Redmi A7 launches in Malaysia at RM469 with 120Hz display and 5,200mAh battery

Xiaomi is bringing another budget phone to Malaysia, and this one comes with a screen that feels almost too good for the price. The Redmi A7 launches September 15th at RM469—just under the five-hundred-ringgit threshold that defines the entry-level market—and it's built around a 6.88-inch display that refreshes at 120Hz, a feature that used to live exclusively in phones costing twice as much.

The phone itself is a study in compromise, the kind of device that gives you one or two things really well and asks you to accept limitations elsewhere. That massive screen is the headline, paired with a 5,200mAh battery and 15W charging. The processor is a Unisoc T7250, a 12-nanometer octa-core chip that won't win any performance benchmarks but should handle everyday tasks without stuttering. You get 3GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, both modest by today's standards, though Xiaomi has added a virtual RAM expansion feature that can stretch that 3GB to 6GB by borrowing space from internal storage—a clever workaround for a tight memory budget.

What's curious is how the Redmi A7 positions itself against its own sibling, the Redmi A7 Pro. The newer A7 actually costs more while offering less: fewer gigabytes of RAM, less storage, and a smaller battery. It's an unusual choice in product positioning, the kind of thing that happens when a company is filling multiple price points simultaneously and the lines get crossed. Still, the A7 exists, and it's coming.

The camera setup is honest about its limitations. There's a single 13-megapixel main sensor behind an f/2.2 lens, despite the phone having a dual-camera bump on the back—the second lens is decorative, a common cost-cutting move in budget phones. The front-facing camera is 8MP, sitting in a teardrop notch at the top of that big screen. For social media and video calls, it's adequate. For anything more ambitious, you'll want to manage expectations.

The display itself deserves attention. It's an LCD panel with 720p resolution stretched across 6.88 inches, which means the pixel density isn't sharp, but Xiaomi has tuned the brightness to 450 nits and added DC dimming to reduce eye strain. For a phone at this price, that's thoughtful engineering. The 120Hz refresh rate is the real draw—it makes scrolling feel smooth even when the underlying hardware isn't particularly powerful.

Xiaomi is distributing the Redmi A7 through its usual channels: Xiaomi Stores across the country, the mi.com website, and official storefronts on Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok Shop. Three colors are available—Black, Sky Blue, and Orchid Purple. The phone runs Android 15 Go Edition out of the box, Google's lightweight version designed for devices with constrained resources. There's also a 3.5mm headphone jack, a feature that's become rare enough to mention, and a side-mounted fingerprint sensor alongside face unlock.

What emerges is a phone designed for someone who wants a large, smooth screen and doesn't need much else. The battery will last a day with moderate use. The processor won't impress, but it won't frustrate either. Storage is tight, but expandable via microSD. It's the kind of device that makes sense for a student, a parent buying their child's first phone, or anyone who primarily uses their phone for messaging, social media, and video. The Redmi A7 doesn't try to be something it isn't. It's a screen and a battery in a plastic body, priced to move.