Realme officially launched its devices in Kenya this year and has been consistently updating its portfolio every few weeks. The latest addition to the list is the realme 7i that I have been using for the better part of this month. The phone is available locally for Ksh 25,000 and at this price it will be competing with some good devices from Huawei, Xiaomi, Samsung and even OPPO.
The realme 7i packs some decent specifications including a 90Hz display, very good cameras and a capable processor. Having used this phone for a while, I have been impressed so much. I can say these exact words about all the other realme smartphones I have used this year. The company knows how to package its devices to offer very good value for money.
The realme 7i is part of the realme 7 series that is also made up of the realme 7 and the realme 7 Pro. Both these devices are available in other markets but not in Kenya, here we will only be getting the 7i.
The realme 7i is slightly cheaper than the realme 6 that I reviewed about a month or so ago and was really impressed. The 7i isn’t on the same level as the realme 6 as the latter comes with slightly better specification in my opinion.
Build Quality
With this phone, we are getting a standard design seen on most other smartphones this year. The phone has a polycarbonate back that is glossy and may be a fingerprint magnet. Realme has provided a free silicone cover for the back that can help with that as well as improve grip.
I got the colour that realme refers to as polar blue that looks stunning. This has a gradient effect with the top being light blue and the bottom fading towards white.
Still on the back we have the camera module arranged in a rectangular setup. The module is made up of a 64MP main sensor, an 8MP ultrawide angle lens, 2MP macro lens and another 2MP depth sensor. There is also a fingerprint scanner on the back.
Display
The 6.5-inch display on the realme 7i served me well during the review period. This is a 720p display but was not so bad as I was expecting. It produced vibrant and punchy colours and the blacks were deep as well. The overall viewing experience was nice. This is a 90Hz display which is quite impressive for a phone in this price as we don’t see many of those around.
At the top left section of the display is the punch hole cut out that houses the 16MP selfie camera. It does not take much space and you will barely notice it is there unless you are really keen.
realme 7i in kenya
This display size is quite big and is perfect for those who do a lot on their phones. If you watch movies or consume content in general, this display size will be perfect for you. If you have smaller hands you may have trouble using the phone with one hand but that is not a big deal for most people.
Performance and Software
Powering the realme 7i is the Snapdragon 662 processor that has been paired with 8GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage for my review unit. There is a 4GB RAM variant available at a lower price. This is not the most powerful processor realme could have used but it still does a good job. It was better than I expected especially when it came to gaming. The phone did handle that with no issues at all and in most cases it was better than I had expected it to be.
The 8GB of RAM is sufficient for multitasking and that is what I experienced. Switching between different apps was smooth during the review period.
For software, the 7i comes with Android 10 out of the box with realme UI on top. Realme UI has a near stock Android feel so the experience is relatively good and welcoming to anyone who is getting to Android for the first time or someone who is switching from a different phone.
Even with the near stock Android feel, realme UI has some tweaks that make the whole experience even better.
Cameras
In summary, these are good. The camera app has a ton of features for both beginner and semi pro photographers.
The images you get are quite good with very little post processing. The colours are sharp and accurate especially during the day or when outdoors. Day shots are really good but that is not the case for night shots. Night mode is not the best here as the difference between using it and not is not clear. In most cases I ended up disabling it as it was not that good.
Check out some samples below
Battery
For the battery, the realme 7i has a 5,000 mAh battery that will easily last you an entire day. You can get it to last longer in some cases even with normal to heavy usage. For my case, I was normally left with about 25% of charge by the end of the day with my usage consisting of consistently involves using the phone for calls, texts, a bit of social media, listening to music and streaming videos.
The phone supports 18W fast charging which is not the fastest one out there but it is good enough for most cases. You can top up the battery pretty fast when it is running low. In addition to this, there are a number of battery saving options that you can use to extend the battery life when you need it.
Conclusion
From my experience, the realme offers really good value for money. The display is just 720p which can be disappointing so say the least. I hope realme pushes that to 1080p with the next version. 90Hz supports makes for a smooth experience that may overshadow the 720p resolution.
realme 7i in kenya
With the realme 7i, you are getting very good cameras that can capture great details. The phone also performs really well without any lags whatsoever and the battery life is just amazing. I really enjoyed my time with this phone and would recommend it to anyone looking for a smartphone within this price range.
Now Read: OPPO A93 Review