Poco M3 Pro 5G review

Competition

It's no secret we had some hard time imagining why would anyone pick 5G connectivity above other (more important) features - be it a better screen, much faster performance, way better camera experience, splash resistance, and/or faster charging. But the truth is - even we can't really connect with the idea, the manufacturers saw some potential, and now there are plenty of 5G phones on a budget. But the Poco M3 Pro 5G is probably the cheapest among all of them.

Indeed, the Poco M3 Pro 5G is going to retail at €199 for its 4GB/64GB model. But the early bird price is €179, and that's nicely cheap, alright. And knowing Xiaomi, the phone will be frequently sold at this "promo" price even after the early bird campaign ends.

The Realme 8 5G is the first phone that comes to mind when thinking competition, of course. Its specs sheet is pretty similar to the Poco's - a 90hz LCD, Dimensity 700 chip, the same trio of snappers, a 5,000mAh battery with 18W charging. The pricing is identical, too - €199 retail price and €179 for the early adopters. The base model of the Realme 8 5G has 6GB of RAM, while the Poco M3 Pro comes with 4GB of RAM, and that'll be probably enough for some to choose Realme's offer.

Other makers like OnePlus, Samsung and Motorola are also selling 5G-enabled entry-level phones, but they start at about €250, making them less desirable than the Poco. Sure, OnePlus Nord N10 5G has stereo speakers and an ultrawide camera on top of the M3 Pro, while the Galaxy A42 5G impresses with a Super AMOLED screen and gaming performance. The Moto G50, on the other hand, has an inferior 720p screen, and yet it's more expensive, so it doesn't make much sense. But €70 or so on top of the Poco M3 Pro 5G price seems like a lot in this class.

Realme 8 5G • OnePlus Nord N10 5G • Samsung Galaxy A42 5G • Motorola Moto G50

But Xiaomi's in-house competition is harsh, and it's going to be tough for the Poco M3 Pro 5G to stand out among its peers. Like the Redmi Note 9T - while it may have a 60Hz LCD screen, it offers faster graphics, stereo speakers, and splash resistance - at the same price at that.

The Redmi Note 10 5G deserves an honorable mention. It's the Poco M3 Pro 5G with Redmi branding (well, it's the other way around, really, but anyway...), but it's at least €20 more expensive, and it makes no sense of buying it unless you hate Poco's launcher that much.

And if 5G is not a must, then Xiaomi can sell you a flagship at that price. Indeed, we are talking about the €195 Poco X3 Pro with a 120Hz display, Snapdragon 860 chipset, plenty of snappers, 33W fast charging and all sorts of connectivity options.

Or maybe look at the €150 4GB/64GB Redmi Note 10, which packs a 60Hz Super AMOLED screen, a decent Snapdragon 678 hardware, four cameras at the back, two speakers, and a large battery with faster 33W charging support. We'd take this one instead of 5G and a 90Hz LCD, but maybe that's just us.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T • Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G • Xiaomi Poco X3 Pro • Xiaomi Redmi Note 10

Verdict

Xiaomi knows how to make a good phone, and the Poco M3 Pro 5G follows the same successful recipe - it packs the best features money can buy you at €179, with 5G being one of the highlights. We did like the 90Hz LCD screen - it was always smooth, bright enough and with great contrast. All four cameras do nice photos, you can play games mostly satisfactory, and the battery life is amazing.

The Poco M3 Pro 5G is not the fastest chap, that is for sure - the GPU is unimpressive, the charging is not that fast, there are no popular features like dual speakers or 4K video capturing. But right now, 5G is expensive, so we can only imagine where a large chunk of the budget went.

The Poco M3 Pro 5G is not a phone for everyone, obviously. If you want to join the first people getting access to 5G and all that instantaneous web load times, it's probably the cheapest way in. If 5G doesn't matter that much, just look elsewhere.

Pros

• 90Hz LCD IPS screen, very good contrast.
• Excellent battery life.
• Good speaker quality.
• Smooth MIUI 12.
• Dependable camera day and night.
• Outstanding selfies.
• 5G, 3.5mm jack, IR blaster, NFC, microSD.

Cons

• Mediocre GPU performance.
• No ingress protection.
• No stereo speakers.
• No 4K video recording.