Best budget smartphone Xiaomi Poco M3:
review

The Poco M3 is officially available starting at €150 ($181). For this amount you will get a 6.53-inch smartphone with 4 GB RAM / 64 GB internal memory, Android 10, IPS display with a resolution of 2340 × 1080 px and Snapdragon 662 as a central processor. While this doesn’t turn the Poco M3 into a rocket, its performance should be sufficient for everyday use. And given the huge battery capacity, you can easily use it for much longer.

This single hardware characteristic makes the Poco M3 particularly interesting: the Xiaomi smartphone, with its 6000 mAh battery, has more capacity than most other smartphones.

Frame

Don’t expect a 150-euro smartphone to have a shiny body design, fancy glass and metal surfaces, or IP certification. While the Poco M3 is no exception here, it still does a lot right in terms of looks.

Weighing just 198 grams, Xiaomi’s affordable smartphone is comfortably light, even if it is one of the rather large smartphones with a 6.53-inch form factor. And while there’s an XXL battery to fit under the hood, at 9.6mm thick it’s almost as thin as its competitors.

Thanks to the matte, slightly rubberized back of the case, which has a surface structure reminiscent of leather, Poco M3 is comfortable to hold in your hand. At the same time, it feels durable and reliable enough that you don’t necessarily need to put your smartphone in the included protective case.

A matte plastic frame connects the back cover, which features a prominent “Poco” branding, to the display, which is protected by a layer of Gorilla Glass 3. The not-so-thin display bezels and the notch for the selfie camera are a design compromise due to the low price. The fingerprint sensor is integrated into the power button.

Xiaomi offers Poco M3 in three body colors. Our review unit came in Power Black, with additional colors available in Poco Yellow and Cool Blue.

Equipment

The Poco M3 has 4GB of LPDDR4X RAM and optional 64 or 128GB of internal storage (€150 or €170 respectively; $181 or $205). But since the Xiaomi smartphone is currently difficult to find in online stores, both of these prices could be significantly higher. An interesting detail is the fact that the 64GB version uses UFS-2 storage. 1, and the 128 GB uses UFS-2 storage. 2. But in terms of performance they are very close, so you shouldn’t notice any difference in speed between both storage versions.

The internal storage can be expanded using a microSD card. The volume is supported up to 512 GB. However, it cannot store any applications, only media files. On the other hand, the card tray can hold two SIM cards simultaneously in addition to a microSD card.

The OTG compatible USB-C port on the Poco M3 transfers data at USB-2 speeds. 0. The equipment also includes an IR transmitter and FM radio. Widevine L1 DRM is also supported, allowing you to play streams in HD quality.

Software

Poco M3 uses Xiaomi’s Android 10 UI and MIUI 12. At the time of our testing, Android security patches were at December 2020 levels. Xiaomi usually provides new security updates for its current smartphones every three months, so there should be a new update soon.

Of its 128 GB of memory, almost 108 GB were available to the user of our test unit in its shipping condition. In addition to Google and Xiaomi tools, there are only a few third-party applications such as Amazon, Facebook (продукт Meta Platforms Inc., компания признана экстремистской организацией, деятельность на территории РФ запрещена), eBay and TikTok that can be removed.

Communications and GPS

The model tested can support 4G connections and covers a significant amount of frequencies with LTE bands 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/20/28/38/40 and 41. Its low emission values are also positive (SAR head 0.597 W/ kg, body SAR 0.807 W/kg).

Xiaomi does not support mobile payments as it does not have an NFC chip. On the other hand, the communication equipment includes Bluetooth 5.0 and WiFi 5. However, the Poco M3 left a mixed impression in the WLAN test.

With a maximum of 301Mbps receiving and 284Mbps sending, Wi-Fi transfer speeds are in the middle of our device comparison field, so these are quite acceptable values. However, the transmission speed is not very stable as the WLAN speed drops continuously over short periods of time. Although these drops are not very significant, other competitors such as the Samsung Galaxy M21, which has almost the same WLAN speeds, can manage more stable data transfers.

Poco M3 determines its current location using Beidou, GPS, GLONASS and Galileo satellite navigation systems. In our test, this was achieved with an accuracy of up to 4 meters indoors and up to 3 meters outdoors. When driving, GPS accuracy is not as high, but is still sufficient for everyday tasks.

On our bike tour of about 12 km, where we also take a professional navigation device for direct comparison, the Poco M3 shows significantly true, but also sometimes places us close to the trail. Overall, however, these variations remain limited.

Phone features and voice quality

Poco M3 supports 4G connections for two SIM cards simultaneously. VoLTE and WLAN calls are also supported if your network provider allows it. In the test, Xiaomi showed good voice quality, and in hands-free mode, voices are still clear and easy to understand.

Cameras

The Xiaomi smartphone is equipped with a three-camera system, the main element of which is a 48 MPX (f/1.79) lens with autofocus. By default, it combines 4 adjacent pixels into one, taking 12 MPX pictures. If you wish, you can also go to the "48M" menu in the camera settings, which will allow you to use the full resolution. The camera records video at a maximum resolution of 1080p and 30 frames per second. On the downside, there’s no image stabilization, so you’ll need a steady hand.

Unfortunately, the camera trio’s optional modules don’t include a wide-angle or telephoto lens, but rather a macro camera and a depth sensor, both of which have 2 MPX resolution and an f/2.4 aperture. But the depth sensor still produces useful bokeh effects for portrait shots. The 8-megapixel selfie camera is also decent and also provides good service during video calls but does not offer autofocus.

In daylight, you can get good photos from the main camera, including many details that appear quite bright. However, with the camera’s AI activated, some colors appear too intense.

Despite all the criticism: with a purchase price of around 150 euros (~$181), the camera does offer some value. If you limit yourself to standard photographs in bright surroundings, you will almost always get decent pictures.

Input devices and operation

The Snapdragon 662’s performance is sufficient for everyday tasks, but it is slow in some areas. Menu navigation is smooth, but launching apps almost always comes with a moment’s pause. The same goes for taking photos or switching between apps and even closing apps.

Finally, everything works as it should, but for impatient users or those accustomed to the smooth performance of 90Hz displays and/or mid-range smartphones, the Poco M3 is a bit sluggish. Only unlocking using facial recognition or fingerprint sensor works smoothly and without lag. It happens as quickly and reliably as we are used to with more expensive Xiaomi smartphones.

Display

Xiaomi has equipped the Poco M3 with an IPS display with a resolution of 2340×1080 px (FHD+). This gives a 19.5:9 form factor and a px density of 395 PPI. The IPS display is protected by Gorilla Glass 3 and offers a 60Hz refresh rate.

The budget smartphone with a pure white background has an average brightness of 428 cd/m², which does not make it particularly bright even in the price range below 200 euros. When we repeat the measurement with evenly distributed light and dark areas of the image (APL50), the maximum is 437 cd/m². Without a brightness sensor, Xiaomi reaches 411 cd/m2.

While the Poco M3 still uses PWM to control brightness, it is only used when the display brightness is set to 3% or less, which almost never happens in practice. Additionally, the PWM flicker has a very high frequency of 892.2Hz, so it shouldn’t bother even sensitive users.

The Xiaomi smartphone offers better color rendering if you change the default "Automatic" color scheme to "Standard". At maximum Delta-E 3.5, not only the color and grayscale values are quite accurate, but also the color temperature and gamma value.

On the street, the Poco M3 convinces only to a limited extent. Due to the not very large brightness reserve, it is sometimes difficult to easily recognize the content. However, Xiaomi faced a very difficult outdoor scenario in the test: a combination of direct sun, snow cover and the resulting light reflections.

In terms of viewing angle stability, the IPS display does not come close to more expensive smartphones. The image content already appears noticeably darker if you look at the screen a little from the side. Although this effect is not very noticeable on test screens, in practice the opposite is true. On the other hand, color reproduction remains neutral even at very steep viewing angles.

Performance

With an octa-core Snapdragon 662 processor and Adreno 610 graphics chip, the Poco M3’s performance is in the lower midrange. It’s not as fast as the Exynos 9611 found in the Samsung Galaxy M21 or the Mediatek Helio G95 in the Realme 7. However, the performance is good enough for everyday tasks, even if some things aren’t as fast, like loading apps. However, our tests show that the SoC is still suitable for some games.

Thanks to UFS-2 storage. 2 The Poco M3 offers good read and write speeds, but overall it’s not much faster than those that use UFS-2.1 storage, such as the Samsung Galaxy M21. MicroSD performance is also normal.

Games

Poco M3 can be quite suitable for gaming. Xiaomi has stereo speakers located on the two short sides, so they provide good sound imaging in landscape format. Of course, performance reserves are limited due to the Snapdragon 662, but they are still enough to play graphically simpler games, such as Armajet.

Sometimes you will have to reduce the graphics detail in more hardware-intensive games to maintain your enjoyment of the game. “PUBG Mobile” does this on its own: the popular shooter has the highest available graphics detail at “Balanced,” which is the second lowest setting. Even then, "PUBG Mobile" will also not run completely smoothly, but is still easily playable at an average of 25 frames per second.

Temperature

With an average temperature of 32.4 C, the Xiaomi Poco M3 does not heat up even under load, so your hand will never feel too hot. Inside, the smartphone also handles temperatures well.

As tests show, the Snapdragon 662 can always fully utilize its maximum performance, and there is no throttling due to heating issues. This is shown, for example, in the GFXBench battery test scenarios, where the Poco M3 renders test scenes 30 times in a row without dropping the frame rate. In the 3DMark stress test, the stability indicator is almost perfect and amounts to 99.5%.

Sound

Stereo speakers are something special in the price class below 200 euros ($242), and the Xiaomi Poco M3 boasts this. The speakers are located on both short sides of the smartphone and produce surprisingly good sound, the only drawback being the low frequency range. You can also connect the headset to your smartphone via a 3.5mm audio port or Bluetooth 5.0.

Power consumption

While the Poco M3 supports up to 18W charging, there is a 22.5W charger included in the box. In our test, it is able to fully charge the Xiaomi in 2 hours 40 minutes, which is a pretty good performance considering the large 6000 mAh battery.

Although the smartphone does not support wireless charging, it does support reverse wired charging. This means you can also use your smartphone as a power bank to charge other devices. However, the corresponding cable for this is not included in the package.

Battery life

Thanks to the combination of low power consumption and XXL size battery, Xiaomi Poco M3 provides excellent battery life. In simulated web surfing it lasts almost 21 hours, and in video playback it lasts almost 19.5 hours. With regular use, the Xiaomi Poco M3 should last at least two, if not three days on a single charge. Among our comparison devices, only the Samsung Galaxy M21 can match it as it also has a 6,000mAh battery.

Conclusion

At a price of 150 euros ($181) for the 64 GB version of the Xiaomi Poco M3, it’s really nothing. But with 4GB of RAM and a Snapdragon 662, the budget smartphone isn’t a performance champion and can be sluggish at times. But the performance is still sufficient for everyday tasks, and even allows you to sometimes play this or that game. On the other hand, we would have liked a slightly brighter IPS screen, as the otherwise good display quickly reaches its limits outdoors.

Otherwise, the Poco M3’s equipment is surprisingly extensive. There’s a triple-camera system capable of taking acceptable pictures in daylight, true dual-SIM capability and even stereo speakers, which is a truly rare feature in this price class. But the obvious highlight of the hardware is the large 6,000mAh battery, which gives Xiaomi impressive battery life. The battery can be fully charged in less than 3 hours.

Overall, the Poco M3 offers good performance but is not a budget smartphone champion.