I've spent a month using a smartphone that costs just £239 – it's incredible value

The smartphone market is flooded with options, but finding a good one without breaking the bank is a challenge to say the least. If you've only got around £200-£250 to spend, you'd expect to end up with a pretty crappy smartphone experience, and in most cases you'd be right.

But budget phones have been getting better lately, and the Poco M7 Pro is a prime example. This lovely looking device from the Xiaomi sub-brand manages to pack some pretty impressive features while remaining super-affordable.

So what's it actually like to use? I've spent the last month with this handset, and I can confidently say it offers exceptional value and will be heading straight into the best budget camera phones guide. Read on to learn more.

• Shop Xiaomi Poco M7 Pro at Amazon

Poco M7 Pro 5G: Key specifications

Design and display

• Premium design
• Beautiful screen

The moment I picked it up, the Poco M7 Pro immediately impressed me. At just 7.99mm thick and weighing a comfortable 190g, it's nice and light, without feeling flimsy. Available in three pleasant looking colours (Lunar Dust, Lavender Frost and Olive Twilight), the phone features a distinctive dual-tone rear panel with a tasteful sandwave pattern covering half the back.

The slim bezels contribute to an impressive 92% screen-to-body ratio, making the phone feel more premium than its price suggests. In short, it may be a budget phone, but it doesn't feel cheap, and that's important.

The real star of the show, though, is the 6.67-inch AMOLED display. With a 120Hz refresh rate, 2,100 nits peak brightness, and FHD+ resolution, it outperforms its rivals in this price bracket. Even in direct sunlight, the display remains clearly visible; a testament to Poco's commitment to providing value where it matters most.

Whether I was scrolling through socials, watching HDR content or playing games, the vibrant colours and smooth motion handling of this screen made me feel like I was using a phone at least twice the price of this one. You get Gorilla Glass 5 protection too, adding a sense of durability budget phones often lack.

Audio was also good for the price. In my tests, the stereo speakers delivered decent sound quality that got sufficiently loud when I cranked up the volume, without distorting. Call quality was also consistent, with clear mic performance and reliable connectivity.

Design score: 4/5

Features

• Splash resistance
• Use it as a TV remote

The Poco M7 Pro might not offer any groundbreaking innovations, but it checks off a surprisingly long list of featres for a budget device. The 120Hz AMOLED display is the headline act, offering silky-smooth visuals and excellent brightness even outdoors. That's paired with stereo speakers, a headphone jack (yes, they still exist), an IR blaster for controlling your TV, and IP64 splash resistance — all rare perks at this price point.

Add in fast 45W charging, a sizable 5,110mAh battery and a thoughtfully designed chassis, and you’ve got a well-rounded phone for daily life. On the downside, while the interface is generally intuitive, with smooth animations and responsive navigation, it does come with a significant number of pre-installed applications, which is quite annoying when you first set it up. Fortunately, most of this bloatware can be uninstalled.

The Poco M7 Pro runs Android 14 with Xiaomi's HyperOS overlay. Poco promises two years of major Android updates and four years of security patches, which provides reasonable longevity for a budget device.

Feature score: 3/5

Cameras

• Photos aren't great in low light
• Only shoots video in HD

The camera setup on the Poco M7 Pro consists of a 50MP Sony LYT-600 primary sensor with OIS and f/1.5 aperture, complemented by a 2MP depth sensor. The front camera offers a 20MP resolution for detailed selfies.

Yes, you read that right: just two lenses on the rear, and no ultrawide or telephoto. This limited setup is one of the main things that marks out the Poco M7 Pro as a budget phone. At the same time, if you know what you're doing, the pictures you can take with this camera aren't bad at all.

In good lighting conditions, I found that images showcased good dynamic range, accurate colours and strong detail retention. The f/1.5 aperture allows for natural background blur in close-up shots, and the colour reproduction tends to be quite natural, too, rather than overly saturated. White balance is generally accurate across different lighting conditions, though occasionally produces a slightly warm cast in indoor settings.

Portrait mode leverages the dedicated 2MP depth sensor to create reasonably well-defined subject separation. Edge detection is generally reliable for simple subjects, though it can struggle with more complex elements like flyaway hair or irregular object shapes. The blur effect itself is natural-looking and adjustable after taking the shot, and the optical image stabilization helps with reducing motion blur.

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I found, however, that there's noticeable noise and loss of detail when light levels drop significantly. The dedicated Night mode improves brightness and colour retention but doesn't work miracles; photos still exhibit softness and noise when compared to pricier phones' cameras.

The 20MP selfie camera produces detailed self-portraits with natural skin tones in good lighting. Again, though, in more challenging lighting quality degrades, with increased noise and softer details. Portrait selfies generally offer decent edge detection but can struggle in lower light.

Video quality is adequate for casual recording at 1080p/30fps, with the combination of OIS and EIS providing reasonably stable footage when walking or panning slowly. However, the lack of 4K recording and higher frame rate options means this phone isn't much use for serious content creation.

Camera score: 3/5

Performance

• Fast and smooth performance
• Battery life can stretch to two days

One of the things I liked most about this phone was how fast and responsive it is. Powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7025 Ultra, the base model offers 6GB RAM and 128GB storage, while the higher-tier variant provides 12GB RAM and 256GB storage for those needing additional headroom. For my review model, they sent me the latter and I have to say, it delivered very smooth performance indeed.

Everyday tasks like social media browsing, video streaming and multitasking feel responsive and fast. So I wasn't surprised when, in my benchmark tests, the Poco M7 Pro scored competitively within its price segment: Geekbench 6 scores of 946 for single-core and 2,294 for multi-core performance. These scores don't set any records, of course, but they are excellent for a phone at this price, and mean that most people's daily needs will be well catered for.

One area where the Poco M7 Pro truly excels, meanwhile, is battery. The substantial 5,110mAh battery easily powers through a full day of heavy usage, and with moderate use I found it was stretching to two days between charges.

The included 45W fast charger filled the battery from empty to full in 70 minutes, with a 30-minute charge delivering 54% capacity. Given that having to constantly charge up devices is one of the biggest modern headaches, this made me like this phone enormously.

Performance score: 3.5/5

Price and availability

• Cheapest model is £199
• Not available in US or Canada

The Poco M7 Pro is currently available in the UK, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia. Poco phones are not officially sold in the USA or Canada, although you can still purchase them through various online retailers

In the UK, the phone has a starting price of £199 for the 6GB/128GB model, while the 8GB/256GB variant (the one I tested) costs £239. This aggressive pricing puts it in direct competition with the Samsung Galaxy A26 (£249), though the Poco offers several advantages including a better display and faster charging. The pricing is especially impressive when you consider the 120Hz AMOLED screen, a feature often reserved for more expensive devices.

Value score: 5/5

Who is it for?

The Poco M7 Pro is tailor-made for anyone who's got £200-£250 to spend on a phone; no more and no less. Come up with a couple of hundred more and you'll get a more advanced device, of course. But if you don't have that, or simply don't wish to spend it, the Poco M7 Pro offers excellent bang for your buck.

Offering a polished smartphone experience at a bargain-basement price, this phone is an ideal choice for students, first-time smartphone buyers, or anyone upgrading from an older budget or mid-range handset. The vibrant display, long-lasting battery and fast performance on everyday tasks means that for a lot of people, this cheap device provides everything you really need from a smartphone.

At the same time, if you want to make high-quality photography or video content, you'll want to save up for something more expensive. Because while this phone is great for the everyday user, it's ironically not quite "Pro" enough for creative work.

Buy it if...

• Your funds are limited
• Battery life is important to you
• You value a high-end screen

Don't buy it if...

• You want to take great photos in low-light
• You want to film 4K video
• You have more to spend, and want the best phone possible