The Poco X6 Pro 5G is a new performance mid-ranger from Poco. Is it a competitive choice if you're looking for a mid-range phone? I'm kacem from Pro Phone Plus and let's find out in our full review.
Poco has a couple of new X-series mid-rangers, the Poco X6 and the Poco X6 Pro, today we're talking about the Pro model.
While both phones have a high-res OLED display and fast charging, the Pro model has a more powerful MediaTek chipset. Plus, it comes with Xiaomi's new HyperOS interface out of the box, though the regular Poco X6 will get that via an update. In the black colorway, the X6 Pro's back is glossy and mirror-like. It's made of plastic and attracts smudges and dust quite easily. The back is flat, but the edges curve slightly into the matte plastic frame. The design is similar to other Pocos, with the big logo next to the cameras.
Both the Poco X6 and Poco X6 Pro are IP54 rated for dust and splash protection. Still, submerging the phone wouldn't be a good idea. The X6 Pro has an OLED display with a high-res 1220p resolution, an upgrade over the 1080p of last year.
The display is 6.67 inches with a 120Hz refresh rate. It's nearly the same as the Poco X6's screen, although for some reason that phone has Gorilla Glass Victus protection, but the Pro model has Gorilla Glass 5. You get a sharp resolution at 446ppi, and thin bezels too for a premium look. The display has great color accuracy and support for HDR10 plus video and Dolby Vision.
The phone's refresh rate is adaptive in your typical fashion. It can go from a smooth 120Hz down to 60Hz when the screen is idling to save energy. And for brightness, we measured a maximum of around 520 nits with the manual slider, and this can boost to 1150 nits in auto mode, which is great.
Somehow, the vanilla Poco X6 is a bit brighter though. There's no headphone jack this year, but the Poco X6 Pro's stereo speaker setup has very good loudness, and the sound quality is good, with solid vocals and mids. You can listen for yourself through the provided link.
The Poco X6 Pro has an optical under-display fingerprint scanner, and is quick and reliable. And the phone comes with 256 or 512GB of storage, but that's not expandable through microSD. The Poco X6 Pro is the first phone we've seen running Xiaomi's new HyperOS interface out of the box, and it's on top of Android 14.
If you're used to Xiaomi or Poco phones, you'll still be able to easily find your way around. The changes are mostly visual. MIUI has always been very customizable, and HyperOS builds on that with further options to personalize the lock screen. And the multi-window interface is updated with new buttons, and it's somewhat more intuitive. With HyperOS.
The chipset of the phone is a MediaTek Dimensity 8300 Ultra. So far, it appears exclusive to the Poco X6 Pro, and is China-only alter-ego, the Redmi K70e.
In benchmarks, the Poco X6 Pro does a great job, topping the charts among similarly-priced phones. The performance is leaps and bounds above the vanilla Poco X6, as well as popular devices like the Samsung Galaxy A54. There's more than enough power here for a solid gaming experience, especially for this price range.
On top of that, the X6 Pro's thermal management is impressive. It didn't throttle much during our prolonged stress test, and what throttling did happen was quite gradual. The X6 Pro has a 5,000 mAh battery capacity, just like last year.
It's not breaking any battery life records, with an active use score of 11 hours and 46 minutes, but it delivers generally good numbers across the board. The 67W charging is again from last year, and is quite fast too. We were able to charge from 0 to 83% in half an hour, and a full charge took 43 minutes.
The camera setup of the Poco X6 Pro is the same as the non-Pro. There's a 64-megapixel main camera with OIS, an 8-megapixel ultrawide, and a 2-megapixel macro camera. The main cam produces 16-megapixel photos, and they're solid.
The detail level is good, though the rendition of fine details and textures could be better. The dynamic range is okay. Colors are well-saturated, but there is a bit of extra warmth in outdoor shots.
Portrait mode on the X6 Pro captures images in the main camera's native field of view. The subject detection works very well, and the blur level is relatively convincing. There's a 2x zoom, and the results are nice.
There's a good amount of fine detail, even if it's, once again, not the most natural-looking rendition. In low light, the X6 Pro does have an automatic night mode, but it only activates in very dark conditions. Still otherwise, the photos come out well-exposed, with good development in the shadows, and slightly harsh, but still acceptable highlights.
There's plenty of detail, and the noise is well-contained. There is a dedicated night mode you can enable, but it honestly doesn't make much of a difference. Every now and then, night mode might lift the shadows a bit, but there's no pattern to the behavior.
The main camera captures okay 4K videos. There's a good amount of detail, but it's a bit artificial-looking. The contrast is a bit too high as well.
Color saturation is good, but the auto white balance remains off, just like in the stills. Electronic stabilization is always on, but it's not the best. When walking, you get focus hunting on almost every step. Hands are smoother at least. In low light, the main camera records videos with decent quality for the class. Detail is very good, dynamic range is great, there's no loss in color saturation, it's just that they are a bit shaky.
The ultrawide camera on the X6 Pro delivers a so-so performance. Detail is okay for the 8MP resolution, but dynamic range is fairly limited, especially at the highlight end. Colors are a bit anemic too.
The ultrawide camera's output in the dark isn't too bad, all things considered. The photos aren't the sharpest, but they're sharp enough. Dynamic range is good, and color rendition is okay, if a little muted.
Again, there's not a whole lot of difference if you enable the dedicated night mode. Videos from the ultrawide come out in 1080p, and they have good enough detail, though the color saturation leaves more to be desired. Close-ups taken with the macro camera are underwhelming, with little detail and bland colors.
Selfies from the X6 Pro come out at 16MP. The details are okay, but could be better. The white balance is off more often than not, though the phone manages to maintain a likable skin tone presentation most of the time.
So that's the POCO X6 Pro. You get a nice high-res display, a solid main camera, and a chipset with plenty of power to spare. That chipset and the low-light camera performance are the major differences between this phone and the non-pro POCO X6.
If those aren't your priority, then the cheaper model may be worth considering. But with that aside, the POCO X6 Pro is a solid and powerful mid-range for the class, and it's worth recommending. Thanks for watching, guys.
