Two-minute review
The Poco X3 is not your typical mid-ranger. It tries to jostle with phones more expensive than it at many levels. A quick glance at the spec sheet will reveal no real shortcomings or weaknesses, which isn’t something we get to say all that often when it comes to smartphones. Thankfully, most of them do translate to real-life usage as well.
While we still have no word on the existence of the Poco F2, the Poco X3 is now the most premium smartphone from the brand. It ticks all the right boxes that consumers would expect from a budget smartphone and then some.
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For starters, it is the first and only smartphone in the world to be powered by the Snapdragon 732G chipset. It might not be much better than something like the Snapdragon 730G, but it seems more responsive and smooth than anything else we’ve tested in this segment. This is partly due to the 120Hz display, which is still exclusive to Poco in this segment. Even the response rate has been bumped up, adding another layer of speed.
Even the cameras on the Poco X3 are no slouch. A large 64MP primary sensor, a relatively high-res ultra-wide lens and two auxiliary shooters, paired with a robust suite of shooting modes make it an extremely enjoyable camera.
From creation to content consumption, we also get dual stereo speakers and a Hi-Res headphone jack. If that wasn’t enough, it also sports IP53 water-resistance, an IR blaster, a side-mounted fingerprint scanner and a refreshing software skin. The Indian variant also gets a bump up to a mammoth 6,000mAh battery.
For a seemingly perfect phone, the only aspect holding the Poco X3 back is its dimensions. At over 10mm thick and a weight of almost 230 grams, it is one of the bulkiest phones of the season. If that doesn’t bother you much, you’ll be pretty satisfied with your purchase. There’s not much to complain about here otherwise.
Poco X3 price in India and availability
Check out the Poco X3 on Flipkart
6GB + 64GB: Rs 16,999
6GB + 128GB: Rs 18,499
8GB + 128GB: Rs 19,999View Deal
Poco X3 specs
Weight: 225g
Dimensions: 165 x 76 x 10 mm
Display: 6.6-inch, 120Hz
Chipset: Snapdragon 732G
RAM: 6/8GB
Storage: 64/128GB
Cameras: 64 + 13 + 2 + 2MP
Front camera: 20MP
Battery: 6,000mAh, 33W charging
Officially launched in India on September 22, the Poco X3 is available in three variants. The base variant is priced at Rs 16,999 and has 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The 6GB + 128GB variant is priced at Rs 18,499 while the top variant with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage will set you back by Rs 19,999. It is now available for purchase on Flipkart via flash sales, but should soon be more widely available.
In comparison, the European Poco X3 NFC starts at €229(~Rs 20,000) for the 6GB + 64GB model and goes up to €269(~Rs 23,500) for 128GB variant.
In India, it competes with the Realme 7 Pro, the Redmi Note 9 Pro Max, the Samsung Galaxy M31s and the Moto One Fusion Plus in the sub Rs 20,000 segment. The Poco X2 continues to retail at almost the same prices, but stocks are easier to come by.
Design
- 10.1mm thick, 225 grams heavy
- Plastic back
- IP53 rating
Of late, Poco phones had been based on designs introduced by its cousins under the Redmi brand. The Poco X3 is a welcome departure from that trend, bringing a fresh design. The polycarbonate back has a thick etched strip running through the middle with large Poco branding towards the bottom which shines in iridescent colours when light hits it. The cameras are located in a new circular island which has been cut from the top and bottom. Based on your tastes, it will either seem iconic or polarizing. I prefer my phones to look unique, so this design approach was right up my alley, though the logo could’ve been subtler.
At first glance, it might seem like the Poco X3 has five cameras.
Most people I showed it to thought that it was a case instead of the actual back of the phone. Holding it does little to clear that confusion, due to the sheer size of the device and the rather hollow feeling towards the centre. While we usually prefer glass backs, I can't imagine how much heavier the phone would be.
While the flex does make it seem cheap, it makes the Poco X3 easier to hold. That goes a long way in improving the in-hand feel, as this phone is an absolute unit otherwise with a waistline of over 10mm and a weight of 225 grams. It treads into the territory of the Asus ROG Phone 3 and the Samsung Galaxy M51—two phones which have strong reasons to be that hefty.
Thankfully, the flexible curved back and the grippy texture go a long way in improving how easy the phone is to wield. Though be warned, one-hand operations are going to strain your pinky finger. It’s not the worst experience, but people with smaller or skinnier pockets could have a worse time. For what it’s worth, the weight distribution is spot on, making the experience a little more bearable.
The back panel blends in perfectly with the aluminium frame. The fingerprint scanner is embedded within the power button on the right, with the volume button sitting above it. The opposite side houses the triple hybrid SIM tray while the bottom edge has the USB Type-C port, flanked by the loudspeaker and the 3.5mm headphone jack. On the top are the IR blaster and a large earpiece grille. The new Z-axis motor does bring the haptics to life and can be felt at every interaction. There’s also IP53 rating.
Overall, the Poco X3 had to understandably grow in size to accommodate everything that it offers. For my predominantly at-home usage, it wasn’t much of a deterrent, but your mileage will vary. Similarly, you might have different feelings for the bold new back design. There is a case included in the box, but it will make the footprint even bigger. In my opinion, the Shadow Black variant looks better than the Cobalt Blue.
Display
- 6.67-inch LCD screen
- 20:9 aspect ratio
- 120Hz refresh rate, 240Hz touch response
Higher refresh rate displays are unarguably the future of smartphones. However, its usefulness on a budget smartphone can be questionable. They often struggle to push those extra frames.
When the Poco X2 was unveiled earlier in the year, it took the crown for the cheapest phone with a 120Hz panel. The Poco X3 continues that trend with a 6.67-inch LCD panel with a Full HD+ resolution. Unlike its competition, the Poco X3 manages to actually sustain the higher frame rate through various apps and pages. I’d go as far as saying that it had the most consistent output of any phone in this segment.
On the same lines, the move to a 240Hz touch response was also pretty evident. Each scroll and swipe felt instantaneous as if they knew my next step. If you’re coming from a phone with a standard input rate, the difference will be easily noticeable.
On paper, the other stuff is pretty standard. The display is able to render colours in a very respectable fashion—the kind where we didn’t miss an OLED panel each time a dark scene was on. The colours are very vibrant and rich, making for an enjoyable viewing experience. We had no issues with the sharpness either. The colour scheme can be customized to lower saturation levels or different temperature.
YouTube also supports HDR10 playback while Widevine L1 brings high-res OTT streaming.
The only time it felt inadequate was under direct sunlight. The peak brightness of 450 nits is just not enough at times. Indoor usage was fine, as was using it at night, thanks to pretty low minimum brightness on the other end of the spectrum.
The Poco X3 has a single, centrally-placed hole-punch notch for the selfie camera as opposed to the pill on the X2. It isn’t too big to seem obtrusive, but having it tucked away in the corner would’ve been better.
We’d be lying if we said that we didn’t enjoy viewing content on the Poco X3. The expansive canvas with smooth transitions and none of the colour inaccuracies that usually come with high refresh rate displays make it one of the best in this segment. Unless you absolutely prefer an AMOLED, this one will serve you well.
Audio
The good stuff continues with the audio. The Poco X3 offers a dual speaker setup: a primary loudspeaker on the bottom with the earpiece doubling as the second one. The combine to provide one of the loudest outputs on a phone in this segment. It’s pretty clear too, except at the highest levels where some rattling creeps in.
The phone also sports a 3.5mm headphone jack for simple plug and play streaming. Hi-Res certification also makes the cut. Transmission over Bluetooth was solid too, completing the audio trifecta.
Call quality and network reception were great. It was so loud that I often had to lower the volume during a conversation.
Performance and gaming
- The first phone with Snapdragon 732G
- UFS 2.1 storage, LPDDR4X RAM
The star of the show is supposed to be the new Snapdragon 732G chipset. This 8nm octa-core chipset takes the Prime core’s frequency up to 2.3GHz and is paired with a bolstered Adreno 618 GPU.
The Poco X3 can make you question the need for a flagship.
Poco prides itself in providing a smoother experience than what we’d expect from phones in this segment. From that perspective, the Poco X3 is the crown jewel in its lineup. It raises the bar in terms of how smooth budget phones can be, with performance that never failed to catch up. Regardless of what we threw at it, lags and stutters were rare to come by. Scrolling pages, switching between apps, looking up options in the settings or editing photos: none were able to slow it down.
Switching gears to gaming painted a similar picture. Moderate 3D titles such as Beach Buggy Racing 2 could run at over 100fps at the highest settings. Call of Duty: Mobile can also be cranked up to higher graphics or frame rates for a respectable performance.
Moreover, the wide display with a high touch input rate, stereo speakers and assuring heft added to the gaming experience. We didn’t experience any heating either.
Software
- MIUI 12 for Poco
- Android 10, will be updated to Android 11
- Plnety of feaures and customizations
The Poco X3 runs on Poco Launcher based on MIUI 12 atop Android 10. It takes the best bits from Xiaomi’s interface and adds a coat of paint on top for a more polished experience.
Some visual elements such as the iconography and quick settings will seem familiar to what MIUI offers. Others such as the settings screen and the app drawer are far more approachable and beautiful. Everything is neatly categorized and colour coded for easier access. In some ways, it is closer to stock Android. Each setting screen also brings easy-to-understand elements and animations to better explain the current stats.
Plenty of customizations are available, stretching from homescreen layouts to system-wide dark mode options that can even be forced on to third-party apps. In our testing, some apps such as Snapchat got messed up, but Facebook seemed alright. We’d recommend whitelisting apps after trying them out. I think this is also the first time that a phone also brought changes to the brightness and contrast levels on the UI level while switching to the dark mode.
There are no ads on the Poco X3.
While the interface is pretty clean and easy to get used to, there are at least a dozen unnecessary apps pre-installed. All of them can be uninstalled. There are no ads on the Indian variant, but we did come across a couple of stray notifications from the aforementioned apps.
For navigation, you can either opt for soft keys or switch to gestures. The latter is slightly different from Android 10’s implementation but getting used to it isn’t difficult.
Gamers will be glad to see Game Turbo make an appearance. It can act as a repository for all your games while also giving options to fine-tune the preferences individually. During gameplay, it can also be summoned via a swipe from the top corner, revealing current CPU and GPU usage, framerate, shortcuts for floating WhatsApp and Facebook as well as quick toggles for screenshots and screen recording. Weirdly, it doesn’t block heads-up notifications when a game is launched, so you’ll have to turn that off in the overall settings or enable DND.
The Poco X3’s software skin seems very well optimized to keep the smoothness on and brings a host of options to personalize the experience. The width of options can seem daunting at first, but a stroll through the settings should make things simpler.
Biometrics
The power button doubles as an active fingerprint scanner and can be used to wake the device in a jiffy. It is fast and accurate but can be moody. For everything else, there’s also 2D face unlocking.
Battery
- 6,000mAh battery in India
- 33W fast charging
- Charger included in the box
The battery life is good, but not 6,000mAh good.
The biggest difference between the Indian Poco X3 and the global model is the larger 6,000mAh battery. Between the new chipset, a high refresh rate display and a heavy software skin, the battery life failed to live up to our expectations. It’s possible to kill it in a day.
Our usage included about an hour of light gaming, social media and calls, and Wi-Fi or data on all day. Such moderate usage yielded a screen-on-time of 6-7 hours usually. It’s not bad by any means, and should suffice most users for an entire day and then some, but the sheer capacity of the battery had our hopes high.
Out of the box, it supports 33W MMT charging. The included charger can refuel the Poco X3 from empty to full in about 2 hours. Pretty decent, considering the size of the battery, but faster alternatives do exist.
If the Poco X3 had delivered slightly better results in this department, it would’ve been the closest we’ve come to a perfect smartphone. We will continue testing the battery in the days to come to see if prolonged usage has a positive impact on the battery backup. Options such as variable refresh rate or a lighter skin could've also helped.
Camera
- Quad-camera setup
- 20MP selfie camera
- Many interesting shooting modes
The upgrades with the Poco X3’s camera may not be evident at first. On paper, it moves to a more inferior primary image sensor but the ultra-wide shooter gets a good upgrade.
The primary camera is a 64MP f/1.89 (Sony IMX682) shooter. By default, it produces images in a 4:3 aspect ratio with a 16MP resolution. The results are fairly detailed with great colour reproduction, good sharpness and accurate white balance. The dynamic range was also pretty good, but be sure to turn it on as it is off by default. There wasn’t much shutter lag either.
The ultra-wide lens gets a welcome upgrade to a higher resolution 13MP sensor. Images had a surprising level of detail and dynamic range, though the white balance can be different than the primary camera.
The dedicated 2MP macro camera is tricky to master as the resolution and plane of focus leave little leg space for adjustments. More often than not, using the primary camera at 64MP and cropping in will yield a more usable image.
For most instances, the Poco X3 isn’t very different than what the Poco X2 offered. In lower light though, the images are a lot better. While focusing can take longer, the pictures are very usable with a fair amount of details in the darker parts. Using the Night Mode helped it further by improving the dynamic range.
Power users will also appreciate the barrage of shooting modes and filters available. Every imaginable option is present here: Pro mode, portraits, documents, slow motion, time-lapse, long exposure, dual-exposure clones, etc. The camera app also lets you choose how many of these to show and where to access them from.
Trendy night-time filters such as Cyberpunk and Gold vibes are also present. Perhaps the most enjoyable feature is AI Sky Replacement. As the name suggests, the phone can smartly identify the sky in an image and replace it with more flattering options such as rich sunsets, stars and pretty clouds. Their intensity can also be controlled. If you’ve ever tried replicating this on Photoshop, you’ll know what a task it is. The ability to do this on your phone within seconds is commendable.
Verdict
As you must've picked by now, the Poco X3 has very few shortcomings. Apart from its dimensions, its is a pretty capable phone where the specs do translate to real-life usage.
Its closest competitor is the Realme 7 Pro, which has a 60Hz AMOLED display, best-in-class 65W charging and a much more pocketable form factor.
Buy it if...
You want a great budget smartphone
The Poco X3 is one of the best phones you can buy under Rs 20,000 in India. It ticks all the right boxes for a very enjoyable experience, which budget phones can often struggle with.
Gaming/content consumption is a priority
The Poco X3 offers a big, beautiful display, stereo speakers and high refresh rates. They combine to offer an amazing time for gaming or watching movies.
You are looking for an enjoyable camera
The quad-camera stack on the Poco X3 is fairly reliable and easy to use, while offering tons of funs shooting modes that will keep you occupied.
Don't buy it if...
You want something more petite
For most people, the Poco X3 will be a huge and heavy phone. It can be difficult to carry around in smaller pockets and can tire your wrist too.
You need faster charging
The big battery can take 2 hours to charge, which can be a little too long for some. Rivals such as the Realme 7 Pro can do the same task in less than 40 minutes!
You can wait
This might sound like a no-brainer, but the budget smartphone segment of India is fierce. With new options launching every month, you are certain to have better/cheaper alternatives the longer you wait.
Check out the Poco X3 on Flipkart
6GB + 64GB: Rs 16,999
6GB + 128GB: Rs 18,499
8GB + 128GB: Rs 19,999View Deal
via Tech Trade
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