The mid-tier smartphone range has really grown as a category in the last few years. Readers from Asia will be familiar with Poco phones as being Redmi phones in China, where they have grown a decent user base. While they’re not as well known in Australia, I’m stunned by how much power and performance Xiaomi manages to pack into such a reasonable price. If this had a more mainstream brand behind it (and a derma that sucked less), I firmly believe it would cost almost double the price.
That’s not to say it’s perfect. The Poco F6 definitely has a bloatware problem, and I’m not psyched by the battery life, not to mention the lacklustre camera. However, if you’re looking for a beast of a phone on a budget, the Xiaomi Poco F6 is a fantastic choice.
Xiaomi Poco F6 review
First impressions
The first thing I noticed when I took it out of the box were the two giant cameras on the back. It’s like someone stuck giant googly eyes to the back. It’s certainly a bold stylistic choice. I enjoy it, but I do wonder if the larger glass expanse on the camera would make them more liable to crack if dropped.
Setting up the phone was relatively standard for Androids. Easy enough, with no real curveballs. If you’ve set up an Android phone before, then you get the gist.
Xiaomi Poco F6 specs and price
| Processor | Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 Mobile Platform |
| Storage and RAM | 8GB RAM + 256GB storage |
| Dimensions | Height: 160.5mm Width: 74.4mm Thickness: 7.8mm Weight: 179g |
| Display | 6.67-inch AMOLED 1220 x 2712 display PPI: 446 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut 120Hz refresh rate |
| Rear camera | 50MP main camera 8MP ultra-wide camera |
| Front camera | 20MP front camera |
| Battery & charging | 5000mAh 90W wired charging |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5.4 NFC Dual SIM |
| Security | In-screen fingerprint sensor AI Face Unlock |
| Price (RRP) | $699 |
| Warranty | Two years |
| Official website | Xiaomi Australia |
The under-screen fingerprint sensor is a nice touch (though it’s in a different place than usual, so it took me forever to start finding it consistently).
The real standout here is the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor which makes it fast (as you can see below from the benchmarking).
In terms of the operating system, Xiaomi uses an Android overlay called HyperOS and it can be somewhat jarring at first. People who are used to Xiaomi might be used to it, but I found it really unintuitive. What do all the symbols mean? Where am I supposed to swipe to do this basic thing? No one knows. Sometimes you guess correctly, sometimes you don’t. With more time, though, I’m sure most people will either adjust or throw their phone directly into the sun.
Also, when I say that there’s a bloatware problem, I’m not exaggerating. The phone comes with roughly 60 apps pre-installed. Some of them are the basic Google ones, but there’s also a lot of nonsense in there. A shocking amount of nonsense. Crappy games, apps from companies that clearly paid Xiaomi to be there, like Booking.com.
There’s no wireless charging, which isn’t surprising at this end of the phone market, but is something to keep in mind.
Performance
As mentioned before, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor is impressively speedy. Its performance rivals far pricier phones, like the Google Pixel 9 range that uses the Tensor G4 chip.
| Device | CPU single-core | CPU multi-core |
| iPhone 16 Pro Max | 3,350 | 8,021 |
| Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra | 2,141 | 6,690 |
| Samsung Galaxy S24 FE | 2,051 | 6,428 |
| Google Pixel 9 Pro XL | 1,961 | 4,736 |
| Xiaomi Poco F6 | 1,899 | 4,734 |
This performance also extends to 3D graphics, making the Xiaomi Poco F6 an affordable gaming phone. Benchmarking results show that it outperforms the Google Pixel 9 Pro when it comes to rendering 3D visuals. Not bad for a phone well below $1,000.
| Device | Wild Life Extreme benchmark |
| iPhone 16 Pro Max | 4,748 |
| Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra | 4,531 |
| Samsung Galaxy S24 FE | 4,014 |
| Xiaomi Poco F6 | 2,909 |
| Google Pixel 9 Pro XL | 2,572 |
Games
Here is where the Poco F6 really impressed me. Fortnite looked really good on this phone. Buttery smooth, without the phone getting too hot. With the rise of console games coming to mobile, the Xiaomi Poco F6 seems like a solid choice for gamers on a budget.
Battery
A 5000mAh battery isn’t too bad, but if you’re getting this phone to use it for its high-performance skills, then it’s not going to be enough to get you from morning to night. On days when I played a lot of games and took photos, I found I had to charge the Poco F6 around dinner time. However, given that the fast charger in the box charges the phone fully in 40 minutes, that’s survivable.
Camera
No one was expecting the best camera ever in a phone at this price. But it’s also not the worst camera ever. It’s serviceable. It will do the job, and if users don’t have a premium phone to compare it to, they will likely be happy with the output, or at least not actively upset with it, which can be enough for some. I found some images to be a bit noisier than would be ideal, especially in low light. The colours are also a bit hit-and-miss.
For example, this picture of a pond was taken on a truly beautiful day. In real life, the colours were vibrant, the sun was perfect, and the sky was the kind of blue they write poems about. This photo is certainly evidence that there were plants and a pond, but it doesn’t accurately capture the greens or blues. It’s a tolerable photo, but no one’s Instagram is going to get a boost from the quality of the photos produced.
The pink in this flower is a little more vibrant in the photo. It doesn’t quite match the pink of the actual flower, but it’s close enough.
There’s a bit too much noise on these daisies for my liking.
Who is the Xiaomi Poco F6 for?
The Xiaomi Poco F6 is for people who want a beast of a phone on a budget. Sure, the camera might not be great, but everything else punches above its weight. If you’re willing to take a chance on a different phone brand, you can get a lot of bang for your buck here.
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