Poco X6 review

Android 13 with MIUI 14

The Poco X6 runs MIUI 14 on top of Android 13. Technically, the overlay skin is dubbed "MUI 14 for Poco", but there's little to no difference between the standard MIUI 14 and this one. The only immediate difference is in the default icon style. It looks as if it's more in line with the stock circular Android icons.

Unlike the Poco X6 Pro, which comes with HyperOS right out of the box, the regular X6 will get it via an update and it will count as one of the promised three major updates and four years of security patches promised by Poco.

Some of the most notable MIUI 14 features include the native text recognition in the Gallery app, easier Xiaomi smart devices management through Smart Devices, enlarged home screen folders, the ability to uninstall most system apps, and incredibly optimized CPU, GPU, and memory usage.

The home screen, recent apps and general settings remain unchanged. The app drawer is also enabled by default and cannot be disabled on Poco phones. We like the search bar at the bottom of the screen for easier reach. There are custom and preset app categories for faster navigation.

Home screen, recent apps, settings menu, app drawer

The split between a notification shade and Control Center is enabled by default, and that's probably a good thing. We found it to be quite convenient, and it's a way to educate users about MIUI's unique approach to the UI. And in case you are not a fan, you can always revert back to the standard notification shade with quick toggles in one place.

Control center and notification panel

Unlike the standard recent apps menu, MIUI's one lists the apps in a vertical arrangement (you can switch to the standard horizontal alignment) and provides several useful shortcuts. That's where you can open up apps in floating windows. However, you can keep up to two apps open at a time. In case you want a faster shortcut to apps that support free-form windows, just enable the Sidebar.

Floating windows and Sidebar

The sidebar becomes Video Toolbox in video player apps such as YouTube. It essentially contains the whole Sidebar functionality, but besides options for floating windows, it contains shortcuts for Screenshot, Record screen, Cast, and Play Video with the screen off, which works on YouTube, no Premium subscription needed. But, as we mentioned, you need to whitelist the apps in advance where you want the feature enabled.

Themes have always been a huge part of MIUI, and they are available on MIUI 14, 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.

Themes and other customization options

Of course, Always-on display customizations are also available in addition to the presets. To our surprise, there's no true Always-on display functionality, as it can only be shown for 10 seconds after tapping on the locked screen. It's not "always on".

Always-on display

The Notification effect lights up the edges of the display when new notifications come in, but there's little in the way of customization other than a couple of different colors and a 'Starlight' option. This effect can work with or without the AoD. Disappointing.

Moving on to privacy and security, MIUI has come with a pre-installed system Security app. Aside from the additional malware protection layer it provides, the app holds many of the app settings and privacy features in one place. It can manage your blacklist, manage or restrict your data usage, configure battery behavior, and free up some RAM. It can also manage the permissions of your installed apps, define the battery behavior of selected apps, and apply restrictions only to certain apps.

Security app

All in all, MIUI 14 has changed little over the 13th iteration in terms of overall user experience, and that's not bad. It's just as snappy and customizable as ever. Xiaomi has paid special attention to the haptics on this unit as well - we found the motor to be crisp, strong, accurate and responsive. It reacts to many actions across the system and when navigating. There's even a haptic feedback intensity if you find it obtrusive or not strong enough.

Finally, there are some ads, but they can be stopped from within the Settings in the app that shows advertisements and/or recommendations.

Performance and benchmarks

The Poco X6 is the first smartphone we got running on the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 by Qualcomm, a chipset built on the 4nm process technology and one that is a bit faster version of the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1. This platform is not as powerful as the 7+ Gen 2 or even the original 7 Gen 1. But it is an upgrade over the Snapdragon 695 inside the Poco X5.

The Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 features an octa-core processor with 4x Cortex-A78 @2.4GHz and 4x Cortex-A55 @1.95GHz. There is no Prime here and the core design is older (2020).

The SD7sG2 uses Adreno 710 GPU, which premiered on the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 SoC. It is listed to support FHD+ resolution at 144 Hz.

The FastConnect 6700 connectivity platform is a step back from the 6900 on the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2, and with it, the peak DL speed is just 2.9 Gbps, while Bluetooth supported is capped at 5.2, which still supports low-energy audio.

The Spectra ISP supports a smartphone with a single camera up to 200 MP and 4K video capture at 30 fps. Memory is LPDRR5 at 3200 MHz, while other features include USB-C 3.1 and Quick Charge 4+.

The Poco X6 is available in three configurations of LPDDR4X RAM + UFS2.2 storage - 8GB + 256GB, 12GB + 256GB, and 12GB + 512GB (ours).

And now, it's time to run some benchmarks. Note that the GFXBench was banned on our Poco X6, and that is why you will not see the usual charts.

Even with the older CPU cores, the Poco X6 offers one very capable processor as evident by the performance tests.

The GPU is absolutely adequate for the mid-range and should do just fine for most games.

The AnTuTu tests put the Poco X6 around the Poco X5 Pro and Realme 11 Pro+. The superiority of the Poco X6 Pro is quite evident in the version 10 test, and it seems to be shaping up as a flagship killer.

Finally, the stability tests gave us solid performance - 79% of CPU stability and 90% for CPU stability. Excellent scores, indeed!

Overall, the Poco X6 5G is adequately equipped for the affordable mid-range class and offers great performance and stability for its pricing.