Poco X3 design
The Poco X3 features a new design and doesn’t look like any of the existing Redmi models. Compared to the Poco X2 (Review), the new X3 gets a single selfie camera, which is placed at the top centre of the smartphone. Poco hasn’t changed anything in terms of the display though and you still get a 6.67-inch panel with a 120Hz refresh rate. High refresh rates are slowly becoming more common in the affordable segment and if you play a lot of games on your smartphone, this is also an advantage for you. There are thin bezels around the display, but the camera hole may be a bit distracting for some people.
The moment you pick up the device, you will notice that it is heavy. At 225 grams, the smartphone is even heavier than the Samsung Galaxy M51 (Review), which packs a bigger 7,000mAh battery. The weight of the Poco X3 is well balanced and the phone is unlikely to fall out of your hands. However, after using the device for a while, you may feel fatigue in your hands.
Poco X3 specifications
The Poco X2 was launched about seven months ago and has made a good name for itself in its segment thanks to its specifications. Poco hasn’t changed much in the new phone; you still get a large full-HD+ display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The panel also has a 240Hz touch sampling rate.
The phone has the new Snapdragon 732G processor, which is similar to the Snapdragon 730G in terms of architecture, but comes with slight differences in the CPU cores as well as the GPU. This results in better performance. The Poco X3 comes in three configurations – 6GB RAM with 64GB storage, 6GB RAM with 128GB storage and 8GB RAM with 128GB storage. All three are priced at Rs 16,999, Rs 18,999 and Rs 19,999 respectively. This review is of the mid variant of the phone.
While the international variant of the Poco X3 gets NFC, the Indian variant comes with a bigger battery. We get a 6,000mAh battery, which supports 33W fast charging. The Poco X3 also has stereo speakers and the smartphone comes with an IP53 dust and water resistant rating.
The Poco X3 was launched with MIUI 12 based on Android 10. Our unit was running on the September Android security patch. The X3 comes with a number of bloatware apps and games preinstalled and we would suggest you remove them if you don’t need them.
Poco X3 performance
The Poco X3 has enough hardware to deliver good performance and we did not face any issues while using it. The X3 was fast at loading apps and games and it handles multitasking quite easily. We enjoyed watching videos on the Poco X3, as the display has good viewing angles and the stereo speakers enhance the experience. The side-mounted fingerprint scanner is fast and uses face unlock to recognise faces, which is just as fast as a physical scanner.
We played Call of Duty: Mobile and Among Us on the Poco X3 and the device did not show any lag. The screen refresh rate was set to 120Hz by default and we did not change it while playing the game. Call of Duty: Mobile ran smoothly on high settings without any issues. We played the game for 25 minutes and the smartphone’s battery dropped by 7 percent. The phone did get slightly warm to the touch after gaming.
Battery life is good and the Poco X3 gets you through a day without any issues. In our HD video loop test, the phone lasted 18 hours, 31 minutes, which is pretty good. There is support for fast charging and a 33W charger is provided inside the box. Using this, the battery charged up to 57 percent in 30 minutes and 92 percent in an hour.
Poco X3 camera
The Poco X3 features a quad-camera setup that includes a 64-megapixel primary sensor with f/1.89 aperture, a 13-megapixel ultra-wide angle camera with 119-degree field of view, a 2-megapixel macro camera, and a depth sensor. On the front, there is a 20-megapixel selfie camera. The camera app is easy to use and has multiple shooting modes to choose from.
There are quick toggles for HDR as well as AI, which gives you the option to better control the camera features while shooting. The camera UI has changed in MIUI 12 and is now easier to use. There is a new Vlog mode, which adds background music and video effects while shooting. This is a brand new and very useful feature for those who upload videos on social media.
The Poco X3 adds a watermark to photos by default, so make sure to turn off this option in the camera settings before taking a photo. Its 64-megapixel primary camera takes 16-megapixel photos by default. Photos shot using the primary camera in daylight had good detail and even text at a distance came out clearly. However, the camera aggressively suppresses blacks, leading to less detail in shadows. Switching to the wide-angle camera shows a larger area, but there is a loss in details. The wide-angle camera also produced a slightly different colour tone, which was clearly visible in the output.
Close-ups were good and the Poco X3 separated the subject from the background well. It also adds depth to the background well. Edge detection in portraits was good and the X3 also gives you the option to set the level of blur before taking a shot. The macro camera is limited to 2-megapixel resolution and lets you get close to the subject, but the output was average.
Low-light camera performance was average. Photos taken in the default mode were soft and had a watercolour effect. Enabling the Night mode made a noticeable difference to the output – photos were sharper and had better details. However, it takes 3-4 seconds to take a shot in Night mode. The wide-angle camera is not good for shooting in low-light as it could not capture as much light as the primary sensor.
Daylight selfies were decent and you have the option to take portrait shots using the selfie shooter. The AI does not detect faces with masks and does not blur the background in such cases. Selfies shot in low light were average, but this phone lets you use Night mode for selfies.
Verdict
The Poco X3 is an upgrade to the Poco X2 and brings a few upgrades. It does everything a little better than the Poco X2. It offers better performance and the bigger battery helps it last longer. However, it is a lot heavier than its predecessor. If you were thinking of buying the Poco X2 but can afford to spend a little more, you can go with the Poco X3 as it offers some decent upgrades at a marginal price hike. The Realme 7 Pro (Review) is another suitable alternative that you can buy at the same price.
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