Poco F6 review: This phone punches above its weight

I have been testing Poco F6 for over two weeks. Here is my detailed review.

Design could have used more effort

Design is possibly the weakest point of this phone unless one loves minimalism (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

The Poco F series smartphones were never about the looks, and the F6 is not either. The phone looks average and boring with nothing unique to offer. The plastic body and frame make it lightweight but one could easily mistake it for a budget smartphone.

On the bright side, however, it is now IP64 rated, making it water and dust-resistant. It was able to survive the early monsoon rains in Bengaluru. This doesn’t warrant anyone dipping the phone in a pool. Like the previous model, the F6 also comes with 24 months of warranty, an assurance of its quality.

Sharp, fast display ideal for gaming and content consumption

The sharp display and stereo speakers make this a great phone for content consumption (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

When I first booted the Poco F6, the display looked a bit dull with colours being on the muted sides. But this was since the display was set to “Original Colour Pro” profile by default. Once I changed it to “Vivid”, the display came to life, boosting colours and contrast, making the pictures and videos look great.

The 6.67-inch 120Hz display with 1.5K resolution makes everything look a bit sharper. This was evident since I switched from the Galaxy F55 (review) with an FHD+ resolution screen. The display also gets really bright, theoretically, going up to 2,400 nits, making the screen ‘almost flagship’ level. This time around, the bezels are even thinner, but not as uniform as the ones on the Nothing Phone (2a) (review).

Unlike the Realme GT 6T, the Poco F6 has a flat panel display, best suited for gamers, as curved displays are always reported to have ghost touch issues, especially around the corners. If you are someone who binge-watches on a smartphone, the Poco F6 performs well on that front.

Stereo speaker setups on smartphones have become common these days. The ones on the Poco F6 are the loudest and clearest speakers I have listened to on a phone priced under Rs 40,000. I always praise the speakers on my iPhone 15, Poco F6 speakers are equally good.

The same can be said about the haptic feedback, the keys offer precise feedback, making you feel you are physically pressing the keys.

Cameras that get the job done

The phone could have definitely used a high-resolution ultra-wide angle lens (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

There is nothing special about the cameras on the Poco F6, but they aren’t as poor as the ones on some of the other phones in this class. The 50 MP primary camera with OIS can capture some great shots in both daylight and low light conditions, and it can also shoot up to 4K 60fps videos, while the 20 MP selfie camera can only do up to 1080p 60fps videos.

Check out some of the camera samples from the streets of Taipei, Taiwan shot on the Poco F6:

Poco F6 camera sample 1 (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

Poco F6 camera sample 2 (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

Poco F6 camera sample 3 (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

Poco F6 camera sample 4 (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

Poco F6 camera sample 5 (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

Poco F6 camera sample 6 (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

Masterclass performance

The Poco F6 excels in gaming (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

The Poco F series is renowned for its performance and the F6 takes it up a notch with the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 SoC. It offers up to 512 GB of UFS 4.0-based internal storage and up to 12 GB of LPDDR5x type RAM.

In the regular mode, the phone scored over 1.3 million on AnTuTu, and on the CPU throttling test, it offers a stability score of 89 per cent. To put these numbers into context, the Poco F6 outperformed my Galaxy S23 Ultra that cost me almost four times the price of the F6.

The device is fantastic, and can handle any task you throw at it, be it downloading large files, surfing through social media, playing heavy games, and more. With most of these tasks, the device doesn’t break a sweat. With continued gaming (on titles like CoD: Mobile and Asphalt 9), the phone does get warm, but this doesn’t affect the performance in any way.

HyperOS is good, but not as feature-rich as perceived

The OS is filled with bloatware (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

The highly customisable lock screen on the Poco F6 is one of the best features of the HyperOS, and the rest feels very similar to MIUI with more hints of iOS than ever before. Thanks to the powerful chip, the OS feels fluid. However, Poco should have addressed the bloatware situation, as the phone comes with unnecessary apps and games. These can be uninstalled, but spoil the first impression and change how one perceives this phone. Poco is also promising three major OS upgrades and four years of security updates, which should keep the phone solid and secure at least until 2028. It also has some AI features, but nothing as extensive as Galaxy AI or Apple Intelligence.

All-day battery, but only if you don’t play games all day

Heavy gamers might have to recharge the battery twice a day (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

The Poco F6 packs a 5,000 mAh battery with support for 90W fast charging. While most phone brands won’t even include a charger in the box these days, Poco has outdone itself by providing a 120W fast charger with support for USB-PD protocol. This can also charge most phones and laptops. The phone can be fully charged in under 40 minutes using the bundled adapter.
The device, on most days, delivered an average battery life of between five to six hours with regular usage on both WiFi and 5G networks. However, if you tend to play games for more than an hour a day, the battery life will come down to around four and a half hours.

Verdict: Go for it

A performance-first mid-tier smartphone (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

There isn’t much that has changed from the Poco F1 (review) to the Poco F6, and it’s a good thing. Just like the first model, the Poco F6 caters to those who value performance over everything else, that too at a price point most phones pack a chip that’s at least a year old or a mid-tier processor.

A phone with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will cost at least Rs 35,000, and the Poco F6, for Rs 29,999 (for Rs 25,999 with bank offers), offers more performance. This is enough to get this device, and for gamers, who are on a budget, there is nothing better than this in the market.