Poco M6 Pro review

The competition

Let's quickly clear up some potential confusion here. Currently, two very different devices exist with the Poco M6 Pro branding. One is the Poco M6 Pro 5G model from August 2023, which seems to be an India-exclusive. The other is the brand new Poco M6 Pro meant for global markets, which we are reviewing today. While it is a 4G-only device, it offers an upgrade over its namesake in most other aspects. In either case, we are looking at budget devices here.

The global Poco M6 Pro is available in to variants - 8GB/256GB and 12GB/512GB with recommended MSRP points of $199 and $249 respectively. You might even be able to snatch up a further deal with early bird pricing.

The price point is quite competitive, but some interesting alternatives exist. In Xiaomi's own camp, there is always the ever-popular Redmi Note 12 family. Now that the Redmi Note 13 line is out, though, it only makes sense to go in that direction, and the vanilla Redmi Note 13 4G sticks out as an excellent alternative to the Poco M6 Pro. In fact, the two devices seem to share many design similarities and many specs, like the 6.67-inch, 120Hz AMOLED display and a large 5,000 mAh battery. The Redmi Note 13 is still a bit different. Xiaomi doesn't advertise its display as being quite as bright as the Poco M6 Pro's. While it has a higher-resolution 108MP main camera, it lacks OIS, and while the Dimensity 6080 might likely be a bit faster than the Helio G99 in most tasks, it still lacks some niceties like 4K video capture. The Redmi also only has a single speaker and slower 33W charging.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 • Samsung Galaxy A24 4G • Tecno Pova 5 Pro

Samsung has some interesting offers in the budget segment as well. If you are going to be saving on money, then perhaps consider the Galaxy 05s which we recently reviewed. You will have to settle for an LCD instead of an OLED, a single speaker and a merely okay camera setup. The worst bit about the A05s is arguably the eMMC storage, which drags performance down. The Galaxy A15 offers a nice little step up and addresses many of the aforementioned shortcomings, but its availability is limited.

Enter the Galaxy A24 4G. As its name suggests, it is a 4G device, just like the Poco M6 Pro. Other than that, the A24 4G delivers a 90Hz AMOLED display, a comparable camera setup to the Poco with OIS on the main shooter and 25W charging on its 5,000 mAh battery. You do only get a single loudspeaker, and you are stuck with the same Helio G99 chipset, which also means a 1080p video capture cap.

Finally, we would like to point out some nice budget offers from Tecno like the Spark 10 Pro and, arguably better still, the Tecno Pova 5 Pro. The latter is a very interesting device, especially design-wise, with a funky design and multiple LED lights on the back. Going for it, you will have to settle for a 120Hz LCD and no OIS on the main camera, to name just a couple of compromises. You are still getting stereo speakers, though, and the MediaTek Dimensity 6080 chipset is pretty decent, even managing to offer 1440p video capture on the device. There is also fast 68W charging on its 5,000 mAh battery. And at the end of the day, if the Tecno is available in your market, you should get all of this for around $150 at current pricing.

Our verdict

It is hard to outline anything particularly or catastrophically wrong with the Poco M6 Pro since it really is a solid budget device. If we still had to express some wishes, a better chipset would probably be up there. While the Helio G99 is not necessarily strapped for power, it features compromises like 4G connectivity and 1080p video capture.

Other than that, we weren't particularly impressed with the Poco M6 Pro's camera capabilities either, but it's not a dealbreaker. The same goes for the omission of HyperOS and the latest Android 14, both of which Xiaomi has promised to deliver as soon as possible, whatever that means.

On the flip side, we enjoyed the 120Hz AMOLED display on the Poco M6 Pro. It gets plenty bright, especially for a budget device, and Xiaomi's software refresh rate handling is quite good. The hybrid stereo speaker setup is also quite decent overall, and we appreciate the inclusion of a 3.5mm audio jack as well as an IR blaster. We realize it's an increasingly niche and legacy feature, but we still think it is a nice value-added feature, just like the onboard FM receiver. The Poco M6 Pro also managed solid battery life and pretty fast charging.

As we said, it is hard to dislike the Poco M6 Pro as an overall package since it delivers solid value and a well-rounded product for the price. Xiaomi's confusing naming scheme aside, we are sure that the Poco M6 Pro will find its audience.

Pros

• Xiaomi Turbo Fast Charger included in the box.
• Nice design with solid build quality. Gorilla Glass 5 front and IP54 ingress protection.
• Impressively bright and sharp 120Hz AMOLED with good auto refresh rate handling.
• Good battery life.
• Fast 67W battery charging.
• Decent hybrid stereo speaker setup.
• Decent daylight camera performance.
• Expandable storage; a 3.5mm audio jack and IR blaster.

Cons

• No 5G connectivity.
• Hybrid instead of a dedicated microSD card slot.
• Virtual proximity sensor.
• Does not ship with Xiaomi's latest HyperOS, but gets MIUI 14 and Android 13 out of the box with plenty of ads in the UI.
• Relatively poor low-light camera performance.
• Video capture is limited to 1080p.