There are too many Android phones on the market to count in 2025, but that means there is a huge range for you to choose for depending on your budget and needs. While some people decide to spend more than £1,000 on a smartphone, thankfully there are option that cost many times less – and they’re getting better every year.
Enter the new Poco M7, a new budget Android phone from Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi’s Poco sub-brand. The phone costs from just £169 in the UK but comes with a spec sheet that appears to beat the specs of many phones that cost hundreds of pounds more.
The stand out spec has to be the phone’s enormous 7,000mAh battery, a figure that dwarfs the 5,000mAh found in the £1,249 Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. Poco claims this will be enough for two full days of use, a length of time many smartphones of any price don’t often reach, unless you’re not really using them.
That battery has to power a generously large 6.9-inch display with a 144Hz refresh rate, a smoother scrolling number than the 120Hz of the S25 Ultra, £999 iPhone 16 Pro or £999 Google Pixel 9 Pro, and even of the exact same price £169 Samsung Galaxy A16.
But Poco has reached the low price on this device by cutting some corners, which include this screen being LCD technology and not OLED. That means that while its refresh rate is superior to pricier phones’, it won’t look quite as impressive when it comes to colour reproduction and brightness. The A16’s screen is OLED.
Perhaps Poco has a trick up its sleeve to tempt you to go with the M7 though, as at the time of writing, the phone is available from Xiaomi’s website for the introductory price of just £129.
Poco has quietly made this phone 4G-only, so you won’t be able to connect to any 5G networks even if you have a 5G mobile plan.
But this phone looks to be about value for money, and Poco has delivered with the battery and screen. The phone runs on the Snapdragon 685 processor, which is decidedly mid-range, but no phone that costs this little is likely to be bought by someone who requires thor phone to edit video or power through the most demanding mobile games, this one won’t be able to do those things.
Despite the low power compared to pricier phones, the Poco M7 can run Google Gemini AI functions and has the handy Circle to Search tool that lets you Google search anything on your screen.
You also get a single 50MP main camera on the back alongside another lens that probably is good for nothing because Poco doesn’t even list its megapixel count. It’s probably for depth sensing or something similar. Still, the 50MP main at least matched that of the Galaxy A16.
“Poco M7 blends affordable mobile entertainment with practical upgrades and all-day endurance,” said Kang Lou, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Poco Global. “We believe that Poco M7 will serve as both a functional and emotional element, inspiring young users to explore more joyful lives.”
This is therefore clearly a phone aimed at younger buyers, but it would also suit someone who simply needs a few apps such as WhatsApp, email, Google Maps and banking apps. It ships with Android 15 and is available in black, blue and silver with 128GB storage for £169 when at full price.. A 256GB storage model retails for £189.