Content
- Positioning
- TECH SPECS
- Equipment
- Appearance
- Screen and speaker sound
- Working hours
- Communication capabilities
- Performance
- Camera
- Operating system
- Impressions and competitors
New Samsung came out, Apple introduced the iPhone, but it has long been necessary to understand that flagships with a price under $ 1 (and in Russia under $ 000) are no longer needed. There is a suspicion that flagships are not bought out of real need, but simply out of habit. Poco X100 NFC clearly demonstrates that an excellent smartphone can cost around 3 thousand rubles and will not let its owner down in anything.
Positioning
The first Xiaomi Pocophone F1, released at the end of August 2018, was positioned as a flagship killer. And this was not to be disputed, since at a price of 23 rubles, the smartphone was equipped with a top-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 990 chipset, 845/6 GB of premium LPDDR8X RAM, and a storage capacity of 4 GB or more. And all the other components were up to par. The smartphone was successful, but the next generation had to wait almost 64 years. In February, they showed Xiaomi Poco X2, which turned out to be just a clone of the Redmi K2. As Xiaomi explained the situation, Poco is a young brand that has a certain funding gap, so it is too difficult to develop your own devices from scratch. However, apparently, such an obvious borrowing did not delight the fans of the brand, so the Poco X30 NFC received an original design and its own unique touches, designed to emphasize that we have a completely independent product.
In new smartphones, both the positioning and the name have changed. Now, not Pocophone, but Poco. And not a flagship killer, but “exactly the power you need”
Positioning has also changed in the new Poco. It is no longer a “flagship killer”, but “exactly the power you need.” A convenient slogan that allows you to explain the design, the choice of hardware, and the quality of the cameras. In theory, Poco X3 NFC should become the most comfortable and convenient product, using which, the user should not think: “Oh, sorry, I didn’t buy the flagship.” Let’s see what happened.
The Poco team identifies the following as selling features:
- 4 leading 2020G processor – Snapdragon ™ 732G, “G” in title indicates increased gaming performance, 6GB LPDDR4X, up to 128GB UFS 2.1 internal storage
- Breakthrough 120Hz display with 240Hz sampling rate – instant touch response (that’s what they say, “breakthrough”!)
- NFC
- Two Hi-Res Audio Speakers
- Calibrated linear vibration motor: 4D vibration enhances your gaming experience
- 5 antennas for a stable connection
- Battery with a capacity of 5160 mAh and 33 W fast charging, 100% in 65 minutes
- Four cameras to tackle any challenge. 64 MP main camera with Sony IMX682 sensor. Sharpness and detail even when cropping 1% of the original image.
- Unique design.
When talking about the Poco X3 NFC, it is important to note that NFC is indicated in the name for a reason. There are 2 versions of the device. One without NFC but with 6mAh battery and the other with 000mAh battery but with NFC. Xiaomi realized that Russia is a high-tech state of lazy people who like to walk light, so you can’t bring smartphones here without NFC. So everywhere Poco X5 is without NFC, and we have with NFC. This point should be taken into account by those who like to save money, who buy a smartphone bypassing official retail.
| TECH SPECS | |
| Processor | Qualcomm SM7150-AC Snapdragon 732G (8 nm), Octa-core (2 × 2.3 GHz Kryo 470 Gold & 6 × 1.8 GHz Kryo 470 Silver), Adreno 618 graphics |
| Operating system | Android 10, shell MIUI 12 |
| Memory | 6 GB LPDDR4X / 64/128 GB USF 2.1 combo microSD slot |
| Screen | 6.67 inches, IPS LCD, 2400 x 1080 pixels, 20 by 9 ratio, 395 ppi pixel density, HDR10, 120 Hz, 450-620 nits brightness, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 |
| Battery | Li-Po 5160 mAh, fast charge 33 W, 100% in 65 minutes |
| Main camera | 64 MP, f / 1.9, (wide), 1 / 1.73 ″, 0.8µm, PDAF 13 MP, f / 2.2, 119 ° (ultra wide angle), 1.0μm 2 MP, f / 2.4, (macro) 2 MP, f / 2.4, (depth sensor) 4K @ 30fps video recording, 1080p @ 30 / 120fps, 720p @ 960fps; gyro-EIS |
| Front camera | 20 MP, f / 2.2, (wide), 1 / 3.4 ″, 0.8µm |
| SIM card | 2 Nano-SIM |
| Network and data transmission | GSM 900/1800/1900, 3G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac, 2.4 + 5.0 GHz, Bluetooth 5.1, A2DP, LE, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, NFC, IrDa, USB Type-C 2.0 |
| SENSORS | Fingerprint scanner (side), accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity, lighting, compass |
| Other | There is an FM radio (antenna through headphones), there is a 3.5 mm jack, there is NFC |
| Materials | Plastic back, front Corning Gorilla Glass 5, aluminum frame |
| dimensions | 165.3 x 76.8 x 10.1 mm, weight 225 g |
Equipment
In the box:
- Smartphone
- SIM card tray clip
- Usb wire
- Fast charging adapter 33W
- Transparent ANTIBACTERIAL case (as the official description says!)
- Documentation
Appearance
Front panel: 6.67-inch screen, Corning Gorilla Glass 5, camera cutout, speaker, factory protective film.
Backside: polycarbonate, 4 photomodules, LED flash.
Right side: volume rocker, fingerprint scanner combined with the power button
Left-hand side: slot for SIM-cards.
Top end: infrared sensor, microphone, speaker.
Bottom end: 3.5 mm jack, USB Type-C jack, microphone, speaker.
3.5 mm jack, USB Type-C jack, microphone, speaker
By the way, the body is easily covered with fingerprints, but live they are almost invisible, but in the photo the side of the smartphone looks unclear
Losing in power compared to the Xiaomi Pocophone F1, the new Poco X3 NFC won out in style and design. The Pocophone F1 was made of visually simple matte plastic. However, we can say that the team behind the Pocophone F1 was one of the first to understand this trend, which is now followed by Apple and Samsung.
The Poco X3 NFC back is made of multi-layer glossy polycarbonate. There are two colors to choose from – cobalt blue and dusk gray. Whichever color you choose, a huge iridescent POCO lettering will run down the back.
Xiaomi did their best and gave the smartphone an unusual camera unit. The block protrudes slightly, but this absolutely does not spoil the ergonomics of the device, and given that the block is exactly in the center, the smartphone lies stably on a flat surface.
This solution has only one drawback. I don’t know why or how, but dust instantly accumulates around the camera block. Take a look at the photo below. I wiped my smartphone, put it in my pocket, had breakfast 10 minutes before the cafe, and deposits of dust.
The speaker mesh is above the screen, the location is convenient. Please note that the screen is covered with a factory film. The film is quite good, it does not interfere with games.
A typical slot for SIM cards, one of which can be replaced with a microSD card up to 256 GB.
Completing the description of the appearance of the smartphone, it is worth noting the presence of IP53 protection, that is, splash protection. On the one hand, there is an advantage, on the other – now, perhaps, any smartphone of a high-quality assembly has such a level of protection (although this is not announced).
I didn’t say anything about the dimensions of the device: 165.3 x 76.8 x 9.4 mm and a weight of 215 grams. What can you say here? Standard sizes, maybe slightly oversized.
And finally, it should be said that the smartphone has an LED indicator. The light is tiny, but clearly visible.
Screen and speaker sound
The Poco X3 NFC has a 6.67-inch screen, made using IPS LCD technology, a resolution of 2400 × 1080 pixels, a pixel density of 395 ppi, and an aspect ratio of 20 by 9. The screen refresh rate is 120 Hz, and the touch processing frequency is 240 Hz. The screen is protected by Corning® Gorilla® Glass 5, on top of which a decent quality factory film is glued.
The smartphone screen is good. No PWM, i.e. no flicker at low brightness, TUV Rheinland low blue emission certification. The smartphone has manual and auto brightness. I recommend the latter and use it, as measurements showed that in manual mode, the maximum screen brightness is 455 nits, and in auto mode, the display accelerates to an impressive 620 nits. With this indicator, even in the bright sun, the screen will be perfectly readable, even if you look at the pictures.
Also note that the minimum brightness was only 3.5 nits, that is, the smartphone is comfortable to use in complete darkness, for example, for reading.
One of the nice things about the smartphone is the 120Hz refresh rate. The user can choose a refresh rate of 60 Hz or 120 Hz in the settings. It should be noted here that when choosing 120 Hz, the smartphone itself determines when to use such a high refresh rate. Usually these are games, work with the menu of the device, and when the image is static, for example, when viewing photos, 60 Hz is used. When watching a video, most likely, the screen refresh rate will also be 60 Hz, because when watching a 120 Hz movie, the weather is not done.
Another highlight of the smartphone is the screen response rate of 240 Hz, that is, the smartphone, in theory, should respond faster to touching the screen. It is believed that this option should be especially appreciated by fans of active games. I play Call of Duty Mobile quite often. I play at unpleasantly high levels and, in theory, should appreciate all the advantages. But the advantages of the touch processing frequency of 240 Hz have somehow not yet been noted. Although, maybe the character reacts a little faster. If you have smartphones with a high touch processing frequency, write your impressions in the comments.
A couple more nice premium features. The smartphone has quite well thought-out “Screen” settings. By default, the Auto mode is used, in which the smartphone adjusts the colors depending on the lighting. Interestingly, in this mode, the color gamut is 100% DCI-P3. And in the “Standard” mode, where nothing changes, the usual 100% sRGB. This is an interesting feature, it is strange that they do not talk about it on the smartphone’s promo page on the official Xiaomi website. Maybe all smartphone manufacturers are doing this already, but usually I came across a similar chip in laptops.
Several screenshots about the “Screen” section in the settings (colors, hiding the cutout, etc.).
The smartphone has stereo speakers. The sound is not prohibitively loud, but good, rich sound. You won’t be able to use it as a music speaker, but, for example, I watched a YouTube video while washing the dishes, and the smartphone perfectly interrupts the sound of water at maximum volume, although the video in a conversational format is rather quiet.
Working hours
The Poco X3 NFC has a battery size of 5 mAh, while the non-NFC version has 160 mAh. The smartphone comes with 6W charging. The smartphone really charges up to 000% in about an hour. I love how Xiaomi has added hundredths of a charge, making it seem like the smartphone is literally charging before our eyes. It usually looks like this.
But something went wrong in my sample after the update, and this is a funny bug. The device is confused in numbers. If yours is the same, then the problem is solved by a simple reboot.
On the official website, Xiaomi writes about 10 hours of games, 17 hours of video and 153 hours of music playback. In general, do not cheat. It is clear that it all depends on the brightness of the screen, but I got it:
- Maximum manual brightness, airplane mode, video viewing – 14.5 hours
- Internet, update every 15 seconds, Wi-Fi 5, maximum manual brightness – 15.5 hours
- Call of Duty games, 80-100% variable brightness, 120 Hz, Wi-Fi 5 – 7.5 hours.
- PC Mark test showed – 15 hours
Excellent performance. The device should give 2 days of work exactly.
Communication capabilities
There are no complaints about the quality of speech transmission. It should be mentioned here that the smartphone supports VoLTE.
Two microphones provide good noise cancellation and perfectly remove monotonous, uniform noises (tap water noise, train hum, etc.). From article to article come asking if there is a record of telephone conversations. No, there is no such option. If you want, then pay attention to realme, for example.
Of course, the smartphone has NFC, respectively, and Google Pay, and the replenishment of the travel card. Separately, I note that Xiaomi stubbornly installs an IrDA port in almost all of its smartphones, which allows you to use your smartphone as a control panel for technology. I really like this option. Samsung once did this, but refused. But in vain! When you are on the couch and the remote is on the table, switching channels from your smartphone is the best solution.
Another thing that I like about Xiaomi is the ability to distribute Wi-Fi 5 GHz. As I understand it, there are some legislative barriers in general, and the same Samsung has disabled the ability to distribute Wi-Fi 5 GHz from its smartphones, while Xiaomi, Motorola and a number of other manufacturers are not removing it. For which I thank them.
The fingerprint scanner is on the side. The only complaint, as with any side scanner, is that you can accidentally unlock your phone while holding it in your hand. The scanner is combined with the power button, respectively, it is useful for turning on / off or screenshots. And so you can put your finger on, and without pressing the smartphone will be unlocked.
Performance
The smartphone has up-to-date hardware. Moderately productive and energy efficient. Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G (the letter G speaks about the graphics component enhanced by 10-15%). The smartphone has 6 GB of LPDDR4X RAM, a choice of 64 GB or 128 GB UFS 2.1 storage.
The advantages of the Snapdragon 732G are that its performance is sufficient for any modern games, while the chipset is economical, thanks to which the battery lasts for a couple of days.
Call of Duty Mobile is pleasant to play (medium settings). Then a question came to me, is it felt in the game 120 Hz. I have a counter question: when you play on a computer with a frame rate of 45 FPS, does it feel like the screen is 144 Hz? If you feel, then it will be the same here.
Fast memory also has a positive effect on the impressions of the smartphone: both the storage device and the RAM “fly”. The smartphone supports memory cards up to 256 GB, so pick up a fast flash drive.
Throttling within normal limits – 10%. This is a slight drop in power, and even after an hour of playing a demanding game, you won’t experience any jitters.
For fans of synthetic tests – screenshots below.
Camera
Without discounts, the smartphone has a very interesting camera, both in quality and in the abundance of features that will not let you get bored for a long time. If I describe the camera in one word, then I would call it “instagram”, that is, upon closer examination, some details or excessive sharpness can alert, but in general the picture looks great, so I immediately want to share it on social networks.
The smartphone has a 20 MP selfie camera and the main camera, which consists of 4 photo modules:
- 64 MP, f / 1.9, (wide), 1 / 1.73 ″, 0.8µm, PDAF
- 13 MP, f / 2.2, 119 ° (ultra wide angle), 1.0μm
- 2 MP, f / 2.4, (macro)
- 2 MP, f / 2.4, (depth sensor)
- 4K @ 30fps video recording, 1080p @ 30 / 120fps, 720p @ 960fps; gyro-EIS
The camera shoots 0.6x, 1x, 2x, but the main treasures are hidden in the “More” section. There, and shooting immediately on the front and main photomodule, and 64 MP for those who care about all the details, and long exposure, and improving the text when photographing documents, and the function of shooting video blogs (a series of short videos, like a “story” in Instagram. And not forget to look at the “Change” section, it will allow you to customize the camera menu to your liking, adding to the quick access modes that you actively use.
Several examples of “Instagram” photos.
On the example of a cat, it is clearly clear what I mean by “instagram”. Excessively bright and saturated colors. Probably, if you look at the photo, going into details, then somehow it’s not very good, but everything is fine in the Instagram feed. A bright picture catches the eye, collects likes. Along the way, pay attention to the portrait mode on the main camera. If a riot of colors is not for you, then turn off the AI. Colors will immediately become calmer.
By the way, the front camera is in no way inferior to the main one.
When shooting at night, it’s best to use the Night mode. First, an example of a photo without night mode, and then with night mode.
And again, first without night mode, then with night mode.
A few more night shots.
For its price segment, the Poco X3 NFC camera is very good. Excellent sharpness, clear white balance, excellent elaboration of details throughout the frame, perhaps somewhere the algorithms twist the colors too much. Poco’s buyer will take photos and praise.
Operating system
Despite the fact that Poco is a separate brand and it even has its own proprietary Poco Launcher, in fact it is MIUI 12. The icon was only slightly painted on.
A separate article was devoted to the review of Xiaomi shells.
I did not notice any outstanding features of Poco Launcher. I can only note that Poco is much less sociable than smartphones Redmi and Xiaomi, bombarding their users with various notifications and advertising offers. And here everything is decorous and noble. And I want to tell you how the GetApps app store was subtly hidden. There is no separate application that could be removed, but it is worth going to the open applications overview screen, and here it is! Once opened, and the application begins to send numerous notifications, so you should go to settings – applications – all applications and turn off notifications from GetApps, otherwise it will drive you crazy.
Impressions and competitors
Included with the smartphone is a cover, which is called “antibacterial” in the description on the official website. What this actually means, I do not know, but there are not even any asterisks and checkmarks, that is, Xiaomi is clearly confident in the antibacterial nature of the case. The case is not bad, its main bonus is that it has a plug for the USB Type-C port, and the camera module does not protrude with the case.
Poco X3 NFC leaves a pleasant experience. And, perhaps, this is one of the strongest players in its price segment. Suddenly, it turned out that the main competitor for the Poco X3 NFC was Redmi Note 9 Pro. The devices are similar, but the Poco has a 120Hz screen, slightly better cameras, a more powerful chipset and better battery life.
Another competitor is realme 6 Pro. On the realme side is a shell without hints of advertising, 8 GB of RAM. For the rest, approximate parity. Poco has a 120Hz and 240Hz screen, realme has a 90Hz and 120Hz screen, and realme has a worse chipset (Snapdragon 720G).
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