It’s been a few months since the Xiaomi sub-brand Redmi launched a smartphone within the country. But now, the company is back with a new entry-level device in the form of the Redmi A7 Pro.
As mentioned in our previous coverage, this device is the first device in the brand’s A series to receive the Pro title. However, much like a certain Ultra phone, a title such as this should not be waved around so flagrantly. That said, after spending an extended period of time with it, I’ve determined that the device has the potential to occupy a specific niche in the market.
Specification
Looks And Functionality
When it comes to design, I actually find the Redmi A7 Pro’s minimalist approach quite endearing. Its sleek metallic finish doesn’t immediately draw attention unless you take a closer look, which gives it a more understated presence. On the plus side, the back panel isn’t a fingerprint magnet, unlike many of its contemporaries.
That said, this subtle look may not appeal to everyone. There’s very little going on at the rear, apart from the camera module. Speaking of which, it’s positioned at the upper right corner and features a pill-shaped island that houses two lenses.
It sports a flat display that protrudes ever so slightly from the body. It looks interesting at first glance, but after a few days of use, it becomes clear that it’s more of an aesthetic choice than anything functional. Personally, the jutting display feels like a weak point and could easily be damaged after a bad drop. At 6.9 inches, the phone offers a sufficiently large screen for streaming and general media consumption.
For added functionality, the sides house a fingerprint sensor. While it’s a welcome inclusion, it does come with a few quirks, which we’ll get into later. The device also has a headphone jack, which is always a plus in my book.
On the durability front, things aren’t particularly reassuring. While the phone should survive a few minor drops, you’ll want to be careful when slipping it into your back pocket. With a light bend test, I could already feel the chassis flex, which isn’t exactly confidence-inspiring. If you’re planning to pick this up, it’s best to skip the free clear case in the box and opt for something more robust.
One thing I really like about this phone is its OS. The Redmi A7 Pro runs on Xiaomi’s HyperOS 3, which adds a much-needed layer of functionality and flexibility to the device. That said, it doesn’t quite take full advantage of the operating system’s AI-focused features, at least not as effectively as you might expect. It also doesn’t help that the handset comes loaded with bloatware, although that’s more or less expected at this price point.
Performance And Battery
For all its sleek design and style, the Redmi A7 Pro drops the ball when it comes to raw performance. The device runs on a Unisoc T7250 SoC and only has 4GB RAM, so it doesn’t really have much power to begin with. Understandably, the benchmark scores are, bluntly speaking, unimpressive at best.
I understand that this is an entry-level smartphone, but personally, it’s frustrating when I can’t even unlock the device without lag. Seriously, it struggles just to recognise my fingerprint, and that’s a frequent event. While I did mention earlier that it’s decent for streaming videos, the experience is undermined by frequent stutters, and in some cases, even crashes when opening a new video on YouTube.
Gaming ends up being the weakest part of the experience. I used Wuthering Waves as my test title, and the phone was already struggling at the opening screen. Even after lowering the graphics settings, the Redmi A7 Pro couldn’t handle any sustained load. I kid you not when I say it struggles even during dialogue scenes, often crashing as soon as a cutscene begins to load. On the rare occasion that I managed to actually play, performance was borderline unplayable, with frame rates dropping to roughly one frame every few seconds before the app closed itself.
I also tried Genshin Impact, and while it fares better than Wuthering Waves, the experience is still far from ideal. The game defaults to the lowest settings, and even that triggers a performance warning. It can hit 60 fps in very light scenes, but the moment anything more demanding appears, the frame rate drops sharply to around 5fps to 10fps, if not lower.
After a few minutes, the phone heats up quickly, which is usually a sign that a crash is coming. Sure enough, it didn’t take long before the game closed itself again. If you’re still determined to game on this, you can, but I have to ask: why?
I also downloaded Candy Crush Saga to see how it would run on this device, and unsurprisingly, it handled it just fine. That is admittedly the bare minimum, but light games should run without issues.
Lastly, we have the battery. I am happy to report that the device does redeem itself when it comes to longevity. In my testing, the Redmi A7 Pro managed close to 28 hours of continuous video playback, which is quite impressive. It really does seem to stretch every bit of power to keep going. As a daily driver, I was able to get just shy of a full day on moderate to heavy usage.
However, I did notice two interesting things about the device’s battery. First, the Redmi A7 Pro’s battery drains rapidly whenever I enable the mobile hotspot for some reason. Second, the battery takes a long while to reach full charge. It took about 30 minutes just to get 20% worth of charge. Even after trying to optimise the device, I couldn’t pinpoint the cause, which suggests these are just inherent limitations of the phone.
Camera
As mentioned earlier, the Redmi A7 Pro sports a dual-camera setup, consisting of a 13MP main sensor and a secondary, unspecified lens. If you enjoy taking photos, especially indoors, this isn’t the phone for you. Even with decent lighting, it struggles to capture usable shots indoors, often producing dim or inconsistent results. The only time photos came out somewhat clear was under bright sunlight, where the sensor had enough light to work with, and even then, images still appeared grainy.
Normally, smartphones with middling camera performance try to make up for their limitations with AI enhancements. However, since this device isn’t powerful enough to handle more advanced processing, its shortcomings are left fully exposed in the final images.
The portrait mode doesn’t fare any better either, mainly because it lacks any form of zoom capability. On top of that, the images it produces tend to look noticeably washed out and pixelated, which doesn’t do it any favours.
Focusing is another issue. The camera often struggles to lock onto subjects directly in front of it, which quickly becomes frustrating in daily use. To make things worse, every shot requires you to hold still for a few seconds while the phone processes the image. If you move too early, there’s a good chance the final image will come out blurry. The only real positive here is that it can distinguish between the foreground and background reasonably well, but that is honestly just the bare minimum these days.
Moving on, the main camera can go up to 2x zoom optically. It can stretch all the way to 10x, but only through digital zoom. As you might expect, the image quality is still sub-par at best. You can check out the zoom capabilities for yourself in the gallery below.
Conclusion
For all my criticisms, the Redmi A7 Pro is still, at the end of the day, an entry-level phone. Once you take into account its price range of RM399 to RM449, its shortcomings start to make a lot more sense.
The most realistic scenario for picking this up is if your previous phone breaks and you need an immediate replacement. Frankly speaking, I see it as a stopgap—something to tide you over until you get a better device. It still has some merit if you only use your phone for basic tasks and don’t need anything too powerful.
However, if you’re looking for a long-term solution, I would highly recommend saving up an extra RM500 to go for a decent mid-range device, preferably one with better processing power. After all, you don’t want your phone to give up on you when you need it most.
