![\"2027](\"https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2027-bmw-7-series-i7-facelift-02.jpg\" "\\"2027")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe biggest shift up front is restraint. BMW has dialed back the sportiness and leaned into luxury \u2014 and the result is a car that actually looks like it belongs in the segment it\u2019s trying to lead.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a bit of Rolls-Royce in this front end, and that\u2019s not an accident. Domagoj Dukec, who was the head of BMW design before leading Rolls-Royce, left his fingerprints here. The hood lines rise slightly above the kidney grille and fade toward the windshield in a way that immediately reads Ghost. The kidney itself is now more upright \u2014 almost flat \u2014 which is very Rolls-Royce territory and a complete departure from the raked, chamfered grille of the old car.<\/p>\n
That grille is the most important change at the front. It\u2019s slightly slimmer than before, but more crucially, the corners are now soft squares rather than the odd rounded-polygon shape of the previous generation. That one change does a lot: the car looks friendlier, more premium, more considered. Visually, rounded square corners read as warm and approachable rather than aggressive. The vertical slats inside the kidney now align with the surrounding planes of the front end \u2014 there\u2019s actual precision there, and a subtle 3D effect that rewards looking closely.<\/p>\n The headlights have been redesigned too, now featuring 16 crystals and slimmed down to connect once again to the grille \u2014 something BMW used to do well and then abandoned for a generation. That reconnection matters because without it, the front end reads as a collection of individual parts rather than a unified face. The old i7\u2019s DRLs had zero relationship to the grille\u2019s angles. Now they do. One detail that\u2019s worth noting: the DRLs are no longer the visual stars of the front \u2014 they\u2019re there, they serve their regulatory purpose, but they don\u2019t demand attention the way they used to. That\u2019s the right call.<\/p>\n The lower intake area is softer and cleaner, without the aggressive black cladding that was actively hiding design detail in the previous car. The air openings in the front splitter are more in line with classic BMW design language. And the V-shaped hood crease surrounding the logo? That\u2019s a nice touch \u2014 it creates a valley that you can see from the driver\u2019s seat, and it gives the car a purposeful, road-focused look from the outside too.<\/p>\n One thing that still doesn\u2019t fully land: the headlights feel like they\u2019re slightly hidden rather than showcased. The headlights are the eyes of the car. They should be visible, not apologetic.<\/p>\n Not much changed here, and that was the right call. The three-box silhouette of the 7 Series is close to a textbook sedan \u2014 greenhouse sitting near center, equal-feeling front and rear overhangs, a shoulder line that runs clean from front to back. If you want to understand how to sketch a large luxury saloon, the side view of a 7 Series is genuinely useful as a starting point. Make three boxes, connect them with a greenhouse, sort out the rear deck \u2014 that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n The rear is where the previous 7 Series<\/a> most obviously fell apart. Too many angles going in different directions, too many surface breaks with no relationship to each other. It wasn\u2019t ugly exactly, but it was restless in a way that a car like this shouldn\u2019t be.<\/p>\n The new rear is much more settled. The tail lights are slimmer, with two LED bars running across the trunk lid and flowing into a valley-type graphic that frames the logo, the trunk release, and the rear camera. It\u2019s a cleaner read \u2014 one strong horizontal line rather than several competing ones. The reflectors at the rear corners are smaller now too, which is welcome. The old ones punched too hard visually and distracted from the tail lights. Now the lights can do their job without competition.<\/p>\n The previous 7 Series interior worked. It was unambiguously about the driver \u2014 premium materials, a clear logic to the layout, and a sense of occasion that felt appropriate for a car at this price. The facelift had to bring the Neue Klasse design language inside, partly for cost reasons, partly for lineup consistency, and the result is more mixed.<\/p>\n The curved display from the previous car is gone, replaced by a 17.9-inch central iDrive X display. There\u2019s now a dedicated passenger screen<\/a> as well, and a Panoramic Display projected across the windshield. That last one is interesting \u2014 the 7 Series actually has enough windshield real estate to give the widgets breathing room, which is something smaller cars in the lineup can\u2019t claim. Whether it works while actually driving a long car that requires careful management of that front nose is a real question.<\/p>\n The steering wheel is quirky \u2014 the 12 and 6 o\u2019clock spoke arrangement looks strange and feels like a choice made for autonomy-ready interiors rather than for actual driving. Thankfully, a conventional design is available as an alternative.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nSide Profile: If It Ain\u2019t Broke<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nRear End: Finally Cohesive<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nInterior: Trade-offs<\/h3>\n
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