POCO M6 Plus

While POCO continues to skip the ultra-wide camera on its budget offerings, the new POCO M6 Plus gets a 108MP primary camera utilising Samsung's ISOCELL HM6 primary camera with an aperture size of f/1.75. There's also a 2MP macro camera on the back. At the front, there's a 13MP shooter.Typically, the POCO M6 Plus prioritises shots with high brightness and vibrancy, at least those under decent lighting conditions. As a result, the photos may look more pleasing and more social media-ready. Images in low-light conditions are decent, but you will notice some degree of softening to reduce noise. Photos in extremely low light can be a hit-and-miss, and you may need to tweak lighting and colours via the native editing app to get the desirable output.We've also compared its shots with Redmi 13 5G and Realme Narzo N65.Daylight and low-lightThese photos by the POCO M6 Plus and Redmi 13 5G look identical, that's also because the two smartphones share the same camera specifications. Redmi's photos may appear slightly balanced, though the details in both images are almost similar.Even if you look at the photos below, you will notice almost the same treatment. The walls in Redmi's image may appear slightly boosted, but overall, differences are hard to distinguish.Even in low-light conditions, their images look almost identical. Given the price of these smartphones, I'm mostly pleased with the results. You can turn on HDR for a punchier output, though it's best to keep your expectations realistic.PortraitWe are again checking out the portrait shots by POCO M6 Plus and Redmi 13 5G, and the differences are negligible. Redmi's image continues to feature a red tint, which at least looks good with my complexion. This colour treatment is easily achievable via the native editing app on the POCO M6 Plus.I am also pleased by both smartphone's edge detection, which is quite good considering the price. While the facial details are decent, I can notice slightly higher grains on the image by POCO M6 Plus. Otherwise, I find both photos appealing and even worthy of uploading on my social media.Selfie (portrait)For the selfie shot, I am comparing POCO M6 Plus' output against Realme Narzo N65. The colour treatment in both images is visibly different.I like POCO M6 Plus' natural tone approach while maintaining facial details. The Realme Narzo 65 captures more facial details, though its image features a strong red tone. Aesthetically, Realme's output looks better.The bokeh effect on both phones may appear slightly artificial. However, in extreme low-light conditions, both smartphones struggle big time. Images consist of a lot of grains and the details are also sketchy. The Realme Narzo N65 controls light better, though it loses focus on the shirt and surrounding area. The POCO M6 Plus shows more details of the outfit and the subject, though the light on the face gets overexposed.VideosThe POCO M6 Plus supports full HD recording at 30fps from both the rear and front cameras. In daylight, the output is surprisingly good in terms of colours and contrast. However, stability could be an issue since there's no OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation) or EIS (Electronic Image Stabilisation). To achieve a more aesthetically pleasing result, it's advisable to be mindful of stability or to rest the phone on a flat surface during recording.

Similar to the Redmi 13 5G, the POCO M6 Plus boasts Qualcomm's Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 AE SoC. The "AE" in the moniker stands for Accelerated Edition, meaning you get a slightly boosted clock speed of up to 2.3GHz instead of 2.2GHz. As mentioned, the POCO M6 Plus also offers 128GB of storage across the two storage variants. The base model with 6GB RAM costs Rs 12,999 and the top variant, which I am also reviewing, carries a sticker price of Rs 14,499.Overall, POCO M6 Plus' specifications remain modest, and the smartphone offers sufficient juice for basic tasks, such as social media browsing, reading, WhatsApp, and watching movies. Enabling the 120Hz refresh rate may also enhance the experience, especially with scrolling. You may notice minor lag while opening or switching between apps, but that's the case with almost all smartphones in the sub-Rs 14,000 segment. The phone also gets seven essential 5G band support, which is quite good considering the price.Based on our benchmarks, the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 AE SoC offers considerable leaps over last year's Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 SoC-powered POCO M6 Pro. Even compared to the MediaTek Dimensity 6100+ SoC-powered POCO M6, the benchmark scores attained by POCO M6 Plus are much improved.SmartphoneAnTuTuPOCO M6 Plus433376POCO M6 Pro426559POCO M6385207However, when pitted against some immediate rivals, the scores are decent at best. The Redmi 13 5G with the same chipset performed better in AnTuTu. The iQOO Z9x with the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 and the same memory configuration has the highest score in our AnTuTu benchmark. Interestingly, the POCO M6 Plus performed better in Geekbench's single-core test than the iQOO Z9x.When it comes to heavy tasks such as gaming, the POCO M6 Plus offers decent performance, though the IPS panel does not provide the best visual experience. POCO could've considered adding dual speakers if it was limited to using an IPS panel to keep the pricing aggressive. One may argue that connecting wired earphones may offer some respite, though the audio jack may cause some issues with the grip. POCO may suggest using its new TWS POCO X1 Buds for a seamless gaming experience.In terms of gaming performance, you can play Battlegrounds Mobile India with smooth graphics at "Ultra" FPS settings. After 30 minutes of gameplay, the average FPS was recorded at 27.5, placing the POCO M6 Plus in the same league as most of its competitors.Thermal management, at least while running BGMI for 30 minutes, wasn't ideal. We noticed a similar trend on the Redmi 13 5G.Pre-installed appsOS UpdatesPOCO M6 Plus642 years OS + 4 years security updatesRedmi 13 5G532 years OS + 4 years security updatesRealme Narzo 5G532 years OS + 3 years security updatesiQOO Z9x542 years OS + 3 years security updates

As mentioned, the battery size on the POCO M6 Plus has been slightly increased, but there's also faster charging support over the POCO M6 Pro.Due to its modest specifications and IPS display, the POCO M6 Plus can last full-day with heavy usage. My use cases included social media browsing, mild gaming, and plenty of camera tests. I had also enabled the 120Hz refresh rate on the smartphone. You can extend the backup with moderate settings enabled.SmartphonePOCO M6 PlusRedmi 13 5GiQOO Z9xBattery5,030mAh5,030mAh6,000mAhCharging time63 minutes (33W)86 minutes (33W)61 minutes (44W) However, the POCO M6 Plus appears to be not fully optimised for PCMark's battery test. It ran the test for nearly nine hours, which is an average performance, especially for a smartphone with a 5,030mAh battery. Rivals like Redmi 13 5G and Narzo N65 showcased better performance in the same PCMark test.Notably, POCO M6 Plus took less time to charge from 20 to 100 percent than its competitors.