Xiaomi Poco X8 Pro Review: Flagship Performance, Entry-Level Prices

Greatest Costs Right now: Xiaomi Poco X8 Professional

Poco’s intention is to supply high-performance telephones to youthful patrons with tighter budgets, with a constant objective of delivering an excellent gaming expertise. That always results in telephones which are nearly laughably low-cost – however not in a nasty approach.

The Poco X8 Professional is the follow-up to 2025’s Poco X7 Professional and sits alongside the Poco X8 Professional Max, which sits in a brand new, barely larger place, costing a bit of extra and bumping a number of the specs. For many who don’t know, Poco is a sub-brand of Xiaomi, sitting alongside Redmi, a lot of the expertise is near Xiaomi telephones.

I used the Poco X8 Professional as my primary cellphone for a few weeks to see simply the way it performs, what you get for the cash and the place it makes compromises in comparison with pricier handsets.

Design & Construct

• Aluminium body
• Glass again
• IP68 safety

You’d be forgiven for pondering that the Poco X8 Professional has misplaced one thing of its character, ditching the two-tone end of the Poco X7 Professional and leaving patrons with a relatively underwhelming alternative of black, white and mint inexperienced.

That two-tone end was plastic, nonetheless, and a few might want the understated seriousness of the X8 Professional’s design. Not a lot adjustments from earlier handsets: there’s nonetheless a twin digital camera on the again, the LED flash now adjustments to a spherical design relatively than rectangular, however that’s concerning the sum of the visible variations.

Chris Corridor / Foundry

It retains a flat aluminium body, with a signature pink chamfer minimize into the facility button on the aspect, nevertheless it’s in any other case relatively plain. The show sits flat too, maybe a nod to its meant goal market of players, and preferable to curved show edges for these eager to maximise touchable display screen house.

There’s an IP68 score – not dangerous for a £299 cellphone – nevertheless it doesn’t lengthen to the IP69K score that many gadgets are beginning to provide. Not that it issues: IP68 survives submersion, whereas IP69K resists high-pressure sizzling water jets, begging the query of what you’re really doing together with your cellphone.

The black model of the Poco X8 Professional that I examined is inoffensive in its design, however not wildly thrilling both. With a weight of 201g and thickness of 8.38mm, it’s proper round common for a contemporary smartphone.

Display screen & Audio system

• 6.59-inch AMOLED show, 120Hz
• 2756 x 1268 pixel decision
• 3500 nits peak brightness

With the Poco X8 Professional Max increasing to six.83 inches, the Poco X8 Professional is a bit of smaller than the X7 Professional. That’s the one actual change right here, with the X8 Professional retaining the excessive decision and refresh price, whereas the height brightness creeps a bit of larger than the earlier iteration, at 3500 nits.

As I stated within the design part, it’s a flat show, excellent for players, together with that 120Hz refresh price and quick contact sampling charges.

I discovered the show to be loads shiny, with good vibrant colors, with choices within the menu to tweak it to your desire. Whereas these peak brightnesses are reserved for HDR content material, I discovered the day by day brightness to be good – so no complaints there.

Chris Corridor / Foundry

There’s a factory-fitted display screen protector, identical to most telephones lately. I discovered this picked up a few marks throughout my testing, which I doubt would have scratched the display screen, so it’s maybe a bit of softer than I’d prefer it to be. The show itself is Gorilla Glass 7i, which is typical of mid-range telephones.

The audio system on the Poco X8 Professional are good, with the ear speaker dealing with many of the highs and the speaker on the bottom of the cellphone contributing to the bass and far of the mid-range drive.

I discovered calls to be clear, with no complaints from these on the opposite finish of the road both.

Specs & Efficiency

• MediaTek Dimensity 8500 Extremely
• 8 or 12GB RAM
• 256 or 512GB storage

Poco has established a lot of its fame on providing telephones with highly effective {hardware} at costs that rivals battle to fulfill. That’s the case for the X8 Professional, following the pattern of different Poco fashions. Right here, the Dimensity 8500 Extremely sits on the coronary heart of this cellphone.

That places it within the sub-flagship cellphone class whereas being priced as a mid-range gadget. That’s an excellent start line for this gadget, which runs properly and easily. It additionally saved its composure throughout lengthy periods enjoying Name of Responsibility: Cell, avoiding any noticeable overheating.

Chris Corridor / Foundry

I used to be testing the model with 12GB RAM, which is paired with 512GB storage, however there’s additionally the choice for 8GB, with both 256GB or 512GB storage.

This mannequin has barely lower-tier {hardware} than the X8 Professional Max, so benchmarks present that the bigger cellphone is a barely higher performer, though in day by day use, each are silky clean in operation.

When it comes to energy for the value – and energy towards extra mainstream competitors – the Poco X8 Professional outdoes itself. It’s a flagship expertise.

Cameras

• 50Mp f/1.5 primary, 1/1.95in sensor
• 8Mp f/2.2 ultrawide
• 20Mp f/2.2 entrance digital camera

One of many areas the place Poco makes sacrifices to hit the engaging value level is within the digital camera: the X8 Professional comes with two cameras on the again. I’m glad no junk sensors are bulking the digital camera as much as appear to be it’s a flagship digital camera, as an alternative providing an honest primary digital camera and an ultrawide that’sjust about okay.

The principle digital camera is what the X8 Professional is all about, utilizing a Sony IMX882 sensor, which is designed for mid-range telephones, although it’s the identical lens because the X7 Professional and X8 Professional Max. It’s affordable, however not going to win any prizes for its efficiency.

Chris Corridor / Foundry

In good gentle you’ll get good balanced photographs, however it will probably overexpose in brighter circumstances, shedding a grip on color accuracy. The shallow depth of subject that comes from that f/1.5 aperture implies that getting too near the topic leads to a lot of it being blurred – there’s no accounting for macro focus, right here, so that you’ll both should step again or use the 2x sensor cropping zoom.

The low gentle efficiency – partially because of that aperture – is stable. It received’t compete with the Pixel 10a or different high low-light handsets. However it can get the shot, albeit with noise shortly creeping into shadows, even in daylight indoor circumstances.

There’s no telephoto lens; as an alternative there’s sensor cropping out to 10x, however the outcomes aren’t that nice. For those who care about zoom images, don’t purchase the Poco X8 Professional.

The ultrawide lens blurs in direction of the sides and has a barely richer color tone than the principle digital camera, which is probably going a results of tuning to make it look higher. I discovered it producing bluer skies and greener grass, as if somebody had tweaked the saturation dial. It’s fastened focus, so something too near the lens might be blurred.

The selfie digital camera is ok, nevertheless it’s fastened focus once more, whereas the portrait edge detection isn’t as refined as dearer cameras. It’s doable to regulate the impact on the time of seize, however the outcomes aren’t at all times nice, as seen beneath. In decrease gentle, it’s a lot much less efficient, softening and blurring even in indoor images.

Video seize is available in at as much as 4K 60fps, whereas the entrance digital camera gives you 1080p at 60fps. It’s respectable, however nothing to jot down dwelling about.

Battery Life & Charging

• 6500mAh battery
• 100W charging
• 27W reverse charging

In keeping with providing the core capabilities that individuals really want in a cellphone, Poco has outfitted the X8 Professional with a powerful 6500mAh battery and 100W charging. That’s a really spectacular capability, particularly when in comparison with large hitters akin to Google and Samsung.

That performs out within the efficiency too – battery life is undoubtedly one of many Poco X8 Professional’s key strengths. I’m used to charging my cellphone each night time, however I typically didn’t must whereas testing it, as there was nonetheless loads within the tank.

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Then there’s the unbelievable benefit of assist for 100W wired charging – plug it in if you’re working low, and also you’ll be proper again to the excessive percentages very quickly in any respect. I discovered that in half-hour of charging from flat, I bought to 80%.

It’s value noting that you just don’t get high charging speeds from the off – you’ll be requested in order for you Enhance charging to hit the quickest speeds. That is to protect battery well being, as utilizing the quickest charging will decay the battery sooner than extra measured charging speeds.

The X8 Professional is beneficiant with its battery, too, supporting as much as 27W reverse charging, that means you possibly can high up all method of gadgets in a pinch. There’s no wi-fi charging, nonetheless.

Software program & Apps

• Android 16
• HyperOS 3
• 4 main OS updates, 6 years of safety updates

Sitting on Android 16, the Poco X8 Professional runs HyperOS 3, the identical software program you’ll discover on Redmi and Xiaomi telephones. The expertise of that software program is comparable, with the identical basic strengths and weaknesses.

Nonetheless, there’s some scaling right here, as Poco pushes bloatware and adverts extra aggressively in its model of HyperOS than Xiaomi does, presumably to offset the lower cost.

Chris Corridor / Foundry

The result’s that the Poco X8 Professional lands with software program that’s a little bit of a problem, with prompts to put in a full run of bloatware apps from the off, that you need to manually untick to keep away from. I additionally discovered by the setup course of that a few of these issues I unticked had been nonetheless on the cellphone.

A lot of the bloatware will be uninstalled, and should you’re an skilled Xiaomi person, you in all probability have a longtime course of for turning off and disabling options to keep away from the fixed interruptions. Mi Browser, for instance, will repeatedly ping up with a notification about apps, information and different issues, even should you’ve by no means opened Xiaomi’s personal browser.

HyperOS is a whole remodeling of Android, with lots of the comfort options you’d discover on a Pixel absent. For instance, on Pixel telephones, if you obtain a two-factor authentication message, there’s a shortcut to repeat the code – on Xiaomi, it’s simply not there.

Chris Corridor / Foundry

The constructive aspect of the equation is that plenty of the adjustments will be undone and HyperOS will be tamed, as a result of it permits for lots of customisation. That received’t keep away from the duplication – there are a number of galleries, browsers, app shops and so forth – however with some work the expertise will get smoother.

Whereas the assist on this cellphone isn’t so long as you’ll get from Google or Samsung, it’s not dangerous for a cellphone at this value, so it’s onerous to be too vital. Nonetheless, it’s unclear how lengthy we’ll be ready for Xiaomi’s model of Android 17 to reach right here.

Xiaomi isn’t pushing AI fairly as aggressively as rivals akin to Motorola, although. I discovered myself sticking with the built-in Gemini assistant, and it’s simple sufficient to keep away from the gives of AI writing, or translation help.

Value & Availability

The Poco X8 Professional is formally listed as £349 within the UK for the 8GB with 256GB storage, though it appears to be completely discounted to £299 or much less on the Xiaomi web site. It steps as much as £329 for the 512GB model with 8GB RAM, earlier than hitting £349 for the 12GB and 512GB storage mannequin on the high quality.

You may also purchase the cellphone from Amazon UK, the place it’s often accessible at an identical value.

That’s margin cheaper than the Poco X8 Professional Max, which begins at £399 (additionally presently discounted).

The Poco X8 Professional is in the stores within the UK and Europe, nevertheless it’s not accessible within the US.

It’s onerous to compete with Poco on value, with the closest Samsung cellphone being the Galaxy A27, whereas the closest Pixel can be the older Pixel 9a at its discounted £325. Our price range and mid-range cellphone guides have extra options.

Do you have to purchase the Poco X8 Professional?

The Poco X8 Professional gives nice efficiency for the value, undercutting mainstream rivals with highly effective {hardware} that’s extra widespread in telephones practically double the value. It encompasses a stable construct, show and even affordable software program assist. For many individuals, this cellphone is a bona fide discount.

The draw back comes within the software program expertise: the HyperOS expertise isn’t as clean as you’ll get from big-name rivals like Samsung and Google, that means it’s extra work to show off, take away and calm every part down. Additionally, the digital camera expertise is a bit of hit or miss.

Nonetheless, should you don’t thoughts these downsides and also you need the best-performing cellphone at this value level, look no additional than the Poco X8 Professional.

Specs

• HyperOS 3, primarily based on Android 16
• 6.59-inch, 1268 x 2756, AMOLED, 120Hz
• Mediatek Dimensity 8500 Extremely
• 8/12GB RAM
• 256/512GB storage
• 50Mp primary digital camera
• 8Mp ultrawide
• 20Mp selfie digital camera
• As much as 4K @ 60fps rear video
• Stereo audio system (Dolby Atmos)
• Twin-SIM
• Wi-Fi 6
• Bluetooth 6.0
• 6500mAh battery
• 100W wired charging
• No wi-fi charging
• 157.53 x 75.19 x 8.38mm
• IP68 licensed
• 201.47g
• Colors: Black, White, Mint Inexperienced