Recently my Realme 5 Pro was hard bricked, which I had been using for around two years. Realme 5 Pro performance has gone down after it received some software updates. I have mentioned a few of the reasons in this article I wrote a year ago which led me to get into a decision of buying a new phone, but I waited till my current one stopped working.
OK, now let’s get back to the story. I finally decided to buy the Poco X3 Pro, which costs ₹18,999 for the 6GB variant and ₹20,999 for the 8GB variant. I was getting paid to exchange one of my old phones, so I grabbed the 8GB variant at the price of the 6GB variant. And after trying out the phone for more than a week, I will tell you the reasons why one should buy it and who should buy it.
Poco X3 Pro – Why and Who should buy it?
Most people have talked about how good Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 860 is on Poco X3 Pro, but that’s not all. The overall hardware of the phone is excellent, in my opinion- You don’t just get a slightly old and very capable flagship chipset, you also get UFS 3.1 storage, a fast but very convenient side-mounted fingerprint scanner that doubles up as a power button, and finally, a big battery.
Display
Poco X3 Pro offers a 120Hz IPS LCD with HDR10, protected by Gorilla Glass 6. I know some of you would be amazed to see that it’s an LCD and not an AMOLED. These days, most people think AMOLED is the standard, and it would provide better viewing angles. But trust me, I’m not one of those TV Series addicts who watch shows and movies on the move, on my phone. I prefer consuming media on a slightly larger display, at least on my laptop, nothing less than that. So, the AMOLED display doesn’t matter much to me, but the high refresh rate does.
ASUS ROG Phone II, OnePlus 8 Pro, and ASUS ROG Strix Hero II have already spoiled me, and there is no going back to 60Hz. I use my phone to make calls, text, create memes and social media posts, and manage social media accounts and emails. I’m someone who doesn’t play games on the phone or consumes media on it. So, the display on Poco X3 Pro is perfect for me.
Custom ROMs
I bought the phone for long-term use, at least for the next one and a half to two years. I know that at some point, I will get bored of the MIUI, and I would like to flash custom ROMs. Poco has an excellent track record in supporting developers. Even if they don’t help developers, due to the size of the community, you will find some good custom ROMs for your Poco smartphone, which matters a lot to me.
With Realme, it was a completely different story, rather a horror story, I would say. So, if you’re looking for a phone that can last long, perform well, and has solid backing from developers, Poco X3 Pro is a perfect phone with a budget of under ₹20,000.
5G Connectivity
Some may now raise a question of how can I suggest this phone for long-term use when it doesn’t offer 5G connectivity? Well, very few phones in the current market come with support for all 5G bands, and millimeter-wave 5G isn’t going to a reality pan India anytime soon. The 4G speed is more than enough for essential tasks, and for high-speed internet, there is nothing better than a fiber connection, which I already have!
I haven’t tried the camera very extensively, so I guess I won’t try to look like a fool by lecturing about whether it’s good or bad.
Other Features I liked
The battery life on the phone is epic. As soon as I got my hands on the phone, I went into the display settings to see if there is the option to activate the adaptive refresh rate, but sadly there is no such option. You have to choose between 60Hz and 120Hz. I cranked up the refresh rate to 120Hz straightaway, and I have been using the phone at 120Hz only, but with adaptive brightness. The phone can easily last a day and a half, I guess. But better to share the SOT and battery graph here rather than explaining in detail. You will anyway get the idea of how good or bad the battery backup is.
Stereo speakers are something many people crave for. Though I don’t consume media on the phone, I prefer them because any sound, be it the ringtone or notification tone, or some random videos someone shared on Facebook, sound a lot richer. On Poco X3 Pro as well, there are stereo speakers. Though they aren’t the loudest stereo speakers, they are loud enough as far as I noticed. However, while playing anything at the full volume, the phone’s back vibrates slightly, but I didn’t find it disturbing.
And yes, that reminded me about the haptics on this phone. At this budget, I guess this the best experience with haptics on the phone, especially while typing. The vibration is neither too heavy nor too light. It’s subtle, but you can feel it. This is where Poco X3 Pro stands out in the crowd, among many smartphones priced under ₹20,000.
These are the primary reasons why you should get the Poco X3 Pro. I didn’t emphasize camera and gaming because you can already get an idea regarding these aspects of the phone on Reddit and YouTube. Do let me know if you want me to review the phone after a while or you’re OK with the reviews you have already read or watched. Follow our Facebook page to find out sample shots that I would be posting soon.
