POCO X3 Pro and F3 Review – Extremely fast mid-range smartphones

By Faryad On Jun 4, 2021

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While the Mi’s from the more luxurious segment is gradually increasing in price, devices from Xiaomi’s POCO sub-brand remain true to the time-honored formula that has made Xiaomi grow so quickly in recent years: a lot of hardware for little money. Our recommendations since March for those looking for the best budget device under 200 euros, the POCO X3 Pro and POCO F3 were released this spring.the latest models in the line-up. Despite the similarities in the name, they are two very different devices. One is logically a ‘pimped’ POCO X3 NFC with the same casing and a number of internal upgrades, but remarkably enough also downgrades, and is now for sale for 230 euros. The F3 features a redesigned, slimmer casing. You can find it in stores from about 340 euros.

What connects the POCO X3 Pro and POCO F3 is the promise of a very fast soc for this money. Where other manufacturers in this segment opt for a processor from Qualcomm’s midrange 6 or 7 series, or the equivalent of another chip builder, Xiaomi casually places chips from Qualcomm’s 8 series, normally reserved for the most luxurious top devices. That the system performance will be good seems to be a certainty in advance. Does that automatically make these POCOs irresistible options in the busy mid-range segment? We find out in this review.

Casing and screen

The POCO X3 Pro and F3 both have a case with a glass front and back, but a plastic frame on the sides. For this segment it is a completely usual choice of material. It is striking that the POCO X3 Pro already has Gorilla Glass 6, where the POCO F3 is made of Gorilla Glass 5. In addition, only the X3 Pro has an IP53 rating, which means it’s dust and spray resistant, but not completely waterproof like more luxurious smartphones with an IP68 rating. With the POCO X3 Pro, the plastic flubber case that comes in the box has a flap in front of the USB-C port, which can potentially help improve the waterproofing, but can be annoying if you use the port a lot. The POCO F3 also comes with an included transparent protective cover, but without a flap. Both smartphones have a traditional capacitive fingerprint scanner integrated into the power button on the right side, instead of a scanner in the screen, like most more expensive devices. The positioning is pleasant if you hold your device in your right hand, and the scanner is also very fast.

In hand, the two POCO devices feel very different, with the POCO X3 Pro feeling more like a cheaper smartphone than the POCO F3. Under the screen is a wider ‘double chin’ and the camera hole in the screen is also larger. With a thickness of 9.4 mm and a weight of 215 grams, it is a rather bulky device. Just like with the POCO X3 NFC, there is a typically designed, fairly large and centrally placed elevation for the cameras at the back, with the main camera all the way in the middle and three other lenses around it. The letters ‘POCO’ on the casing also catch the eye. The X3 Pro’s vibration motor produces the same floppy, washing-machine-like vibration found on most cheaper smartphones.

The POCO F3 is more subtly designed. The stepped camera island with two large round lenses is reminiscent of the more luxurious Mi devices. The POCO F3 is noticeably thinner and lighter, which we believe is more comfortable to hold. The narrow bezels around the screen and the tiny camera hole, for some reason accentuated by a silver-gray circle, also give it the appearance of a high-end device from the front. You can’t see, but you can feel the fine vibrating motor, which can deliver accurate, fierce taps like a high-end smartphone can. In our opinion, the feedback could have been more powerful.

Unfortunately, Xiaomi also wanted to make a few other features of the POCO F3 resemble those of a more expensive model. For example, this device lacks the 3.5mm headphone jack, which can still be found with most smartphones in this price segment, including the POCO X3 Pro. You also have to do without microSD memory expansion with the POCO F3, although the 128 or 256GB built-in storage is probably enough for many. As with the POCO X3 Pro, two SIM cards fit.

Although the screens of the POCO X3 Pro and F3 are exactly the same size at 6.67 inches, have the same resolution of 2400×1080 pixels and both also support a high 120Hz refresh rate, the screen technology used is different: LCD with the POCO X3 Pro, OLED at the POCO F3. That leads to quite different results in our screen tests, which we performed using our SpectraCal C6 colorimeter and Calman software .

The POCO F3 scores very well. The very high peak brightness of more than 1100cd/m² is particularly striking, so you can still read the screen well even in full sunlight. The color reproduction is also reasonably good with this device, but not as good as on the most expensive smartphones. The display of the POCO X3 Pro turns out to be a bit second-class. The peak brightness is less than half that of the POCO F3 and therefore also below average in this segment. The color adjustment is also disappointing. With a color temperature of almost 8000 Kelvin, the screen has a clearly visible blue tint, which translates into a high average gray deviation. You can do something about it via the extensive settings menu, but out of the box the adjustment of the screen does not deserve any plus points.

System performance

Special about the POCO X3 Pro and F3 is, as mentioned, the very fast soc for this money. The POCO X3 Pro has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 on board, the POCO F3 goes over that with a Snapdragon 870. Normally mid-range devices do not have a chipset from the high-end 8 series on board, although they are secretly not new chips. The Snapdragon 860 is actually a re-release of the Snapdragon 855 Plus, Qualcomm’s fastest soc from two years ago. The Snapdragon 870 is a Snapdragon 865 Plus from last year with a slightly higher maximum clock speed for the fastest core. The POCO F3 is therefore faster on paper than any Android top model from last year, for example the Galaxy S20 Ultra, OnePlus 8 Pro and OPPO Find X2 Pro. The Snapdragon 860, based on an older design, is also much faster than today’s midrange SOCs,

Normally we don’t show benchmarks in smartphone reviews because manufacturers have tampered with them too much in the past, but to give you an idea of the raw performance difference between the POCO devices and the rest of the mid-range, Geekbench and GFXBench do give a nice indication . The charts show mid-range smartphones that cost about the same as the POCO X3 Pro and POCO F3, plus two previous POCO devices, the POCO F2 Pro and Pocophone F1. Starting with Geekbench, a CPU test, the POCO X3 Pro does not appear to be much faster than other mid-range devices when we look at the performance per individual computing core, but because the Snapdragon 860 has more fast cores, the multicore performance is a lot better. The Snapdragon 870 scores a lot higher than the competition in both respects. Both socs also have a much more powerful GPU part. In the onscreen test, which is rendered at the native resolution of the screen, devices with a lower screen resolution can still somewhat match the POCO X3 Pro and F3, but we perform the test on all devices at a fixed resolution (offscreen) , then the pair wins by force majeure.

High benchmark scores are nice and nice, but in practice you don’t always notice the performance difference with other devices. For home-garden-and-kitchen use, a midrange SOC is also sufficient, as a practical comparison with the Galaxy A52 4G shows. That device also switches smoothly between apps and scrolls smoothly through the interface. You sometimes see a frame drop here and there, but the POCO duo is not perfect in that respect either. It is with demanding apps such as games that the powerful soc really shows its added value. For example, if you are going to play a game in PUBG Mobile, you can use higher graphics settings with the POCO X3 Pro and F3 and play at 120fps. The Galaxy A52 does not go beyond Medium settings, where the maximum frame rate seems to be limited to 30fps and remains little constant when a lot is happening on the screen. The game feels wonderfully smooth on the POCO phones in comparison, even though the phones don’t always reach the high maximum frame rate perfectly either. If you can live with a lower frame rate, you can set the settings even higher on these devices, with sharper textures and higher draw distances for a more ‘console-like’ gameplay.

Like the Snapdragon 865+, the Snapdragon 870 in the POCO F3 is also combined with a separate 5G modem that also supports Wi-Fi ax, whereas the POCO X3 Pro is limited to 4G and Wi-Fi ac. In addition to an FM radio, which only the POCO X3 Pro has on board, both devices also support all common wireless communication standards, including NFC. A nice extra that is common for Xiaomi devices is the infrared blaster at the top, with which you can use your smartphone as a remote control.

Camera

To achieve the low price point in combination with the fast soc and in the case of the POCO F3, the luxurious screen and other features, Xiaomi seems to have saved the most on the camera. On paper, the POCO X3 Pro is even equipped with a worse camera than the POCO X3 NFC, with a primary sensor of 48 instead of 64 megapixels and an ultra-wide angle camera with 8 instead of 13 megapixels. There are also a macro camera and a depth sensor of both 2 megapixels. The POCO F3 has a 5-megapixel macro camera and does not have a fourth camera. The specifications of the primary camera and ultra-wide-angle camera are the same as the POCO X3 Pro. Xiaomi calls the POCO F3’s macro camera “tele macro”, perhaps because this camera has autofocus, although the device does not seem to use it for zooming in when taking normal photos. Both POCO devices have a 20-megapixel camera in the screen hole on the front.

For the camera comparison below, we have included the POCO duo, together with the Samsung Galaxy A52 4G, which on paper has one of the better cameras in this segment. For example, the primary camera has a newer sensor of 64 megapixels and the lens has optical image stabilization, an ultra-wide-angle camera of 12 megapixels is present and this model also has a 5-megapixel macro camera.

The photos of the POCO X3 Pro and F3 are certainly not super good. The color reproduction is neutral, almost faded, with shadows remaining quite dark even with HDR enabled. The detail view is disappointing with the POCO X3 Pro. The lens of our test model does not seem quite sharp to the right of the center when the focus is at infinity, with more detail elsewhere in the image with the Galaxy A52 and the POCO F3, for example in the grass and trees on the first photo. With the POCO F3 it is also striking that the automatic HDR function of the camera is activated very sparingly, almost only when shooting straight into the sun. As a result, the photos of this device sometimes contain significantly less detail in shadows and highlights, for example the sky in the fifth photo. At dusk, as in the third scene, then the Galaxy A52 also takes the lead on the POCO F3 when it comes to the detail view. The Exif data shows that the Galaxy A52 can handle a lower ISO at about the same shutter speed. This is where the optical image stabilization of this model pays off.

For night photos, all three devices have a separate night mode, in which the device records for a few seconds and merges the result into one better-exposed photo. That of the POCO devices is not bad at all, especially that of the POCO F3. Under these circumstances, it takes slightly sharper photos than the Galaxy A52, with brighter shadows and less overexposed lanterns. Also, both POCOs do not crop as much on the sensor, as the Galaxy A52 does.

You can also switch on the night mode on the ultra-wide-angle camera, and that is also the only method with which the night photos with this camera can still be enjoyed a bit. The further image quality of the 8-megapixel camera is also not very special during the day. As far as the front camera is concerned, it is particularly striking that the POCO F3 offers a larger angle of view than the POCO X3 Pro, so that you do not have to stretch your arm that far when taking a photo. Both photos contain a bit more noise than with the Galaxy A52, which also captures the colors better. Finally, the macro camera: the POCO X3 Pro’s 2-megapixel one delivers webcam-quality photos that immediately fail on a larger screen, but the result of the POCO F3’s 5-megapixel ‘tele-macro’ module is surprisingly good .

In the comments and on the forum you often see the advice to install GCam on the POCO devices to improve the camera performance. We’ve also tried that. The first apk we tried crashed constantly on both devices, but we had better luck with another version. However, that only allowed us to use the main camera. A variant optimized specifically for the POCO F3 and X3 Pro did not seem to be available at the time of writing.

Indeed, GCam brings about an improvement in photo quality on the POCO F3 and X3 Pro. The difference is especially striking with the POCO F3, because the HDR function of the own camera app is used so little. With GCam, you quickly get a better-exposed photo with this device in conditions with a large contrast between light and dark. For example, in the above shots, look at the shadow under the viaduct and the interior of the plant in the second scene. The result with GCam also improves with the POCO X3 Pro, but not always as much as with the POCO F3. The third photo turned out even better with the native camera app. The GCam shots on both devices are not particularly sharp either. More often, in full format, even a little more detail can be seen in the photos of the own camera app,

Also with GCam, the POCO X3 Pro and F3 can’t always beat the Samsung Galaxy A52 with the Samsung camera app. In the shot above, the POCO X3 Pro with GCam still suffers more from noise in the foreground, with the photo of the Galaxy A52 also being much sharper and Samsung retaining the color saturation in shadows a bit better.

Software

The POCO X3 Pro and POCO F3 run on Android 11 with Xiaomi’s sweeping MIUI 12 skin over it. That runs relatively smoothly on these powerful smartphones. As with the Mi 11, there are occasional small stutters when scrolling through long web pages or in the Google Discover feed, especially with the POCO X3 Pro. The upcoming MIUI 12.5 update should make the system smoother.

MIUI’s interface looks completely different from stock Android. Not everyone will appreciate the iOS-esque look or the rather typical task switcher with a vertically scrolling list of apps in two columns. Although you ( yet) can’t change to the default horizontally scrolling list, MIUI does have heaps of other options to customize the interface to your liking. From the number and shape of the home screen icons to the layout of the notification center, MIUI lets you choose. Extensive theme support is on hand, and pretty wallpapers aren’t to be shyed away from either, with both static and dynamic options available to download directly from the included app. Just like the Mi 11, the POCO F3 supports the so-called Super backgrounds, with matching backgrounds on the always-on screen, the lock screen and the home screen that merge with a beautiful animation. This option is missing with the POCO X3 Pro, perhaps because this device does not have an always-on screen.

MIUI is therefore a skin where you should not be afraid to investigate yourself in order to use the device optimally, even when it comes to, for example, the settings for the dark mode or the somewhat aggressive battery saving. The enormous freedom of choice can become a bit overwhelming with MIUI, especially because settings are not always in a logical place and are sometimes rather awkwardly translated into Dutch.

Also make sure that you do not leave all standard check marks when using the device, because then you can encounter quite a bit of bloatware. In addition to all kinds of extra apps that are not always useful, if you are not careful you will also find advertisements in the form of icons for games, web shops and social networks. Also in Xiaomi’s system apps, there are standard advertisements, for example the file manager, theme app and antivirus scanner. As noted in our review of the Mi 11, there is a difference between the European version of the Xiaomi devices that are available in stores here, with the EEA ROM specifically intended for our region, and the version with ‘Global’ ROM, which we receive as standard as test samples. With the EEA ROM you can choose to disable the ads for all apps at once during installation, which is not possible with our Global version; you have to do that per app. You can also remove more of the included apps with the EEA version.

While Xiaomi generally continues to support its devices with updates for up to three years, including in this segment, it is about the only major device manufacturer that does not make any hard promises about the length of the update period, as our recent background article. In addition, we have sometimes experienced in the editorial office that a Xiaomi phone received an update that contained various bugs that were only resolved after a while with the next version. You can of course install a custom ROM if support drops, which can also be a way to customize the software if you really can’t stand MIUI. To do this, you must first unlock the bootloader using Xiaomi’s tool, which requires a Mi account and you have to wait a few days. Certainly, for the POCO F3 there is still little supply, but for earlier POCO devices there are already the necessary custom roms.

Battery life and charging

The cheaper POCO X3 Pro has a battery of 5120mAh, the POCO F3 has one of 4520mAh. However, our battery tests show that the POCO F3 has better battery life on average, although neither has the longest battery life in this price range. The more expensive device scores average in our browsing tests and above average in the video test, in which the Amoled screen, which can completely switch off pixels, is an advantage. In the video test, the POCO X3 Pro jumps to black first of all tested devices. It also notes a fairly short battery life in the WiFi browsing test, but if we run the test over 4G, it manages to beat the POCO F3 very narrowly.

When it is empty, it only takes 1 hour and 10 minutes for the battery of the POCO X3 Pro to be fully charged again using the supplied 33W charger. Most devices in this price segment take much longer to charge. Logically, the POCO F3 where you get the same charger even charges a bit faster than the POCO X3 Pro, thanks to the slightly smaller battery capacity. That is good for a top score in this overview.

Conclusion

Courtesy of the 8 Series Qualcomm soc, the POCO X3 Pro and F3 are two of the fastest mid-range smartphones you can buy right now. The semi-high-end chipsets offer far better performance than the competition in this segment, which you will especially notice with intensive apps such as 3D games. The POCO X3 Pro doesn’t really rise above the middle bracket in our other tests, where the screen, battery life and camera turn out to be not so great. With the exception of the rather nice macro camera, the camera system of the POCO F3 is no better. Xiaomi does, however, build in a much better screen for an additional cost of about 110 euros, whereby the battery life is also better and the device in other respects is remarkably similar to a much more expensive model.

In short, the new POCO duo remains faithful to Xiaomi’s traditional formula of ‘a lot of hardware for little money and a Great Value award from our side was therefore inevitable. However, the duo is not equally recommended for everyone. If you are looking for a smartphone for a less technical family member, for example, then a device such as the Samsung Galaxy A52 might be more suitable. For daily use, that model is also quickly fed up and to get the most out of the POCO devices, you have to want to make the necessary changes in the software, which is less slick by default.