The Poco F7 Ultra might be the sharpest mid-range camera phone I've ever tested

The Poco F7 Ultra is a few months old now, released back in March, but after getting my hands on it for a few days, I'm already confident that it could be one of the best value budget camera phones of 2025.

I'm willing to bet that you've probably never heard of a Poco phone before, though you might be more familiar with its parent company, since Poco is a sub-brand of Xiaomi - a Chinese manufacturer of some of the best camera phones on the market. The Xiaomi 15 series blew our reviews editor away when he tested it, to the point that he said" I never want to see a Samsung or iPhone ever again". After using the Poco F7 Ultra this past weekend, I'm starting to understand what he meant.

The first thing I noticed straight away with the Poco F7 Ultra is how fast it can capture a moving subject, and how incredibly sharp its main camera is. I usually start out by using my dog, Tilly, as a beginner test subject when tinkering with new camera phones, and I let out an audible gasp when the F7 Ultra managed to capture her mid-air jumping after her tennis ball with pinpoint precision sharpness. Not even my Sony A7III mirrorless can do this.

I'll be sharing more of my initial thoughts and first impressions of the Poco F7 Ultra throughout this quick review, but if you're interested in more household names when it comes to camera phones, take a look at our roundup of the best iPhones for photography.

POCO F7 Ultra: Key specifications

Price

• RRP of £649
• Not available in the US

The biggest selling point of the Poco F7 Ultra might be its triple 50MP camera unit, but it's also priced extremely well too, at just £549 from Xiaomi UK at the time of writing (including a £100 discount).

I would say that this definitely falls into budget camera phone territory, although it's not the cheapest Poco model to release this year, given that the Poco X7 series was selling for just £249 / $229 back in January. This Poco X series budget line boasts AI features galore and even Google Gemini integration, but lacks as hefty a camera unit as this F7 Ultra model.

For a bit of extra price context, most phones with this kind of spec retail a lot higher. The latest Honor 400 Pro, for example, is a mid-range device that shares a lot of similarities with this camera phone, and is priced similarly too at £699.99.

I think anyone unfamiliar with Poco, Xiaomi, or even Redmi might still be reluctant to spend over £600 on the Poco F7 Ultra. I would be too before getting my hands on it, but I genuinely think this camera phone is exceptional value and quality for the price.

Value score: 5/5

Cameras

• Amazing contrast and exposure for each shot
• Precision accuracy and sharpness for moving subjects
• Doesn't feel too AI-processed at all

I've been testing the Poco F7 Ultra's camera unit in a few different settings over the last few days, including a walk with my dogs up the field, a stroll along the seafront, and photographng a tiny green caterpillar that made itself comfortable on a pint glass while I was at the pub with friends.

My plan was to test out the performance of the Poco F7 Ultra camera in daily use settings, and I feel like it has completely excelled in every scenario I tested it. I'm yet to take a selfie with this phone camera yet, as I hate doing this without the aid of a Snapchat filter, but I imagine I'll be just as impressed with the quality of this when the time comes. The zoom quality is pretty good too, and retains its sharpness at 20x zoom and maintains it as best as it can as you go up the scale.

Take a look at the sample image galleries below to see how I've been getting on with the Poco F7 Ultra these last few days.

Camera score: 5/5

Sample images

Happy (and very sharp) doggos

Image 1 of 18

General snaps

Image 1 of 14

First impressions

• Excellent array of apps, features and widgets
• Slim and light design that feels mid-range
• Display is lovely and bright

As I mentioned earlier, I haven't spent too long with this phone yet. Since unboxing it, I've managed to shoot some photos at the park and along the seafront, but I'm yet to use it for longer than a weekend or really deep dive into its power and performance.

What I can offer you is my initial first impressions of the Poco F7 Ultra, and they're all pretty positive. For starters, I really like the haptic feedback you get from entering the device passcode and swiping through the phone. The display is lovely and bright, with sharp visuals and text, plus when viewing images in the gallery, they all look really vibrant and crisp. It seems to run smoothly, and I'm yet to experience any lag from general use.

Like most smartphones, the Poco F7 Ultra has a fair few apps pre-installed. There are the usual instant deletes for me, like Booking.com and YouTube Music, but I was surprised that several apps I use frequently were installed and ready to go, including Facebook, Spotify, TikTok, Netflix, LinkedIn, Aliexpress, and Amazon Shopping. A few unfamiliar branded apps were part of the roster, such as the 'Mi Store' (short for Xiaomi, I imagine) and Mi Browser, but you still get Google Play and Google's full suite of apps installed so the Mi apps are simply an alternative choice you don't have to use.

Image 1 of 9

If you're into AI, then the Poco F7 Ultra can activate Google Gemini assistance by clicking the side button of the phone, and there are a ton of seemingly useful AI tools and features on board to help you with daily admin, such as AI writing, interpretation, translation, and subtitles.

One other feature that I really liked is that the swipe up app drawer (common with most Androids) is already pre-organised for you into categories like photography/entertainment/shopping/communication, which you can swipe through along the top bar to easily find what you need. As someone who has folders on my Samsung S24 for every app type, and arranges the app drawer alphabetically, I thought this was a great little feature.

The phone can also monitor and track your digital wellbeing, which you can access in the settings menu, or if you like, this can be added to the home screen as a helpful widget. I also thought the weather widget on this Poco is a lot more fun than I'm used to on my Samsung, with cute emojis and an interactive video background.

Feature score: 4/5 (not extensively tested yet, but very impressed so far)

Benchmark scoring

Buy it if...

• You want an excellent quality camera phone at a great price
• You like sharpness and taking quick action shots
• You love the Android interface and using AI and widgets

Don't buy it if...

• You're looking for flagship quality or power
• You want a rugged phone - this one is pretty lightweight
• You don't like AI, this one has Xiaomi HyperAI and Google Gemini