The POCO lineup is part of it’s own brand series that never let down when it comes to the price versus performance ration. Although still manufactured with Xiaomi but there are still some of the internals and software that still sets it different, and we will find out with the POCO X6, another mid ranger that packs some serious power within the segment, and yes, we have not forgotten about the POCO X6 at all with it’s affordability that is still there even after months this model was launched.
Design
Since this is meant for a much budget oriented in design, the frame of the phone is made of plastic while the same can be said too on the back of the phone, so no glass there or any easy to break material, making it still durable for all your daily uses. That is not just the strength, the POCO X6 is also IP54 rated for dust and water protection, while it may not sound top of the notch, it is still be able to give you some peace of mind use over certain situation. There is also a 3.5mm headphone jack available so that you still can use your standard or professional headphone.
The POCO X6 is weighted at 181grams maintaining it’s thickness is at 8mm, and still considered slim in 8mm only, making it still easy to held upon and easily use with one hand if it is just for navigating around, which is just fine, while in the end you will still need 2 hands type on the screen in order just to reply something.
Display & Audio
The display of the POCO X6 can be termed as right in the size for most users when it comes to viewing. Measured at 6.67 inch with a fast refresh rate of dynamic 120Hz and yes, it does have Gorilla Glass Victus in front, making it tough on the front as well. Since the display used is an AMOLED screen, it does shows a good amount of vibrancy and color accuracy, which does not look cheap comparing any phones within the same segment, while the brightness can peaked up to 1800nits maximum along with Dolby Vision that enhances your streaming experience further with HDR support and Widevine L1 DRM. Overall I find the viewing angle is good and provides smooth touch operations.
Now onwards to the audio, the POCO X6 does have a dual speakers embedded within it, and it does produce a pretty loud audio experience across with some balance in mind on mid bass and treble, albeit sometimes sound sharpness can be noticed if you turn it all loud to the maximum. Additionally you have Dolby Atmos with some form for pre-set defined settings, or if you are feeling on tuning on your own, there’s an option for that as well for customized equaliser.
Camera
Lets get on to the optics, with the overall price offering today over the POCO X6, it is even more compelling that you get a main rear 64MP wide OIS with PDAF shooter with one 8MP ultrawide and a 2MP macro lens. This will still get you a very vibrant shot and colors are accurate in day time, during night time you still can get things decently, with some shot either masked in blurry over certain overly bright segment, or does things right with good shadows and identification on almost all occasion. I believe that can be improved via software or firmware update since it is more like an optimization thing rather than a hardware thing. Selfies and wide angle is good as well with the 16MP lens with some dynamic range there. A couple of group selfies can be fit in just nicely without additional effort.
But hey, there is still a maximum of 4K 30FPS video recording support over the POCO X6, and this should be slowly a common thing within the mid ranger stage since higher resolution recording became a norm and makes things easier for some video editing, whether to scale things down or to retain it. Bitrate measurement seems reasonable too with very minimals on the drop and this can be fairly stable even when moving around, that’s a pass for me.
Performance & Software
In all honesty, the internals of the POCO X6 cannot be taken lightly as only a couple of brands choose to use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen2, albeit it is slightly lower on clock speed compared to it’s older brother, but the similar architecture makes every performance run just near on par, representing the same features, but more efficient when comes to battery life and application run optimization. I would say over day to day usage, you wont feel things any different at all.
It came equipped with a 5000MaH capacity battery, which can last you for the whole day with tasks varies from your usual social media scroll, web browsing, some calls and a few session of games. The SOC is playing a crucial role in optimizing and keeping the phone usage lasts too. Talking about gaming, as long setting it to medium graphics, most games like Genshin Impact will just run fine close to 60 frames before meeting throttle point around 25 minutes.
Apart from the internals, driving the software side is running via Android 14 and HyperOS 1.0 for POCO, a brand new updated, overhauled OS interface that has been since available from the mainline Xiaomi series, and now available for POCO devices as well. All of the existing MIUI 14 features are carried over, so basically you get better optimization, running on a smaller OS size footprint, making the whole operations running faster, smoother, maintaining longer fluency in overall usage and experience.
Verdict and Conclusion
The POCO X6 is a phone that put some of the best balance in performance internals within the price range but stands firm with focus much geared towards those seeking for a rightly powered phone for gaming and at certain extent, a pretty fun phone for taking a few snaps with some good looking quality photos for uploads and social media. But the most important thing is, an all rounder multimedia centric phone that is still highly relevant and without paying much too.
Currently the POCO X6 is selling from RM1199 and now you can even get it cheaper via mi.com store at RM1099, which is a great deal.