Poco M6 Pro review

Design

The Poco M6 Pro has a pretty modern and mostly subdued design. The square-off edges are kind of in right now. Yet the corners are nicely rounded, making for a good and comfy in-hand feel.

The only way a modern "slab" phone realistically stands out from the crowd nowadays is through an interesting camera design, and we have to say that the M6 Pro subjectively seems to have that going for it. There is no actual camera island, but rather, the entire top section of the phone is segmented off into its own area with a slightly different color (not finish, though).

The cameras themselves are very well-pronounced. They stick out of the phone's body quite a bit, perhaps even beyond what was necessary to house them, conveying the impression of a powerful camera setup.

We also enjoy the relative symmetry that the cameras, flash and camera text have going on. We wouldn't say we necessarily appreciate having the megapixel count or "POCO" plastered on the back of the phone, but at least the symmetry is nice.

You can get the Poco M6 Pro in Black, Blue or Purple. We have the latter, which also happens to feature a color-matched middle frame. The other two variants both have black frames, giving the blue colorway a somewhat two-tone design. We like the look, at least in pictures.

As for our purple unit - the color is not vibrant at all and looks very subtle in person.

Build quality

The Poco M6 Pro is mostly made of plastic. It measures 161.1 x 74.95 x 7.98mm and tips the scale at a very reasonable 179 grams, mostly thanks to its plastic build. We have defended plastic before and will continue to do so. Not only is it lightweight, but it is quite sturdy. It also doesn't scratch and dent quite like metal and doesn't shatter quite like glass.

Xiaomi did a bang-up job with the finish on the plastic frame on the Poco M6 Pro. It almost looks like sandblasted metal from a distance.

The phone also has no flex to it whatsoever. There is no annoying hollowness, either. It feels very solid and well-made.

Xiaomi isn't clear on this point in official specs, but the back of the Poco M6 Pro seems to be made of glass. The front of the phone is covered with Gorilla Glass 5, which honestly offers plenty of peace of mind.

The Poco M6 Pro has IP54 ingress protection, which is pretty basic but still better than nothing.

Controls

The Poco M6 Pro has what we would call a pretty standard control scheme. However, that being said, it is sort of "loaded" in this department with inclusions like a 3.5mm audio jack and an IR blaster. Both of these are positioned on the top of the phone. Also, there, we find one of the two stereo speakers on the device. That's right, the M6 Pro has a stereo speaker setup, though it does seem to be a hybrid one. More on that in the speaker section. There is also a hole for the secondary noise-canceling mic on the top.

The other speaker on the M6 Pro is on the bottom side. It sits beside the main microphone and the USB Type-C jack.

The left side of the unit only houses a SIM tray. It is a hybrid affair with one dedicated 4G nano-SIM slot and a hybrid second slot that can either take a second nano-SIM card or a microSD card. We don't particularly like the fact that you have to choose between the two, but we'll still take an expansion slot over not having one.

The SIM tray has a little gasket around its edge, which suggests that the Poco M6 Pro potentially has decent ingress protection, perhaps even beyond its IP54 rating. Not that we would suggest intentionally subjecting it to the elements in any way.

We have the volume rockers and power button on the phone's right side. These buttons are well-positioned height-wise. They don't necessarily have the best tactile feedback, but they aren't too bad either.

Finally, rounding off the controls tour, we need to mention that the Poco M6 Pro has an in-display fingerprint reader, which is a first for the Poco M family of devices. The sensor itself is a standard optical unit.

These have really come a long way and are now perfectly reliable and snappy. We have no complaints about the one here.

Connectivity

The global Poco M6 Pro lacks 5G connectivity, which is a bit of a bummer. It does have dual 4G/LTE support with Cat. 13 download speeds, which is appreciated. The MediaTek G99 chipset offers GPS, QZSS, Galileo, BeiDou and NAVIC for positioning.

Local connectivity includes dual-band Wi-Fi 5 (ac) and Bluetooth 5.2 with LE support.

As already mentioned, our global Poco M6 Pro unit has a 3.5mm audio jack and an IR blaster. It also has NFC on board, as well as FM radio.

There is nothing particularly special about the Type-C port on the Poco M6 Pro. Well, beyond the pretty quick 67W fast charging support, which is a first for the Poco M family. The port is backed up by a USB 2.0 connection, which means a theoretical data transfer max of 480 Mbps. USB Host/ OTG is supported. There is no video output or anything else fancy on the port.

In terms of sensors, the Poco M6 Pro has a lsm6dso accelerometer and gyroscope combo. There is also a mmc5603 magnetometer. You also get a tsl2522 light sensor. Typically, the latter gets bundled with a proximity reader, but unfortunately, the Poco M6 Pro seems to have a virtual proximity reader instead of a hardware one. It does not work as well and is very contingent on surrounding conditions. There is no barometer on board either, but that is pretty expected on a budget phone.