I was invited to a product launch in London last week to learn about Xiaomi's exciting new smartphones. The Redmi Note 14 Pro was the flagship star of the show, but I was actually more interested in Xiaomi's latest Poco X7 handsets instead, which are both super affordable and now boast useful AI features too.
All new smartphone launches including some of the best camera phones are seemingly stacked with AI features now, and while this is mostly (in my opinion) a great thing for advancing technology, it often comes at a cost. The Poco X7 series has been boosted with AI tools for the very first time, but these smartphones are two of the most affordable AI handsets that you can get right now.
The new Poco X7 Pro is being sold at £309 / $279, which is an excellent price if you ask me, but the deal gets even sweeter since Xiaomi is currently running a promotion offering £50 off for early bird customers – bringing the UK price to only £269 for a limited time. If this still sits a little outside of your budget, then consider the standard Poco X7 model which has a retail price of only £249 / $229 – reduced to just £199 (yes, really!) for early bird orders.
I’ve run through some of the top features of the Poco X7 and X7 Pro budget camera phones in the video below, so take a look at the highlights while I continue to process that these phones cost less than dinner in a London restaurant, are more affordable than most designer handbags, and aren’t far off the price of a train ticket to get you across the country. How can Xiaomi afford to sell these phones so cheaply?
As you’ll know if you watched the video above, the POCO X7 series is extremely ambitious in what it hopes to achieve. I love the new design and think it sounds like the perfect smartphone for creatives on a tight budget.
The camera unit offers 50MP resolution with a generously large aperture of f/1.5 which low-light photographers will appreciate. The phones also come packed with AI-boosted image tools to help you curate the best shot, and the capability to shoot 4K video at 60FPS.
While I’m yet to get my hands on a POCO X7 for testing, I have used the POCO X6 Pro smartphone which was shockingly impressive and really gave my Samsung a run for its money in terms of image quality, power, and performance with the Xiaomi HyperOS operating system running the show alongside a MediaTek Dimensity 8300-Ultra processor which is excellent for a phone at this price point.
If you’re looking to buy a modern smartphone with top-class features that you don’t need to take out a loan for, then I highly recommend POCO handsets. For that slight upgrade however, the Honor Magic 7 Lite is another excellent phone (and it’s virtually indestructible) at a price of only £399.
