Poco F3 review

A cheap multi-functional (or all?) And an expensive high-end device – that has always been the concept behind the ‘flag killer’, since OnePlus coined that phrase. It remained true when Poco (phone) began to haunt the world with his first handset some years ago, but could this still be true in 2021? Is this year’s Poco F3 the ‘flag killer’ or is it just a phone that tried to ride that idea but ended up failing in some way?

Well, let’s see. Over the years, the formula for the flagship killer has remained the same, although there have been changes here and there. You need a flagship-level chipset, to enable good performance, adequate (at least) level of smoothness, good battery life (if not good), good (but incomplete) screen, and some cameras.

Poco F3 is a long-term update

So far so good with the Poco F3, at least on paper. But real life sometimes surpasses even the most detailed list, which is why we decided this was enough for you to use for a long time and see what it was daily. With its price now firmly at the level used by the original assassins, it seems there is a chance to fight.

But there is always more to the story, and we were eager to see how the details translate into everyday use. Will the Poco F3 live up to its theater mantra of beating more than its value? Or will it have negative connotations? However, if you want to find out what the deal is wo F3, please join us in the next few pages as we tell you what it was like to live with it, as our only smartphone for a long time.

This brings in exactly what specific sheet you can expect, but there are also welcome surprises, as well as other areas where costs are significantly reduced. How that might affect your views of this phone depends on your priorities, and we have tried to charge again against Poco F3 in as much detail as possible in this review so that you have all the data you have. the need for an informed decision.

Design, management

Unlike last year’s Poco F2 Pro with a pop-up selfie camera with the engine, the standard design of the Poco F3 does not stand out in any way in a sea of ​​slabs that look like a phone. That’s both bad and good, depending on how you look. On the other hand, no weird tests are going on, so there is no chance that they will go wrong. On the other hand, if you want to get the most out of that all the other standard calls look, well, you’re disappointed. The only way to make this one stand out even from a distance is to choose the color of the Deep Ocean Blue, with its angled lines and a large Poco logo – if you are, that’s right.

Poco F3 in Moonlight Silver and Night Black

Our review unit comes with a very subtle Night Black hue, which is kind of really gray and not dark at all – so don’t let the name fool you. The Poco F3 has all the design features you can expect in this day and age, without going overboard with anything. There is a large camera island, and its design is vividly reminiscent of other creations from the Xiaomi / Redmi / Poco stable. The rear glass rotates on the plastic frame very smoothly, and while the display feature still looks like sitting on the frame, the most smooth transition we’ve seen on Xiaomi / Poco / Redmi phones so far.

That is because the frame itself is slightly curved, and that curve is continuously curved with a slight curve. There is still a ‘stitch’ you can feel when the flat display ends, but it is much smaller ‘in your face than the other phones we have been reviewing for a long time, so this is a combination in our book.

All in all, however, we can call this design forgetful, due to the lack of a better name. And that is exciting because even though it looks like all the other phones, paying attention to the details is not lacking, as we explained above. It seems like all the attention of the design team has reached that point, and there was no space for anything even the most unusual distance. But you know what? We will take it. While it may be boring, the design simply ‘works’, and perhaps that is what most people want.

Due to the weight of less than 200g of Poco F3, handling is very good for this reviewer with its big hands, but as usual with large phones, if your hands are small, you may always find that you need to hire both. make sure the handset does not fall off. Speaking of which, the rear glass, of course, is smooth, but it is our unit, thanks to the glossy finish, it picks up fingerprints very quickly, and those that help make it a little smoother. Because of this, the backgrounds of the matte glass (very few variations) are usually much smoother than shiny. But glitter always looks worse when they get fingerprints, so there is no victory here.

The background has a logically reduced Poco logo, but also a lot of control details listed below, and that’s a lot. It is also interesting that although Poco emphasizes that it is a completely independent brand, “Xiaomi Communications Co., Ltd” is written on the back of this phone, above “Poco Design”. Not to mention that the charger in the box is labeled Mi.

The camera island has two sections, the lower part incorporating an LED flash and the inevitable text, in this case, a “triple 48 MP AI camera”. That’s not necessarily the case, of course, but it’s also not the worst copy we’ve seen around the camera layout, so we chose to ignore it.

The highest level of the island is where the three sensors sit, as well as a smartly placed microphone – which sits in a camera-like circle in the middle. It’s a cool design, and who knows, it might even deceive people into thinking that there are four cameras in the phone, if they look at it from a distance. Did anyone do that, though? On the road, do you just look at how many cameras everybody has? Does it matter? Would you like to take five bad cameras or a good one? There are many questions, but we go astray.

Not surprisingly, there is a clear case in the box. It’s not the strangest thing we’ve seen, but it should do a very good job. It has one annoying feature, which seems to be the number of cases connected to the Xiaomi / Poco / Redmi world, and that is the flap that closes the USB-C port for some reason. It’s weird, it’s awkward, and it makes connecting the phone more of a problem than it used to be, so, to be honest, we could have just cut it off if we were going to buy this phone and use the box that comes with the box.

Speakers

A 3.5 mm earphone jack is no longer available. Looks like this year, even the flagship killers are joining the trend. The Poco F3 has stereo speakers, using the latest Xiaomi resolution at the top – there is only one speaker at the top, but the sound comes from both the earpiece and the holes provided in the upper part of the frame. This makes phone calls more private when volume rises, but it does mean that a better media experience is provided without the need for two separate speakers nearby. It is one of those measures that reduce costs (and save space) that makes perfect sense for us.

Speaking of speakers, the sound they emit is by no means the best we have ever heard, and the volume is not very high. But we have never really had a problem. Quality is about what you can expect from most phones today, and depending on the volume, you will only feel it’s much needed when you are in a noisy environment. So although the speakers do not break records in any way, we feel that they are sufficient for most people in most cases. We were never left wanting more of them in the extended time we spent with this phone.