POCO M3 is a perfect budget smartphone with a great design.
Ever since POCO became an independent brand from Xiaomi, their focus has been always to provide the best specifications in the mid-range and budget segment. POCO had a great start with the POCO X2 (Review) and the POCO X3 (Review) in the mid-range segment. Now it has released the POCO M3 which is a successor to the POCO M2.
The budget smartphone segment is not so popular as it does have not have the best cameras either, the performance is average, the build and design are just average but you do get great battery life. We have the Moto G9 Power and Xiaomi Redmi 9 Power which have in this segment for quite some time.
Now the POCO M3 has come which looks like a rebranded Xiaomi Redmi 9 Power but has certain improvements while missing some of them also. It has the same Snapdragon 662 chipset, runs on MIUI12, and has a larger 6000mAh battery but it does miss out on an ultrawide camera and comes with 6GB RAM which we saw first time in the budget segment.
Since it is a POCO smartphone, you do expect an ad-free software experience. Is the new design and styling with some good specifications make it worth buying? Let’s find out in the full review.
POCO M3 Design:
In the past, we have seen many POCO smartphones which resemble the design of many Xiaomi smartphones. But it is a different case with the POCO M3 as it resembles a unique look when you look at the back while the front has a waterdrop notch housing the front camera.
The POCO M3 has a polycarbonate back with a unique design and when you look at the camera module that is present in a glossy black rectangular layout with the POCO logo, it does make it stand out compared to many Redmi and Realme smartphones. This module houses those triple cameras and feels premium when touching it.
The rest of the back has a leather-like plastic back with a textured finish and it is also curved to both sides providing a good grip in hand. The sides of the smartphone have a plastic frame running where on the left we have a triple card slot that houses two dual SIM cards and a microSD card slot for storage expansion.
Moving to the right, we have the power button with the volume buttons that provide tactile feedback when pressing it. To the bottom, there is a USB Type-C port, a loudspeaker grill, and a primary microphone. On the top, there is a secondary speaker, two holes for the speaker, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and an IR Blaster to control televisions, refrigerators, etc.
The POCO M3 weighs 197grams which makes it slightly on the heavier side as it packs that massive 6000mAh battery. But while holding the smartphone in hand, you do not feel too much weight as the weight distribution has been done very well. There is a P2i coating at the back for protection from splashes of water also.
Overall, with a unique look of the camera module which is made of glass and some exciting colors like Cool Blue, Poco Yellow, and Power Black make it look striking especially the Poco Yellow color that looks attractive and the smartphone feels solid while holding it in hand.
POCO M3 Display:
The POCO M3 houses a 6.53 inches Full HD+ (1080×2340 pixels) IPS LCD display with a screen body ratio of 19.5:9 and has 395 PPI. It one of those few smartphones to have a full HD+ display except the Xiaomi Redmi 9 Power (Review). So you are getting a standard 60Hz display as there is no high refresh rate found at this price segment.
The display of the POCO M3 is protected by Corning Glass 3 and has good brightness levels as the display can go as bright as 400nits which is very good so the display is easily visible under direct sunlight and using the outdoor sunlight mode, the display goes as high as 440nits. Similarly, at night, the display becomes very dim and you do get reading mode and a blue light filter.
The display has good color saturation but there is some oversaturation noticed while watching videos and the viewing angles are also decent which we could expect from an LCD panel. You can change the color temperature to warmer or cooler from the standard color settings accordingly.
The power button houses the fingerprint scanner which is quite fast and accurate. The face unlock works well most of the time and is also faster. The display has support for Widevine L1 so streaming HD content from Netflix, Hotstar, etc. will be easy and you can stream YouTube videos at 1080p or 1440p easily.
However, the display does look outdated with that waterdrop notch and the bezels are also slightly thicker to the sides whereas the bottom bezel is much thicker. The display feels well balanced and is good for consuming media though.
POCO M3 Performance:
Like all other smartphones in the budget segment, the POCO M3 is powered by the Snapdragon 662 chipset which we saw first on the Xiaomi Redmi 9 Power. The Snapdragon 662 is an octa-core chipset that has 4×2.0 GHz Kryo 260 Gold cores (Cortex A73) and 4×1.8 GHz Kryo 260 Silver cores (Cortex A53) based on an 11nm process.
The Adreno 610 GPU handles most of the tasks easily whether it is multitasking between applications, scrolling through webpages, or playing games. In terms of gaming, this isn’t the best chipset for gaming but still, you get decent gameplay. Heavy games like Call of Duty, Asphalt 9, etc. ran fine at the highest graphics settings.
At medium graphics, the gameplay was smoother but after prolonged gaming for 3-4 hours, the back of the smartphone does feel a bit warm. There is no liquid cooling tech but since the POCO M3 has a polycarbonate back, it does not feel much warmer.
However, there were minor lags noticed in the UI but since you are getting massive 6GB RAM as the base RAM, the RAM management has been done perfectly well as the smartphone keeps most of the applications in memory. The POCO M3 is available in two variants – 6GB LPDDR4X RAM and 64/128GB storage.
Here the most interesting feature is that you are getting UFS 2.1 speeds on the 64GB storage variant and UFS 2.2 on the 128GB storage variant which was never seen in this price segment as most of the smartphones in this price segment ship with eMMC storage which is slower compared to UFS storage.
So app loading and animations feel much faster.
In terms of benchmarks, the POCO M3 scores 313 and 1397 in single and multi-core tests on Geekbench 5.1 and 134298 on Antutu v8 which are decent scores as it is an ordinary chipset but still it somehow better compared to the Mediatek G85 chipset. Still, the performance is quite good, and will get the work done.
POCO M3 Software:
The POCO M3 runs on MIUI 12 built on top of Android 10 out of the box. MIUI 12 has a lot of bloatware installed and with each software update, it has been improving a lot. And since this is a POCO smartphone, you do not see any ads in the UI like Redmi smartphones from Xiaomi.
Since this has the POCO launcher, there is an app drawer with all the apps organized properly into different categories in an ordered manner. However, there are a lot of notifications from many apps and there is an app called the GetApps which throws in a lot of notifications and can be turned off from the setting.
And since this is MIUI12, the most interesting feature is the newer Control Center where swiping from the left reveals the different notifications while swiping from the top right, shows the quick toggles. MIUI has its security apps and a cleaner but since there are a lot of animations, this makes the UI slightly slower.
There are some pre-installed apps and can be easily uninstalled when not needed. The Android 10 features are present like a system-wide dark mode which can now be applied to wallpapers, navigation gestures, and Digital Wellbeing to check the device usage. POCO has also added Google stock apps like a dialler, contacts, messages, and swiping left from the home screen reveals the Google Feed.
The software experience feels much better compared to Xiaomi smartphones but still, it cannot match the Stock Android on the Moto G9 Power (Review) which is a lot cleaner and does not have any bloatware.
POCO M3 Camera:
The camera module provides a more striking look to the POCO M3 as the black glossy finish feels premium and houses the triple cameras with an LED flash. The three cameras are a 48MP f/1.8 main camera with a 2MP depth and a macro camera. However, there is no ultrawide camera that is present on the Xiaomi Redmi 9 Power.
Coming to the main camera, the images from it come out with good details and the dynamic range is also above average. The colors look well saturated but when you zoom into the image, a lot of noise is present and in many cases, the colors do look a bit washed out. For better results, it is better to turn on the HDR mode which brings in much better color saturation and also removes some of the noise.
The AI option does improve some color and handles white balance better but still, it is inconsistent and it is better to take images with the HDR mode turned on. Since there is no ultrawide camera, you cannot take a wider image and similar is the case with the main camera during the night.
At night, the images have good details but the level of noise is much more and the colors do look inconsistent here and there. With the HDR mode turned on, we could not get better color saturation but when we triggered the dedicated Night Mode, things changed quite a bit.
The dynamic range improved and the night mode could restore the highlights in shadows much better. However, it considerably improves the details in the images to a larger extent and also balances the color saturation much better. However, we will not get as good images as some of the other mid-range smartphones as it is a budget smartphone at the end of the day.
With Night Mode On
Talking about the macro camera which is a 2MP camera, the images from it came out with average details with more noise, and the colors do look washed out. Instead as in my earlier reviews, you can use the main camera for a close-up image by cropping some subjects for much better details and accurate colors.
The 2MP depth camera does a good job in terms of portraits, as it comes out with better details with good dynamic range and dynamic range. When you zoom into the portraits, the noise is present but the dynamic range remains good and the color saturation is also good. You can also adjust the background blur though.
On the front, there is an 8MP f/2.1 camera which does a good job in terms of selfies with good details and average dynamic range. The skin tones look a bit unnatural as the color saturation is not so good and there is a lot of amounts of noise. In terms of portraits, though the front camera provides better edge detection and here the dynamic range and contrast are much better compared to regular selfies.
In terms of videos, the main camera is only restricted to 1080p videos at 30fps. There is no support for 4K video recording or 1080p videos at 60fps. So as a result, the videos from the main camera have a lot of amount of noise and the dynamic range is just average.
The over-saturation of colors is clearly noticed and since there is no OIS or EIS, the videos come out with a lot of shakiness. With the HDR mode turned on, the color temperature improves slightly but this is what you can expect video quality from a budget smartphone at this price segment.
Similar is the case at the night, but when you turn on the Night Mode, the dynamic range becomes slightly improved and some amount of noise is reduced to get a clear video but still it not good as the colors look imbalanced.
On the front, the camera does have decent dynamic range and details and the exposure is disturbed during low-light conditions. It is just average and gets the work done. So the cameras are good on the POCO M3 considering the price segment but the inclusion of an ultrawide camera would have given better appeal.
POCO M3 Battery Life:
The POCO M3 sports a larger 6000mAh battery like the Xiaomi Redmi 9 Power which can easily last for two to three days with a single charge under normal usage which is really good and considering the chipset is built on an 11nm process, you may expect good battery life.
With heavy usage that includes playing games like Call of Duty for 3-4 hours continuously, streaming videos on Netflix, Prime, etc., and also scrolling through webpages throughout the day, the smartphone can easily last one single day with 20-30 percent left.
However, POCO has bundled an 18W fast charger inside the box which can charge the smartphone from 0 to 100 percent in 2 hours and 48 minutes which is very slow as it is charging a larger 6000mAh battery. The inclusion of a fast charger gives it a big advantage over most of the smartphones that either ship with a 10W or 15W charger inside the box.
There is also fast charging through USB-PD and it also can reversely charge other smartphones at 2.5W. Overall, with MIUI optimizations and a larger 6000mAh battery, the POCO M3 provides an excellent battery life.
POCO M3 Audio Quality:
This is one area where POCO M3 makes itself a unique smartphone as it supports stereo speakers which were never heard earlier in the budget smartphone segment. The loudspeaker at the bottom with the two outlets with the secondary microphone together produces a stereo effect. The loudness levels are much better compared to smartphones priced above this one.
There is no Hi-Res audio support which you will not find on smartphones in the budget segment but still, the sound is much louder and clearer and while playing games or watching videos, the experience is much more refined.
POCO M3 also comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack and the audio output through it is also very good. With a good display and stereo speakers, the POCO M3 seems to make the multimedia experience much better.
Verdict:
Overall, the POCO M3 makes a striking option in the budget smartphone segment as it provides the best design and styling for the first time in this price segemnt, a massive 6000mAh battery with support for 18W fast charging, a good software experience with no ads, and a great display with stereo speakers making it great for media consumption.
It also packs in 6GB RAM and the UFS 2.1/2.2 speeds present are much faster compared to eMMC 5.1 storage on other smartphones. However, the cameras remain average in terms of image quality and there is no ultrawide camera either which the Xiaomi Redmi 9 Power has. The performance is decent with the Snapdragon 662 and there are some minor UI stutters noticed.
So clearly, if you watch a lot of media then this is the perfect smartphone for you as it has that massive display with stereo speakers and the 6000mAh battery can easily last well and that too it supports fast charging. But those who want for gaming and cameras, this will get the job done just fine.
And if software experience is what you need as the top priority, then the Moto G9 Power would be a better option as it has Stock Android which is better compared to the MIUI. So considering everything, the POCO M3 makes itself a unique smartphone and is worth buying.