The Redmi 7A is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 octa-core chipset. The handset comes with 2GB RAM/16GB storage model, 2GB/32GB variant. The Redmi device offers a single 13-megapixel camera at the back. There is a 5-megapixel selfie camera sensor on the front. It is backed by a large 4000mAh battery. In China, the Redmi 7A cost RMB 599. The price of Redmi 7A in Nigeria could be on the similar lines.
Dual Sim Capability: Dual Sim
Input Mechanism: Touchscreen
NETWORK
Network Capability:2G,3G,4G
DATA:
Infrared Port: NO
DISPLAY
Display Size: 5.45-Inch HD+, 18:9 Aspect Ratio
MEMORY
Internal Memory: 2GB RAM + 16GB Storage
TECHNICAL
OS: Android 9 Pie
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 SoC
CAMERA
Camera Resolution: 13MP
Secondary Camera: 5MP
SIZE
Form Factor: NA
OTHERS
Java Support: NO
Accelerometer:NO
MULTIMEDIA
Music Player: YES
Video Player: YES
Radio: YES
Loudspeaker: YES
Youtube Player: YES
BATTERY
Battery Capacity: 4000mAh
PERSONAL
Calendar: YES
Calculator: YES
Alarm: YES
Clock:YES
Phonebook: YES
The majority of the changes are at the rear where the phone sports a matte plastic back, similar to what we saw on the Redmi Go. I don’t really mind the use of high-quality plastics since the material is inherently more resistant to drops, but the material used here attracts an awful lot of scuffs and oil stains. Our standard advice of using a case definitely applies here as well.
Moving on to the display, the 5.45-inch panel is fairly utilitarian. No, you don’t get a notch, cutout or any of the new-fangled bezel-saving tactics. What you do get is an 18:9 aspect ratio which makes the phone easier to hold and a reasonably sharp 720 x 1,440 resolution. Colors are fairly vibrant and sunlight visibility is good, but not excellent. With the target audience being college students or people who might be out and about, higher peak brightness levels would have been much appreciated.
Given the price point, it comes as no surprise that the phone is equipped with a micro-USB port along the bottom edge. You’ll also find a downward-firing speaker here that goes surprisingly loud. It isn’t the clearest nor does it have any semblance of bass but if you want to blast the FM radio out loud or just take a phone call, it will handily do the job.
A phone like the Redmi 7A isn’t really meant for power users. Think first-time smartphone buyers or perhaps someone looking for a secondary device. Keeping that in mind, the Redmi 7A comes across as a pretty solid option.
Performance, in its category of devices, is rather good and the limited RAM aside, you should be able to run all your favourite apps just fine. Multitasking is certainly not the forte here as I noticed the phone reloading web pages and apps with a minimal load. But, that’s what you get with just 2GB of RAM on board the device. While Xiaomi does offer two variants swinging between 16 and 32GB of storage, it would’ve been nice to add just a bit more RAM on the pricier version. Perhaps, it would push pricing closer to the Redmi 7? We can only speculate.
The phone runs on a Snapdragon 439 processor, which is a power-efficient 12nm chipset. While this is still an entry-level chipset, the clock speed now goes up to a maximum of 2GHz on the Cortex-A53 cores. Performance here is closer to the Snapdragon 625 than the Snapdragon 450. The GPU, on the other hand, continues to be the anaemic Adreno 505 so don’t expect any miracles as far as games are concerned. To its credit, the Redmi 7A did manage to run PUBG at a reasonable clip. Of course, there were frame drops aplenty and you certainly won’t get HD graphics here.
Arguably the biggest improvement on the Redmi 7A has to be the massive battery. Stepping up to a 4000mAh battery and a more frugal processor architecture means that the phone can last days on end. I’ve had a very limited amount of time with the phone yet, but going by my experience so far, two-day battery would be very realistic.
The Redmi 7A comes with a 12MP Sony IMX486 camera sensor with f/2.2 lens on the rear panel while on the front the phone includes a 5MP camera for clicking selfies. The phone's rear camera also includes features like AI Beautify Face recognition, single-tone flash, low light enhancement, Standard HDR, Auto HDR, Burst mode, and among others. The front camera also includes camera features like AI Background blurring, AI Beautify Face recognition, Selfie timer, and HDR.
For the price, the Redmi 7A cameras deliver good results. In outdoor situations, the Redmi 7A camera captures pictures with pretty good details and colours. When the light is low, or when you are shooting indoors, the images are somewhat grainy. By default, the HDR in the Redmi 7A camera app is turned off -- this is because of the Snapdragon 400-series processor -- but if you turn it on manually whenever you are clicking photos you get better results.
Front camera too is similar: Mixed bag. Selfies clicked in good daylight are pretty nice, only that avoid clicking selfies directly in string sunlight because in that case the photos will look washed out. Selfies clicked indoors are little grainy. Interestingly, the Redmi 7A also comes with portrait mode and surprisingly it works very well with the background blurred nicely and edges of the person who are clicking turning out sharp.
Overall, the Redmi 7A cameras are decent for the price it comes for. But the Redmi 7A is a good reminder of the fact that the image sensor in a phone is not everything. It also matters that the lens is good and fast, whereas in the Redmi 7A the F2.2 lens is on a slower side. And it also matters that there is enough processing power to do data-intensive image processing. More expensive phones have it, the Redmi 7A, understandably because it is a cheaper phone, lacks it.
The moment I picked up the Redmi 7A, I felt like I was holding on to a chunky bar of chocolate. Compared to last year's Redmi 6A, the front fascia doesn't look too different, although the bezels have been shaved off ever so slightly. There's also a rather loud 'Redmi' branding on the bottom bezel, which I'm certainly not a fan of.
The Redmi 7A comes in three colours but the matte blue variant does look the most appealing.
The Redmi 7A does not feature a fingerprint sensor at all.
What does look completely different though is the back. The back is clean to a point where it almost feels a little too bare, but I doubt a lot of people buying the phone will have an issue with that. Overall, I'd still lean towards the Realme C2 (review) if looks mattered a great deal, but the Redmi 7A isn't that far behind.
The display does remain unchanged and that’s certainly not a bad thing. I would have liked the panel to be a bit brighter, especially for outdoor usage, but for most users, this shouldn’t be an issue.
Design aside, Xiaomi's upgraded a number of things on the inside as well. This includes a move away from a quad-core MediaTek chipset to an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 SoC, a more capable Sony IMX 486 camera sensor (which is the same sensor used by Xiaomi in the Mi A2 last year) and a battery upgrade to 4000 mAh.
There's one addition though which we haven't really seen on any device at this price, and that is the inclusion of water seals in and around all the buttons of the device. Xiaomi claims that the Redmi 7A is splashproof. The phone can certainly deal with splashes of water, but don't try and submerge the phone in water.
It was surprising to see Xiaomi move away from Qualcomm chips for the Redmi 6 series last year, but come 2019, that’s certainly changed. The Snapdragon 439 chip here handles daily tasks with aplomb and I definitely found myself surprised by how well Xiaomi’s optimised MIUI 10 on top of Android 9 Pie. Heavy apps like Facebook and Twitter did stutter a couple of times throughout the span of my review but considering the phone price, I’m certainly not complaining.
I did play lighter games on the Redmi 7A and the phone handled it without a hiccup.
I did play lighter games on the Redmi 7A and the phone handled them without complaint.
But what about gaming? Can you play PUBG Mobile on this? Well yes, at the game's lowest settings, you will manage somewhat playable frame rates. But this phone’s certainly not meant for gaming. With the entry-level variant which comes with 16 GB of storage, there’s very little room to store games like PUBG Mobile anyway. I did play lighter games like Battlelands Royale and Stupid Zombies on this and they ran without any hiccups whatsoever.
Coming back to the issue of low storage, there is considerable bloatware here (apps that you can uninstall, of course) and the onslaught of ads that MIUI keeps throwing at you. Xiaomi also has the Mi Credit app (an app that helps MIUI users apply for quick loans, if you're wondering) pre-installed on the Redmi 7A, which does make sense considering the market the phone is targeted towards.
With just 2 GB of RAM, I wasn’t able to do a lot of multitasking, let alone having games run in the background. Xiaomi certainly could have offered more RAM here to start with, but overall, for everyday use, I certainly didn’t encounter any major stutters with the Redmi 7A — an area where it certainly excels over the more expensive Realme C2.
What’s more, you have dark mode on a phone that costs little. Now dark mode on an IPS panel doesn’t have any bearing on the battery (not that battery is an issue on the Redmi 7A anyway), but it’s certainly nice to have it as an option anyway.
Don't be fooled by the cool animation. The battery take ages to charge.
Don't be fooled by the cool animation. The battery take ages to charge.
What would have been a bonus though is the inclusion of a fast-charging adapter, but Xiaomi’s got you stuck with a 5 W charger that takes more than 3 hours to juice up the large 4000 mAh battery.
Big battery
Solid build
Low-light camera
2GB RAM
The Redmi 7A isn't for everyone. The phone is targeted at consumers looking for an affordable phone that is decent enough to handle basic usage with ease. Consumers looking for a powerful phone should be willing to spend close to 150,000 Naira But for those who want a cheap and decent smartphone, Redmi 7A for a price of 42,000 to 50,000 Naira is a really good option.
The Redmi 7A looks decent despite using plastic, the blue colour adds to the design and it comes with a 4000mAh battery that lasts more than a day very easily. The phone can handle basic usage well enough and handles basic games decently. The Redmi 7A is also capable of capturing good pictures with lots of details and nice colours in daylight but struggles in low-light. At 42,000 Naira, what Redmi 7A offers is impressive.
Overall, The Redmi 7A is a solid upgrade over the Redmi 6A and comes with a lot of useful features for its price.
XIAOMI REDMI 7A SPECIFICATION
Device Type: SmartphoneDual Sim Capability: Dual Sim
Input Mechanism: Touchscreen
NETWORK
Network Capability:2G,3G,4G
DATA:
Infrared Port: NO
DISPLAY
Display Size: 5.45-Inch HD+, 18:9 Aspect Ratio
MEMORY
Internal Memory: 2GB RAM + 16GB Storage
TECHNICAL
OS: Android 9 Pie
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 SoC
CAMERA
Camera Resolution: 13MP
Secondary Camera: 5MP
SIZE
Form Factor: NA
OTHERS
Java Support: NO
Accelerometer:NO
MULTIMEDIA
Music Player: YES
Video Player: YES
Radio: YES
Loudspeaker: YES
Youtube Player: YES
BATTERY
Battery Capacity: 4000mAh
PERSONAL
Calendar: YES
Calculator: YES
Alarm: YES
Clock:YES
Phonebook: YES
design
The Redmi 7A is amongst the last holdouts from Xiaomi’s updated design language. While cost constraints mean that the phone doesn’t get the glass and metal build of the higher end phones, the phone does get a refreshed polycarbonate outlook.The majority of the changes are at the rear where the phone sports a matte plastic back, similar to what we saw on the Redmi Go. I don’t really mind the use of high-quality plastics since the material is inherently more resistant to drops, but the material used here attracts an awful lot of scuffs and oil stains. Our standard advice of using a case definitely applies here as well.
Camera
The camera orientation on the Redmi 7A has changed compared to the horizontal orientation on the 6A. Also gone are the plastic end-caps in lieu of a single plastic shell that flows smoothly from the top to bottom, with subtle Redmi branding silk-screened near the bottom.Volume buttons and power key
The volume rocker and the power button are both placed to the right of the phone and do not exhibit any signs of wobble or shake. The Redmi 7A appears to have been built to fairly exacting standards. I might be nitpicking here, but I wish that the volume rocker had just a bit more travel to it as it feels a bit too shallow. The left side has dedicated dual-SIM slots as well as a slot for microSD expansion.Showing shortcuts drawer
Moving on to the display, the 5.45-inch panel is fairly utilitarian. No, you don’t get a notch, cutout or any of the new-fangled bezel-saving tactics. What you do get is an 18:9 aspect ratio which makes the phone easier to hold and a reasonably sharp 720 x 1,440 resolution. Colors are fairly vibrant and sunlight visibility is good, but not excellent. With the target audience being college students or people who might be out and about, higher peak brightness levels would have been much appreciated.
Given the price point, it comes as no surprise that the phone is equipped with a micro-USB port along the bottom edge. You’ll also find a downward-firing speaker here that goes surprisingly loud. It isn’t the clearest nor does it have any semblance of bass but if you want to blast the FM radio out loud or just take a phone call, it will handily do the job.
Powerful hardware… for the price
A phone like the Redmi 7A isn’t really meant for power users. Think first-time smartphone buyers or perhaps someone looking for a secondary device. Keeping that in mind, the Redmi 7A comes across as a pretty solid option.
Performance, in its category of devices, is rather good and the limited RAM aside, you should be able to run all your favourite apps just fine. Multitasking is certainly not the forte here as I noticed the phone reloading web pages and apps with a minimal load. But, that’s what you get with just 2GB of RAM on board the device. While Xiaomi does offer two variants swinging between 16 and 32GB of storage, it would’ve been nice to add just a bit more RAM on the pricier version. Perhaps, it would push pricing closer to the Redmi 7? We can only speculate.
Xiaomi Redmi 7A playing PUBG
The phone runs on a Snapdragon 439 processor, which is a power-efficient 12nm chipset. While this is still an entry-level chipset, the clock speed now goes up to a maximum of 2GHz on the Cortex-A53 cores. Performance here is closer to the Snapdragon 625 than the Snapdragon 450. The GPU, on the other hand, continues to be the anaemic Adreno 505 so don’t expect any miracles as far as games are concerned. To its credit, the Redmi 7A did manage to run PUBG at a reasonable clip. Of course, there were frame drops aplenty and you certainly won’t get HD graphics here.
Arguably the biggest improvement on the Redmi 7A has to be the massive battery. Stepping up to a 4000mAh battery and a more frugal processor architecture means that the phone can last days on end. I’ve had a very limited amount of time with the phone yet, but going by my experience so far, two-day battery would be very realistic.
Camera is a mixed bag
The Redmi 7A comes with a 12MP Sony IMX486 camera sensor with f/2.2 lens on the rear panel while on the front the phone includes a 5MP camera for clicking selfies. The phone's rear camera also includes features like AI Beautify Face recognition, single-tone flash, low light enhancement, Standard HDR, Auto HDR, Burst mode, and among others. The front camera also includes camera features like AI Background blurring, AI Beautify Face recognition, Selfie timer, and HDR.
For the price, the Redmi 7A cameras deliver good results. In outdoor situations, the Redmi 7A camera captures pictures with pretty good details and colours. When the light is low, or when you are shooting indoors, the images are somewhat grainy. By default, the HDR in the Redmi 7A camera app is turned off -- this is because of the Snapdragon 400-series processor -- but if you turn it on manually whenever you are clicking photos you get better results.
Front camera too is similar: Mixed bag. Selfies clicked in good daylight are pretty nice, only that avoid clicking selfies directly in string sunlight because in that case the photos will look washed out. Selfies clicked indoors are little grainy. Interestingly, the Redmi 7A also comes with portrait mode and surprisingly it works very well with the background blurred nicely and edges of the person who are clicking turning out sharp.
Overall, the Redmi 7A cameras are decent for the price it comes for. But the Redmi 7A is a good reminder of the fact that the image sensor in a phone is not everything. It also matters that the lens is good and fast, whereas in the Redmi 7A the F2.2 lens is on a slower side. And it also matters that there is enough processing power to do data-intensive image processing. More expensive phones have it, the Redmi 7A, understandably because it is a cheaper phone, lacks it.
What’s changed with the Redmi 7A and what hasn’t?
Xiaomi's overhauled how their budget phones look in 2019, as we've seen with the Redmi Note 7 Pro (review), Redmi Y3 (review) and even the Redmi 7 (review). Thankfully, the Redmi 7A's no exception.The moment I picked up the Redmi 7A, I felt like I was holding on to a chunky bar of chocolate. Compared to last year's Redmi 6A, the front fascia doesn't look too different, although the bezels have been shaved off ever so slightly. There's also a rather loud 'Redmi' branding on the bottom bezel, which I'm certainly not a fan of.
The Redmi 7A comes in three colours but the matte blue variant does look the most appealing.
The Redmi 7A does not feature a fingerprint sensor at all.
What does look completely different though is the back. The back is clean to a point where it almost feels a little too bare, but I doubt a lot of people buying the phone will have an issue with that. Overall, I'd still lean towards the Realme C2 (review) if looks mattered a great deal, but the Redmi 7A isn't that far behind.
The display does remain unchanged and that’s certainly not a bad thing. I would have liked the panel to be a bit brighter, especially for outdoor usage, but for most users, this shouldn’t be an issue.
Design aside, Xiaomi's upgraded a number of things on the inside as well. This includes a move away from a quad-core MediaTek chipset to an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 SoC, a more capable Sony IMX 486 camera sensor (which is the same sensor used by Xiaomi in the Mi A2 last year) and a battery upgrade to 4000 mAh.
There's one addition though which we haven't really seen on any device at this price, and that is the inclusion of water seals in and around all the buttons of the device. Xiaomi claims that the Redmi 7A is splashproof. The phone can certainly deal with splashes of water, but don't try and submerge the phone in water.
Not for heavy gaming
but it certainly has the Realme C2 beatIt was surprising to see Xiaomi move away from Qualcomm chips for the Redmi 6 series last year, but come 2019, that’s certainly changed. The Snapdragon 439 chip here handles daily tasks with aplomb and I definitely found myself surprised by how well Xiaomi’s optimised MIUI 10 on top of Android 9 Pie. Heavy apps like Facebook and Twitter did stutter a couple of times throughout the span of my review but considering the phone price, I’m certainly not complaining.
I did play lighter games on the Redmi 7A and the phone handled it without a hiccup.
I did play lighter games on the Redmi 7A and the phone handled them without complaint.
But what about gaming? Can you play PUBG Mobile on this? Well yes, at the game's lowest settings, you will manage somewhat playable frame rates. But this phone’s certainly not meant for gaming. With the entry-level variant which comes with 16 GB of storage, there’s very little room to store games like PUBG Mobile anyway. I did play lighter games like Battlelands Royale and Stupid Zombies on this and they ran without any hiccups whatsoever.
Coming back to the issue of low storage, there is considerable bloatware here (apps that you can uninstall, of course) and the onslaught of ads that MIUI keeps throwing at you. Xiaomi also has the Mi Credit app (an app that helps MIUI users apply for quick loans, if you're wondering) pre-installed on the Redmi 7A, which does make sense considering the market the phone is targeted towards.
With just 2 GB of RAM, I wasn’t able to do a lot of multitasking, let alone having games run in the background. Xiaomi certainly could have offered more RAM here to start with, but overall, for everyday use, I certainly didn’t encounter any major stutters with the Redmi 7A — an area where it certainly excels over the more expensive Realme C2.
What’s more, you have dark mode on a phone that costs little. Now dark mode on an IPS panel doesn’t have any bearing on the battery (not that battery is an issue on the Redmi 7A anyway), but it’s certainly nice to have it as an option anyway.
Battery
Xiaomi clearly appears to produce 4000 mAh batteries in bulk and just like every other phone the company’s launched in 2019, the Redmi 7A gets one as well. With a relatively small HD display to power, the battery on the phone easily got me through a day with close to 45 percent juice to spare. In fact, the battery here could even last you two days with moderate usage. That could partially be because I wasn’t playing battery intensive games on this phone, but even then, I certainly don’t think anyone would complain about battery life here.Don't be fooled by the cool animation. The battery take ages to charge.
Don't be fooled by the cool animation. The battery take ages to charge.
What would have been a bonus though is the inclusion of a fast-charging adapter, but Xiaomi’s got you stuck with a 5 W charger that takes more than 3 hours to juice up the large 4000 mAh battery.
Pros
AffordableBig battery
Solid build
Cons
Dull displayLow-light camera
2GB RAM
Verdict
The Redmi 7A isn't for everyone. The phone is targeted at consumers looking for an affordable phone that is decent enough to handle basic usage with ease. Consumers looking for a powerful phone should be willing to spend close to 150,000 Naira But for those who want a cheap and decent smartphone, Redmi 7A for a price of 42,000 to 50,000 Naira is a really good option.
The Redmi 7A looks decent despite using plastic, the blue colour adds to the design and it comes with a 4000mAh battery that lasts more than a day very easily. The phone can handle basic usage well enough and handles basic games decently. The Redmi 7A is also capable of capturing good pictures with lots of details and nice colours in daylight but struggles in low-light. At 42,000 Naira, what Redmi 7A offers is impressive.
Overall, The Redmi 7A is a solid upgrade over the Redmi 6A and comes with a lot of useful features for its price.
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