Review of Poco X3 Pro - a smartphone with a flagship filling and a non-flagship price

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

This powerful device also has dimensions to match, so for someone the gadget will be large.

Only in the fall, Poco X3 came out - a smartphone that pleased everyone, except for the autofocus when shooting. And now its Pro-version has appeared on a more powerful platform and with a simplified camera unit, but at the same cost. We tried to find out how significant the performance gain was and whether Poco sacrificed image resolution for the sake of it.

Table of contents

• Specifications
• Design and ergonomics
• Display
• Iron
• Sound and vibration
• Operating system
• Cameras
• Autonomy
• Outcomes

Specifications

Platform	Android 11 with MIUI 12 shell and Poco Launcher 2.0
Display	6.67 inches, 2,400 x 1,080 pixels, IPS, FHD + LCD Dot Display, Corning Gorilla Glass 6, 120 Hz
CPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 (7nm)
Memory	RAM - 6/8 GB; ROM - 128/256 GB
Cameras	Main - 48 Mp, 1/1, 2 ″, f / 1, 79; ultra wide-angle - 8 megapixels, f / 2, 2; macro lens - 2 Mp, f / 2, 4; depth sensor - 2 Mp; frontal - 20 Mp, f / 2, 2
Battery	5 160 mAh, fast charging (33 W)
Dimensions (edit)	165.3 × 76.8 × 9.4mm
The weight	215 g
Additionally	Dual SIM, NFC, fingerprint reader, stereo speakers

Design and ergonomics

It is almost impossible to visually distinguish Poco X3 Pro from X3: they look identical, apart from a slight nuance in holography with a pattern on the back. But the difference is visible only if two smartphones are next to each other. The models even have the same dimensions up to a tenth of a millimeter.

The body is plastic. Our version in the color "black phantom" (there is also "sparkling bronze" and "blue frost") willingly collected fingerprints: the oleophobic coating is not the best.

At the back of the Poco X3 Pro, a block of cameras, inscribed in a circle and decorated with a couple of inscriptions, protrudes quite strongly, by 2-3 mm. Dust easily clogs into its base.

There is a front camera in the center of the upper edge of the screen. Above it is an inconspicuous speaker grill that houses a white status LED. It lights up when notifications arrive or the smartphone is charging. However, this indicator is not visible from every angle, so it does not attract much attention.

There is also a microphone and an infrared port on the top.

The bottom end of the Poco X3 Pro is dedicated to a second speaker, a USB Type-C port, a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a microphone.

The right side of the smartphone is decorated with buttons. Here are the volume rocker and the power key, combined with a fingerprint scanner. The sensor responds instantly and quickly, recognizing fingerprints without any problems. In the menu, you can choose how it will work: by touch or by pressing.

There is a card tray on the left side. Poco X3 Pro supports two SIM-cards, but for the second you will have to sacrifice a slot for microSD.

The smartphone came out quite large and heavy. It will not fit in every pocket, but at the same time it is easy and convenient to operate it, and it fits well in the palm of your hand. Oddly enough, the glossy case hardly slips out of the hands, which is very important with such solid dimensions.

Screen

The display here is the same as in last year's Poco X3. It is a 6.67 ″ IPS Dot Display that supports HDR10 and is capable of 120Hz refresh rate. But you can also choose 60 Hz - this way the battery lives a little longer, although the interface becomes less smooth.

The Dynamic Switch function, available in the settings, independently controls the hertz of the screen in accordance with what tasks the smartphone is currently solving, and thus saves battery power. Touch recognition speed of the sensor is 240 Hz, which is great for simple daily use and for games.

The screen has a lot of settings. You can choose a dark or light theme, adjust the brightness, start the automatic night mode, which changes the parameters in accordance with the light level. There is a reading mode that slightly dulls the blue component and slightly changes the texture of objects, reducing eye strain.

There are three color schemes: "Standard", "Saturated" and "Auto". "Standard" is closer to natural color rendition and does not change the contrast under any conditions. The "Saturated" mode - cold and acidic, always increases the saturation. "Auto" switches between the previous two depending on the lighting, but most of the time, as it seemed to us, it still makes the "Saturated" option active. We liked the "Standard" color rendition better, so we left it.

In the same menu item, you can independently adjust the display of shades manually by poking at a point on the color wheel, or select one of three modes: "Standard", "Warm", "Cold". Here we also settled on the "Standard" option.

The screen lacks brightness: even in a room without direct sunlight, it had to be twisted by 80-90%, and on the street in cloudless weather, readability was greatly reduced. The viewing angles are quite good, the white color only slightly grayens at an angle, but on the whole the display has a certain “ice-like” feeling. And this is good.

Iron

The main difference between the Pro version and the previous one is in the processor. It does not work on Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G, but on Snapdragon 860 - a very powerful and productive one, designed for smartphones one and a half to two times more expensive. But the Poco X3 Pro costs the same as the Poco X3 at launch.

This platform is eight-core, it consists of two Kryo 485 Gold cores at 2.96 GHz and six Kryo 485 Silver. Video chip - Adreno 640. The model comes with 6 or 8 GB of RAM. We got the version with 6 GB - it has 128 GB of user memory, and the version with 8 GB of RAM - respectively, 256 GB.

The smartphone is flying. We were unable to get him thinking in any application, heavy games like PUBG Mobile and Asphalt 9 never dropped below 60 FPS at maximum graphics settings. Programs start quickly, the interface scrolls smoothly and neatly (this is also due to the screen with a refresh rate of 120 Hz).

Sound and vibration

This smartphone has stereo speakers: the upper earpiece is also used to play music. Due to the fact that the lower radiator is at the end, and the upper one is brought out to the front panel, the stereo effect is crooked - the speakers play slightly in different directions. Moreover, the bottom one is very easy to cover, which is why it sometimes sounds dull.

When headphones are connected - either to the 3.5mm input or via Bluetooth - sound settings are available. If headphones from the Xiaomi catalog are used with the Poco X3 Pro, you can optimize the audio parameters for a specific model. For everyone else, a seven-band equalizer is available.

There is also a function to optimize the sound depending on the age of the listener. The older a person gets, the less susceptible he is to high frequencies - and a smartphone can make them a little more distinct.

There are only 14 steps of volume control, which is not enough. Often there are situations when at one level the music plays too quietly, and at the next level it is already too rolling.

With full-size headphones, the volume may not be enough at all, but with them the sound quality suffers. The potential of the built-in amplifier is not enough for them, the bass becomes sluggish and boomy, the voices are muffled.

With in-ear low-impedance headphones, things are better: there is both detail and clarity, and the volume margin is noticeably higher.

Vibration works well, you can't miss a call. You can also turn on the game mode, in which the vibration motor will buzz at particularly bright moments.

There is, however, a small problem with the directivity of microphones and speakers. The smartphone is large enough, and if you have a small head, you will have to prioritize during calls: do you want to be heard or to hear the interlocutor yourself better.

Because the microphone appears to pick up voice only in a small area. And if the owner of a small head puts the Poco X3 Pro with the speaker exactly to his ear, he will not be able to talk - it will be very hard to hear.

This point is purely geometric, but it must be taken into account. For a smartphone, the telephony function is still important, despite the fact that nowadays such devices solve a much wider range of tasks.

Operating system

Poco X3 Pro runs Android 11 with MIUI 12 shell and Poco Launcher add-on second version. The interface is nicely rounded, renders fast on this hardware platform and did not cause any problems during the test.

The impressions are the same as those of the Poco X3: soundly, understandable, neat, without any sagging or thoughtfulness.

The only thing you need to get used to after other shells is that notifications from the curtain are swiped only to the right, a swipe to the left brings up a plate with settings buttons.

Cameras

There are four of them, and it was due to the simplification of the main camera that the cost of the Poco X3 Pro was kept at the level of the X3 with a significantly more productive hardware platform. Instead of a 64-megapixel module, there is a 48-megapixel sensor. The rest of the elements are exactly the same: an 8MP ultra-wide angle, a 2MP macro camera and a 2MP depth sensor. The fifth peephole in the camera module is occupied by a flash.

In the X3 version, we were somewhat saddened by the work of the camera's automatic functions: blur, autofocus and other moments, despite the fact that the pictures themselves turned out to be quite good. The story is similar with the X3 Pro, as the software hasn't changed.

It cannot be said that the quality of images from the main module has become noticeably lower. Maybe only at ultra-high resolution, without pixel binning, the camera produces a slightly more detailed picture. In other modes, the difference is not visible.

The color rendition slightly goes into an acidic unnaturalness, but not critical. The foliage looks quite clear and lively, the dandelions are fluffy, and not incomprehensible artifact. Traditionally, in good lighting, the frames are of the highest quality, but even in the twilight the camera is quite capable of pulling out a sufficiently contrasting picture.

Main lens, standard shooting mode. Photo: Alina Rand / Lifehacker

Main lens, portrait mode. Photo: Alina Rand / Lifehacker

Main lens, AI shooting mode. Photo: Alina Rand / Lifehacker

The ultra wide-angle lens is tucked away in two places: it can be called up from the zoom menu by choosing 0, 5X, or from the professional menu. What prevented the addition of a separate menu item is unclear. Because of this, using the ultra-wide-angle is not very convenient: until you get there, until you turn it on.

At the same time, he behaves well. Distortion at the edges is partially corrected without a particularly strong loss of detail, but it seems that the color rendition of this lens is a little more muted and "dirty" than that of the main camera.

Shooting with the main lens. Photo: Alina Rand / Lifehacker

Shooting with a wide-angle lens. Photo: Alina Rand / Lifehacker

Shooting with the main lens. Photo: Alina Rand / Lifehacker

Shooting with a wide-angle lens. Photo: Alina Rand / Lifehacker

A macro lens does not suffer from this - the color rendition practically does not differ from the main one. But it is noticeably noisier. Much better quality photos can be obtained from the main camera, having achieved correct focus.

Shooting with the main lens. Photo: Alina Rand / Lifehacker

Shooting with a macro lens. Photo: Alina Rand / Lifehacker

Shooting with a wide-angle lens. Photo: Alina Rand / Lifehacker

Poco X3 Pro is one of the rare smartphones capable of shooting 4K video with stabilization: most models turn it off in this mode, leaving it only for recording in Full HD. You can shoot videos in 4K with both the main lens and the ultra wide-angle lens. And there is also a fun option that allows you to simultaneously record video from both the main camera and the front camera. There is also a special video blogger mode with ready-made filters.

Front camera - 20 megapixels. She adds a little aristocratic pallor to the skin, and the AI mode does not save from this. But in general, the detail is sufficient.

Autonomy

The 5,160 mAh battery is more than enough for a day of life, even with a powerful hardware platform and a 120 Hz screen refresh rate. In our case, the smartphone quietly existed on one battery charge for up to one and a half days. Alas, it did not reach two. But if you reduce the screen refresh rate to 60 Hz, then Poco X3 Pro will be able to hold out for a couple of days.

The included 33W rechargeable battery can recharge the battery from zero by two-thirds in 30 minutes - and it's very convenient. A smartphone with this charger will reach 100% in a little over an hour.

Outcomes

For a smartphone that costs 21,990 rubles in our version, Poco X3 Pro offers features that are more common in devices of a noticeably higher price category. The same stabilization when shooting video in 4K, for example, in general, very few people have. And here is practically a flagship productive platform, a good camera unit, a user-friendly interface - and all this at the cost of a mid-range phone.

There are, of course, moments that spoil the impression, first of all, the insufficient brightness of the screen. Smart assistants in the camera are sometimes not very smart and rather spoil the pictures rather than improve them, and yes, autofocus is one of them. Well, physically, such a large smartphone is not suitable for everyone.

But the Poco X3 Pro is a pleasure to use. It gives a feeling of reliability - it seems that it will not let you down. For this, we should thank a powerful platform that will remain relevant for a long time to come. And the fact that for the sake of her they put a simpler camera is not scary.