Poco F6 review: Unbeatable performance and value in affordable flagship segment

The Poco F6 flaunts a minimalist industrial design and comes in Titanium and Black color options. Its polycarbonate rear panel features a matte finish that resists fingerprints, with a dual-camera setup housed in large, circular modules arranged in a balanced triangle with the ring flash. While the F6 does not look bad at all, last year’s I really loved the shimmery pattern on last year’s Poco F5’s white variant.

Weighing just 179 grams and only 7.8 mm thick, the Poco F6 is lightweight and comfortable to hold, thanks to the subtle curvature of its back panel. The hybrid frame of polycarbonate and metal adds durability without extra weight. Buttons are slightly softer than ideal but function well, while the in-display fingerprint sensor is fast and accurate.

The front features a flat-screen protected by Gorilla Glass Victus, and the stereo speakers (available at top and bottom) with Dolby Atmos support provide decent sound quality. The phone includes an IR blaster, and a USB Type-C charging port but lacks a 3.5mm headphone jack. With an IP64 rating, the Poco F6 is protected against environmental elements and light splashes.

The retail package of the Poco F6 contains the following items: a Poco F6 handset, a 120W charger, a USB-C to USB-C cable, a SIM eject tool, a protective case, a user guide, and a warranty card.

For those who don’t know, the Poco F6 features the same display that’s available on the Poco X6 Pro, which debuted earlier this year. However, it is an upgrade compared to the Poco F5’s screen. The 6.67-inch AMOLED display of the Poco F6 offers a 1.5K resolution of 2712 x 1220 pixels, a 20:9 aspect ratio, up to a 120Hz refresh rate, 68 billion colors, and a pixel density of approximately 445 PPI. This is a significant upgrade over the F5’s FHD+ screen. The phone features a 120Hz refresh rate and a 480Hz touch sampling rate, ensuring a smooth and responsive user experience, especially beneficial for gaming and scrolling through the UI.

The Poco F6’s display offers a peak brightness of up to 2400 nits, making it exceptionally bright for outdoor use and HDR content. The display supports HDR 10+ for YouTube and Amazon Prime Video and Dolby Vision for Netflix, enhancing the viewing experience. It includes 1920Hz high-frequency dimming technology that adjusts in dark environments to maintain color accuracy and provide a comfortable viewing experience.

The Poco F6 offers three color saturation modes available: Original Color Pro, Vivid, and Saturated. The first one can reproduce realistic colours through color calibration, the second one adjusts colors based on the content display, and the third one enhances the colors. These modes let you adjust the color temperature across the interface. In the advanced settings, you can choose between P3 and sRGB color gamuts and fine-tune the RGB color space, HSV (Hue, Saturation, Value) color space, and adjust contrast and gamma.

The flat panel design is particularly advantageous for gamers, as it avoids the ghost touch issues often associated with curved displays. For those who enjoy binge-watching on their smartphones, the Poco F6 delivers a superb performance. The stereo speakers are notably loud and clear, further enhancing the media consumption experience. Overall, the Poco F6’s advanced display and audio features make it an excellent choice for both gamers and media enthusiasts.

The Poco F6 is an affordable flagship phone powered by the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset. At present, it is the only phone in the market to feature the said. However, the Indian market has two other Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 phones, such as the Realme GT 6 and the upcoming Motorola Edge 50 Ultra.

The performance of the new chip is complemented by LPDDR5x RAM and UFS 4.0 storage. It houses a 5,000mAh battery, which can easily last for an entire day. While it ships with a 120W fast charger, the F6 supports up to 90W charging. In my tests, it could achieve a full charge in around 45 minutes. The 120W charger supports USB-PD protocols, which means it can be used to power up other phones and laptops.

Here’s how the device performs on benchmarking platforms.

In terms of general usage, the device is quite smooth, snappy, and capable of running heavy games. I tried playing games like Genshin Impact, Shadow Fight 4, and Real Racing 3 on the F6. Those who prefer playing BGMI should know that the device supports “Ultra HDR” graphics preset and “Ultra” framerate in the game. The device gets a bit warm while gaming but does not appear to be alarming. While gaming, I did not notice any significant lag or frame drop. There’s LiquidCool Technology 4.0 for heat dissipation while gaming and performing demanding tasks. The haptic feedback is good but feels a bit mild even at the highest setting.

The HyperOS offers a smooth experience, but there are several unnecessary apps and games onboard. The phone runs on Android 14 and is promised to receive three Android OS upgrades and four years of security updates. The Poco F6 offers a handful of AI-driven features, such as Wildboost 3.0 for enhancing gaming sessions by reducing lags and optimizing graphics. It has AI network and connectivity enhancements that optimize network performance by reducing latency, speeding up downloads, and ensuring quick recovery from network disruptions. For clearer calls, recordings, and media playback, there is AI noise cancellation onboard.

Poco also offers some AI features, such as AI Eraser Pro for detecting and erasing unwanted elements from images, filling in gaps with matching background details, and AI Bokeh, which adds a professional touch to portrait photography, creating a pleasing background blur that highlights the subject.

The Poco comes equipped with a 50-megapixel Sony IMX882 primary camera and an 8-megapixel ultra-wide lens on the back. A good thing is that the brand has ditched the pointless 2-megapixel macro camera.

The default camera app offers photography modes, such as Pro, Night, 50MP, Short Video, Panorama, VLOG, Slow motion, Time-lapse, Dual video, AI watermark, Long exposure, and Pro. By default, the main camera captures 12-megapixel photos, which come out good as long as there is sufficient lighting. The dynamic range is impressive, and there is almost natural color reproduction. The primary camera supports up to 2x in-sensor zoom, but one gripe is that there is no zoom option in portrait mode. The low-light photos are also good, but I couldn’t notice a major difference between the regular and night mode shots in many scenarios. However, the latter does help in reducing light bleeding and adding a dash of clarity in darker areas.

The ultrawide shots are good with sufficient detail, but the colors appear a bit muted. The 20-megapixel front camera offers decent performance in good lighting with reasonable skin tones. The portrait mode also works fine. However, the quality becomes mediocre in low-light scenarios.

When it comes to video shooting, the Poco F6’s primary camera can capture up to 4K videos at 60fps. However, OIS support is only for up to 30fps FHD+ videos. Overall, the camera performance of the device is good, but nothing extraordinary, as the device is primarily built for gaming.

The Poco F6 also offers some handy features, such as NFC and an IR blaster. The fingerprint sensor works as expected.

The Poco F6 5G is available in the following options in India:

• 8GB+256GB: Rs 29,999 (~$360)
• 12GB+256GB: Rs 31,999 (~$380)
• 12GB+512GB: Rs 33,999 (~$405)
• Colors: Titanium and Black

Poco F6 5G review: Verdict

At a starting price of Rs 29,999, the Poco F6 presents itself as an enticing option in the affordable flagship smartphone market, particularly with its robust performance and vibrant display. Despite minor drawbacks in camera performance, the Poco F6 is a compelling choice for gamers and power users seeking a high-speed, immersive experience without breaking the bank.

Disclaimer: All of the opinions in this Poco F6 5G review are mine and based on my own experiences. There has been no editorial input from Poco.