Xiaomi’s once sub-brand, now separate brand Poco made a name for itself by producing no-nonsense phones with all the right features for a very reasonable price.
Now, Poco’s back with a new phone, a sort-of-mid-range Poco X3 NFC (why the NFC bit, which is near-ubiquitous on phones these days, was needed in the name eludes me), and it sounds pretty good on paper.
Yes, the Poco X3 NFC makes quite a few compromises: it has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G processor, an LCD display, there’s no 5G, and it starts at only 64GB storage.
But the rest of the specs scream good value. The 6.67-inch FHD+ display has a 240Hz touch sampling rate and a 120Hz refresh rate, a feat typically seen in very expensive flagships. The battery is a massive 5,160mAh cell with 33W fast charging (and yes, you get a 33W charger in the box). On the back, there’s a quad camera with a 64-megapixel, Sony IMX682 main sensor, a 13-megapixel ultra-wide sensor, a 2-megapixel macro sensor, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. On the front, you’ll find a 20-megapixel selfie camera, located in a punch-hole in the top middle of the display.
Other tidbits of note include a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, which is typically a more reliable option than an under-display sensor, dual stereo speakers, liquid cooling tech for those intense gaming sessions, and a 3.5 millimetre headphone jack. The phone is splash-proof with an IP53 rating, which isn’t the best but it’s better than nothing.
Poco even managed to surprise design-wise. While the phone is a typical slab of glass on the front, with a slight curvature on the sides, the square-on-a-circle rear camera module is actually very cool-looking, and will stand out from the smartphone pack.
Poco advertises the package as “exactly what you need” and I reckon it will make sense for a lot of buyers, given that 5G is still an afterthought in many markets, and storage can cheaply be upgraded.
The best feature of the phone is, of course, the price: It’s €199 ($235) for the 6GB/64GB variant, and €249 ($294) for the 6GB/128GB variant. The Poco X3 NFC will be available with an early bird discount from Sept. 8 to Sept. 11 at retail sites like Amazon, AliExpress, Banggood and others.