Poco X3 GT review
MIUI 12.5 for Poco on top of Android 11 core
The Poco X3 GT employs the latest Poco-spiced MIUI 12.5 version. MIUI 12 has been around for a while, and even if it uses an Android 11 base, you can't really tell that as it skins everything thoroughly. The Poco launcher uses a slightly different system theme compared to Xiaomi's own-branded phones, icons included, but you can change it to your liking.
You unlock the screen via the side-mounted fingerprint scanner. The reader is easy to set up, blazing-fast, and the accuracy is superb. We also liked the haptic feedback the X3 GT provides upon successful unlocking.
Depending on how you carry the phone you might want to set the unlock method to 'Press' as the always-on reader will often attempt reading your palm and/or other fingers and eventually disable the fingerprint unlock until you input your PIN. A 2D Face Unlock is available, too, but it is far less secure than the fingerprint option.
The homescreens are business as usual - they are populated with shortcuts, folders, and widgets. The leftmost pane, if enabled, is Google's Discover.
The Poco X3 GT does not support Always-on screen, there are no Super Wallpapers either.
MIUI 12 for Poco offers an app drawer, but unlike on the Redmi phones, you cannot disable it on the Poco X3 GT.
It automatically organizes your apps into categories. The first is All, meaning it contains all apps. Then follow Communication, Entertainment, Photography, Tools, New, and Business. You can edit these categories or even disable them altogether.
MIUI 12 has its notification shade split into Notification Center and Control Center. Indeed, this is precisely what the iPhones do, and you even summon them in the same fashion - pull down from the left part of the screen for the Notification Center, pull down from the right for the Control Center.
If you are not fond of this new split - you can disable the Control Center, and the shade will revert to its more traditional Android looks and operation.
Notification Center • Control Center • Options • The old Notification Shade
The task switcher is business as usual. It shows all your recent apps in two columns. Tap and hold on a card for the split-screen shortcut, or just swipe it left or right to close it.
Split-screen multi-tasking is supported. There is no Floating Window shortcut, but the Calculator app does support Floating options once launched.
Task Switcher • Split screen • Split screen • Floating calculator
Themes are a huge part of MIUI, and they are available on MIUI 12, too. You can download new ones from the Themes store, and they can change wallpapers, ringtones, system icons, and even the always-on display style.
Xiaomi enhanced MIUI 12 with a couple of additional privacy options. Now, when sharing stuff, like photos and videos, you can opt to remove location info and/or other metadata (incl. device info) and thus protect your privacy better. Neat.
MIUI also offers a Security app. It can scan your phone for malware, manage your blacklist, manage or restrict your data usage, configure battery behavior, and free up some RAM. It can also manage your installed apps' permissions and allow you to define the battery behavior of selected apps and apply restrictions only to the apps you choose.
MIUI 12 packs proprietary Gallery, Music, and Video player. In some regions, the music and video apps include paid streaming options. There is also Mi Remote app for the IR blaster. There is no FM radio on the Poco X3 GT.
Security • Security • Music • Video • Mi Remote
MIUI 12 supports Dark Mode, too, and you can even force it on wallpapers or restrict its application on incompatible individual apps.
MIUI 12 is fully optimized to work on HRR displays, and it looks great on the Poco X3 GT. Everything is smooth and fast; animations are unobtrusive yet impressive, the attention to detail is excellent. We did enjoy working with MIUI on the Poco X3 GT's 120Hz screen for sure.
Some MIUI ROMs include ads in the default apps; it is a well-known thing.
The international ROM version of this Poco X3 GT does come with baked-in "recommendations" or ads, but even if they were enabled by default - nothing appeared through the UI. Still, if your phone does show ads - you can disable those even if it's a bit tedious to do it. For example, if you are annoyed by the app scanner's ads, just hit the settings gear and disable recommendations. Ads in the File Manager - Settings->About should do it. Themes - go to Settings and disable Recommendations. It's not ideal, sure, but at least you can get rid of them all.
Performance and benchmarks
The Poco X3 GT is the first phone we meet that's based on the MediaTek's Dimensity 1100 chipset. The hardware platform is similar to the top Dimensity 1200 chip - it has the same CPU cores, graphics and connectivity suite, but differs mostly in the clock speeds.
So, the Dimensity 1100 chip offers an octa-core processor with a 4+4 configuration - meaning it doesn't have a dedicated 'prime' core. There are four Cortex-A78 clocked at 2.6GHz and four Cortex-A55 clocked at 2.0GHz.
For graphics, the chipset has a total of nine Mali-G77 computing cores. We cannot confirm if the GPU clocks are the same as on Dimensity 1200 though as MediaTek doesn't advertise those.
The Dimensity 1100 chip package also includes a 5G NR Sub-6 GHz and LTE, built-in modem. It is noteworthy that the Poco X3 GT and its Dimensity 1100 are capable of Dual SIM 5G standby (SA/NSA supported), which is not a given.
Speaking of connectivity features, the chipset also has Dual-Band Wi-Fi 6, NFC and Bluetooth 5.2. And everything is crammed into the chip package using a current and efficient, though not industry-leading 6nm manufacturing process.
The Poco X3 GT is available with 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and you can choose between 128GB and 256GB UFS3.1 storage options.
So, the synthetic performance of the Dimensity 1100's CPU is on par with the Poco X3 Pro's Snapdragon 860 and not that far from the Nord 2's Dimensity 1200.
GeekBench 5 (multi-core)
Higher is better
-
Realme X7 Pro
2997 -
Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
2909 -
OnePlus Nord 2
2792 -
Poco X3 Pro
2574 -
Poco X3 GT
2310 -
OnePlus Nord CE 5G
1812 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
1780 -
Poco X3 NFC
1777 -
Realme 8 Pro
1678 -
Samsung Galaxy A52
1577 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S
1576
GeekBench 5 (single-core)
Higher is better
-
OnePlus Nord 2
814 -
Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
803 -
Realme X7 Pro
756 -
Poco X3 Pro
735 -
Poco X3 GT
693 -
OnePlus Nord CE 5G
641 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
569 -
Poco X3 NFC
568 -
Realme 8 Pro
566 -
Samsung Galaxy A52
525 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S
502
The 9-core Mali-G77 GPU is in a similar boat. It scored on par with Snapdragon 860's Adreno 640 (Poco X3 Pro), and the Dimensity 1200's GPU (Nord 2).
GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (onscreen)
Higher is better
-
Poco X3 GT
97 -
Poco X3 Pro
93 -
Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
78 -
Realme X7 Pro
64 -
OnePlus Nord 2
59 -
OnePlus Nord CE 5G
40 -
Realme 8 Pro
38 -
Samsung Galaxy A52
35 -
Poco X3 NFC
33
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
-
Realme X7 Pro
40 -
Poco X3 Pro
38 -
Poco X3 GT
38 -
OnePlus Nord 2
38 -
Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
35 -
OnePlus Nord CE 5G
17 -
Poco X3 NFC
16 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
16 -
Realme 8 Pro
16 -
Samsung Galaxy A52
15
The AnTuTu compound benchmark rates the Poco X3 GT among the best in its price bracket.
AnTuTu 8
Higher is better
-
OnePlus Nord 2
512164 -
Realme X7 Pro
510317 -
Poco X3 GT
506800 -
Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
465534 -
Poco X3 Pro
453223 -
OnePlus Nord CE 5G
318672 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
295442 -
Realme 8 Pro
286666 -
Poco X3 NFC
283750 -
Samsung Galaxy A52
261282
AnTuTu 9
Higher is better
-
OnePlus Nord 2
598022 -
Poco X3 GT
578505 -
Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
522490 -
OnePlus Nord CE 5G
391770 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S
330909
The performance of the Dimensity 1100 turned out to be excellent - the chipset behaving as well as its specifications made us to expect. This means the Poco X3 GT will surely perform admirably for the next couple of years. It has the raw power to handle whatever you throw at it, including HRR-enabled games.
The MIUI for Poco runs smoothly and hiccup-free, too, and we did not observe any stutter or freezes working at either 60Hz or 120Hz smoothness.
Stability and sustained performance are always important, and we often include such tests in our reviews. The Poco X3 GT has a plastic frame and back. The chip heat dissipation is done via layers of graphite, copper coil, some thermal gel and a vapor chamber. While at 100% load the phone gets noticeably warm around the camera and on the same spot on the screen side. But this hot part is tolerable to touch and nothing to really worry about.
The Poco X3 GT scored a 99.5% stability score on the 3D Mark Wild Life Stress Test, but there is a catch. It did that on the fifth try and only when we put the phone in the fridge for the 19th and 20th loops. The phone always overheated on the 18th loop and the reason is that it applied no throttling at all upon reaching critical temperature. We suspect this might have been programmed for better benchmark results.
Then we ran the CPU Throttling test for a whole hour and things became much clearer. The Poco X3 GT CPU dropped its performance down to 60% mere minutes after launch and spend the next hour locked at these scores. This means the cooling solution allowed the CPU to keep only 61% of its maximum performance.
Overheating message • 3D Mark Stress Test • 3D Mark Stress Test • CPU Throttling Test
The Poco X3 GT is equipped for top-notch performance, but its cooling system isn't that good enough to deliver peak performance for prolonged periods of time. Then again, no game or app uses 100% of the available resources and we did not notice throttling or unusual heating under normal use.
Reader comments
- Djevrek
- 09 Jun 2024
- mii
After 3 years hard using. Playing pubg, mobile legends couple of hours every day i can said this is really good phone. Too much heating but no explosion 😊. Battery still in good condition. I have 140gb in games and apps. Now i think to update on x4 g...
- Tueannor
- 24 Sep 2023
- YUU
Why my fone not support 5G For Umobile telco
- Tueannor
- 24 Sep 2023
- YUU
I use Umobile network 🛜 but no 5G . I call telco network my sim card already have 5G . Why my fone not support 5G for Umobile?