POCO F6 Review - Return to form?
After using the POCO F6 for three months, we share our thoughts and experiences with the premium mid-ranger. Does it live up to the F-series legacy?
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| POCO F6 in Green |
To recap, the POCO F6 aims to offer near-flagship performance for significantly less than a flagship smartphone.
It has a 120Hz 6.67-inch Gorilla Glass Victus protected Flow AMOLED screen, a 4nm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 octa-core processor, Adreno GPU, LPDDR5X RAM, 256GB/512GB UFS 4.0, and a 5,000mAh battery with a 90W fast charging.
At the back are the 50MP rear main camera and the 8MP ultra-wide camera while in front is the 32MP selfie camera.
It is running on Android 14-based HyperOS. Other features include WiFi 6, 5G, 4G, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC, OTG, GPS, dual Nano SIM, In-display fingerprint scanner, stereo speakers and an IP64 water and dust resistance.
In the Philippines, it is priced at only PHP 21,990 for the 8GB/256GB variant.
Let's dive into the review!
For our review part 1: POCO F6 Unboxing and First Impressions
Multimedia Experience
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| POCO F6's screen |
In front is the aforementioned 6.67-inch Flow AMOLED screen with a 2,712 x 1,220 resolution, a 120Hz variable refresh rate and a 2400 nits peak brightness. It is Gorilla Glass Victus protected.
The panel is just bright enough to be readable under direct sunlight at maximum brightness. The colors are vibrant while the contrast is deep. Text and detail are super crisp at 1,220p resolution.
It supports 10-points of multi-touch which makes it good for multitasking or games that support multiple simultaneous touch inputs. It responds quickly and accurately to our taps and gestures.
The POCO F6 has near-perfect symmetry of bezels around the panel. The bezels aren't the thinnest, but it is satisfying to see.
On the upper part of the panel is the punch hole for the selfie camera. On the top bezel is the super slim earpiece as well.
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| Top and bottom view |
For audio, the phone is equipped with stereo speakers. The first is the bottom-firing speaker and the top-firing one. Around the phone are three microphones used for noise cancelling in calls and audio recording.
The stereo speakers offer decent power and clarity, loud maximum volume and minimal distortion. To get the best sound quality, settle at 90 percent volume as the maximum volume has some noticeable distortion.
The microphones do a good job of picking up sounds from a meter away while the noise-cancellation for calls is good too. When recording audio for videos, we noticed that the audio quality is decent but could be better especially when comparing it against its competition.
Cameras
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| POCO F6's rear cameras |
As mentioned earlier, the phone is equipped with a 50MP f/1.59 main camera with Sony IMX882 sensor and OIS and an 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide angle camera with a circular LED flash.
The included modes of the stock camera app include Photo, Video, Night, Pro, Portrait, 50MP, Panorama, Short Film, Slow Motion, Time-lapse, and Long Exposure.
The Pro mode allows switching between the 1x and ultra-wide cameras, ISO (50-6400), Shutterspeed (1/4,000-30 seconds), White Balance, EV (+-4), and Focus.
Added features include Voice Shutter, Histogram, Exposure Verification and Focus Peaking.
Rear Camera Samples
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| POCO F6 rear camera 1x daylight |
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| POCO F6 rear camera 2x daylight |
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| POCO F6 rear camera ultra-wide daylight |
All daylight images from the rear camera module produce surprisingly consistent results in terms of color, and contrast. What we noticed was that the ultra-wide is noticeably softer. The difference between a 50MP sensor and an 8MP is noticeable.
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| Rear camera close-up |
The rear camera captures close-up well. The in-focus areas are sharp and detailed while the out of focus areas are soft and non-distracting.
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| POCO F6 rear camera 1x indoors |
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| POCO F6 rear camera 2x indoors |
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| POCO F6 rear camera ultra-wide indoors |
The above images were taken in a well-lit restaurant. The resulting images from the 1x, 2x and ultra-wide were consistent. All three have similar color and contrast. However, the ultra-wide is noticeably softer.
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| POCO F6 rear camera 1x low light |
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| POCO F6 rear camera 2x low light |
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| POCO F6 rear camera ultra-wide low light |
For low light, the sharpness and detail were affected by the slight noise build-up. However, the color and contrast remain consistent. Its impressive for the price.
Overall, the rear main camera and 2x crop produced decent images. Although the ultra-wide camera's images were noticeably softer, the color and contrast are consistent with the main camera and the 2x crop.
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| Selfie cameras |
The 20MP f/2.2 selfie camera is on the punch hole on the display
Camera modes include Photo, Video, Portrait, Panorama and Night mode.
Selfie Camera Samples
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| POCO F6 selfie camera daylight |
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| POCO F6 Selfie camera portrait mode |
Daylight selfies from the POCO F6 are decent. You immediately notice the sharpness and detail. The color and contrast are on point too.
The portrait mode's edge detection is good. It only struggled with fine hair fibres.
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| POCO F6 Selfie indoors |
Indoors, the image is similar to daylight where the sharpness and detail are good while the colors are mostly accurate except for skin tones. In this case, the skin tones are orange.
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| POCO F6 Selfie low light |
In low light, the selfie camera's images have more grain and noise which softened the image. However, it tends to make the low light scene look more like daylight which could be tweaked for a more true-to-life image.
Overall, the front cameras produced selfie images with good color, contrast, sharpness, and detail. However, the lowlight is softer and could be tweaked to make the images look like they were taken at night.
The rear camera can record up to 4K at 60fps. The footage is decent in sharpness but even in daylight, noise is apparent. The OIS is enough to reduce the microjitters from normal handholding. It also comes with a steady mode but is locked at 1080 at 30fps with a noticeable crop.
The selfie camera can record up to 1080 at 60fps. Like the main camera, the footage is decently sharp while being vibrant and contrasty. However, the noise and grain is noticeable. Its shakier than we liked too.
Performance
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| POCO F6 AnTuTu and GeekBench |
To recap, the POCO F6 features the 4nm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 octa-core processor, Adreno GPU, 8GB/12GB LPDDR5X RAM, and 256GB/512GB UFS 4.0 storage.
During the AnTuTu test, the phone's temperature increased by 9 degrees while the battery lost 6 percent power.
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| POCO F6 3DMark WildLife Extreme and CPDT |
POCO F6 benchmarks:
- AnTuTu - 1,375,824
- Geekbench 6 - 1,762 (single-core), 4,595 (multi-core)
- 3D Mark WildLife Extreme - 2,433 at 14.57 average fps
- CPDT - 713.91 MB/s sequential read speeds and 498.18 MB/s sequential write speeds
The POCO F6 scores in AnTuTu, Geekbench, and 3DMark are not the best in class but the scores are in the range of what we expected from this combination of chipset and software.
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| Genshin Impact graphics settings |
On Genshin Impact, it is set on the Medium graphics settings as the default. Playing the game is mostly smooth when wandering around the world but when in combat with many animations, the phone isn't as smooth in performance.
In our experience, the phone can handle the majority of tasks like navigating through the OS, opening apps, web surfing, and social media without struggling.
The phone has an optical In-Display fingerprint sensor and face unlock for security. The initial setup and subsequent uses are quick and it detects our biometrics fast enough. It is slightly slower than the flagship smartphone's ultrasonic fingerprint scanner.
The face unlocks only struggles when the camera is dirty or when we are wearing a mask and sunglasses. The screen brightens up when used in the dark. Face unlock even has a super bright mode that can be set in the settings.
Regarding connectivity, we have the following: WiFi 6, 5G, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, OTG, GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, and dual nano SIM.
Connection is usually stable for WiFi and we get 4 to 5 bars of mobile data signal most of the time.
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| PCMark Battery test |
Inside the phone is a large 5,000mAh battery. It lasted 13 hours and 23 minute on our usual PCMark Battery benchmark. In daily use, we were consistently getting more than 5 hours of on-screen time even when constantly connected to 5G, WiFi and Bluetooth devices.
The battery charges via USB-C with the 90W wall charger which charges the phone 100 percent in under 45 minutes.
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| POCO F6's UI |
It is running on HyperOS based on Android 14. Visually, its similar to recent previous generation MIUI but with the refinements under the hood. We've noticed snappier performance in certain parts of the OS that aren't massive but adds to overall polish. There are still those uniquely Xiaomi notifications and timed prompts that still can be annyoing after a certain period. Overall, if you liked MIUI before, HyperOS is more of the same. There are not ground breaking changes so if you didn't like it before, chances are you still won't.
Pros - Powerful specs for price range, Gorilla Glass Victus protection, 120Hz 1.5K Flow AMOLED, lightweight body, IR blaster, decently long battery, 90W charging, IP64, stereo speakers, Liquid Cooling Tech 4.0, decent rear main camera and selfie camera performance
Cons - Ultra-wide angle camera performance is borderline acceptable, Selfie camera video is shaky, HyperOS isn't for everyone
POCO F6 Specs
Display: 6.67-inch Gorilla Glass Victus protected Flow AMOLED w/ 120Hz refresh rate, 1.5K 2712 x 1220 resolution at 446 ppi
CPU: 3.01GHz 4nm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 octa-core processor
GPU: Adreno
RAM: 8GB/12GB LPDDR5X
ROM: 256GB/512GB UFS 4.0
Back Camera: 50MP f/1.59 Sony IMX882, OIS + 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide-angle + circular LED flash
Selfie Camera: 20MP f/2.2
Battery: 5,000mAh w/ 90W HyperCharge
OS: Android 14 w/ HyperOS
Connectivity: WiFi 6 (2.4GHz/5GHz), 5G, 4G, Bluetooth 5.4, OTG, GPS, NFC, dual SIM (nano)
Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic
Others: In-Display fingerprint sensor, IP64 water splash resistance, stereo speakers, IR Blaster, stereo speakers, Liquid Cool Technology 4.0, X-axis linear vibration motor, USB-C, Colors: Titanium, Black, Green
Dimensions: 160.5 x 74.5 x 8mm
Weight: 179 g
Price: PHP 21,999 (8GB/256GB), PHP 24,999 (12GB/512GB)
Verdict
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| POCO F6's web surfing experience |
POCO F6 has one of the better specs to price ratio in the under PHP 25K category. They managed to push the specs while minimizing the compromises in other areas.
We loved the lightweight and premium designed polycarbonate and glass body. It is eye catching and a delight to carry around.
The raw performance is just under 2024 flagship levels thanks to the SD8sG3, Adreno GPU, LPDDR5X RAM, and UFS 4.0 storage. The Liquid Cool Technology 4.0 allows for sextended gameplay with Genshin Impact at more consistent frame rates.
The 5,000mAh battery gets us thru the heavy work day with just 15 percent battery life. The included 90W charger charges the phone in under 45 minutes.
It has a stunning 120Hz FHD+ LTPO AMOLED screen with symmetrical bezels. It even is decently bright enough to be readable under direct sunlight. It also has immersive stereo speakers.
The main camera and the selfie cameras produced decent photos with acceptable sharpness, color and contrast while the ultra-wide is noticeably softer with more noise when compared to the rest of the cameras. It is acceptable for the price.
Let's not forget other included features like IP64, stereo speakers, 120Hz 1.5K AMOLED, IR Blaster, Bluetooth 5.4, and WiFi 6.
We recommend it if you want a lightweight and good looking phone with near-flagship performance and can live with acceptable camera performance.
This is not a photography-focused phone.
What do you think guys?
Build/Design - 4.25
Multimedia Experience - 4.0
Cameras - 3.75
Performance - 4.5
Average - 4.125/5
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