Xiaomi Redmi A7 Pro – Super cheap mobile for basic needs

Actually, it’s more fun to test cheap mobile phones than top models. All the top models feel as fast as you could wish for, regardless of whether they have this year’s or last year’s top chipset. The screen is excellent and the cameras may differ in pitch darkness or extreme magnification.

The Xiaomi Redmi A7 Pro has neither this year’s nor last year’s top chipset. The fact that the Unisoc T7250 chipset is made in a 12-nanometer process probably doesn’t mean much to most people, but if I say that the latest 12-nanometer was cutting edge in 2016, that might give perspective on the matter.

But the Redmi A7 Pro is also an unusually cheap phone. The price is SEK 1590, if you add SEK 200 to upgrade the internal memory from 64 to 128 GB. It might be worth it, because even if the phone has room for a memory card, apps have to be installed in the internal storage, and then 64 GB doesn’t go very far.

This is the fun thing about cheap mobiles, they have to handle the same apps and the same uses as more expensive mobiles but with significantly more limited resources. It’s clear that it doesn’t go as smoothly, but does it go well enough?

The price is immediately noticeable

It doesn’t take long before it becomes apparent that the Redmi A7 Pro is a really cheap mobile. The exterior is not eye-catching, the sides and back are plastic, of course, but soberly designed. The screen, on the other hand, changes in color and brightness quite a lot when you angle it. This used to be common, now we have almost forgotten it.

The fact that the screen doesn’t have full HD resolution doesn’t bother me, and actually not so much that the maximum brightness isn’t that high either. When you are out in sunlight, there is a reflective layer behind the liquid crystals in the screen that enhances the screen in the sun. There is also a special sunlight mode that turns up the contrast in the image. The screen has a maximum refresh rate of 90 Hz, but that can’t handle the liquid crystals and there are lags when you scroll anyway. Limitations notwithstanding, there is nothing about the screen that makes the phone difficult to use.

Performance, on the other hand, is a concrete and noticeable limitation. Both the processors and the memory make most tasks feel heavy for the mobile. The mobile works best when it can do one thing at a time. It’s not fast either, but it’s fine to surf, check emails or write notes.

If, on the other hand, there is any activity in the background, the phone easily slows down completely. For example, I try the app Merlin, which identifies birdsong, and then suddenly using the browser is so slow that it becomes difficult. During the installation process, when system updates and app updates are downloading in the background, it feels like the phone is given too much to work with and simply forgets what it’s doing and aborts some downloads spontaneously. I rarely feel this way, but this phone is so slow that I actually shy away from doing things on it and prefer to use my personal cell phone.

Still works

But if you don’t have another mobile, and can’t afford a more expensive mobile, everything I do with it actually works, at least if I do one thing at a time. The things I use my phone for include blippa payments, the phone has an NFC circuit for wireless payments, which is not obvious for the price. If I would like to listen with a wired headset, it also has a traditional 3.5 mm jack.

But then I have to go into the sound settings first. Xiaomi has put in some kind of automatic audio adaptation mode, and at least when I watch videos it sounds terrible, as if I was listening to the phone’s speakers stuck in headphones. When I switch to original sound in the settings it sounds perfectly fine, but unfortunately I have to change this manually every time.

One thing the Redmi A7 Pro is a little worse at is acting as a hotspot for mobile or tablet. This is because the phone lacks 5g, which is unusual these days. It is not so much that the speeds are lower that is limiting, but rather that you get slightly worse coverage with only 4g than with both 4g and 5g.

Movie watching works, of course, but the mono speaker is insufficient, the colors can feel a little oversaturated, and the performance means that the movie sometimes gets a lower resolution when the phone doesn’t quite keep up.

Camera with low ambitions

On the back there is a single camera of 13 megapixels and with a not very large sensor. Despite that, the image result does not live up to my low expectations. Under optimal lighting conditions with bright sun and ambient light, the images get perfectly fine colors, but are quite noisy if you zoom into them. Backlit images quickly become overexposed and underexposed, and in the dark you can barely see what they represent.

With its 6000 mAh, the phone’s battery is quite large, but this is partially offset by the fact that an old chipset and LCD screens draw more power. The battery life is below the average for new phones, and does not get more than approved.

The maximum charging speed stops at 15 watts, which combined with the large battery means that it takes time to charge the battery, another way the phone is slow.

Xiaomi’s user interface for the phone is a bit cluttered, with many unnecessary pre-installed apps. Also, the system apps come with notifications that are unnecessarily distracting. for example, the video player puts up a search bar among notifications all the time.

I must honestly say that I would rather not have the Xiaomi Redmi A7 Pro as my only mobile. The limitations are simply too noticeable here, and if you can afford to spend a thousand more, there are mobile phones that are significantly better. But if you don’t have that money, then the Redmi A7 Pro works, albeit not by any major margins. That’s perhaps all you can ask for for the price.

Questions and answers

Does Xiaomi Redmi A7 Pro have fingerprint reader? Yes, it is in the on/off button on the side.

Can you have two SIM cards in the mobile phone? Yes, it has room for two sim cards and memory cards at the same time. But it does not support esim.

Is the camera good for simpler needs? Yes, as long as the light is good and you hold it still for a long time. I get several failed shots because I think the shot was taken when the shutter sound was heard.

An alternative

You can find the Samsung Galaxy A17 for SEK 2,500 or less. It is also painfully slow, but the screen is better.

Camera example

This is the best picture I took with the Redmi A7 Pro. More contrasts and the image becomes over- and underextoned, and even this image cannot withstand being enlarged up to 100 percent.