Poco F6 Pro review
HyperOS on top of Android 14
The Poco F6 Pro runs on Xiaomi's relatively new HyperOS - in their words, "A human-centric operating system designed for the "Human x Car x Home" smart ecosystem." We already encountered HyperOS on the Xiaomi 14, and you can read our dedicated article or watch the video below to get a taste.
The Poco F6 Pro and F6 both come with the promise of three years of major software updates and an additional year of security patches.
The new OS sure looks and behaves a lot like the MIUI of old, and while we don't doubt there are under-the-hood improvements, long-time Xiaomi phone users will be right at home. There are subtle differences to be spotted, though, like the slightly flatter design and more rounded edges for a lot of the design elements.
HyperOS on the Poco F6 Pro
Some things have gotten more intuitive, like the multi-window implementation, where the buttons are now more self-explanatory. That's not entirely the case with the quick settings, so it's nice that there's an option to enable text labels (off by default). You can no longer opt out of the Control center, though - that's still available on the phones that had it pre-HyperOS, but not on those that launched with the new software.
HyperOS on the Poco F6 Pro
The Poco F6 Pro is also infused with plenty of AI. The new AI-powered features include AI Portraits, which uses generative AI to create photorealistic portraits with a subject's face. Ai Expansion can extend images with the help of AI. Ai Magic Erase Pro is quite self-explanatory, it uses AI to remove objects from images. There is also Ai Album Search for quickly finding relevant photos inside your photo reel. Then there is also Ai Subtitles which can do real-time transcribing on videos, as well as real-time voice translation or transcribe your memos into text notes. Be advised, however, that some of these Ai features might not be available in all regions or immediately at launch.
Benchmarks and performance
The Poco F6 Pro is based on last year's top-tier Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. While it might not be the latest and greatest, going for last year's flagship chip is a pretty good way to offer high-end performance and features while saving on a bit of cost. The CPU setup includes one prime ARM Cortex-X3 core, clocked at up to 3.2 GHz; two Cortex-A715 cores, working at up to 2.8GHz; another two Cortex-A710 cores, clocked at 2.8 GHz; and finally three Cortex-A510 cores, clocked at up to 2.0 GHz.
The onboard GPU is a powerful Adreno 740. The chipset is paired with LPDDR5X RAM and fast UFS 4.0 storage. You can get the phone in three configurations - 12GB/256GB base, 12GB/512GB and a top tier 16GB/1TB model. There is no expandable storage here, so you are stuck with what you get. We have the latter decked-out model for review and 1TB is a Poco first.
As expected, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 offers excellent all-around performance. Let's kick things off with some CPU testing and GeekBench. The Poco F6 Pro and its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 are pretty much topping the charts within the price segment. The Poco X6 Pro with its Dimensity 8300 Ultra comes close but is not quite on the same performance level.
GeekBench 6
- Multi-core
- Single-core
Motorola Edge 40 Pro
Poco F6 Pro
Poco X6 Pro
Poco F5 Pro
Nothing Phone (2)
Xiaomi 13T
Galaxy S23 FE
AnTuTu, with its much more compound and varied test suit, including graphical and memory benchmarks, is even more favorable towards the Poco F6 Pro. Again, the Poco X6 Pro comes close but is not quite on the same level.
AnTuTu
- v9
- v10
Poco F6 Pro
Motorola Edge 40 Pro
Poco F5 Pro
Galaxy S23 FE
Galaxy S23 FE (Snapdragon)
Nothing Phone (2)
vivo V30 Pro
Unfortunately, our Poco F6 Pro review unit did not allow us to run 3DMark. We still managed to run some thermal-throttling tests on the phone in both regular and performance mode. We found that whatever tuning Xiaomi is doing allows Performance mode to push the phone a bit harder for longer and sustain better long-term performance. This does come at the expense of higher internal and surface temperature. The Poco F6 Pro can get quite toasty, especially in Performance mode and especially its aluminum frame. Still, it never got too hot to hold, and the thermal-throttling results speak for themselves.
Thermal-throttling: Regular mode • Performance mode
The Poco F6 Pro uses all-new LiquidCool 4.0 technology; the results are impressive. It incorporates a new IceLoop vapor chamber cooling solution.
Reader comments
- skul9x
- 16 Jun 2024
- vNB
All parameters are ok until this phone cannot be unlocked for free. The user community will be small, there will be no custom rom. => I don't buy it.
- John
- 04 Jun 2024
- 6k}
Any info about carrier aggregation?
- Lord Buttjuice
- 03 Jun 2024
- 6mM
That faux marble back is horrible