The latest Poco phones are highly anticipated, especially with rumors that we might be looking for a suitable successor to the first phone in the sub-brand, the Poco F1 with its incredible price-performance ratio. And today is finally the day that Xiaomi is delivering on that promise, although the last entry on the line is not the F2 – we are jumping straight into the F3 and its slightly weaker model, the X3 Pro.
Poco F3
Like all recent Poco phones, the Poco F3 is not an original design. It is mainly a carbon copy of the Redmi K40 and shares most of its hardware specifications. There’s a 6.67-inch almost frameless Samsung E4 AMOLED screen with a refresh rate of 120 Hz and a resolution of 2400 x 1080. You can find a 20MP dot selfie camera in the upper middle. The back has one of three colors: Arctic White, Night Black or Deep Ocean Blue. The latter sports a huge POCO brand spread on the back that is less prominent in the other colors, where it is aligned with the set of cameras in the upper left corner. This ledge has the same prominent design that first appeared with the Mi 11 and consists of three cameras: a 48 MP primary sniper, an 8 MP ultra-wide-angle and a 5 MP telemacro.
On the right side, you’ll find the volume control and the side-mounted power button that doubles as a fingerprint reader, while the USB-C connector and a headset are at the bottom. The phone also has NFC and an IR blaster, and there is a dual speaker configuration – it can turn out to be a great multimedia machine.
The F3 comes with the new state-of-the-art Snapdragon 870 5G, compatible with LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage, starting with a 128 GB plus 6 GB variant. The battery is quite large at 4520mAh and can charge up to 33W – and luckily, Xiaomi provides a charger that achieves these speeds in the box.
Xiaomi will sell the F3 in two variants of RAM and storage: There is a 6 + 128 GB version and an 8 + 256 GB model, available for € 349.90 and € 399.90, respectively. In Europe, the company is starting sales with limited stock on po.co and Amazon at € 299.90 / € 349.90 on March 30, lowering the price to as low as the original F1 for a limited time.
Although the F3 does not have the absolutely top-of-the-line processor that the F1 had, it is getting as close as it can and still features cutting-edge hardware at an affordable price. If you agree with MIUI 12 (based on Android 11 here), it may once again be among the best you can get for the price.
Poco X3 Pro
The Poco X3 Pro comes with a processor that we have not heard of until now: the Snapdragon 860. Poco says it is the first company to launch a phone with the new processor, but a look at Qualcomm’s website reveals that it is apparently just a renamed version of the Snapdragon 855+ only 4G, which is almost two years old – a strange decision, to say the least.
Other than that, the X3 Pro is not much different from the normal X3 and, therefore, from the Redmi Note 9. It has almost the same size and weight, has the same 6.67 inch 120 Hz IPS screen and there is the absurdly huge POCO brand not the back. The rounded, centralized camera set also looks familiar. However, it is equipped with different cameras. Instead of a 64 MP primary sniper, there is a 48 MP camera accompanied by three more: an 8 MP ultra-wide, a 2 MP macro and a 2 MP depth sensor. The battery is also smaller than the 6,000mAh found in the X3 at 5160mAh, which is expected to last two days, according to Poco. Still, the phone’s focus is clearly on the processor, although the question remains whether the renamed Snapdragon 855+ is much better than the 732G, except in the name.
The Poco X3 Pro will be available in Europe from this month and comes in two variants: one with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage and the other with 8 and 256GB. They will cost € 249.90 and € 299.90, respectively – the usual incredibly aggressive price of Xiaomi. There will be three colors to choose from: Phantom Black, Frost Blue and Metal Bronze. An early settlement on March 26 will allow customers in Europe to get the phone for just € 199.90 or € 249.90 on po.co and Amazon.
Poco also offers free screen replacements in the first six months after purchasing the phone.
The Indian launch event Poco F3 and X3 Pro is scheduled for March 30, so we will probably only hear about prices and possible local adjustments to the hardware.