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The T-Mobile Revvl 7 Pro 5G ($ 249.99), a network exclusive, is a decent affordable phone. It offers good performance for the price, has a solid battery life and has a fresh and clear display. That said, we would like it to come with less bloatware and had better cameras, faster 5G and clear support from T-Mobile. The Samsung Galaxy A26 5G costs $ 50 more, but it is compatible with more networks and gets more software updates. We haven’t tested it yet, but the predecessor, the Galaxy A25 5G, was our winner of the editors choice in the $ 300 series. If you want to spend less, the $ 199.99 Galaxy A16 5G also has better compatibility of the carrier and software support, making it our choice of editors for phones under $ 200.
Design: smooth plastic
The RevvL 7 Pro measures 6.64 by 3.07 by 0.34 inch (HWD) and weighs 7.27 grams, which borders Big. The Galaxy A25 (6.34 by 3.01 by 0.33 inch, 7.05 grams) and the Galaxy A16 5G (6.47 by 3.07 by 0.31 inch, 7.06 grams) are shorter, thinner and lighter.
The Revvl is made of plastic and has thin edges around the frame. The bezels at the top and bottom are slightly thicker than the sides. There is a small circular recess for the selfie camera at the top of the screen. The phone only comes in Azurite Blue, a bluish gray. A volume -rocker and pink on / off button are located on the right. The on / off button contains a fingerprint sensor. The buttons make a clear clicking sound when they are pressed. The combined SIM and MicroSD card slot is located on the left, while a 3.5 mm headphone connection, USB-C port and speaker grid are on the bottom.
The plastic back is incredibly smooth and easily collects dust and fingerprints. You want to put a case on it to prevent it from falling out of your hands. A black camera module with four lens protrudes on the left. It looks premium, although it would be nice if the color matches the azurite blue.
Together with the aforementioned fingerprint sensor you can unlock the phone with your face via the front camera. Both methods work well, although the fingerprint scanner is safe enough for bank apps, while the camera method is not.
There is no IP assessment for protection against dust and water. The Galaxy A25 also misses an IP -Rating, although the Galaxy A16 has been rated as IP54, which protects against moderate splashes against water.
Display: clear and sharp
The RevvL 7 Pro has an Amoled display of 6.78 inches with a resolution of 2,436 by 1,080 pixels and a refreshing speed of 120Hz. The A16 has a 6.7-inch display with a similar resolution (2,340 by 1,080 pixels), but the renewal speed comes to 90Hz, while the Galaxy A25 has a 6.5-inch screen (2,340 by 1,080 pixels) and a 120Hz paint.
I found the display sufficiently clear and sharp. Text and photos look fresh and I could see the screen under most light conditions, including direct sunlight. I saw a lot of glare when I used the phone outside on a sunny day, but the screen was still visible. T-Mobile does not indicate the brightness level of the screen. The Galaxy A16 and A25 reach brightness of 800 and 1,000 nits respectively.
Performance: fast for the price
The Revvl is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 processor with 8 GB RAM. It comes with 256 GB storage, although you can add up to 2 TB extra storage via the MicroSD slot.
Navigating around the phone interface is fast and seamless. I had no problems switching from app to app, even with multiple apps that open at the same time. I never stuttered or experienced delay during testing.
On Geekbench 6, which measures CPU performance, the telephone scored 900 on the single-core test and 2,670 on the multi-core test. The Galaxy A16 and his Exynos 1330 processor performed worse at 883 and 2,020, while the Galaxy A25 and his Exynos 1280 processor did better on the Single-Core test (964) but not on the multi-core test (2,058).
On the GFXBench Aztec Ruins test” That GPU performance measures, the RevvL has performed it at 10 frames per second (FPS). The Galaxy A16 has performed the same test at 5.6 fps, while the Galaxy A25 also ran at 10 fps.
Although the phone is not made for AAA games, graphic intensive titles such as Genshin Impact play reasonably well. I experienced some stuttering during gameplay, but only in combat seaside segments. Some images sometimes seem pixelated, but have no influence on the gameplay. Less graphically intensive games, such as Alto’s Odyssey, play flawlessly.
The battery life: takes longer than galaxies
The RevvL 7 Pro has a battery of 5000 mAh and can charge at 25W and wirelessly at 15W per wire. The battery life is impressive. In our test, where a YouTube video is played on a loop with the screen with full brightness, the phone lasted 16 hours and 6 minutes on a single load. That is better than both the A16 (13 hours and 46 minutes) and the A25 (13 hours and 10 minutes).
During testing it took the REVVL 2 hours and 7 minutes to fully charge with an 18W adapter.
The Galaxy A16 and A25 both have 5,000 mAh batteries that support 25W wired. The A25 also supports wireless charging at 25W, while the A16 does not.
Connectivity: Basic T-Mobile 5G
The RevvL 7 Pro is exclusively for T-Mobile and can only be used on its network. Nevertheless, the telephone, including, but not the faster MMWAVE technology from T-Mobile. This feels like a miss.
T-Mobile service is not fantastic in my region, where the telephone saw speeds of 102 Mbps and uploading 2.45 Mbps. When tested at the same location, an iPhone 14 Pro 115 Mbps Down and 41.4 Mbps got up.
The phone is compatible with. When it was tested close to my Wi-Fi 6 router, the download speeds of 522 Mbps and upload speeds of 22.6 Mbps reached. My iPhone managed speeds of 459 Mbps down and 22.6 Mbps from the same place. On the edge of my Wi-Fi network, the REVVL got 32.2 Mbps down and 19.2 Mbps up, while the iPhone took 15.2 Mbps down and 12.4 Mbps up at the same location.
The telephone connects wirelessly with other devices via Bluetooth 5.2. It is also equipped with NFC for mobile payments and is capable satellite, if you want or have to connect to Starlink.
Audio: loud enough
Call quality on the 7 Pro is good. I had no problems hearing someone, not even when I walked through a busy street. The earphone is fairly loud at 88db. We measure this by holding a meter against the ear line with the volume all the way up. It is loud enough to hear who you talk to in just about every environment.
The volume of the speaker is equally impressive and at the top 97 dB with a meter with six centimeters from the speaker. This is loud enough to fill a small room. The speakers also do a good job to project low frequencies. I could easily distinguish the bass in our test track, “Silent Shout” at the knife. The back of the phone even vibrated something with the beat.
Even with good telephone speakers, you want to connect or to get the best sound.
Cameras: many cameras, little value
There are numerous cameras at the RevvL 7 Pro 5G, but they are not right. The phone comes with a 50MP main shooter with optical image stabilization, a 5MP Ultra-wide camera, a 2MP macro camera and a 2MP depth camera. There is also an 8MP camera on the front for selfies.
The results are underwhelming. Photos often have unnatural colors, with few details in close inspection.
The sky in the photo above seems more blue than in real life. When you zoom in, the branches on the tree are blurry and pixed.
The camera is good to capture the rotting flower above, but if you look closely, the edges of the leaves are blurry.
The camera also only has two zoom levels: 0.5x and 1x. Here is a progression of the two:
The selfie camera took this photo of my dog with little light:
In general, the Cameras of the Revvl find a challenge with little light. Shots look grainy and unnatural – more like a watercolor painting than a photo.
The phone can record 1080p video with 30 fps and 60 fps, as well as 1440p at 30 fps. The results are similar to photos, with a lot of noise, especially in dark environments.
Software: uncertain support
The phone runs on Android 14. T-Mobile does not reveal how many months of security and software support the phone receives,
This is far removed from Samsung’s phones. The A25 comes with four years of OS -Upgrades and five years of security fixes, while the A16 is supplied with six years of both OS and Software updates.
The RevvL 7 Pro comes with some pre -installed bloatware. There is Amazon shopping, McAfee Security and T-Life, T-Mobile’s Deals and Shopping app. You can delete any app you don’t want, but it would be preferred if they were not in the first place. This is common for telephones from the Carrier brand brand.