Reviewing the Poco M3: what’s inside this 159-franc smartphone
A certain Chinese budget phone has absolutely smashed every price-performance test. But the M3 doesn’t just have a monster battery as its only advantage. Nevertheless, there are a few issues.
«More than you expect» – a sober statement, advertising the Poco M3 on its Chinese manufacturer’s international website. The quote obviously refers to the price of the device – the Poco M3 is available in Switzerland for just under 160 francs.
The brand behind the budget phone isn’t well known here. These days Poco is officially an independent brand, but its origins can be traced back to the Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi. The latter launched the sub-brand in 2018. A good idea: because according to their own data, Poco is now represented in 35 countries, having shipped over nine million phones in 2020 (original article in German).
Judging by the cover
The Poco M3 comes delivered in a snazzy yellow box. It includes a 22.5-watt USB-A power adapter with a USB-A to USB-C cable – both in plain white. In addition, Poco also throws a protective cover made of transparent PVC on top. Useful.
While the M3 is also available in yellow and blue, my test device is black. It’s 6.53 inches long and weighs 197 grams. With its 19.5:9 aspect ratio, the phone feels light and thin – but tiny hands like mine might be a bit overwhelmed by the width. Quick unlocking rapidly becomes a tedious hand stretching exercise, especially during one-handed use.
When removing it from the box, the back immediately catches my eye: It’s made of textured plastic – pretty unique. The phone looks fancy, providing a convincing faux leather touch that feels pleasing as well. However, the complete absence of any stainless steel elements whatsoever brings the device back down to earth aesthetically.
Staying with the back for the moment: the camera module takes up an entire top quarter. Nestled next to the «Super Triple Camera» and the flash, you’ll see the silver Poco branding emblazoned in generous 2.5 centimetre lettering. If you’re into overt brand messaging, however, the logo can probably be easily pasted over thanks to the texture of the camera module (article in German).
The edges of the Poco have a sharpened notch towards the outside, and you can clearly see the attachment of the 1080p FHD+ display. A protective film comes attached, all inclusive.
What I find very convenient is that Poco supports headphone diversity. In other words, the device doesn’t just offer a USB-C port for charging but also a good old headphone jack at the upper edge. They’ve been around for over 100 years and haven’t needed changing. Why get rid of them then?
What’s inside
The Poco M3 comes delivered with Android 10 and runs on a MIUI 12-based Poco launcher. It’s still unclear when Android 11 will be available for the M3.
MIUI 12 makes do without additional ads. Instead, the Poco comes with bloatware in addition to the preinstalled Google apps. I have to remove dozens of games and apps immediately after setting up the device.
MIUI does offer a nice app drawer, offering a good overview and allowing you to search for apps by colour. In order to make the phone light up via touch, I had to adjust the double tap feature in the lock screen settings. The same with navigation: I replaced the default navigation via buttons with full-screen gestures.
When it comes to storage, the M3 gives you the choice between a 64 GB or 128 GB ROM version, paired with either 4 or 6 GB of RAM. On top of the two SIM card slots, you can also insert a MicroSD if you need more storage.
Setting up facial recognition is quick and easy – it takes much longer on the iPhone. The fingerprint sensor is also quickly set up. Face recognition works in nine out of ten cases, even in the dark, while the fingerprint sensor is near ideal.
Beautiful shots (on good days)
The M3’s «Super Triple Camera» consists of a 48-megapixel main camera, a 2-megapixel macro lens and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. This all leads to some good photos – as long as the conditions are right. So on sunny or bright cloudy days, in well-lit interiors, and without a zoom, the M3 will deliver perfectly acceptable results.
Macro shots on the M3 come out better than those using zoom. Nevertheless, avoiding blurriness is a challenge. This leaf on my living room plant isn’t that grainy in real life.
The M3 struggles even more in the dark: pictures come across as quite grainy and blurry.
The 8-megapixel front camera is less potent and produces grainy pictures even in good light. The beautification filters (blur and narrowing) are fixed by default, but they can be overridden with two clicks.
Just what I need: a monster battery and stereo sound
The M3’s insane 6000 mAh battery is already advertised on the packaging. And rightly so! After all, this phone is a high-energy device, easily lasting three days without being plugged in when I use it (lots of surfing, social media, reading newspapers and listening to music, browsing photos now and then, no gaming, active Covid tracker).
What I find particularly cool: with reverse charging, you can use the phone as a power bank. Such as when your Bluetooth headphones suddenly quit on you. If you’ve completely drained your M3 this way, it will take about two and a half hours to fully recharge.
The M3 is surprising in another way. When I’m in the shower, I like listening to interesting podcasts – meaning that a phone’s speakers have to cut through the background noise of splashing water. The M3 manages this flawlessly. However, be careful that the device doesn’t come into contact with water, as it isn’t waterproof at all. Still, I’m able to listen to the latest episode of «The Missing Cryptoqueen» while washing my hair.
Even without directly disturbing background noises, the device delivers a really clean sound. Which is why the M3 has also provided musical support during spontaneous after-work lawn parties several times. If you hold the phone in your hand, you’ll feel the vibration of the speaker very clearly.
Sensitivity and speed dampen the mood
Unfortunately, the Poco’s flights of fancy are slowed down by a banal but fundamental feature. One I notice every time I want to wake up the screen using the double-tap function. What should be a swift tap quickly turns into aggressive pressing – the display isn’t particularly sensitive. Sometimes it even takes a whole five or six forced nudges to make the Poco light up. Even when awake, the display doesn’t always respond immediately to my commands. This lack of display responsiveness is quite irritating.
But when the display finally decides to light up, I don’t find fault with the resolution. On a bright day outdoors, it does quickly become difficult to read – even on the highest brightness level.
The Poco M3 has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 installed – quite typical for a phone in this price range. With such a mid-range processor, the M3 obviously won’t win any medals in terms of speed (this could also be due to MIUI). It takes a few seconds and milliseconds for apps to open. When playing Candy Crush occasionally, I also notice that the Poco keeps faltering a bit.
Apart from what I consider to be the major flaws in the display and speed, I also noticed some minor annoyances. When the M3 is connected to a Sonos speaker, the current song is almost never displayed properly in the lock screen. The communication between these two devices doesn’t seem to be optimal.
As a righteous dark mode disciple, I instantly noticed that this superior display setting doesn’t work cleanly everywhere in the M3. In Spotify, for example, the play/pause button appears all in white. In return, the minute display almost completely disappears in the dark – very unattractive.
Who is the M3 for?
Can I even complain about such a cheap phone? The M3 benefits from a lenient rating due to its price range. The Poco M3 therefore ends up with top marks, offering cool features around the monster battery and the potent stereo sound – despite the downers regarding the display and speed.
If you’re looking for a reliable, down-to-earth phone with respectable features and incredible endurance without needing to shoot professional photos or instant actions, sensitivity, and high-quality finishes, you can get the Poco M3 with a very clear conscience.
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«I want it all! The terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles!» – these words spoken by an iconic American TV celebrity could have been mine. It's a take on life I also apply to my job. What does this mean in concrete terms? That every story has its charm; no matter how small, large, exciting or trivial. The more eclectic the mix, the better.
