The Realme 7 brings in three main upgrades over the Realme 6 — a new SoC, a bigger battery, and a new primary camera sensor. It features a mirror-split design, which creates some interesting patterns when light hits it. The Realme 7 is actually thicker (9.4mm) and heavier (196.5g) than the 6, due to its larger battery, and this is very noticeable in daily usage.
The Realme 7 is the first phone to debut with the MediaTek Helio G95 SoC. This is an updated version of the Helio G90T, which was seen in the Realme 6, but it's not a major upgrade. Performance is pretty satisfactory. The Realme 7 uses Realme UI, based on Android 10, which worked smoothly. Face recognition and the side-mounted fingerprint sensor are also quick. The Realme 7 is good with games too. Battle Prime looked great at the highest graphics settings and gameplay was smooth.
The Realme 7 gets a chunky, 5,000mAh battery and you can charge the battery fairly quickly too, thanks to the 30W Dart Charge fast charging.
Display. 6.50 inch
RAM. 8GB
Storage. 128GB
Battery. 5000mah
Rear camera. 64+8+2+2mp
Front camera. 16mp
2. Motorola Moto G9
Display. 6.50inch
RAM. 4GB
Storage. 64GB
Battery. 5000mah
Rear camera. 48+2+2mp
Front camera. 8mp
3. Poco M2pro
The Poco M2 Pro has an attractive design and is built well, but it also looks very similar to the Redmi Note 9 Pro. It features a P2i water-repellent coating, which is said to make it splash-proof. Poco has used a 6.67-inch full-HD+ LCD display, with a cutout for the selfie camera. You also get Gorilla Glass 5 on the front, back, and the rear camera module. One feature that's missing is a high refresh rate.
The Poco M2 Pro runs on MIUI 11, which is based on Android 10, and my unit had the June security patch. Apart from having the Poco Launcher as a default, the features and functionality are very similar to what you get on Redmi devices.
MIUI and app performance were superb thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G SoC. Navigating through MIUI's interface felt snappy, multitasking worked well, and apps in general were quick to load. Gaming performance was very good too. The 5,000mAh capacity easily lasted for an entire day, even with lots of gaming and camera usage.
The Poco M2 Pro has four rear cameras, which include a primary 48-megapixel sensor, an 8-megapixel sensor with a wide-angle lens, a 5-megapixel macro camera, and a 2-megapixel depth camera. You get a 16-megapixel hole-punch selfie camera. Overall, the cameras of the Poco M2 Pro performed decently under good light, but struggled to deliver satisfactory results in low light.
Display. 6.67 inch
RAM. 4GB
Storage. 64GB
Battery. 5020 mah
Rear camera. 48+8+5+2mp
Front camera. 16mp
Processor. Qualcomm snapdragon
4. Real me 6i
The Realme 6i is a budget smartphone from Realme and is a toned-down version of the Realme 6. This smartphone sports some interesting hardware such as the 90Hz display which isn't available from the competition. The Realme 6 sports a 6.5-inch display and has a hole-punch design to accommodate the selfie camera.
Powering the Realme 6i is a MediaTek Helio G90T SoC which is paired with either 4GB or 6GB of RAM. The storage between both variants remains the same at 64GB. The Realme 6i has a quad-camera setup at the back with a 48-megapixel primary camera, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera, a 2-megapixel macro camera and a 2-megapixel depth sensor.
The phone runs Realme UI on top of Android 10. There is some amount of bloatware that comes preinstalled on the device and we did encounter some spammy notifications. The camera performance from the Realme 6i was good in daylight using the primary camera. Its wide-angle camera offered decent details. Lowlight camera performance wasn't as good as we saw a noticeable dip in performance.
The Realme 6i packs in a 4,300mAh battery which offers all-day battery life. It is also bundled with a 20W charger for quick charging.
Display. 6.50inch
RAM. 4GB
Storage. 64GB
Battery. 4300mah
Rear camera. 48+8+2+2mp
Front camera. 16mp
Processor. Mediatek helio G90T
5. RedMe Note9
The Redmi Note 9 is an entry-level offering from Xiaomi in the Note 9 series. It shares the same design as the Redmi Note 9 Pro and the Redmi Note 9 Pro Max. It sports a 6.53-inch display with a hole-punch on the top left corner. There is Corning Gorilla Glass 5 to protect the display. The display has good viewing angles but the notch could be distracting to a few people.
The Redmi Note 9 Is powered by a MediaTek Helio G85 SoC. The Redmi Note 9 is available in three variants; 4GB of RAM with 64GB of storage, 4GB of RAM with 128GB of storage, and 6GB of RAM with 128GB of storage. Storage can be expanded further using a microSD card slot. The Redmi Note 9 houses a 5,020mAh battery and gets a 22.5W charger in the box.
The Redmi Note 9 has a quad-camera setup consisting of a 48-megapixel primary camera, 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera, 2-megapixel macro camera and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. The Redmi Note 9 manages good photos in daylight and the AI is quick to detect scenes. Lowlight camera performance was average and the Night mode did not make a huge difference in the output.
Display. 6.53inch
RAM. 4GB
Storage. 64GB
Battery. 5020 mah
Rear camera. 48+8+2+2mp
Front camera. 13mp
Processor. Mediatek helio G85
6. Red ME Note 9 pro
The Redmi Note 9 Pro has a lower starting price than its predecessors, but also doesn't offer all the modern features that you might expect. It has a 6.67-inch LCD screen with a 60Hz refresh rate and hole-punch front camera at the top. The processor is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G which is surprisingly powerful for this segment. You also get a 5020mAh battery and suppport for 18W fast charging.
The Redmi Note 9 Pro is powerful and everyday work will go smoothly. The display is large and crisp, making games and movies look good. You have a choice between variants, one with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, and the other with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.
The 48-megapixel primary camera was slightly disappointing overall, particularly in low light. There's also an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera, a 5-megapixel macro camera, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. On the front you get a 16-megapixel selfie camera
Specifications
Display. 6.67inch
RAM. 4GB
Storage. 64GB
Battery. 5020 mah
Rear camera. 48+8+5+2mp
Front camera. 16mp
Processor. Qualcomm snapdragon 720G