POCO F7 Ultra hands-on: POCO might have just made the ultimate flagship killer
POCO’s latest series comes with an invigorating new twist. For the first time ever, the brand has drawn back the curtains on an Ultra model, which makes its debut in the newly released F7 Series.
We’ll be the first to tell you that the ‘Ultra’ suffix isn’t a sham. The POCO F7 Ultra merits its spotlight by integrating the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, a.k.a. Qualcomm’s most advanced CPU to date. For context, POCO has always been a brand known for pushing gamer-esque phones at an affordable price point. In doing so, they’ve often had to cut back on their CPU – usually by opting for the previous year’s chipset.
With the F7 Ultra now armed and up to date with the current flagship chip, it has undoubtedly forayed into premium territory with new peers to contend with – such as the Galaxy S25 Series, ROG Phone 9 Series, and the OPPO Find N5, to name a few. Despite the powerhouse names, the POCO F7 Ultra holds one key title that is arguably the most important: it is the most affordable Snapdragon 8 Elite phone released thus far, wresting those bragging rights away from the iQOO 13, which launched at a starting price of RM3,499.
In Malaysia, the POCO F7 Ultra officially retails at a starting price of RM2,999. At this price, you’ll get a healthy configuration of 12GB RAM and 256GB storage. Fork out a little more and you’ll secure the 16GB+512GB variant at RM3,299 – still less than the starting price of the iQOO 13.
Aesthetics
Having had a brief time with it, the POCO F7 Ultra certainly feels like a statement piece. Even in terms of aesthetics, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say it has gone through an overhaul from last year’s F6 Series. The F7 Ultra’s rear panel is spruced up with a dual combination of gloss material and matte finishing. The camera modules are now condensed into a circular setup that’s much neater than what I saw on the F6 Pro, topped off with a bronze-coloured aluminium ring that gleams at angles.
The phone retains its premium curved-back heft that nestles comfortably in my palms, and the bezels are slim and fitting for immersive viewing.
It’s undoubtedly an eye-catching smartphone – even more so when it’s draped in the stark Yellow colourway. As for me, someone who prefers to stay lowkey, the Black suits my taste just nice.
Performance
Snapdragon 8 Elite aside, the POCO F7 Ultra debuts the brand’s supplementary graphics chipset – the VisionBoost D7. This is one aspect that might appeal to gamers, especially those immersed in the cavernous realm of Genshin lore. According to POCO, the combined power of the two chipsets enables 120FPS gameplay in Genshin Impact, along with 2K Super Resolution and Game HDR for richer contrast.
POCO claims the F7 Ultra can sustain superior gaming performance compared to its competitors – all while keeping temperatures low. The latter is aided by LiquidCool Technology 4.0, which features a 5400mm² loop heat pipe.
All that being said, the F7 Ultra’s 5,300mAh battery is unremarkable – and perhaps even underwhelming – when compared to its 8 Elite peers. That said, this is just on paper. We haven’t conducted a full battery test yet, so we can’t fully comment on its battery efficiency.
Nevertheless, we’re just thankful it retains the 120W wired charging, and even supports 50W wireless charging – which we welcome with open arms.
Cameras
As you would expect from most gamer-focused phones, the POCO F7 Ultra isn’t boasting the most outstanding camera hardware. But it’s not bad either. In fact – for me at least – it performs well above average in terms of colour rendering and sharpness. The shutter is quick, and even night photos turned out pretty decent, albeit a little overprocessed.
For the record, the F7 Ultra shoots on a triple-lens system, the highlight of which is the 50MP main camera backed by the Light Fusion 800 sensor. It’s flanked by a floating telephoto lens with 2.5x optical zoom and 5x in-sensor zoom, and a 32MP ultra-wide camera.
Moving through the lenses, I walked away from my mini excursions with some decent shots, which you can sample below. Barring the sketchy edge detection on the macro shots, I can’t really say I have a big problem with the cameras. In truth, it presents itself exceedingly well, challenging the notion that all gaming phones have weak cameras.
PS. Don’t mind the wrong dates on the watermark. The editor had mistakenly input the wrong date and month in the setup.
Conclusion
It’s still early days, but the POCO F7 Ultra is shaping up to be one of the better value-for-money phones on the market. It’s a gem of a phone for sure – but whether it remains hidden amidst the clutter is the question.
Again, this isn’t a full review per se, but my brief time with it indicates mostly positives, and it’s certainly an easy recommendation for users seeking flagship performance within a reasonable price range.
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