast charging, the same as last year, but what’s more impressive is it supports 50W of wireless charging.

I also got to mention this new “Battery protection” feature in the Settings that wasn’t available to Xiaomi phones before. Assuming that this is similar to iPhone’s battery health metrics that shows ‘Maximum capacity’, this is surely a welcome addition.

Although, we’re not quite sure if only the newer Xiaomi phones will get this feature or a future software update for other models will do. I hope it’s the latter.

Connectivity-wise, it’s got all the essentials: 5G, NFC, the good ol’ IR blaster like mentioned earlier, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 6. Sadly, this iteration is still not eSIM-capable.

Price and Verdict

To wrap it all up, the POCO F7 Ultra is a clear statement of what you can get when flagship performance meets aggressive pricing.

With its flagship-tier performance thanks to Snapdragon 8 Elite, solid cameras, and added features like IP68 and 50W of wireless charging, the F7 Ultra is packing serious value for money.

The POCO F7 Ultra sets you back PHP 36,999USD 645INR 55,584EUR 596CNY 4,680 for the 12GB+256GB trim, while the 16GB+512GB version goes for PHP 39,999USD 698INR 60,090EUR 645CNY 5,060. The brand is also currently running early bird promos until April 3, 2025—slashing its prices down to PHP 34,999USD 610INR 52,579EUR 564CNY 4,427 (12GB+256GB) and PHP 37,999USD 663INR 57,086EUR 613CNY 4,807 (16GB+512GB).

Sure, the design isn’t necessarily going to win any awards, but it’s hard to ignore the sheer performance this device delivers. And for the price, the POCO F7 Ultra indeed offers all the high-end specs you’d expect from a premium phone without the premium price tag.

What we liked:

• Flagship-tier performance
• Addition of IP68 rating, telephoto camera
• More than capable camera performance

What we didn’t like:

• Presence of bloatware

POCO F7 Ultra specs:
6.67-inch 2K AMOLED display
3200 x 1440 pixels, 120Hz, 526 ppi
3200 nits peak brightness
POCO Shield Glass
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite
3nm, octa-core, up to 4.32GHz
VisionBoost D7 display chip (12nm)
12GB, 16GB LPDDR5X RAM
256GB, 512GB UFS 4.1 storage
Triple rear cameras:
– 50MP f/1.6 main, OIS
– 50MP f/2.0 telephoto, OIS
– 32MP f/2.2 ultrawide, 120° FoV
32MP selfie camera (hole punch notch)
Dual nano-SIM
5G, 4G LTE
Wi-Fi 7
Bluetooth 6.0
Dual-frequency GPS
USB Type-C
NFC
Under-display fingerprint sensor (ultrasonic), face unlock
IP68 dust and water resistance
Dual stereo speakers, IR blaster
Xiaomi HyperOS 2, Android 15
5300mAh battery
120W charging (wired)
50W wireless
160.26 x 74.95 x 8.39 mm
212g
Black, Yellow (colorways)