Poco F7 Ultra review: it’s the best Poco phone I’ve used

I’ve used many Poco phones, dating right back to the original Pocophone F1, from a time the brand wore its relationship with Xiaomi on its sleeve. Today, the relationship is less clear, and its phones have changed a lot since the 2019 debut. The Poco F7 Ultra is its latest. It’s a flagship-specification smartphone with a surprisingly understated design, and a host of Poco-developed tech inside. Does it represent a new chapter for Poco? I’ve used it as my main phone to find out.

Specs

Poco F7 Ultra: design

The Poco F7 Ultra is made of metal and glass, complete with a dual glossy/matte finish on the back which gives it real identity. Poco has always got the yellow color right on its phones, and the F7 Ultra is no exception. It’s bright without being garish, and the dual finish looks brilliant in the sunshine. The rear glass has a quad curve so it is very comfortable to hold, and the whole device has great balance, despite the 212 gram weight.

It should be durable with an IP68 dust and water resistance rating, but the “Poco Shield Glass” over the screen is a bit of an unknown compared to the more familiar Corning Gorilla Glass seen on other top phones. There’s a screen protector fitted from the factory and it’s substandard, getting covered in fingerprints and smudges which are then hard to remove. More on the screen in a while.

Poco’s decision to call this an Ultra phone is interesting. It’s certainly one of the highest specification phones we’ve seen from the brand, but it’s not up there in terms of outright capability with the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and Xiaomi 15 Ultra. Instead, it’s “ultra” like the Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra. What I’m saying is, don’t be fooled by the name into thinking this is a big technical showcase of a phone. It’s not, but it actually doesn’t matter, as we’ll go on to discover. From a design point of view, it looks great, feels great in your hand, and should prove just as durable as the competition. It’s a very good start.

Poco F7 Ultra: camera

Poco has put a 50-megapixel main camera with optical image stabilization (OIS), a 50MP telephoto camera with a 2.5x optical zoom, and a 32MP wide-angle camera on the back of the F7 Ultra. On the front is a 32MP selfie camera. It’s a good specification for a Poco phone, and made even more interesting by the brand’s own software and hardware-based photography platform, which it calls an AISP, controlling it all.

There’s good news here as the camera is solid. Colors are bright and vivid, dynamic range is good, and there’s plenty of detail from the main camera. It doesn’t dramatically over saturate, but there’s definite pop to its photos, making them ideal for social media. But the performance is well judged, so images don’t appear solely tailored for posting to Instagram. The wide-angle camera makes a great change from the disappointing 8MP wide-angle cameras we see, and although photos are a little noisy, detail levels are high.

The real treat is the 2.5x optical camera, which packs in masses of sharp detail and brings out realistic textures and definition in its photos, along with natural colors and tones at the same time. The camera app has a 5x shortcut too, and it takes strong zoom photos despite it being a hybrid mode. Poco mentions a 20x UltraZoom mode, but it’s awful and you shouldn’t bother using it. This aside, the telephoto camera is really good, and combined with the main and wide cameras, make the F7 Ultra easily the best camera I’ve used on a Poco phone.

Poco F7 Ultra: performance

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite processor with either 12GB or 16GB of RAM powers the F7 Ultra, to which Poco has added its own VisionBoost D7 GPU and a high performance game management system called WildBoost Optimization 4.0. A liquid cooling system with a large heat pipe is designed to keep the phone cool.

I do have some small concerns about the F7 Ultra’s ability to control heat. I’ve played Asphalt Legends: Unite on the Poco F7 Ultra without a problem, but I did notice the phone became unexpectedly warm in my pocket when the ambient temperature was higher (but not even close to hot) than usual. I planned to use the 3DMark benchmarking app to check how the phone deals with graphically intensive games, but the app is blocked from running on the F7 Ultra.

Instead, I shot four minutes of 8K resolution video, followed by another four minutes at 4K/60fps, but the phone didn’t get any hotter than I’d expect. The phone’s ability to handle high temperatures may be something to consider if you live in a hot environment, as it’s not something we’ve been able to assess, mostly due to the phone blocking 3DMark.

Our other benchmark test showed the F7 Ultra trailing behind other smartphones with the same processor. Whether Poco hasn’t fully optimized the software yet (I’m using the phone ahead of its release), or if thermal management is holding it back isn’t clear. I haven’t noticed any problems in general use, or when using the camera, but if you’re a hardcore gamer there are better options out there, such as the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro.

Poco F7 Ultra: screen and software

I haven’t been very pleased with the F7 Ultra’s screen. It has a decent spec — 6.67-inch AMOLED, 120Hz, 3200 x 1440 pixels — but the screen protector ruins its look right from the start, and is highly reflective too. Poco promises a 1,800 nit high brightness and 3,200 nit peak brightness, but I’ve found it’s reluctant to activate either, leaving it dull and lifeless in sunlight. When it does kick into high brightness mode, it does so only for a short time, gradually reducing back down to barely visible.

The phone runs Xiaomi’s HyperOS 2 software, which we’ve recently seen on the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. Software hasn’t really been a Poco strong point in the past, but the introduction of a clean version of HyperOS 2 without Poco’s interference improves it. The icons are all normal-looking, there aren’t any crazy visuals to deal with, and the platform has been fast, smooth, and reliable.

Annoying notifications are part of the deal though, with multiple system messages telling you about this feature and that option. It’s irritating and unnecessary. There are also multiple pre-installed apps to deal with, and integral services like Themes and wallpapers are littered with ads and micro payments. While I like the software in general, it also needs plenty of learning as it’s not always logical. The screen is the F7 Ultra’s low point, and while the software is better than before, it’s still no match for Samsung’s One UI 7 or OxygenOS on the OnePlus 13, which are less intrusive, have fewer pre-installed apps, are more logically laid out, and packed with sensibly functionality.

Poco F7 Ultra: battery and charging

Unusually for a 2025 smartphone, the Poco F7 Ultra comes with a wall charger and a USB C cable in the box, which enables Poco’s 120W HyperCharge fast charging system. It takes the 5,300mAh battery to 50% in just 14 minutes, and on to a full 100% charge in 35 minutes. The phone also has 50W wireless charging, and a reverse charging mode.

The charging speed is transformative. As a 50% battery charge is more than enough for a single day of use if you don’t play games for hours, the charging performance removes any worry if you only have a very short time to spare to charge the phone up. It certainly puts phones like the Samsung Galaxy S25 with its 25W charging to shame, and because you get the charger in the box, it’s not just marketing guff either.

Battery life has been good but not outstanding. I’ve managed about five hours screen time of non-gaming use on a single charge, which is what I’d expect from most current smartphones with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite and a modest battery capacity. But when less than 15 minutes charge adds 50% to the battery, I haven’t really cared if it lasted longer or not.

Poco F7 Ultra: price and availability

At the time of writing Poco has not confirmed how much the F7 Ultra will cost, or where it will be released. The Poco F6 Pro was released in the U.K. and we expect it to be the same for the F7 Ultra, although it is likely to cost more than the F6 Pro’s 499 British pounds (about $645) launch price.

We will update our review when these details are confirmed, and the score may change depending on the final price.

The best Poco phone?

Poco has made an effort to make the F7 Ultra worthy of the name, and in relation to its own phones, it has succeeded. Developing its own GPU, ISP, and software management systems is a big step forward, and the ISP definitely impresses. The phone nails the desirable combination of power and ability, adding in good battery life and very fast charging for a phone ideally suited to demanding every day use. There’s real brand identity in the F7 Ultra, and it’s a far more interesting phone than the F6 Pro.

It’s let down by the screen, which isn’t all that different to the one on the old Poco F6 Pro, and stops the phone truly competing with the current best smartphones like the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the OnePlus 13. It’s also unusual to find a phone these days with such a disappointing screen, and it’s surprising to see this is where Poco decided to cut corners, especially after deciding to call it an Ultra.

Has it killed the Poco F7 Ultra? No, and it’s the only part of the phone you should carefully consider before buying. The thing is, even with the disappointing screen, the F7 Ultra is still the best Poco phone I’ve used. However, this still only brings it up to the standard of competing, great value phones like the OnePlus 13R and the Google Pixel 9, rather than beyond.