Verdict
The Poco F6 Pro offers knock-down performance , premium material body quality , an impressive display and lightning - tight charging at half the cost of most flagship gimmick . The cameras are n’t the most impressive , and the software system has its quirks , but overall , it ’s loose to commend for gamers on a budget .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
If you ’re look for a high - performance phone that does n’t break the bank , then Poco is a name you should get familiar with . The Xiaomi wedge - brand has a report for cede flagship - floor functioning at midrange prices , and this twelvemonth ’s top performing artist is the F6 Pro , coming in at a budget - friendly £ 499 .
Of of course , some compromise have to be made to hit such a price point . You wo n’t get the same variety of camera specifications that you ’ll find on Xiaomi ’s 14 - series , for example . The telephone set also use last year ’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor , rather than the newer Gen 3 , but that means it can give birth flagship - class performance at lower prices .
The question is , are these compromise too big to make it a compelling daily driver ? I used the Poco F6 Pro as my main machine for the last calendar week in an attempt to find oneself out .
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Design
esthetically , the Poco F6 Pro has a lot more in vernacular with theX6models than last year’sF5 Pro . It has a completely flat display , boxy iPhone - like sharpness , and a subtly curved looking glass rear panel .
Everything about this phone feel flagship - grade . It has an aluminium skeleton and the glass back has a velvety smooth feel with a rock - alike approach pattern that break in the lightness . It ’s evenhandedly large and weighty , too , which gives it an air of quality compare to lightweight credit card - framed mid - rangers .
The velvety backside feel amazing in the hand , but it ’s super slippery , and you ’ll postulate an smoothing iron adhesive friction if you plan on using it without a case . Thankfully , a evenhandedly nice matte black TPU coating is include in the boxful , and it ’s plenty grippy with that instal .
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I have the black version in for testing , and as cite , there ’s a alone repeating pattern on the posterior in a graphite grey colour . The tv camera surroundings has a mirror - like last , which is a nightmare to keep white , and each lense has a yellow - gold accent ring surrounding it , which I think look quite nice . The constant smudges and dust on the mirrored surround sully those nice touches , though .
It ’s also available in white , and the white model has the same pattern on its stern . However , it looks a piddling more insidious , in a light shade of grey . There ’s no signature Poco yellow option this time , which is probably welcome news to most masses , but in person I quite like a banana - coloured phone .
strangely , the Poco F6 Pro only deport an IP54 rating for dust and water resistivity , while the cheap Poco F6 has an IP64 paygrade . It ’s not potential to matter unless you oftentimes find yourself battling dust storms , but it ’s interesting to remark .
Another odd step back is the use of Gorilla Glass 5 on the presentation , while the tacky model features Gorilla Glass Victus . Perhaps it ’s a move to help offset the toll of the metal skeleton , but whatever the case may be , it ’s still bet big after a week of use with no screen protector , so it seems to be up to the task .
Screen
While there may be compromise elsewhere on this machine , there are almost none to be found with the showing . It vaunt an extremely high resolution of 1440 x 3200 , equating to a pixel denseness of 526PPI , outclass many of the most expensive flagship models .
It also has a 120Hz refresh rate , and can dynamically shift down to 60Hz to save stamp battery . It ’s not quite as telling as the 1 - 120Hz range offered by LTPO rivals , but it ’s still dainty to have .
If that was n’t enough , the panel is very bright , too . Poco says it can boost to 4000 nits in certain conditions . In veridical - world use , it had no trouble competing with unmediated sunlight , and the fact that it ’s completely flat means you wo n’t have to deal with any distracting edge reflection , either .
The display patronise Dolby Vision and HDR10 + and it can expose 12 - act colour , too . This intend that HDR content from apps like Netflix and Prime Video looks sensational , with plentiful precise colour and dazzling highlights .
If you like to manually calibrate the colours of your video display , HyperOS offers some of the most comprehensive controller of any Android tegument . There are lots of visibility to choose from , all of which can be tweaked , as well as tweakable DCI - P3 and sRGB musical mode in the advanced options .
For those concerned about eye health , there ’s more good news . The Poco F6 Pro has TUV Low Blue Light , Flicker Free and Circadian favorable certifications , as well as an extremely in high spirits PWM dimming charge per unit of up to 3840Hz .
Cameras
With four large orbitual modules on its buttocks , the Poco F6 Pro camera array expect like it means business – but looks can be deceiving . There ’s a solid principal tv camera here , with a relatively large 1/1.55 - in detector and 50MP resolution , but it ’s joined by the familiar mid - range combo of an 8MP ultrawide and 2MP macro instruction .
As await , the 50MP main tv camera is the good performing artist . It captures the most detail and it bests the others in low light , with the least noise and motion blur . It can focus pretty close - up for macro picture taking and fork over a wide active kitchen stove across the board .
It also has a 2x modality , which is a digital crop of this sensing element , and it works really well in daylight . At night , however , the 2x style shows a definite fall in tone .
The ultrawide does a effective Book of Job of matching the coloration of the master sensing element , but it lack item when you take in the images on a larger display . There ’s no autofocus , either , so you could blank out about using it for closeups .
The 2MP macro instruction is cover away in the camera setting , and for good reason , because it ’s pretty useless . It ’s just too low of a resolution , and it can only concentrate marginally nigher than the principal sensor . Really , it ’s just there to increase the camera counting .
Around the front , you get a adequate 16MP selfie photographic camera , but again , it ’s nothing too especial . It has a typical FOV , no autofocus , and can bourgeon picture at a maximum of 1080p 60fps . Still , it hold courteous picture show when the firing is sufficient , and Xiaomi ’s splendid portrait way force can help raise your shots .
In video mode , you may shoot at up to 4 cat valium 60fps or 8 K 24fps on the independent sensor . Personally , I would n’t bother going above 4 K , as the 8 K files are huge and do n’t look all that much good . The 8 K video is stabilize , at least , which is n’t the sheath on a lot of phones . On the ultrawide camera , you ’re limited to just 1080p 30fps .
Performance
The Poco F6 Pro runs on the sameQualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoCthat power all the top - performing flagship earpiece of last year . This mean that it can exceed pretty much any other sound in this Leontyne Price cooking stove , and it ’s only slightly behind the greatest performers of 2024 .
I have the top - tier framework in for testing , with a whopping 1 TB of storage and 16 GB of RAM , but the £ 499 base mannikin drops that down to a more modest 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage .
There ’s no microSD time slot on this phone , but the memory configurations are more affordably priced than a lot of the competition , and even the 1 TB simulation comes in at under £ 600 . If you need tonne of store , but do n’t fancy remortgaging your theatre to get it , the F6 Pro could be a proficient option .
Xiaomi has blocked a lot of our usual benchmarking tools ( nothing young there ) but it ’s no secret what a powerhouse the 8 Gen 2 is . In real - living scenarios , you ’d have a hard metre telling the difference between this phone and an 8 Gen 3 - power flagship at twice the cost . Everything find lightning warm , multitasking pose no issue and I never go through any slowdowns .
For gambling , you could max out the graphical configurations on essentially any plot in the Play Store and it ’ll run like a dream . After half an time of day of hacking and thresh on the graphically demanding Genshin Impact , the phone only beget more or less warm , so the cool down resolution is impressive , too .
On the audio front , the built - in verbalizer are also well above norm . You get dual stereo driver , which creates a nice soundstage and help with positional truth in FPS games like PUBG . There ’s plenty of lucidness in the mids and high absolute frequency , and there ’s a honorable amount of dispirited - goal thump for medicine , too .
Software
The Poco F6 Pro runs HyperOS , Xiaomi ’s refreshed Modern Android hide that has supplant MIUI . Despite the name change , though , HyperOS mathematical function almost identically to MIUI , so if you were n’t a buff of the old system , the young one is n’t go to come through you over , either .
Personally , I do n’t mind it . It pass quickly , it ’s pretty visceral and you get lots of customisation choice . It could use some text in the quick preferences menu , as I find it difficult to remember what all the icon mean . It certainly wait clean in this implementation , though .
The biggest change from stock Android is that you have split notifications and ready circumstance shade , accessed via swipe from each side of the display . You ’ll be familiar with this if you ’ve used a recent iPhone , or a Huawei or Honor equipment , for that matter . If you ’re coming from another Android brand name , it ’ll take a moment to adapt , but it ’s not the end of the creation .
HyperOS is lacking some of the newspaper headline - seize AI features that we ’ve seen from brands like Samsung and Google , but it ’s not wholly AI - complimentary . There are actually some very nerveless image redaction features that can be enable in the gallery app – but you have to download a plug - in before they work .
Once installed you ’ll be capable to get at extra option within the persona editing dick . For example , in the crop tool , you could amplify images to have a wider FOV and generative AI will fill up in the miss details . There ’s also a top-notch - level rendering of the person / aim eraser dick . The results are n’t utter , but they ’re not far behind Samsung ’s , and I ’m quite surprised that Xiaomi is n’t cry out about these feature .
unluckily , some of my least favourite things about MIUI are still present in HyperOS , too . There are lot of system apps that are essentially duplicates of Google ’s own apps and there are lots of notifications from these apps too . Then , there ’s the bloatware .
There ’s a MT of pre - set up junk on this gadget , which be given to come with the territory in this terms chain of mountains , but it ’s worse than usual with this model . You ’ll happen all sorts of thing , let in a brochure full of random game . Most can be remove , but most of Xiaomi ’s apps ca n’t . So you ’ll end up with a more littered app drawer than you ’d like .
Battery life
The Poco F6 Pro has a comparatively gravid 5000 mAh battery and this get wind me through an average day ’s use of goods and services without issuing . On heavier usance days , with lots of Google Maps navigation and camera role , it cut it ok , but I never need to do a mid - twenty-four hours top - up .
So , it ’s not incredible battery life , but it ’s definitely proficient enough for most people . On the plus side , charging is incredibly fast , and that means that battery life is n’t much of a concern .
You get a 120W wall adapter included in the boxwood , and that ’s warm enough to get you from completely two-dimensional to amply shoot down in about 25 minutes . A quick 5 - minute blast on the courser tend to recover around 30 - 40 % , it ’s extremely convenient .
There ’s no receiving set charging on this model , which is a footling disappointing , as its herald supported wireless charging at up to 30W. Still , the lightning - quick wired charging is a great consolation prize .
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Should you buy it?
From the build quality to the speakers , the performance and the display , this earphone is almost indistinguishable from a flagship French telephone . If you ’re look to do some serious gaming on a budget , count no further .
While the rest of the phone is flagship - quality , the cameras are emphatically mid - range . It wo n’t be the top choice for photograph and video recording fancier .
Final Thoughts
The Poco F6 Pro is n’t advertised as agaming phone , but perhaps it should be . With a brilliant show , great speakers , ample repositing options and a powerful chipset it delivers a truly premium gaming experience at a fraction of the cost of flagship devices .
Compared to some of the challenger , it ’s the camera that rent this gadget down . This will never be the top pick for avid photo snapper , they ’ll be far happier with something like thePixel 8a . That articulate , the tv camera here are way better than any play earphone I ’ve tried . So it all depends on what you ’re comparing it to .
Overall , I ’ve really love using the Poco F6 Pro . It ’s fast , has a premium look and feel , games like a champion and burster unbelievably rapidly . The software wo n’t be to everyone ’s taste , but I found it light to subsist with . If you ’re looking for a power station that does n’t break the bank , it ’s an easy recommendation .
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How we test
We test every mobile telephone we review soundly . We use industry - standard tests to compare features properly and we use the speech sound as our primary equipment over the review period . We ’ll always severalize you what we find and we never , ever , accept money to look back a production .
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FAQs
The Poco F6 Pro is IP54 - rated , which means it can withstand spray of weewee from all directions , but it ca n’t be submerged . clean rainfall will posture no issue , but handle it carefully around open water .
Poco promise at least 3 major OS upgrades and four years of security patches . It ’s a shorter support term than Samsung and Google , but more generous than some competing steel in the mid - range infinite .
Test Data
Full Specs
