POCO X3 Pro review: Flagship features for an affordable price

POCO, Xiaomi’s former sub-brand, has been known to push the envelope when it comes to offering high-end hardware and features for affordable prices. And just a few months back, the company introduced its X3 Pro that offers exactly just that.

With a 120Hz refresh rate for its display and a Snapdragon 860 CPU running under the hood, it claims smooth and lag-free gaming sessions for under PhP 13K.

Design

With a display bigger than 6 inches, the POCO X3 Pro is not only tall and wide but also a bit on the thick side due to its battery capacity.

It comes with a solid chassis and a plastic back that follows the round edges of its general form factor. The volume rocker is on the right side as commonly seen on phones with the power button right below it.

This power and lock button also doubles as a fingerprint sensor for a layer of security instead of going for an in-display approach. There’s not much difference between the two apart from the fact that you can accidentally unlock the phone just by holding the phone normally and resting your thumb on the button.

On the opposite side is the tray for its SIM and microSD cards with a hybrid setup.

Down below we have a 3.5mm audio jack, USB Type-C port, and one of two speaker grilles with the other one found at its loudspeaker. The top houses its IR blaster along with microphones for noise cancelation.

Finally, turn it around and we’re greeted with the back panel and its unique design. It has this matte finish on the sides with a glossy strip running down the center. And if you look closely, there’s a POCO branding printed in there that shines in rainbow colors. Pretty trippy.

The POCO X3 Pro is available in various colors namely Phantom Black, Frost Blue, and Metal Bronze.

Display and multimedia

With a large 6.67-inch display at Full HD+, you easily get to enjoy consuming content whether it’s browsing on social media platforms, watching videos on YouTube, or streaming movies and TV shows on Netflix.

Colors are vibrant and details are sharp thanks to its 2400 x 1080 resolution. Its screen is also bright which makes watching all the more immersive especially streaming ultra-high-resolution videos.

Its almost full-screen display is just slightly obstructed by a single punch-hole for the selfie camera but it’s not too distracting even while streaming videos on full screen. The display is also reinforced by Corning’s Gorilla Glass 6 that should protect it from scratches and drops.

In terms of display technology, it features a refresh rate of 120Hz for fluid motion while gaming or browsing as well as support for 240Hz touch sampling rate for more responsive input while gaming. This made browsing a bit easier on the eyes but the real difference in experience comes in gaming.

Movements and effects while gaming simply look better on high refresh rates and result in a more natural and enjoyable experience.

As mentioned earlier, the X3 Pro features dual speakers with certified hi-res audio. True enough, sound quality is clear for mids and highs while lows are decent. It’s even capable of producing virtual surround sound as long as you’re watching close to the screen since volume could sometimes leave you wanting more.

Cameras

Sporting a quad-camera setup, the phone shoots with a 48-megapixel main sensor that boasts large pixels to achieve brighter images. This is then supported by an 8-megapixel ultra-wide for landscape shots, 2-megapixel macro, and another 2-megapixel for depth.

Images produced are indeed bright and clear and are able to maintain details even when the subject is against the light. Colors are not that vibrant and lively but I personally don’t mind as it keeps things looking natural. And if I wanted to have more saturated colors, I could easily push them using photo editing apps.

Its ultra-wide sensor could also produce vivid colors but has a tendency to be overly sharp at times. Details for its Macro mode are not great but not that bad either. Although to be fair to the phone, I personally haven’t seen macro shots from smartphones good enough to make me replace a dedicated macro lens.

On the flip side, it sports a 20-megapixel selfie camera that shoots decent selfies. I just noticed that skin tone tends to be a bit warm and reddish under sunlight.

What I really enjoyed are the built-in photo effects that add drama to your images. These are not the cutesy or low-res effects that you overlay on photos. Some apply nicely tweaked filters, while you also have choices of patterns or swirls that spice up your shots.

Performance

Underneath the hood is a Snaprdragon 860 CPU with a choice of either 6GB or 8GB of RAM and storage options of 128GB and 256GB. Together with its Adreno 640 GPU, this tandem alone is capable of churning out processing power enough for tasks and performances done on a daily basis like switching between social media apps and playing today’s top titles.

The phone is also equipped with UFS 3.1 that enables it to perform fast read and write speeds for transferring bulk files or apps into the phone.

Its built-in NFC and IR blaster also offered welcome additions to its connectivity. With NFC, instant pairing with other devices is possible, and even controlling supported appliances can be done using its infrared sensor.

In addition to its fingerprint scanner, the front camera functions as a face scanner for added security. Unlocking performance is spot on and works fast, but with face masks on, you’d still be relying on its fingerprint scanner most of the time.

The X3 Pro also runs on MIUI 12 for POCO which is based on Android 11 and as such, you get to enjoy all its features like enhanced security and privacy in addition to those made to make navigating its UI easier and more user-centric.

We mentioned running the latest game titles on it and the phone did well doing so. But unlike other phones we’ve reviewed that easily heat up especially when rendering resource-intensive games, the X3 Pro kept its cool while running on a steady 47fps on Genshin Impact.

This is mostly thanks to its LiquidCool Technology that helps dissipate heat and ensure smooth running performance when you need it most.

Battery 

For its battery, it carries a 5160mAh pack that boasts support for its included 33W fast charger. With it, we were able to top up the device in about 1 hour and 20 minutes from empty which doesn’t line up to the 1-hour claim made by the company.

For our battery test involving streaming a 4K video at 50% brightness and no volume, we were able to achieve a standard 13 hours of continuous playback. Real-life usage averages around 8 hours of social media browsing and gaming.

Creature Feature

As always, in our reviews, The Modern Creatures aims to find special features in devices that make them worth having — a Creature Feature if you will. For the POCO X3 Pro, it would have to be its Snapdragon 860 processor that’s able to perform reliably whether you’re simply browsing or playing games.

Combining that with an affordable price makes the X3 Pro a very capable mobile device.

Price and final thoughts

With a price tag of PhP 12,990 for the 6GB/128GB variant and PhP 15,990 for the 8GB/256GB model, the POCO X3 Pro is not only an affordable gaming device, but it’s also a decent shooter thanks to its quad-camera setup. You get different shooting modes to choose from and works perfectly as a point-and-shoot camera.

You also get an immersive 120Hz display with decent resolution and dual speakers to make content consumption more enjoyable.

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realme X50 Pro 5G review: Saving the best for last

12/03/2020

After bagging the title of the Number One smartphone manufacturer in the Philippines, realme is closing the year 2020 with one last product launch. And it’s not just any ordinary device. The company is introducing for the first time in the country its 5G-enabled flagship phone — the X50 Pro 5G. This is in addition to other AIoT products that were also freshly unveiled.

With a really powerful Snapdragon processor, a quad-camera setup, fast-charging technology, and 5G connectivity, did realme save the best for last?

Design

As with other realme smartphones, the X50 Pro 5G looks familiar with its rounded edges and a bit of a chunky physique. You have your usual power/lock button on the right while the left side holds the volume buttons.

The top has nothing much going on except for a pair of antenna bands and a pinhole microphone, but the bottom comprises of a single SIM tray, its USB-C port, and a speaker grille.

Turn it around and we have much more to talk about so let’s begin with its eye-catching design. I like the subtle shine that its back panel has since it exudes a more sophisticated and premium feel.

The phone is available in Moss Green and Rust Red and realme specifically went with these low saturation colors. They used an AG Glass or anti-glare glass coating that gives the back panel a subdued look with an added resistance to smudges.

We also see the slightly protruding camera module housing four sensors. Meanwhile, up front, we have two selfie cameras with a capsule-style setup.

Located towards the bottom of the screen is an in-display fingerprint sensor which I actually prefer more than the side-mounted ones as you can accidentally unlock the display just by holding the device.

So far, fingerprint recognition has been snappy and missing the scanning area has been noticeably minimized as compared to other phones.

Display and Multimedia

Its display is 6.44 inches big and uses a Super AMOLED display. The panel is made by Samsung which means vibrance should not be a problem and it comes with a 90Hz refresh rate for smoother movements.

With a Full HD+ resolution (2400 x 1080), you get a sharp picture quality for consuming content with good contrast for reading and browsing.

As expected, colors are punchy and brightness is sufficient even under direct sunlight. Its Eye Comfort feature is still present to help reduce blue light from the screen and prevent eye strain from prolonged phone usage.

For watching videos or playing games without headphones on, you’d be glad to know that the X50 Pro comes with dual linear speakers that uses the earpiece as the second speaker.

With these, you get stereo sound which is a big deal as having only the down-firing speaker is definitely not as immersive.

Camera

The four-piece camera setup mentioned earlier consists of a 64-megapixel main, 12-megapixel telephoto, 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle macro lens, and a B&W portrait lens.

Generic shots have good detail in them and reproduce the scene’s colors naturally. As usual, having a wide-angle lens came in handy to pack in more elements into one shot. Telephoto is also great to have around but I personally go only as far as 5x zoom to keep most of the details intact.

Having its HDR turned on and working side-by-side with the AI scene enhancement greatly helps in bringing out more color and detail to every scene. It’s just a bit easy to go overboard with colors with AI scene enhancement turned on.

Meanwhile, Nightscape 3.0 also proved to be useful in really dim situations. The photo you see of a cat sitting on a plant box was captured in really low light settings and it was still able to bring out detail without seeing a lot of noise and smudge. That’s impressive!

The X50 Pro supports 4K video at 30fps and comes with video stabilization. This makes it possible to record fairly smooth hand-held footage.

Flipping it again, we see the dual front cameras with 32MP Sony wide-angle sensor and an 8-megapixel super-wide-angle camera for your selfies.

realme said the cameras are equipped with Edge Deformity Correction since wide-angle shots tend to stretch the image. With this feature, it’s able to recognize faces and optimize face shape and contours so they appear more natural. AI, man.

Together, these sensors took decent selfies even when shooting against the light. Its portrait nightscape feature also made it possible to have decent shots when lights aren’t that bright.

Additionally, they also capture stabilized and slow-mo videos that should help when you’re into shooting vlog-style clips.

Performance

We’ve discussed a handful of features so far and powering those functionalities is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 — one of the leading mobile processors offered today. Joining the party are 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage which are the best combo you can get for the X50 Pro 5G. realme is also proud of the fact that it runs on Android 11 with realme UI 2.0 so it contributes to the overall efficiency and power offered by the phone.

Everyday tasks are done without breaking a sweat. Although this is not really surprising as the CPU has been tweaked for better performance. This is more evident when playing games. Even resource-heavy tasks are easily run by the device while keeping things cool.

Graphics performance is also at par with our expectations and together with its vibrant display and up to 90Hz refresh rate, spending hours on games like Genshin Impact was an enjoyable experience. Other games like Wild Rift or Call of Duty: Mobile were also rendered seamlessly.

It’s worth noting that gaming is immersive not just in visuals and performance, but also even through its tactile vibrations for every hit or cast of a spell in-game. That’s a nice touch for all the gamers out there.

According to realme, AI performance has also been increased 100% which somehow doesn’t sound great for the future of the human race. But kidding aside, it should better assist you with your entire experience with the phone.

One of the main selling points of the X50 Pro is its 5G connectivity. And with more and more 5G-capable towers being established around the metro, it really pays to invest in something that can harness this power. realme has partnered with Smart Communications to provide this high-speed connectivity and the company promises download and upload speeds up to 600Mbps and 60Mbps, respectively.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have a Smart SIM available and was able to achieve a constant download speed of 291Mbps and upload speed of 28Mbps in our tests. Still, those are fairly impressive speeds, and streaming high-resolution videos online didn’t pause to buffer.

It’s also important to note that when talking about 5G connectivity, stability comes second to speed and the device was able to deliver stable connections as we browse the web even while using the X50 Pro as a hotspot with multiple devices. And during that time, we enjoyed its WiFi 6 with its extended range and Dual WiFi acceleration.

Battery

Packing a 4200mAh battery, the X50 Pro can last an entire day of usage even outdoors with 5G enabled. This may sound like an average performance for a smartphone but keep in mind that it needs a lot of juice for its apps and features that run continuously in the background. Being able to last more than 12 hours of usage is actually a testament to the efficiency of its internals.

When it comes to charging, its 65W SuperDart technology promises only 35 minutes to fully charge the device from 0-100%. Of course, we put it to the test and we’re happy to report that it proved true to its claims (almost) as we were at 99% after exactly 35 minutes of charging.

Just like before, it comes with battery-saving features to help conserve power when you need it most.

Creature Feature

As always, in our reviews, The Modern Creatures aims to look for features in devices that make them unique. Something that makes a product stand out from its peers. For the realme X50 Pro, it would obviously have to be its 5G capability and affordability.

Having a 5G smartphone means you’re future-proofing your device in terms of connectivity. We are slowly transitioning to having steady access to 5G network and during times that you need a reliable connection for sending bulks of files, for example, you can definitely rely on this phone.

Conclusion

With the X50 Pro 5G, realme has definitely saved the best smartphone offering for last before officially closing 2020. It’s got a subdued yet attractive design, capable cameras front and back, a smooth Android 11 UI, great performance thanks to its top-shelf processor and internals, and quick charging.

We can also say that from the processor down to the antenna, realme made sure that the X50 Pro is ready to make the most out of 5G.

The realme X50 Pro 5G can be availed through Smart Signature Plan M for PhP 1,899 per month with a one-time cash-out of PhP 6,900. Those who will pre-order the device from the Smart Online Store and select Smart Stores from December 3 to 10 get a free realme Watch worth PhP 3,990. The promo is available to new subscribers and is available at a special discounted price for existing and re-contracting subscribers.

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