Hey what’s guys, Will here for GSMArena.
Realme is known for its affordable midrange phones, including the new Realme 7 5G.
Not to be confused with the regular Realme 7,
this one offers not only 5G connectivity with this new chipset, but also a 120hz refresh rate screen.
Let's see what it's all about in our full review.
The Realme 7 5G has a design pretty similar to other recent Realme phones.
The back is made of plastic, with a glossy gradient finish divided by a vertical accent.
The device feels solid, even a bit hefty in the hand. The finish is a bit slippery, though.
Luckily, Realme has included a case in the box if you want to add some extra grip.
On the front is a 6.5-inch IPS LCD screen, protected by Gorilla Glass, with a 1080p resolution, and a large punch hole for the selfie camera.
Plus, there's a fast 120Hz refresh rate - one of the device’s major selling points.
This high refresh rate makes moving elements on screen, such as in the UI or scrolling text, appear much smoother to the eye.
It adjusts the refresh rate based on the content you're looking at.
Unfortunately, on the Realme 7 5G, high framerate gaming doesn’t appear to be supported.
But on the bright side, we didn't notice any smearing, ghosting or visual artifacts on this panel.
And the screen quality here is decent, too. With a pixel density of 405 ppi, you get a crisp looking picture.
Maximum brightness is respectable for an LCD.
We measured around 480 nits with the slider, and a boost up to 570 nits in auto mode when in bright conditions.
The colors aren't too accurate, on the bluish side out of the box, though you can adjust the color temperature in settings.
For audio, the Realme 7 5G has a single bottom-firing speaker. It has an okay performance.
It earned a "good" score in our loudness test, but the quality of the sound leaves more to be desired here.
You do get a 3.5 mm jack, too, for plugging in your traditional headphones.
Unlocking the phone is done with a side-mounted fingerprint reader that doubles as the power button.
It’s extremely fast and responsive.
You can leave the reader always on,
or you can avoid accidental reads by turning on the option to only activate the reader when you press down the button.
You do get expandable storage on the Realme 7 5G, on top of the 128GB built-in.
here are 2 nanoSIM slots, one of which can hold a microSD card.
You can use both slots for 5G connectivity as well.
This phone has 5G capability with a fairly extensive list of bands and is something pretty rare at this price point.
This is thanks to its brand new chipset. It’s called the Dimensity 800U by Mediatek and it’s built on a 7nm process.
When compared to popular midrange chipsets like the Snapdragon 690 or 765G,
the Dimensity 800U holds its own, especially in the CPU department.
When it comes to GPU benchmarks,
the Realme 7 5G does fall a bit behind SD 765G-powered phones, but the performance is still comparable.
This is plenty of power for everyday use, and it’s enough for gaming, too.
Performance does take a dip after some prolonged heavy tasks, but it never comes to the point of causing visible throttling.
The Realme 7 5G’s interface is Realme UI 1.0 running over Android 10.
It's very snappy and clutter-free, looking a lot like vanilla Android.
There are additional tweaks you can do aesthetics-wise through Settings, like changing the size of the icons and fonts.
And there’s a Smart Sidebar on the edge of the screen, which can hold customizable shortcuts to different functions or apps.
Powering the Realme 7 5G and all of its features is a large 5000 mAh battery.
With it, the phone aced our battery life tests, scoring an incredible 129-hour endurance rating.
The phone supports 30W Dart charging with the adapter provided in the box, and it’s decently fast.
We were able to charge the Realme 7 5G’s battery from 0 to 57% in half an hour.
Now, on to the cameras.
The Realme 7 5G has a quad-camera setup with a 48MP Quad Bayer main camera, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera, a 2MP macro camera, and a 2MP depth sensor.
In daylight, the main camera is capable of taking some okay-looking photos with enough resolved detail.
You may end up with an over sharpened photo. The problem isn't terribly severe though.
Portrait mode shots are taken with the main camera, too.
These are great for this price range, with decent subject separation, as long as the background isn't too complex.
While there are 2x and 5x zoom toggles on the viewfinder, these are done digitally through a crop and upscale from the main camera.
The process results in a loss in quality.
Photos from the ultra-wide-angle camera are good for this class.
There's nice contrast and wide dynamic range and lively colors, too. Detail isn't too impressive but is still okay.
Like many recent Realme phones, the Realme 7 5G can take close up shots with a 2MP macro cam.
These give the desired effect, but the detail isn’t great, and the colors are a bit dull.
In low light, the main camera does a decent job. The photos have good contrast and the exposure isn't too dark.
The detail level is okay but there is some visible noise and, just like during the day, the photos can come out over sharpened.
You have Night mode support on this camera and with it on, a shot will take about 3 seconds to process.
It improves everything though. You get a brighter exposure, more resolved detail, less noise, and better colors and contrast, too.
The 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera doesn’t do well at night.
Typically, you will get underexposed shots with plenty of noise and little detail.
However, there is Night mode available for it and it makes for a brighter, less noisy picture. The quality is still mediocre, though.
For selfies, the Realme 7 5G has a 16MP front-facing camera with fixed focus.
It does a decent job producing selfies with nice colors and excellent contrast, but the detail level isn't the best.
Videos can be captured with the main camera in up to 4K resolution at 30fps.
There's plenty of detail and appealing colors.
However, the dynamic range is limited, with blown highlights here and there. And there's some visible noise.
The ultra-wide-angle camera is limited to 1080p resolution and the quality is alright but these videos are overall quite soft.
There is electronic image stabilization but is available only in dedicated modes.
The Ultra Steady mode is taken with the main cam, and Ultra Steady Max mode is filmed with the ultra-wide camera.
Both come out in 1080p and the Max mode is much smoother.
So, that’s the Realme 7 5G.
You get a good looking design, a large, 120 Hz LCD screen,
a competitive midrange chipset with support for 5G connectivity, a snappy interface, and incredible battery life, with fast charging.
Plus the cameras do a pretty decent job for this price range.
Of course, with a budget device like this one you do get some compromises, like the mediocre speaker quality and certain aspects of the camera experience.
Plus it's disappointing that you get this high-refresh-rate screen but games seem limited to 60fps.
But with all that aside, the Realme 7 5G is a pretty solid 5G-capable mid-ranger.
It's definitely worth recommending if you want to connect to those fast network speeds on a budget.
Thanks for watching guys, stay safe, and see you on the next one.