POCO X6 Pro

The POCO X6 Pro's display is a slight upgrade from its predecessor the X5 Pro. The handset sports a 6.67-inch display of the AMOLED variety with an adaptive refresh rate (up to 120Hz), 1,800 nits peak brightness, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and a 100 percent wide colour gamut. Furthermore, the display boasts razor-thin bezels, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection, and a relatively tiny punch-hole setup for the selfie camera. The viewing experience is just as impressive as the specifications. The colour reproduction on the POCO X6 Pro is at par with other smartphones in the segment. Additionally, it outputs an outstanding contrast ratio and impressive viewing angles, placing the device among some of the more expensive smartphones out there. The brightness is also commendable for a mid-ranger, ensuring effortless outdoor visibility even under direct sunlight. The Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support, available across platforms like Netflix, further enrich the viewing experience while watching supported TV shows and movies.The company is also calling it a ‘wet touch display', designed to prevent false touches caused by sweat during gaming or exposure to water. In our tests with tiny drops of water on the screen, it worked seamlessly. However, we advise against exposing it to heavy rain, as the handset is only IP54 certified.

Unlike its predecessors, the POCO X6 Pro ships with a 64MP primary camera, a departure from the previous 108MP sensor. However, the reduction in resolution comes with gains in stabilisation, with support for both OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation) and EIS (Electronic Image Stabilisation). The rear camera also supports 8MP ultra-wide and 2MP macro cameras, which remain unchanged. Up front, the handset sports a 16MP shooter for selfies and video calling.In terms of image quality, I think could have been better. Don't get me wrong; for a gaming/performance-focused smartphone, the cameras output respectable shots that should satisfy most casual users. However, if you are an enthusiast, it might leave you wanting more. The images are sharp even in low light, courtesy of the stabilisation, but exposure to details appears a little underwhelming. As a result, there is some noise in the frame. The colour reproduction, meanwhile, looks good. It's a bit oversaturated at times, but still likeable. The colours degrade a bit when the sun goes down, but that's with most mid-rangers.

Coming to the POCO X6 Pro's performance, it is driven by the MediaTek Dimensity 8300 Ultra SoC. It's a new mid-range chipset with four Arm Cortex-A715 performance cores and four Cortex-A510 efficiency cores, clocked at 3.35GHz and 2.2GHz, respectively. The company has added a large 5,000mm vapour chamber, which was previously exclusive to its F-series smartphone, and WildBoost Optimisation 2.0. The latter is said to provide fast and smooth gameplay. Moreover, the chipset supports fast LPDDR5X RAM (up to 12GB) and up to 512GB UFS 4.0 storage. There is no microSD card on the phone to expand the storage, which has been the case with many other mid-rangers as well.Be that as it may, the POCO X6 Pro performs admirably well. The chipset ensures smooth operation no matter what is thrown at it, including multitasking. The RAM management is also very good. It can keep multiple apps running in the background at once. As for the benchmark scores, they stand close to the flagship-grade Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC. On AnTuTu, the smartphone returned a score of a whopping 13,31,887, whereas on Geekbench, it achieved a score of 1,355 and 4,315 on single-core and multi-core tests respectively. The CPU throttle test looks equally good, with the smartphone performing 81 percent of its peak output. The handset did not heat up even under strenuous loads, with credit to the effective vapour chamber. But I feel that Delhi's current cold weather might be playing a part in this.When it comes to gaming, the POCO X6 Pro effortlessly handles BGMI with maximum supported graphics and frame rate settings. I played back-to-back sessions of the game and did not encounter hiccups or frame-drop issues even when the gameplay became intense. The phone does warm up a bit after extended use, but it consistently maintains control over its thermals. Again, this is in January's weather in the capital of India. We will update this post if there are any changes in thermals once we enter the peak summer season.

The POCO X6 Pro is the first smartphone in India to run the new Xiaomi HyperOS out of the box. This OS is a departure from the familiar MIUI skin seen on previous POCO smartphones. The HyperOS is based on Android 14. It doesn't look significantly different from its predecessor, and there are minor tweaks here and there, like lock screen customisation, which allows users to set their pictures with depth of field and other styles similar to iOS 17. However, overall, the skin resembles the same as the global version of MIUI 14 on the recently launched Redmi Note 13 Pro+.Most of the changes are under the hood, such as AI features that offer the ability to change the background of an image within the gallery app and copy the image to the clipboard. The control panel has also been redesigned, but for some reason, the ‘Settings' icon has been relocated with the rest, making it difficult to find. The panel itself may benefit from further refinement as it currently appears cluttered on the screen. Speaking of clutter, the software is loaded with several third-party apps, contributing to a somewhat bloated user experience. Fortunately, with HyperOS, you can remove most of these apps, including Xiaomi's native calculator, scanner, and security apps.While the effort to provide a clean user experience is duly appreciated, I wish there were no third-party apps in the first place. Be that as it may, if you are into customisation, you will appreciate the company's effort with HyperOS, which is only going to get better with future updates. On that note, POCO has promised up to three years of major software updates and four years of security updates for the X6 series.

The POCO X6 Pro's 5,000mAh battery is the same as its predecessor the X5 Pro. Even the 67W Turbo Charging remains unchanged, and takes roughly 40-45 minutes to fuel up the smartphone from 0-100 percent. After that, the phone is capable of enough to last an entire day of usage even with gaming involved. I was getting 5-6 hours of screen-on-time with an hour of gaming a day, some navigation, and streaming shows and TV series.On the PC Mark battery test, the POCO X6 Pro achieved a score of 12 hours and 25 minutes.