Poco X3 NFC long-term review

Display quality, brightness

The presence of an LCD screen at this price point isn't surprising at all, but the Poco X3's panel has a headline feature that we've rarely (if ever) seen indirect competitors: a 120 Hz refresh rate. We'll get back to that in a bit.

First, let's talk about screen quality. This one isn't on par with the panel inside the Mi 10T Pro, which was among the best LCDs we've ever seen in the Android world. That's understandable if you consider the price delta between these two phones, though. And in fairness, the X3's display isn't bad at all. It's perfectly decent for day-to-day use, as long as you don't expect OLED-like pure blacks and don't mind some backlight bleed - both of these rather typical aspects of an LCD panel.

The only time it really struggles is in bright direct sunlight, where, unfortunately, it's barely legible. Everywhere else, though, it performs really well. The auto-brightness curve is very good, although you might still need to adjust things manually from time to time, and the minimum brightness (if you use the confusingly called Night Mode slider in Settings and turn it all the way down) is exceptionally low, making for very comfortable nighttime reading sessions. We rarely see even high-end OLEDs go so low, and that's something to commend.

Display settings

There are some color space settings, but less than you'd find in the same version of MIUI for an OLED screen. As usual, we chose to stick with the Auto preset, as that supposedly employs some algorithmic magic to automatically adjust the color temperature based on that of the ambient lighting around you, like Apple's True Tone. Also, as usual, we did switch to the Warm color profile, because the default one has whites that are way too blue for our taste.

Refresh rate

Okay, now back to that refresh rate. If you set it to 120 Hz, it won't stay there forever no matter what, it's dynamic, and there is some amount of adjustment going on depending on what's on-screen. It switches to 60 Hz, for example, when there's just a static thing depicted. The touch sampling rate is 240 Hz, which is very good for this price point, and overall the experience at 120 Hz is very smooth.

There's just one issue, which you may or may not even be able to spot, and if you do, you might not actually care about that much. And that is ghosting.

When you are in 120 Hz mode and scroll quickly on the screen, some ghosting / smearing will appear. This reviewer has spotted it happening every single time, but it didn't really feel very annoying. That may be different for you personally, so if you have a chance to "try before you buy" that would be advised. That is, if you care about 120 Hz in the first place. Or perhaps order an X3 from a store with a decent returns policy, just in case you find yourself not being able to stand the ghosting issue.

Refresh rate selector

We assume it happens because the pixel response of the panel isn't great, but whatever the reason, it's definitely there, and it's definitely not something that we've seen on higher-end 120 Hz screens. Just in case the question has crossed your mind - yet, we'd still definitely prefer this over a 60 Hz panel every day. Not only that, but this particular reviewer would even take the Poco X3's screen over a 60 Hz OLED at a similar price point without thinking twice about it, despite very much being enamored with OLED blacks. Those are great, but if it was a choice, smoothness comes first.

Display settings

MIUI 12 has a revamped and expanded Reading Mode (which is what Xiaomi calls its blue light filter), where you can pick between a Classic mode and a Paper mode which adds texture to the screen too in order to emulate the look of... you guessed it, paper. Or at least try its best to. This is also where you can choose how extreme you want the effect to be, how much texture you feel comfortable with, and whether to have "full colors", "light colors", or a black and white display while Reading Mode is on.

Reading Mode settings

This is probably the most comprehensive blue light filter we've ever seen, in terms of customization options. There's something for everyone here, and no matter what your preferences are, you'll find a way to feel happy. Oh, and of course, the Reading Mode is schedulable too, you can either have it come on automatically after sunset (and turn itself off come sunrise) or pick your own custom interval.

Since this is an LCD panel, there's no chance of an Always-on Display, as it would drain the battery too fast. You do however get a tiny white notification LED, which is better than nothing, we guess. Like the one in the Mi 10T Pro, this one isn't very customizable at all.

Notification light settings

You just get to choose whether you want it to be working or not - when charging, and when a new notification is received. That's it, there's only one color (white), and you can't customize it any further. Also, similarly to the one in the Mi 10T Pro, this LED is barely visible from a lot of angles, so while we appreciate its inclusion, we have to note that its utility in day-to-day life isn't as high as you might expect.