POCO Indonesia officially introduced the POCO X3 Pro in April 2021. This smartphone is predicted to be a mid-range smartphone with the best performance because it uses the best 4G chipset in 2021, namely the Qualcomm Snapdragon 860. Even at the time of the release, POCO Indonesia dubbed the POCO X3 Pro as "The Beast" because of the fierce specifications and price offered. 

So it’s not surprising that the POCO X3 Pro is one of the best smartphones in 2021. In addition to very capable specifications for running various heavy applications and games, the price tag is quite affordable. Since its release in April 2021, the POCO X3 Pro is almost eight months old. Even POCO Indonesia has also released a number of other POCO X3 variants, such as the POCO X3 NFC and POCO X3 GT.

The question is, is the POCO X3 Pro still worth having today? Well, coincidentally, the author got the opportunity from POCO Indonesia to try POCO X3 Pro. After using it for almost 2 weeks, here are the author's reviews. Let's see it together guys!

Unboxing

The experience of unboxing POCO X3 Pro is quite ordinary because it is similar to other POCO series. The smartphone box is also standard in size with all parts of the box coated in black and there is only the writing of the smartphone type on the front, left, and right sides. The detailed specification information is not on the back of the box, but on the bottom.

What’s inside the box? A POCO X3 Pro unit, a 33 Watt fast-charging charger, a USB Type-A to Type-C cable, a protective soft jelly case, as well as a user manual, sticker, and warranty. The best thing is, the POCO X3 Pro has also been installed with a screen protector.

Design

The design of POCO X3 Pro is similar to the POCO X3 NFC so it will be quite difficult to distinguish. The author tried the Metal Bronze POCO X3 Pro which gives a luxurious impression. In addition, the rear body has two different design textures. There is a line that is parallel to the camera frame and can reflect colors when exposed to light. There is also the text "POCO" to emphasize that it’s a POCO smartphone. Meanwhile, on the edge of the line that reflects the light, it's just plain colors.

Design-wise, the POCO X3 Pro still feels luxurious enough that it will attract the attention of your friends. Moreover, the part of the frame that stands out and is in the middle gives it its own charm. So that people can easily guess the brand of the smartphone even if they only look at the rear camera frame.

On the right side, you will find the volume up and down buttons and the power button as well as the finger-print sensor underneath. The placement of the power button as well as the finger-print also feels very comfortable. Making it easier to turn on or turn off the smartphone.

On the left side, there is a sim-tray slot that supports Hybrid Dual Sim (Nano SIM, dual stand-by). At the bottom you can still find a 3.5 audio jack port, a USB Type-C 2.0 port, a microphone, and a speaker-grill. At the top, POCO still embeds the IR Blaster sensor for the Mi Remote.

For the overall body, the dimension of POCO X3 is quite large with 165.3 x 76.8 x 9.4 mm. It weighs around 215 grams, so it will feel heavy if you are used to smartphones that weigh under 200 grams. Interestingly, the body of the POCO X3 Pro has an IP53 certification, which means it is resistant to splashing water and safe from dust ingress.

Screen

For the POCO X3 Pro screen, it uses an IPS LCD panel with a size of 5.67 inches and runs at Full-HD Plus resolution. Even so, the screen is still enough to spoil the user’s eyes even though it doesn't use an AMOLED panel. The POCO X3 Pro screen also has a refresh rate of 120 Hz and HDR10, making it very suitable for playing mobile games or watching movies on Netflix.

Poco X3 Pro is claimed to have a touch sampling rate of up to 240Hz so the screen is responsive. Even though it has been coated with a screen protector, the POCO X3 Pro screen has also used Gorilla Glass 6 which is certainly quite safe from minor scratches. For outdoor use, the POCO X3 Pro screen is also still reliable because the screen is capable of producing a maximum light of up to 450 nits.

Interface and Features

After eight months of being in Indonesia, POCO X3 Pro has also received a number of system updates, so that it now uses the MIUI 12.5.4 version and continues to use the Android 11 interface. It makes the interface feel fresh and has more animation effects and better navigation.

As mentioned above, the POCO X3 Pro also features a fingerprint sensor on the right side. Even so, the performance provided is still noticeably faster than the on-display finger-print sensor. Plus POCO X3 Pro also has a facial scanner feature that makes the device more secure.

Dual speakers and NFC which are usually found in high-end smartphones are also present on the POCO X3 Pro. This certainly provides added value for the features it has.

If you like playing mobile games, POCO X3 Pro also has a Game Turbo feature which is claimed to increase CPU and GPU performance when playing games, including a number of features for documentation of gameplay and sharing on social media.

Camera

For the rear camera, the POCO X3 Pro has a four-camera configuration, with the main camera having a resolution of 48 MP, f/1.8, 8 MP ultra wide camera, f/2.2, 2 MP macro, f/2.4, and 2 MP, f/2.4 depth. The 40 MP main camera on the POCO X3 Pro uses a Sony IMX 582 sensor which has a quad bayer feature. This means that when the feature is turned on, the camera capture will have a resolution of 12 MP. When turned off, all pixels will capture the image, so the resulting photo will have a resolution of 48 MP. The image will be bigger, but the results may not be as good as when using 12 MP.

The author has also tested the camera quality of POCO X3 Pro through several schemes, here are the results:

Selfie, day and night

Normal Lense

Ultrawide Lense

Normal Lense

Ultrawide Lense

Low Light

Overall, the camera of POCO X3 Pro is very reliable in taking everyday photos. It can capture sharp photos for outdoor activities and the color character tends to be warm.

For video recording, the rear camera of the POCO X3 Pro can record up to 4K resolution and runs at 30 FPS. As for the 1080p resolution, it can run up to 60 FPS. The front camera only has two resolution options, namely 720p with 30 FPS and 1080p with 30 FPS by disabling the beautify and bokeh features.

Here are the video results from the POCO X3 Pro's front and rear cameras running at 1080p resolution at 60 Hz:

Great Performance for Mobile Gaming

The POCO X3 Pro variant that the author tested has Qualcomm Snapdragon 860, 8 GB RAM, and 256 GB storage. This is the highest variant released by POCO Indonesia. For your information, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 is a high-end chipset in 2021. This chipset itself is an improvement from the Snapdragon 855 Plus which was previously used in a number of gaming smartphones. With the specifications offered earlier, of course this is a rare opportunity for a smartphone that is priced at less than 4 million.

But with the specifications and prices offered by the POCO X3 Pro, what about its performance? For the performance, the author himself has also tested it in a number of popular benchmark applications today. Here are the results:

POCO X3 Pro was recorded to get a score of around 570 thousand for AnTuTu. It got a score of 776 on single-core and 2584 on multi-core on GeekBench. For GPU Mark, the POCO X3 Pro gets a score of 1,436,400. This score proves that POCO X3 Pro is reliable to play heavy mobile games, such as Genshin Impact, PUBG: New State, to Mobile Legends.

The author also tried running PS1 and PS2 emulators. The result? All these emulators run smoothly without any problems. Here are screenshots of a number of graphic settings from PUBG Mobile, Genshin Impact, Mobile Legends, PUBG: New State, Wild Rift, and Minecraft.

PUBG Mobile

PUBG: New State

Genshin Impact

Mobile Legends

Minecraft

LOL: Wild Rift

From these screenshots, Genshin Impact can be set to the "Highest" setting on POCO X3 Pro, even though there are noticeable frame drops during the gameplay so it is recommended to use the "High" graphics setting only.

As for PUBG Mobile, PUBG New State, Mobile Legends, and Wild Rift, they run very well even though they are set in the highest graphics settings. But strangely when the author tries to play Minecraft, the rendering distance on the POCO X3 Pro can only be at 16 chunks.

Big Battery and Fast Charging

POCO X3 Pro has a battery capacity of 5160 mAh which is also supported by 33 Watt fast charging. POCO Indonesia itself had claimed that their smartphone can be fully charged in less than an hour. The author has tested the battery charging speed time using the Battery Log application, it was recorded that the duration it took for one hour was more than 1% to 100% power. You can see the results in the screenshots above.

As for usage, the POCO X3 Pro's battery can last for a full day for normal usage schemes, such as playing games occasionally and opening social media applications, and replying to messages. Even the POCO X3 Pro also has a Battery Saver feature which makes it even more power-efficient.

Verdict

When it was released in April 2021, the POCO X3 Pro with 8 GB RAM variant and 256 GB storage was priced at IDR 4 million, some even sold it for up to IDR 4.2 million due to the limited unit at that time. However, in December 2021, the POCO X3 Pro experienced a price reduction of up to Rp. 200 thousand, thus making the highest variant available for a price of around Rp. 3.8 million.

Even though the price dropped just a little, the performance quality of the POCO X3 Pro is still very reliable until 2022. So this POCO smartphone is still worth owning because of the high specifications and affordable price tag.

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Also Read >> Poco X3 NFC Priced at Rp3 Million, a Mid-End Gaming Smartphone!

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