Xiaomi’s sub-brand Poco, which grew 76.5% in Q2 2023, has launched its sub-Rs 12,000 device, the Poco M6 Pro 5G. The phone is now available for purchase.
The launch is notable, considering that it comes days after Xiaomi launched Redmi 12 4G and 5G budget models. This also positions Poco amongst the brands that have a budget 5G model available in the market.
Interestingly, the latest devices from the houses of Poco and Xiaomi share several commonalities, from the display and the chipset (Snapdragon 4 Gen 2) to the camera hardware and battery capacity. The Redmi 12 5G gets an additional 8GB RAM variant.
The new Poco M-series smartphone comes with a large 6.79-inch FHD+ display with a 90Hz adaptive refresh rate and a high touch sampling rate. The front of the smartphone dons an 8MP camera, while the back side houses a dual-lens setup (50MP primary+2MP depth sensor). It is powered by a 5000mAh battery that supports 18W fast charging. It comes with an in-box 22.5W charger.
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The Poco M6 Pro 5G runs on MIUI 14 and Android 13. The brand has promised two major Android updates and three years of security updates.
Here is my review of the Poco M6 Pro 5G after putting it through the paces:
Design & build quality
My review unit came in the Forest Green color. The phone has a glass construction at the back surrounded by a metallic frame that feels great to hold in hand but it is slippery. The back features a rectangular block of black color at the top that features a prominent ‘Poco’ branding and surrounds the dual-lens setup as well as the lone flashlight. The design feels very refreshing when compared to other smartphones in the market.
The bottom of the phone features a USB Type C port, a mic, and a speaker grille. The volume and power buttons sit on the right side. The left side of the phone has a SIM slot, and the top side has a 3.5mm jack along with an IR blaster.
Screen & speaker
For the purpose of testing, I set the display at the 90Hz refresh rate. In the recommended Vivid mode, the 6.79-inch FHD+ screen offers very good sharpness and satisfactory saturation, which will be sufficient for a user’s daily needs for social media browsing and occasional content streaming. Since it is an LCD panel, colors don’t pop and there is not much contrast too. I had issues with screen visibility under peak sunlight too. All-in-all, there is not much to complain about. It gets the job done for the asking price.
On the other hand, the audio through the internal speaker sounds hollow due to the absence of bass. Raising the volume leads to distortion.
Camera
The 50MP rear dual-camera setup captures sharp photos in daylight conditions with a lot of resolved details and good enough contrast. The dynamic range is average which results in skies or any bright light sources getting overblown. In spite of being equipped with a fast f/1.8 aperture, the camera tends to choose a slow shutter/high ISO configuration resulting in grainy and blurry images. Switching on the ‘Night Mode’ helps capture slightly brighter images, yet the level of detail remains low. The back camera can shoot decent-quality videos in 720p30, 1080p30, and 1080p60 resolutions.
Selfies taken from the front camera are good enough for social media usage.
Full-resolution camera samples can be accessed here.
Performance & battery life
With a total of 12GB virtual RAM, the phone feels snappy in day-to-day usage such as while juggling between multiple applications. I was pleasantly surprised with Poco M6 Pro 5G’s gaming performance as high-end games like Call of Duty, PUBG and Asphalt 9 are playable at their highest settings with occasional frame drops and stutters. I will recommend medium settings for a smooth experience.
The benchmark scores with 12GB RAM are as follows:
Antutu v10: 441828 points
Geekbench: 917 (single-core) and 2158 (multicore)
The benchmark scores with 6GB RAM are as follows:
Antutu v10: 445330 points
Geekbench: 883 (single-core) and 2069 (multicore)
The 5000mAh battery can provide up to a day’s worth of backup easily. The in-box 22.5W charger is slow as it takes nearly two hours to recharge the battery from 20% to 100%.
Software & UI
The smartphone runs on MIUI 14.0.2 on top of Android 13 OS. The combination of a 90Hz refresh rate, a high touch sampling rate, and powerful internals ensure that the user experience is snappy. I did not observe any major stutters or lags during my review period. My gripe with the phone is that it comes with several pre-installed applications. But Poco allows you to uninstall these applications, and some system applications too like Clock and Calculator, among others.
Price & availability
The Poco M6 Pro 5G has been launched at an offer price of Rs 9,999 for the 4GB RAM+64GB memory variant and Rs 11,999 for the 6GB RAM+128GB memory variant, after applying the ICICI Bank discount of Rs 1,000. The smartphone has become available for purchase on Flipkart from August 9.
Summary
Poco has taken an ambitious step by launching the Poco M6 Pro 5G at an affordable price of Rs 9,999 which can help drive 4G-to-5G migration. The smartphone brand has further sweetened the deal by offering a premium design, an advanced architecture (4nm)-based octa-core chipset, a smooth user experience and enjoyable gaming performance. The sub-par low-light camera performance and an LCD display could be dealbreakers for some.
(Redmi 12 5G review can be read here)
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