Initial verdict: The POCO F7 is another phone with insane price-to-specs ratio, as long as you don’t mind the flaws with HyperOS with bloatware and ads. 

Pros

• Premium build
• Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 is powerful
• Large battery

Cons

• Ads while setting up the phone
• Bloatware out of the box

POCO finally completes the F7 series with the arrival of the standard F7 in the Philippines. There’s a of buzz with this phone, especially since it debuts the Snapsdragon 8s Gen 4 to make it another compelling flagship killer.

POCO F7 First Impressions: Design

Being an F series model, POCO also gave the F7 a premium build that consists of an aluminum frame and a glass back to distinguish itself from the X7 Pro. Our review unit is in White, and while it’s not as flashy as the Cyber Silver version with Snapdragon branding, we like the subtle slash detail on the camera module to make it look different from other phones.

The layout of its aluminum frame reminds us a lot of the F7 Ultra, so you’re assured of a premium build on the base F7.  You’re also getting an IP68 rating to make it safe against water splashes.

POCO F7 First Impressions: Display

The F7 has a huge display at 6.83 inches. It’s an AMOLED panel with a 1.5K resolution and 3200nits peak brightness. It’s a premium panel through and through with its support for 68 billion colors and HDR content. It’s protected by Gorilla Glass 7i, so the F7’s display should be able to sustain accidental drops.

POCO F7 First Impressions: Cameras

Just like the X7 Pro, the F7 has a basic set of cameras: 50-megapixel IMX882 for the main camera ith OIS, and an 8-megapixel ultrawide. We’re not complaining about the cameras since the F7 makes up for it nicely with its beastly internals–more on that in the next part.

As for its capabilities, the main camera can shoot 4K videos at 60FPS, which is a nice feature to have on a flagship killer.

POCO F7 First Impressions: Internals and Battery

The F7 shines with its internals, debuting the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 globally. It’s paired with 12GB LPDDR5X RAM and up to 512GB UFS 4.1 storage. That makes the F7 a beast, cheesing through demanding mobile games with ease. Initial benchmark numbers show that the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 is better than the Dimensity 8400, making it an excellent pick for a flagship killer.

The F7’s battery is also another big plus: while we’re not getting the 7550mAh cell found on the India version, its 6500mAh battery is still big, and we’re confident that it can last us for 2 days with moderate use. Aside from 90w charging, the F7 can double as a powerbank, providing up to 22.5w in reverse wired charging.

POCO F7 First Impressions: Software

You get HyperOS 2 out of the box, and we have the same complaints: aside from having tons of bloatware out of the box, we’re annoyed that we were served ads while setting up the phone. While you can disable them during the setup process, it’s another layer that you’ll need to deal if you plan to buy the F7.

The F7 is getting a decent software support with four Android updates and six years of security updates, which is what we usually expect on a flagship killer.

POCO F7 First Impressions: Initial verdict

If you’re after a phone with insane price-to-specs ratio, the F7 is definitely up your alley. Aside from using the latest RAM and storage standards, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 shows a lot of promise as the next de facto chip for flagship killers.

POCO F7 First Impressions: Price

The POCO F7 is priced at Php 23,999 for the 12GB/256GB variant and Php 25,999 for the 12GB/512GB variant. If you managed to buy before June 30, you can get it for as low as Php 17,499 with Shopee vouchers.