Poco M6 Pro review
MIUI 14 with HyperOS coming right around the corner
A rather interesting development is that the Poco M6 Pro does not ship with Xiaomi's latest and greatest OS. Our review unit runs MIUI 14 instead of HyperOS and does so on top of Android 13 instead of 14. Xiaomi does promise in its press materials that a HyperOS update is coming "ASAP", whatever that means. However, in the meantime, we have no alternative but to review the existing and familiar MIUI 14 environment.
As we already mentioned, we are quite familiar with the MIUI 14 and Android 13 combo. We even have a dedicated walkthrough, which you should check out if you want more software details.
Of course, since this is a low-end smartphone with limited hardware capabilities, some core MIUI functionalities are absent. However, most of them are available, even the multi-tasking functionalities such as the Floating windows feature.
We did notice some ads sprinkled in some places in the UI, like inside the app installer, which can be a bit annoying. There is also plenty of pre-installed "bloat" on our unit, mostly in the way of games and a separate app store different from the Google Play Store. Nothing you can't get rid of by uninstalling, but it is still worth pointing out.
We'll still go over some of the basics real quick. The split between a notification shade and a 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.
General settings
The home screen, recent apps and the general settings remain unchanged. The app drawer is also enabled by default, and we like that Xiaomi has placed 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, notification shade, Control center
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 one app open at a time. In case you want a faster shortcut to apps that support free-form windows, just enable the Sidebar.
Sidebar and floating windows
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 app and other customizations
Of course, Always-on display customizations are also available in addition to the presets. The Notification effect lights up the edges of the display when new notifications come in. This effect can work with or without the AOD.
Always-on display options
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.
Security app
It can also manage the permissions of your installed apps, define the battery behavior of selected apps, and apply restrictions only to certain apps.
Performance and benchmarks
The Poco M6 Pro is based on the MediaTek Helio G99 chipset. However, it seems to be running a special variant of said chipset, being marketed as the Helio G99-Ultra. The model number for this particular chip is the MT6789G. It joins a fairly long list of known modifications of the Helio G99 - MT6789, MT6789V/CD, MT8781V/CA, and MT8781V/NA. We are not sure exactly what denotes this particular chip as "Ultra" or what makes it different.
From what we can tell from a combination of spec sheets and the review unit, the Helio G99 Ultra still uses a 6nm TSMC manufacturing process. It is also still rocking two ARM Cortex-A76 "big" cores, clocked at up to 2.2GHz and another six "small" Cortex-A55 CPU cores, working at up to 2.0 GHz. Nothing has seemingly been hanged on the GPU front either, where the chipset gets a modest Mali-G57 MC2 GPU.
The Poco M6 Pro is available is available in two memory configurations at the time of writing - 8GB/256GB and 12GB/512GB. Storage is expandable via the microSD slot. RAM works at LPDDR4X speeds, while the storage chips are UFS 2.2, and we can't complain about either in terms of speed on a budget. Xiaomi also has its own implementation of software virtual memory running on the M6 Pro. It is called Memory Extension 3.0, and by default, on our 12GB/512GB review unit, it is set to add an additional 4GB of virtual memory. You could also set it to 6GB or 8GB or turn it off entirely.
Let's get to some actual benchmarks an start with GeekBench and its CPU runs. Once again, while we are unsure exactly what denotes the "Ultra" part in the G99 Ultra chipset inside the Poco M6 Pro, we can clearly see it leading the G99 pack in single and multi-core testing. It is not a huge difference, but in both cases, the small uptick in performance brings the chip and the M6 Pro almost in line with the likes of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 inside the Redmi Note 12 5G.
GeekBench 6
- Multi-core
- Single-core
Galaxy A54
Tecno Pova 5 Pro
Sony Xperia 10 V
Moto G84
Redmi Note 12 5G
Xiaomi Poco M6 Pro
Infinix Note 30
Besides that, we can expect the G99 Ultra to be handily beaten by almost any MediaTek Dimensity-branded chip. The Snapdragon 695 also seems to have a bit more CPU power, and so does the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2. All quite expected results.
AnTuTu is a much more compound benchmark that also takes into account things like memory and storage. It seems to be pretty kind to the Poco M6 Pro overall, and we suspect the phone's choice of fast LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 2.2 storage have something to do with the good scores.
AnTuTu
- v9
- v10
Realme 11 Pro+
Tecno Pova 5 Pro
Moto G84
Redmi 12 5G
Xiaomi Poco M5
Xiaomi Poco M6 Pro
Motorola Moto G72
Not only is the Poco M6 Pro with its Helio G99 Ultra better than most of its regular G99 siblings by a bit, but AnTuTu places the G99 Ultra and M6 Pro above the Redmi Note 12 5G and its Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 and just slightly below the Redmi 12 5G and its Snapdragon 4 Gen 2.
We had issues running GFXBench on our Poco M6 Pro review unit. Xiaomi blocked the benchmark for one reason or another, so we had to jump through major hoops to get some results. As expected, the Mali-G57 MC2 GPU inside the Helio G99 Ultra hasn't been tweaked in terms of performance, and the Poco M6 Pro scores are right in line with other Helio G99 devices. That is to say that you can expect better performance than something like the Helio G88 and the Snapdragon 685 and 680.
GFXBench (onscreen)
- Aztek ES 3.1 High
- Aztek Vulkan High
- Car Chase ES 3.1
Galaxy A54
Tecno Pova 5 Pro
Galaxy A24 4G
Xiaomi Poco M5
Infinix Note 30
Xiaomi Poco M6 Pro
Redmi 12 5G
GFXBench (offscreen)
- Aztek ES 3.1 High 1440p
- Aztek Vulkan High 1440p
- Car Chase ES 3.1 1080p
Galaxy A54
Sony Xperia 10 V
Moto G84
Moto G54 Power
Tecno Pova 5 Pro
Xiaomi Poco M6 Pro
Infinix Note 30
On the other hand, plenty of budget chips offer a more potent GPU, like the Dimensity 6080, 7020, 1080, 7050, 8020, 8050 or the Snapdragon 695.
3Dmark paints the same overall picture.
3DMark (offscreen 1440p)
- Wild Life Vulkan 1.1
- Wild Life Extreme
Galaxy A54
Xiaomi Poco M5
Motorola Moto G72
Infinix Note 30
Galaxy A24 4G
Xiaomi Poco M6 Pro
Sony Xperia 10 V
The Poco M6 Pro is not a particularly powerful device but is not strapped for performance either. In practice, it runs its MIUI environment pretty smoothly, with only occasional slowdowns. It is good enough for daily tasks and some light gaming.
One benefit of running a relatively low-powered chipset is that you don't have to deal with major passive cooling problems. The Poco M6 Pro handles heat marvelously. It never gets hot to the touch, even with extreme torture testing, and the CPU hardly throttles at all.
Thermal throttling
Reader comments
- Anonymous
- 25 Sep 2024
- 8BJ
How's the SOT(Screen-on-time) on this device? How does it compare to a regular Poco X6 (non-pro)
- certified btch
- 21 Sep 2024
- vaQ
Whyyyy???
- Anonymous
- 03 Sep 2024
- xce
It's not a copy, it's just the same phone with a different camera. Xiaomi does that a lot.