Poco X3 Pro Review
Intro
Poco X3 Pro was released here in the Philippines on March 22, 2021 via social media. And they introduced the phone with the Snapdragon 860 chipset with the clock speed of 2.96GHz. Additionally, it’s not a new chipset from Snapdragon, instead It’s an overclocked flagship processor of 2019 which is the Snapdragon 855. Therefore, it is 70% faster than the Snapdragon 720g and almost 50% faster than the Snapdragon 765g. It was sold for Php 10,990 on its first day, but the original price is Php 12,990.
Body
The front of the phone is made of Gorilla Glass 6, a punch-hole styled 20MP front camera and second speaker at the top. At the back, it’s made of plastic with the bottom centered aligned logo and quad camera at the top. However, it’s made of plastic and it scratches easily.
You can find the sim tray, you can either have a dual sim or single sim with a micro SD card. It has an IR blaster to use as a remote, USB type C that supports a 33w fast charger and a headphone jack as well. Also, it has an IP53 rating that protects it from water spray and dust.
Display
Like other Xiaomi phones they released recently. The size of the screen is 6.67 inches display, 450 nits, HDR10 for HD contents. IPS display with 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate. So, it can register up to 240 touch per second and you can feel the smoothness of the user interface with 120Hz. However, 120Hz eats a lot of power.
It produces a colorful display, sharp contents and overall a high quality display particularly for videos and games. It’s almost close to the IPS display of Mi 10T Pro, but Mi 10T Pro has a better brightness and color even in daylight. Which is two times more expensive than Poco X3 Pro.
Battery & Storage
As for the battery, the phone is equipped with 5160mAh and can last up to 1-2 days of regular use. But if you are a gamer then expect a maximum of 8 hours. In that case, the included 33w charger in the box can charge from 25% to 100% in 1 hour and 29minutes while the phone is on.
The storage has been updated to flagship level, which is UFS 3.1. Accordingly, it’s 198% faster than UFS 2.1 in performance. The highest storage you can get is up to 256GB together with 8GB RAM LPDDR4X. Anyway, our unit comes with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage and we did not experience any lag or issue.
Camera
Poco X3 Pro offers a quad-camera on the back, with a 48MP primary camera of an f/1.79 aperture, 8MP ultrawide camera, f/2.2 aperture and 119-degree field of view, as well as 2MP depth sensor and 2MP macro camera. Selfie camera contains a 20MP, f/2.2 aperture front-facing camera.
Main (Default)
The main camera produces a 12MP image as a result in auto mode. For natural daylight as the light source, the phone did great for producing an image with fine colors and details but over exposed. Close to mid-range captures with an artificial light source have a minimal difference in the contrast of the images, both still having a good quality of details. Overall, the images produced are not ideal for cropping purposes, but still are packed with crunchiness (good and clear details) regardless of the light source and the distance.
48MP
Images captured in this mode are ideal for cropping as it captures the details even in long-distance shots. This mode provides a great alternative to telephoto features that other competitors have. Furthermore, the 48MP mode handled any visual and grain like discolorations in the images magnificently and deemed unnoticeable.
Night mode
Perhaps one of the best features of Poco X3 Pro Camera due to its SD860 power, this mode captures images in low light source without sacrificing its overall quality. Colors are close to what we perceive with our naked eye and the details are still in good quality. The phone automatically activates extended exposure while capturing a detailed image for 2 seconds. To experience the best performance of the Night Mode, I tried to stay still as possible to let the phone capture more shots in different exposures.
Ultrawide
Various modes such as Auto, Night, Video, Short Video and Time lapse modes can offer a 8MP wide angle images with 0.6x magnification and 118-degree field of view. The distortion correction did a great job in lessening the fish-eye effect of the wide range camera. Compared to the 1x magnification shots, some details were lost in this mode and the image’s details were still distinguishable but not as sharp compared to the other modes. Regardless, the colors remain unchanged. However, the wide angle shot in night mode produces an inferior image quality compared to 1x magnification. The images produced are saturated and the color slightly differs from reality. The exposure and the details of the image were also degenerated.
Portrait
This mode along with the default mode is supported by an AI camera feature. This feature blends HDR images, captures multiple different exposure shots when subjected to low light sources and calculates all the possible options to produce the optimal image. This mode instantly blurs out the background and focuses all the sharpening to the subject. Furthermore, this mode also uses the screen as a flash to improve the selfie lighting conditions when there is no light source. I believe that this would be a great feature for all the people who are selfie enthusiasts due to its built-in selfie effects.
Pro Mode
In camera Exposure Triangle chart contains three settings that affect exposure by adjusting the aperture, shutter speed and ISO. But on a smartphone manually setting the aperture is not achievable. Fortunately, the only settings that you can rely on are shutter speed and ISO for exposure.
In addition, Pro Mode provides a bunch of settings that can be tweaked. Those are Focus Peaking that places a red highlight on the in-focus area. Secondly, Exposure Verification is the same with Focus Peaking, but instead of focus it places a parallel red for overexposed and blue for underexposed. Lastly, RAW formatting is also supported in this mode. Files in RAW format collect all the image data made and can be edited using different editing platforms like Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, etc.
Video
Poco X3 Pro offers 4 different options for videos: 720p 30FPS, 1080p 30/60FPS and 4k 30FPS. Personally, I prefer 1080 at 30FPS since it gives a smooth frame rate and image stabilization. Moreover, the audio pick-up is clear and thanks to X3 Pro’s EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization) feature, this compensates for the device shake, resulting in a very smooth and stable video recording.
Performance
MOBILE LEGENDS
This phone supports Ultra Graphics but I still prefer using only High Graphics settings for a smoother frame rate. The loading time is really short as well as the transitioning of settings in the lobby. The lobby animations are smooth and have a good quality in terms of details. The skill animations are smooth and are packed with colors, details, and sharpness. After an hour of being in the game using the High Graphics setting, I did not experience any lagging. The phone also just warmed up a little.
CALL OF DUTY: MOBILE
As for the game Call of Duty: Mobile, the graphics in the lobby screen as well as the different settings are really detailed, the shadows are defined properly to give a realistic effect to the character. Also, it has a smooth frame rate in the actual game and in the lobby. The phone only supports Max frame rate as its highest FPS that can be used simultaneously with the very high graphics. The only thing that isn’t that favorable is that after playing for 4-5 rounds in the highest graphical settings, the phone experienced overheating. Nevertheless, these features could drastically improve a player’s overall performance.
Genshin Impact
It’s one of the heaviest games for mobile right now. The game is playable at the highest settings but the phone keeps struggling at these settings. Additionally, the phone started to warm up after playing for 30 minutes but I did not experience any abnormal overheating. However, after using the phone for almost 2 months now. I experienced random lag at these settings.
Conclusion
Overall, Poco X3 Pro is a great gaming phone for First-Person Shooter games, Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA), and Rhythm games. The graphics and frame rate are magnificent. In addition, the camera produced great photos for its price particularly in low light conditions. The only downside that I noticed are overheating and video performance. Therefore, it’s the best balanced phone from Xiaomi.