The Xiaomi Poco F7 Ultra isn’t the most powerful flagship phone you can buy – but at a likely cut-down flagship price, there’s more than enough power here to keep you happy.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Great performance for its expected price | Lower performance than other Snapdragon 8 Elite phones |
| Good battery life | Update future very unclear |
| Flexible approach to screen refresh rates | App Gallery is still messy and full of junk apps |
Score: 3.5/5
Support Alex Reviews Tech
Alex Reviews Tech is an independent, ethically run tech reviews site, and it needs your help to keep going. Support independent media by becoming a sponsor through Ko-Fi or Paypal!
Donate via PayPal
Click or tap here for more about how you can support Alex Reviews Tech.
In this review
Xiaomi Poco F7 Ultra Specifications
Xiaomi Poco F7 Ultra Design
Xiaomi Poco F7 Ultra Camera
Xiaomi Poco F7 Ultra Performance
Xiaomi Poco F7 Ultra Battery
Xiaomi Poco F7 Ultra Conclusion
Ethical disclaimer: Xiaomi sent me the model of the Xiaomi Poco F7 Ultra used in this review. That gets them a review, warts and all and no editorial oversight or consideration in that respect. I know most of my regular readers will know this already, but I feel like ethical disclosure is important and should be upfront, not ignored or buried at the bottom of articles.
Additionally, at the time of producing this review, I do not have direct and confirmed Australian pricing for the Poco F7 Ultra, or a direct indication that local importer Xiaomi Tech will range the device.
I do have indicative US pricing, and I’m basing my review on that, with the claim (as per Xiaomi representatives talking to me) that they’re aiming for a price of “around $US650”.
That should equate to $1034 at current exchange rates, but allowing for GST and shipping I’m treating the Xiaomi Poco F7 Ultra as though it’s an $1100-$1200 phone for comparative purposes. I will update if the pricing picture locally becomes any more transparent.
Update: Xiaomi states that the 12GB RAM/256GB storage model runs $US649, while the 16GB RAM/512GB version I tested will cost $US699, which shifts more towards a $1200 (or slightly higher) price point.
Design
The Poco F7 Ultra is built around a 6.67 inch 120Hz AMOLED display with a top resolution of 3200×1440, which is nice and sharp, though it’s worth noting that out of the box and after setup by default it’ll instead display at 2400×1080; if you want the sharpest display it’ll cost you a little in battery life terms and you’ll have to enable that in settings.
While you’re there in settings you may also want to tinker with the refresh rate, and here I’ll give Xiaomi its due, because while many manufacturers simply opt to give you fixed 60Hz or a dynamic setting, or sometimes just a 60Hz/120Hz switcher, the Xiaomi Poco F7 Ultra does that plus an automated dynamic setting and then on top of that the option to set a per-app refresh rate as desired.
That’s a lot of flexibility, and I do appreciate it when phone manufacturers open up their hardware like this… but more on that later.
The Poco F7 Ultra comes in just two colours; a rather vibrant yellow and a considerably more plain black. It’s the latter that Xiaomi sent my way. This isn’t a phone with just one single colour on the back, either, with a rather pleasing glossy black top over a more plain matte black base, which would do some work to reducing fingerprint pickup had I not slapped it into its case as soon as I’d finished unboxing it.
Yes, cases, I’m all too predictable there. The model sent my way had a case in the box, but even if there’s not one there I’ll always advocate for using them.
It’s refreshing to note that these are just called out as “black” and “yellow” finishes, because that’s what they are. They’re not “spectral” “amazing” “sea” or “universal” yellow or black, because those kinds of marketing prefixes are rarely all that useful. Maybe that’s just something that bothers me and nobody else, so I’ll get on with the rest of the review now.
The Xiaomi Poco F7 Ultra is (essentially) based off a phone design for the Chinese market, the Xiaomi K80, which means it more closely mirrors what you’re likely to see in the premium space in that country, for better and worse. For example, it’s one of the few premium phones you can buy that incorporates an IR transmitter, which means you can use it for remote control of your TV if that’s what suits you. That’s a plus.
Dual SIM is expected at this price point — but so is eSIM.
However, it’s also only dual Nano-SIM compatible with no microSD card expansion, and unusually for a premium phone in this country, no eSIM capability at all. It’s seemingly just not a big thing in China, so it’s not present on this handset if that’s important to you.
In durability terms, the Xiaomi Poco F7 Ultra is rated at IP68 for water and dust resistance. That’s not a licence to take it surfing every day and expect it to survive, however.
Camera
While (at the time of writing) the pricing for the Xiaomi Poco F7 Ultra isn’t entirely set in stone, it’s still playing in the lower end of the premium phone pool, and that brings with it some significant camera quality expectations.
The Poco F7 Ultra packs in a triple rear lens array made up of a 50MP wide sensor, 32MP Ultra-Wide 120° sensor and 50MP 2.5x telephoto sensor, while selfies are handled from a front-facing 32MP sensor housed in a holepunch at the top centre of the display screen.
That’s not a bad recipe for some decent smartphone quality, and at least there is some level of telephoto lens in play here.
Actually, Xiaomi takes the telephoto story quite far, because it doesn’t just top out at 2.5x, even though that’s the native optical presentation of that particular lens. It will bounce up to as much as 60x zoom, using the usual hybrid digital cropping techniques of most phones.
Rather predictably, while this does present an image of sorts at that length, the results leave a lot to be desired.
As you should totally expect by now, regular daytime lit shots are easily achieved, and it’s also not too bad on some more challenging shot types such as macro shots:
Decent macro performance, though like most extreme close-ups, you still have to work for it.
Oh, look, it’s me. Portrait mode works well enough, though the default bokeh is perhaps a little too soft.
Low light performance however does sit just a little on the lower side for a flagship phone, with some shots displaying noticeable noise and focusing a distinct challenge for Xiaomi’s supplied camera application.
Xiaomi Poco F7 Ultra Sample Photos
Performance
The interesting challenge that the Poco F7 Ultra poses at this kind of price point – rough though it is at the time of writing – is that it’s substantially cheaper than the only other Snapdragon 8 Elite phone I’ve tested to date, that being the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.
So how does it compare in performance terms? Here’s how it stacks up at a CPU level against both the S25 Ultra and a number of phones considerably closer to its price point.
That’s a very good result for the Poco F7 Ultra; while the S25 Ultra is very clearly in a performance league of its own right now, you’re most definitely paying for that privilege.
It’s a comparison that looks even better if we compare GPU benchmark scores, using 3DMark’s Wild Life Extreme benchmark (with one caveat).
That all looks good… so what’s the caveat?
It’s the fact that for the first three weeks I had the Poco F7 Ultra in for review, 3DMark would install from Google Play just fine, but none of its benchmarks would run, citing an issue where the app would state it couldn’t connect online, despite having a strong internet connection at the exact same time for other apps. It appears that on select Xiaomi phones, there’s a specific block to stop 3DMark comparisons being run.
Needless to say, I can’t support that; it’s not just the lack of a benchmark (which is realistically just mildly annoying) in play here. Manufacturers who want to claim a phone will run “all your favourite apps” (as the Poco F7 Ultra does on the side of its box) should not be playing firmware-level games with app accessibility.
To be fair to Xiaomi, it did then start working despite no actual 3DMark updates coming through in that time, which suggests to me that it was some kind of time-limited firmware block to stop early benchmarks leaking out. That’s still dirty pool in my book, and something that does make me wonder about what else the Poco F7 Ultra is doing under the hood.
The Xiaomi Poco F7 Ultra runs Android 15, but it’s the heavily modified version of Android 15 that you also get on phones like the Poco F6 Pro.
It runs Xiaomi’s “HyperOS 2” launcher, and it’s a fair bit of work if you’re used to plain Android working out where some system settings reside, or which permissions you might (or might not) want to allow it.
The Poco F7 Ultra isn’t quite as nuts about installing lots of janky apps on the device by default at setup, but the usual suspects – Booking.com and so on WPS Office – are indeed there. Though Temu for the first time in a while isn’t. I wonder if the cheque bounced?
You also get Xiaomi’s App Mall alternate app store alongside Google Play. Just as it was for the Poco F6 Pro, it’s stuffed with some really poor quality apps. I would strongly advise any buyers to stick to Google Play; while that’s not perfect either, it’s considerably less likely to push shovelware or apps with potentially dubious security or privacy implications upon you.
The age old question of “who would win in a fight between a Kaiju-sized dropper and a deer with pistols for horns” can finally be answered!
Or… while it’s kind of cute to point out the janky apps in the App Market, that doesn’t make them any less janky…
There’s also essentially no word on Android OS or security updates for the Poco F7 Ultra at this time based on the information that Xiaomi has provided to me.
It’s undeniable that having such a heavily customised launcher like HyperOS 2 does add complexity to managing OS updates, but it’s not a great sign when the phone as of the end of March 2025 is sitting on the January 2025 security update.
Battery
Xiaomi packs a 5,300mAh battery inside the Poco F7 Ultra, a little larger than the typical 5,000mAh battery in most Android phones right now, but curiously quite a bit smaller than the 6,000mAh battery found in the lower cost Poco F7 Pro. That’s an interesting flex on Xiaomi’s part there, because you’d typically expect the pricier phone to get the best goodies.
Then again, battery capacity is not always a reliable indicator of battery performance. It’s how well it handles day to day usage, and that does vary by user.
To give some comparative context to how well the Poco F7 Ultra uses its battery power, I put it through my standard YouTube 3 hour battery test. For more on how I test the battery capacity of phones, you can click or tap here.
Here’s how the Poco F7 Ultra compares:
There’s relatively little to dislike there, and from my more anecdotal testing, as long as you’re not pushing heavy duty apps like longer form video recording or premium games too heavily, the standard measure of lasting out a business day is quite easily achievable.
The Poco F7 Ultra supports wired charging at up to 150W and wireless charging at up to 50W, with a charger in the box that was sent to me.
That’s a charger I’ve not used yet, because I’m not 100% certain that it’s 100% safe with Australian power supplies, especially as the Poco F6 Pro had to substitute out the regular Xiaomi charger when it launched here for a lower capacity one.
Electrical safety is nothing to mess with, and I’m not willing to take that kind of risk with my safety. I also can’t check the precise 50W wireless charging, because that absolutely does rely on a specific charger I just don’t have.
That being said, I have tested the Xiaomi Poco F7 Ultra with other PD-certified chargers, including Xiaomi’s own Australian-market model 65W charger without any charging issues at all.
Xiaomi Poco F7 Ultra: Alex’s Verdict
At a hardware level, there’s really little to complain about with the Xiaomi Poco F7 Ultra. It’s not the fastest Android phone, but it’s more than powerful enough at an expected price point that makes the hardware something of a bargain.
The software side of the equation is a tad more of an open question, however. It’s not clear at all how long it’ll be supported for Android updates, HyperOS 2 is very much an acquired taste and I can’t deny that my experiences with apps being blocked doesn’t sit well with me at all. I’m firmly in the camp that says that once I’ve bought hardware, the manufacturer shouldn’t be able to mess with my ability to run software on it, full stop.
Xiaomi Poco F7 Ultra: Pricing and availability
At the time of writing precise Australian launch details and pricing were not available; the model supplied to me costs $699, which would equate to around $1107 AUD at the time of writing. Add in GST and shipping and my expectation (and conclusions) have been based around a rough $1,200+ price point or thereabouts.
artfone 4G SIM-Free Mobile Phone for The Elderly with Big Button, LTE Unlocked Easy to Use Basic Senior Phone with SOS Button, Loud Volume, 1800 mAh,Charging Dock and Torch.
$79.00 (as of April 18, 2025 10:57 GMT +10:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
iPhone 12 Mini 128GB Black (Renewed)
$389.00 (as of April 18, 2025 10:57 GMT +10:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Nothing Phone (2a) 5G 128GB Storage + 8GB RAM Milk, 6.7 Inch, IP54, 5,000 mAh Capacity, Unlocked Nothing OS 2.5 Smartphone
$438.17 (as of April 18, 2025 10:57 GMT +10:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Moto g85 5G - Cobalt Blue
$297.00 (as of April 18, 2025 10:57 GMT +10:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Google Pixel 9 5G (128GB) 6.3" 120Hz OLED, 50MP 4K Camera - Obsidian
$978.99 (as of April 18, 2025 10:57 GMT +10:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
[Built-in App] Mini Projector 1080P FHD 4K Support Projector with Mouse Portable Projector with WiFi and Bluetooth 180° Adjustable Auto Keystone HDMI/TV Stick/PS5/Laptop, with HDMI Cable & Mouse
$119.99 (as of April 18, 2025 10:57 GMT +10:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
for Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus Case Clear [Anti-Yellowing] [Military Grade Drop Protection], Areaphmet Shockproof Hard PC +Soft TPU Back Phone Case for Galaxy S25 Plus + Case
$9.99 (as of April 18, 2025 10:57 GMT +10:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
UGREEN USB C Charger 65W Nexode 3 Ports GaN II Fast Charging Block, PD3.0 Compact Power Adapter AU Plug for MacBook Pro, Dell XPS, iPhone 16 Pro Max/15/14, iPad, Galaxy S24 Ultra (PPS 45W), Pixel 9/8
$54.95 (as of April 18, 2025 10:57 GMT +10:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
LUDOS FEROX USB C Headphones, 5 Years Warranty, USB-C Earbuds for iPhone 16 15 Pro Max Plus Galaxy S24 S23 Ultra S22 S21 FE S20 Z Flip 3 Fold 4 A53 A54, USB Type C Earphones for iPad Pro
$18.97 (as of April 18, 2025 10:57 GMT +10:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
ESR 3 Pack 9H+ Glass for iPhone 16e/iPhone 14/iPhone 13/iPhone 13 Pro Screen Protector, [Military Grade Shatterproof & Longest Durable] Full Coverage Tempered Glass with UltraFit Tray
$17.99 (as of April 18, 2025 10:57 GMT +10:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Metaphor: ReFantazio - Xbox Series X
$77.00 (as of April 18, 2025 10:57 GMT +10:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
FIFA 22 Standard Plus Edition - Xbox Series X
$5.95 (as of April 18, 2025 10:57 GMT +10:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Resident Evil Village for Xbox One and Xbox Series X
$34.60 (as of April 18, 2025 10:57 GMT +10:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
WWE 2K25 XBS
$89.00 (as of April 18, 2025 10:57 GMT +10:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Hogwarts Legacy - Xbox Series X
$47.00 (as of April 18, 2025 10:57 GMT +10:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)Was this useful to you?
If so, please consider becoming a Ko-Fi or Paypal supporter Alex here (again).
I feel strongly that independent tech media is a needed resource to help people make smarter tech buying decisions -- and I also very much like to help people use that tech once they've got it.
This is what I do, but I can't do it without your support.
If this article has helped you out (or you've just enjoyed it), please consider helping support what I do by becoming a sponsor today!
Donate via PayPal
Click or tap here for more about how you can support Alex Reviews Tech.
