Six months after the launch of the POCO M3 model, POCO has launched an upgraded version, the M3 Pro. The M3 standard version is doing relatively well among many 4G entry-level phones, so can the M3 Pro do well among entry-level 5G phones?
The POCO M3 Pro 5G is currently available on Aliexpress for just $169. Use coupon code 10M3PRO to get another $10 off!
We got the phone in advance to check out the brand’s latest entry-level 5G phone.
POCO M3 Pro 5G Review: Design
The M3 Pro’s appearance differs from that of the M3, and clearly, changes have been made once again. The lens module is still a vertical triple camera setup, but the large black rectangular design has been removed. The M3 Pro has a new back cover design, with two rounded rectangles near the lens and the POCO logo inside.
The leather-like material on the back cover has been replaced with a mirror-reflective coating, which is a fingerprint magnet. Although this back cover pattern design is pretty unique, and beautiful, I still prefer the M3’s standard design because it leaves a deeper impression. The fingerprint sensor is still on the side of the body. And the M3 Pro is not only equipped with a 3.5mm headphone jack and IR blaster, but it even features NFC, which is not present on the standard version of the M3. However, we still found some minor drawbacks, such as the omission of the dual speakers found on the standard version.
POCO M3 Pro 5G Review: Display
However, the M3 Pro brings much-needed screen upgrades. Although it is still an LCD 1080P screen, the refresh rate is increased to 90Hz, and the water drop screen has also been replaced with a hole-punch screen. The hole size is larger, but the surrounding shadows are better controlled. The screen looks rather average, but considering it is only a 5G entry phone, to have a 90Hz screen is already ahead of many other phones in the same price range.
So our evaluation of this screen is: it basically meets the needs of a customer in this price segment
POCO M3 Pro 5G Review: Hardware & Gaming
The POCO M3 Pro uses MTK’s Dimensity 700 SOC, which is one of the entry-level 5G chips available, so it makes sense to use it. The phone scores 329087 on AnTuTu, while in Geekbench 5 single-core test it scores 558, and in the multi-core test around 1734.
This score is a little better than the M3’s Snapdragon 662, but not by much. Because it is an entry-level chip, the gaming performance is not very good. PUBG has no way to turn on HDR Graphics and Extreme frame rate, and in HD Graphics you can’t turn on Ultra frame rate, which means if you want to play PUBG at 40fps, you have to turn on Balanced Graphics or Smooth Graphics. The good news is that it still plays smoothly with Balanced Graphics.
Genshin Impact and Brightridge turned out to be too much for this chip, and even with Genshin Impact on Medium Graphics and Motion Blur off, the frame rate is not high. And even though the temperature is only 42 degrees Celsius, there is still a decrease in the CPU frequency in the later stages. 
Brightridge is only 12fps on average with the highest special effects. While it is not recommended to play these games on an entry-level phone, it’s still possible to play some games that don’t require high performance such as PUBG.
POCO M3 Pro 5G Review: Camera Performance
Main Camera
The lens is still configured with a 48MP main camera plus a depth of field lens and a macro lens. There is no ultra-wide lens. The imaging style is relatively realistic, with moderate HDR intensity, but the colors of the flowers tend to spill over when AI is turned on. The same situation of AI spoiling the images also occurs in the evening. The control of highlights with AI on is not as good as with AI off. Perhaps POCO feels that brighter lights are more pleasing to the eye. But the best performance at night is still with the night mode, the highlight control is better than with AI off, but probably it’s because of the limited ability of CMOS, the detail part of the picture is not much improved.
Portrait Mode
One of the more pleasant surprises is the portrait mode. Because of the assistance of the depth-of-field lens, keying errors are rare. Even if the subject is not a person, the depth of field information can be correctly identified.
As for Video, the M3 Pro only supports 1080P and 720P 30fps recording, but there is Image stabilization. So daily recording won’t be a problem.
POCO M3 Pro 5G Review: Battery Life
Coming to the battery, the POCO M3 Pro is the same as the M3, it only supports 18W charging power, but the box is equipped with a 22.5w charger. 18w charging power is still slow to fill the 5000mAh battery. Half an hour charges to 35%, and one hour to charge to 67%. It takes 116 minutes to fully charge to 100%. Weak SOC performance also means more power saving. Half an hour of Tik Tok consumes 7%, half an hour of online video uses up 6%. 23 minutes of PUBG drains 5%, and half an hour of Genshin Impact only around 10%. This level of battery life is good for an entire day.
So the M3 Pro is POCO’s first entry-level 5G mobile phone this year.
What do you think? Has the phone met your expectations?
Compared to the M3, the main upgrade point of the M3 Pro is the support for 5G and a high refresh rate of 90Hz. Although 5G may be of little use now to some users, if you plan to use the phone for two or three years, then 5G support can be a differentiating factor.
The POCO M3 Pro 5G is currently available on Aliexpress for just $169. Use code 10M3PRO to get another 10$ off!
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