Poco F6 Pro Review: A Collection of Compromises

If you happen to’ve by no means heard of Poco, you’re actually not alone.  

The Chinese language firm started life as a sub-brand of Xiaomi again in 2018, earlier than changing into an unbiased agency two years later. Nonetheless, it retains deep ties to its former dad or mum firm, together with utilizing the identical HyperOS software program on its telephones. 

Poco has by no means launched what most individuals would outline as a flagship smartphone, selecting as a substitute to supply the absolute best expertise on a extra inexpensive machine. 

The Poco F6 Professional continues that custom, providing a number of high-end options but retaining a mid-range value. Does that make it a no brainer in case you’re purchasing round this value level? Sure, however solely in case you have a really particular set of necessities. 

Design & Construct

• Engaging glass again
• IP54 water and dirt resistance
• Spectacular haptics

The Poco F6 Professional is among the best-looking telephones I’ve ever examined. That’s not an exaggeration – the frosted glass on the white mannequin I examined appears to be like surprisingly gorgeous in individual.  

Often, I don’t like white-backed telephones on account of their tendency to shortly accumulate filth, however the F6 Professional nonetheless seemed good as new after every week of testing. I think about the identical might be true of the black model, which is your solely different color choice. 

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

It seems like a disgrace to cowl the telephone with a case, although you would possibly want the additional grip it offers. With out it, I used to be anxious in regards to the telephone falling off a desk or out of my pocket. 

The silicone case included within the field is above common, including the same old further safety whereas wanting good within the course of. 

Nonetheless, even with out it, sturdiness isn’t a serious concern. In contrast to most glass-backed telephones, I’m assured that the F6 Professional would survive any of the bumps and drops you would possibly affiliate with on a regular basis utilization. 

The telephone isn’t precisely light-weight at 209g, but it surely’s not too heavy and a few weight provides to the premium really feel. 

In fact, you’ll additionally discover glass on the show. It feels comparatively sturdy, but it surely’s not a selected Gorilla Glass model for toughness. Because of this, I’d advocate you permit the pre-applied display protector on for so long as doable – it doesn’t have an effect on the under-display fingerprint sensor. 

The Poco F6 Professional additionally has an IP54 score, which means it’s principally protected towards mud however can solely survive splashes of water. It’ll be positive on the seashore or in case you get caught within the rain, however don’t drop it in a swimming pool.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

It’s a key downgrade in comparison with the IP68 discovered on many flagship telephones, but in addition a step down from the IP64 on the common Poco F6. 

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

General, the curved edges of the machine make it simpler to carry than another massive smartphones. 

It’s additionally value mentioning the vibration motor right here, which presents delicate clipped haptic suggestions whereas typing, transferring between apps and charging. Nonetheless, it’s off by default, so be sure you allow it in settings. 

Display & Audio system

• 6.67-inch, 1440p OLED
• 120Hz, however not LTPO
• Twin stereo audio system

The show on the Poco F6 Professional is sort of nearly as good as any flagship telephone. It’s a 6.67-inch AMOLED panel, full with excessive WQHD+ (3200×1440) decision.

That’s greater than many flagships, although you’ll have to manually allow it in settings. Even the default FHD+ presents nice element and readability, however the full decision takes it to the subsequent degree. 

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

And as an OLED panel, you get wealthy, vibrant colors and deep blacks. That makes it significantly well-suited to watching movies and gaming, however all varieties of content material look nice. 

That applies even in vibrant out of doors environments, the place a devoted ‘Daylight mode’ permits a powerful most brightness of 712 nits by my measurement with a colorimeter. I had no issues with visibility whatever the state of affairs, which might’t be mentioned for all telephones. 

Similar to most flagships, you additionally get a 120Hz refresh charge. Nonetheless, the F6 Professional lacks LTPO know-how, which means it might probably’t drop all the way down to 1Hz to protect battery life. As an alternative, you’ll be able to manually set it to 60- or 120Hz, or swap between the 2 within the ‘default mode’. 

That is on no account a dealbreaker, however the F6 Professional may do with some further battery life (extra on that later). 

Inside the display, you’ll discover an optical fingerprint sensor. Regardless of a comparatively small goal space, I discovered it to be straightforward to arrange and customarily quick and dependable. It’s additionally far more safe than the face unlock, which makes use of solely the front-facing digital camera right here.

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

When it comes to audio, the machine boasts the same old mixture of a single downward-firing speaker the earpiece for a stereo setup. 

The sound is completely unremarkable, providing first rate readability however missing any of the bass required to make music really feel immersive. Calls are very clear, although. 

Specs & Efficiency

• Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset
• Very good all-round efficiency
• Twin-SIM, however no expandable storage

The F6 Professional is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. This isn’t Qualcomm’s newest and best – that award goes to the 8 Gen 3 on the time of writing – but it surely’s a wise transfer by Poco. 

Keep in mind, this is identical chip present in a lot of 2023’s finest Android telephones, together with the Samsung Galaxy S23 Extremely, OnePlus 11 and Xiaomi 13 Professional. Efficiency is a key power of all Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 telephones, and that’s no completely different right here regardless of its age.

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

With a powerful 12- or 16GB of RAM (my evaluate unit has the latter), you’ll be able to anticipate excellent efficiency in just about any state of affairs. In case your every day utilization is something like mine, consisting of internet shopping, messaging, emails, social media, video streaming and taking photographs, the F6 Professional handles all of it with ease. 

Additional proof of this may be discovered whereas gaming. I attempted three of essentially the most demanding titles on the Play Retailer in Genshin Impression, PUBG Cellular and Asphalt 9: Legends. Gameplay remained clean and responsive all through – it was indistinguishable from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 telephones I’ve tried. 

I did discover some slight slowdown when shortly switching between apps, however that appears to be extra of a software program difficulty than an absence of energy. 

Poco F6 Professional benchmarks

Whereas there’s no help for expandable storage (its dual-SIM solely), you continue to get loads of alternative on the subject of inner storage. The F6 Professional is obtainable with both 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of area.  

Even the smallest capability might be sufficient for most individuals, although it’s value noting that round 28GB is taken up by system recordsdata which can’t be uninstalled. 

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip helps 5G and it’s joined within the connectivity division by Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3 and NFC (for Google Pay). You even get an IR blaster, permitting you to manage your TV (and different gadgets) out of your telephone which could be very helpful.  

Cameras

• Sturdy 50Mp important digital camera
• Stable 16Mp selfie digital camera
• Poor supporting rear lenses

Judging by the again of the Poco F6 Professional, you’d suppose it’s all in regards to the cameras. The rear module takes up round 1 / 4 of the again, although the setup right here isn’t as spectacular because it might sound on the floor. 

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Firstly, one of many 4 rings is only a common flash. And for the opposite three, there’s an enormous variation in high quality between them. 

Let’s begin with the 50Mp important lens, which is essentially the most spectacular by far. In good lighting, the first rear digital camera takes spectacular, true-to-life photographs which can be brimming with element. Dynamic vary and color accuracy are each robust. 

In contrast to some mid-range telephones, you’ll be able to faucet the shutter button and be assured that you simply’ll get a transparent well-exposed image. And the minimal shutter lag helped me seize the second as quickly as I noticed it. 

That is the digital camera you’ll be utilizing for portrait-style photographs, that are a pleasing shock. Edge detection isn’t excellent, but it surely creates a sensible background blur which could be adjusted each earlier than and after you’re taking the shot. 

The primary lens is well-suited to photographs of structure and landscapes too, although you is likely to be tempted to modify to the 8Mp ultrawide for the latter to suit extra in. 

I wouldn’t trouble. The decline in high quality is so steep that it outweighs any advantages from the broader discipline of view. Publicity, color accuracy and dynamic vary are all severely compromised, to the extent that I used to be reluctant to ever use it. 

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

In darker environments, the long-exposure night time mode comes into its personal. I used to be impressed with hjow it brightened a dimly lit live performance corridor whereas nonetheless preserving key particulars and with out wanting synthetic.  

You would possibly’ve seen I haven’t talked about the third rear digital camera but. That’s as a result of it’s a 2Mp macro, which makes an all-too-common look on cheaper telephones to cheaply bump the variety of cameras up. It’s functionally ineffective – even close-up photographs are nonetheless blurry. 

Sadly, meaning there’s no room for a telephoto digital camera, so zoomed photographs are completely reliant on digital zoom (as much as 10x). At something past 2x, the photographs are so blurry that they’re virtually unusable. 

The excellent news is that the 16Mp front-facing digital camera is far more spectacular. Supplied the lighting is nice, selfies are crisp and well-exposed. Portrait mode right here is simply nearly as good because the rear digital camera, too. 

It’s one other case of a mid-range telephone solely having two good cameras.

The Poco F6 Professional helps video seize as much as 4K at 30fps, although the default 1080p at 30fps might be simply positive for most individuals. Footage appears to be like first rate, with optical picture stabilisation (OIS) on the principle lens making certain it stays principally regular with some motion. 

Nonetheless, the audio facet right here was very disappointing. In movies I took of a live performance, the singer’s voice sounded washed out and misplaced a variety of the affect that was very a lot there whereas listening in individual. In comparison with one my pal took together with his iPhone 14, the outcomes have been night time and day. 

Battery Life & Charging

• 5000mAh battery
• Barely underwhelming battery life
• Tremendous-fast 120W wired charging

The Poco F6 Professional is provided with a 5000mAh battery. That’s a typical capability for a contemporary smartphone – even one with such a big, high-resolution show. 

Sadly, battery life isn’t fairly nearly as good as I hoped. It is possible for you to to get by a full day on a single cost more often than not, however not with out worrying about it within the night or enabling battery saver mode. 

Throughout a full day of testing the telephone in Dubai, I left my resort room at 9am with a full battery and acquired again round 12 hours later with simply 20% remaining. Whereas excessive brightness, GPS and cell information have been all enabled, I used to be solely truly utilizing the telephone sometimes, which is a priority.

Our PCMark battery benchmark, which goals to simulate real-world duties, recorded 10 hours and 47 minutes. That’s round common, albeit solely at FHD+ decision and with adaptive refresh charge turned on. 

Battery life isn’t dangerous per se, however I used to be anticipating higher from the Poco F6 Professional. 

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Nonetheless, charging is sort of nearly as good because it will get. Not solely does the telephone help 120W quick charging, however the essential adapter can be included within the field. It went from 0-65% in simply quarter-hour and was absolutely charged in beneath half an hour – outpacing the likes of Samsung and Google by miles. 

There’s no wi-fi charging, however with these wired speeds, I actually didn’t miss it. 

Software program & Apps

• HyperOS pores and skin over Android 14
• A lot of bloatware
• 3 yr of OS updates, 4 years of safety updates

Whereas the Poco F5 Professional ran MIUI 14 out of the field, the F6 Professional switches it out for HyperOS. 

Nonetheless, that is only a rebranding of Xiaomi’s Android pores and skin, and frustratingly little has modified. 

It’s a minimum of now primarily based on Android 14 (the newest model on the time of writing), however Xiaomi’s tweaks to the expertise are a step again for ease of use in comparison with telephones from the likes of Google, Samsung and OnePlus. 

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Undoubtedly essentially the most annoying factor is the bloatware, with dozens of additional pre-installed apps that you simply’ll in all probability by no means use. It doesn’t appear proper that the likes of Block Puzzle Guardian, Bigo Reside, Tile Enjoyable and lots of others are added, whether or not you need them or not. 

Most could be uninstalled, however a lot of Xiaomi’s personal inventory apps can’t be eliminated, regardless of a lot of them being duplicates of those superior Google makes. 

Elsewhere, with each wallpaper you select, Xiaomi asks so as to add a carousel of stories articles that you simply in all probability don’t care about. The brilliant, vivid colors and cut up notification shade (notifications from left, fast settings from proper) take some getting used to. 

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

HyperOS is on no account unusable, and with some tweaking, you may get it to look and carry out the way you need it to. However the F6 Professional doesn’t have the out of field slick consumer expertise that you simply get with another Android telephones.

Though AI is all the fad proper now, the F6 Professional doesn’t include something standout at launch. Nonetheless, issues like subtitles, smarter gallery search, elimination of background objects in photographs, generative fill expanded photos and generated portraits are on the best way.

Poco is supporting the telephone with three years of OS updates and 4 years of safety patches, which means it ought to get Android 17 and be secure to make use of till 2028. 

That’s not dangerous, however Samsung and Google each provide extra on their mid-range telephones, with the £499 Pixel 8a getting seven years of each.

Worth & Availability

At launch, the Poco F6 Professional begins at £499.90 within the UK. That will get you a mannequin with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, although there are additionally variations with 12GB/512GB (£549.90) and 16GB/1TB (£599.90) in case you’d want.

It’ll be in the stores outright from Xiaomi, Poco and Amazon, with early chook presents dropping the value of all three fashions by £50 till 30 Could. However there’s nowhere to get one on contract, so that you’ll must pair it with a SIM-only deal.

And as ordinary for Poco telephones, it gained’t be out there within the US.

It’s very a lot a mid-range telephone, although costlier than the £399.90 common Poco F6 that launched alongside it.

Nonetheless, there are some excellent choices at this value level, together with the Google Pixel 8a (from £499), Xiaomi Redmi Observe 13 Professional+ (from £449/€499) and Samsung Galaxy A55 (from £439). Then there’s Poco’s personal X6 Professional which is simply £339.

For most individuals, all three of the above will provide a greater all-round expertise.

Do you have to purchase the Poco F6 Professional?

Presumably, however provided that efficiency, show and charging speeds are crucial issues to you. 

The Poco F6 Professional excels in any respect three, matching and even surpassing most different mid-range telephones in these areas. 

Nonetheless, spectacular important and selfie cameras are let down by poor supporting lenses, whereas battery life itself may very well be higher. 

You’ll additionally must take care of Xiaomi’s HyperOS Android pores and skin, which is an acquired style to say the least. 

The F6 Professional presents loads in your cash, but it surely’s not a terrific all-round telephone, making it tough to advocate to most individuals. 

Specs

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset  
• 12/16GB LPDDR5X RAM  
• 256/512GB UFS 4.0 storage  
• 6.67-inch, 3200×1440 OLED show, 120Hz 
• 50Mp, f/1.6 important digital camera with OIS  
• 8Mp, f/2.2 ultrawide digital camera  
• 2Mp, f/2.4 macro digital camera 
• 16Mp selfie digital camera 
• 5000mAh battery  
• 120 wired charging  
• 5G  
• Twin stereo audio system  
• Wi-Fi 7  
• Bluetooth 5.3 
• NFC  
• Xiaomi HyperOS over Android 14  
• 160.86 x 74.95 x 8.21mm  
• 209g