Poco X6 Pro Review: It’s Loco Good

Design

The Poco X6 Pro comes in black, grey, or yellow colorways, and to my delight, the review unit arrived in the bright yellow option, which also includes a vegan leather finish. It’s bold, bright, and comfy in the hand while offering protection against bumps and scratches.

I’m not a fan of the camera housing effect, which made me think it had water damage every time I looked at it. Obviously, it didn’t, as it is just a design quirk. You may like it, you might not.

At this price point, it’s to be expected that the frame is plastic, but that means that the phone isn’t as heavy as one of those titanium-constructed handsets that recently launched. While the volume button is of the same black plastic, the power button has a yellow finish, making it stand out.

The display is protected by Gorilla Glass 5, and the phone itself benefits from IP54 certification, which means you can take it out in the rain.

Hardware

Performance

MediaTek’s Dimensity 8300-Ultra is a flagship processor, showing its prowess when gaming. There’s more performance on tap than most of the Poco X6 Pro rivals. Accompanied by the 12GB of speedy LPDDR5X memory and 512GB UFS 4.0 storage, you will get almost as slick a performance as a flagship phone, costing three times as much. While most other phones at this price point use LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 3.1 storage, the Poco X6 Pro is a step above its similarly priced competitors.

The 6.67-inch AMOLED display, with its 60-120Hz refresh rate, full HD resolution, and up to 1800 nits of peak brightness, is a good panel with deep blacks and vibrant colors. HDR10 is supported for good measure. Gamers will be happy to learn that the already responsive 480Hz touch sampling rate can be further boosted to 2160Hz via the Game Turbo function.

Audio is about as you might expect from a pair of phone speakers, while the built-in fingerprint display is nice and quick if a little too close to the bottom of the display for my liking.

Overall, the Poco X6 Pro offers a good selection of hardware that can keep up with far more expensive rivals.

Battery

Packing a 5,000mAh battery, the Poco X6 Pro makes it through the day easily, although you’ll need to use the power-saving options available if you want to stretch to a full second day without charging. When it comes time to charge, you’ll be glad to learn that the phone supports 67W fast charging, which gets a full battery in just 45 minutes. A 20-minute charge will get the battery to half capacity.

And, unlike some more expensive smartphone brands, you’ll find a 67W fast charger in the box.

Software

Poco’s X6 Pro is one of the first phones to launch with Xiaomi’s new HyperOS software which is based on Android 14. For the most part, MIUI users will feel at home with the new UI; the changes between the two are generally quite subtle.

One thing you’ll find on the Poco X6 Pro’s software is a fair bit of bloatware in the form of apps. Some apps, such as Facebook and TikTok, are reasonable, but others, including the weird assortment of games, are items you would likely never look at.

And while they can be uninstalled, it’s a painstaking process thanks to numerous pre-installed apps and games. I would say it’s the main negative feature of the phone. Otherwise, there are good customization options, and most Settings are right where you would hope to find them.

Regarding support, the Poco X6 Pro is confirmed to receive three Android OS updates plus four years of security updates. This will take the handset to Android 17 when it becomes available.

Camera

Accompanying the 64MP main camera are 8MP ultra-wide and 2MP macro lenses. Using the 50MP main camera is going to yield the best results. As for the other sensors, it’s best to avoid using the measly 2MP macro lens at all times, while the ultra-wide lens is ok so long as you don’t look too closely at the finer details.

The main camera is the star of the show, producing realistic imagery in both good and low-light conditions (though you may have to take a second shot to get a better result during nighttime). Despite the lack of a dedicated telephoto lens, it’s possible to use 2x zoom on the main camera, although it isn’t a true zoom but rather a cropping of the original image. Still, it produces decent enough shots with plenty of detail to see.

The 16MP selfie camera can output some good images, although it can sometimes be hit-and-miss.

Overall, it’s an average camera experience and the department where the odd corner was cut. And for a phone that costs just £369, that’s ok.

Conclusion

The Poco X6 Pro is a phone that stands out from its competitors, with its only real weakness being the secondary rear cameras. We wish that Poco (and other brands) would leave the 2MP sensors out and instead improve the second sensor, but apparently, consumers buy phones with the number of cameras influencing their decision.

With vegan leather, a processor offers real flagship performance, more memory and storage than the recently launched Galaxy S24, and a bright, responsive display with a 120Hz refresh rate and all-day battery life. What’s not to like about the Poco X6 Pro, especially considering its £369 price tag. The auxiliary cameras could be better, but the main camera achieves respectable results.

You might look at Samsung’s Galaxy A54 or even the Pixel 7a as alternatives, but Poco beats them on price, performance, charging speeds, and aesthetics. Plus, the Poco X6 Pro has a case and a 67W charger in the box, which adds more value. All for just £369/~$460.