POCO X3 NFC REVIEW: THE MOST CONCRETE ANDROID SMARTPHONE UNDER 300 EUROS
POCO X3 NFC arrived on the market like a bolt from the blue, registering excellent results in terms of sales in a few days. It is a smartphone that aims to provide users with a concrete solution that at the same time does not cost too much. Of course, 5G support is lacking, but this POCO X3 NFC winks at those who do not have a particularly high budget and do not need to immediately switch to the new connectivity standard (also given the poor coverage in Italy).
In recent week we have had the opportunity to properly test
the 6 / 128GB variant of the smartphone, which until 30 September 2020 will be
sold at a price of 249.90 euros on Amazon Italy(then it will go to 269.90
euros). There is also a 6 / 64GB model, which will be sold at 199 euros for 24
hours starting at 13:00 on 22 September 2020 on the official website , then it
will cost 229 euros.
Design and unboxing
Inside the package we find a USB Type-C cable, a transparent
cover, the pin for extracting the SIM compartment, the classic manuals and a
33W charger . Too bad only for the lack of a pair of headphones, but given the
price it is not a problem, since the equipment is complete and there is a
rather fast charger for this market segment. Staying in the field of
completeness of the offer, we know how much some users are still looking for
the classic 3.5 mm audio jack for headphones. Don't worry: POCO X3 NFC has the
latter at the bottom, next to the USB Type-C port (the video output is missing,
but there is the OTG function), the microphone and the speaker.
The SIM trolley, which in this case supports two nanoSIMs or
a nanoSIM and a microSD for memory expansion, peeks out on the left side. On
the right there are, however, the power button with integrated fingerprint
sensor (it has always proved to be quick and precise) and the volume rocker. At
the top we find the infrared transmitter and another microphone.
The front design features a camera hole screen positioned
high in the center. A solution that we did not mind, but we would have
preferred a placement on the side. In any case, the hole is small in size. As
for the materials, the frame is made of aluminum, while the back of POCO X3 NFC
is made of plastic (polycarbonate). Its constructive solidity is good, also due
to the thickness of the device.
In this regard, the dimensions of the smartphone are equal
to 165.3 x 76.8 x 9.4 mm, for a weight of 215 grams. The color we have had the
opportunity to try is Cobalt Blue, which is able to bring out the iconic POCO
logo on the back as it should. The latter "lights up" but there is no
LED: it is simply a very pleasing play of light. The Shadow Gray color is also
available on the market, for those looking for "darker" colors. The
POCO logo area is also "knurled", which makes the design even more
refined.
Remaining in the backcover, a photo module peeks out at the
top with a design inspired by DSLR cameras that has four photo sensors and an
LED flash. This is a somewhat "atypical" solution, but it works and
certainly POCO X3 NFC stands out from the competition from this point of view.
The rest, the grip is good, the smartphone never slips too much, while the
protrusion of the cameras makes the device "dance" a lot when placed
on a flat surface. Of course, this is "solved" with the cover present
directly in the package and it is a minor problem, but we have always preferred
those devices that manage to contain the thickness and protrusion of the
sensors.
The weight of POCO X3 NFC is felt immediately and the
dimensions are certainly not compact. This could make a certain type of user
turn up their noses, but it must be said that it is now a direction in which
the market is moving on an equal footing, especially as regards this price
range. In short, this is not exactly the most comfortable smartphone to use,
but it took a couple of days to get used to it, completing our trial weeks
without too many problems.
In cases you are wondering what are the unlocking methods
offered by the device, you should know that, in addition to the aforementioned
fingerprint sensor, we also find the inevitable facial recognition. The latter
has always worked fairly well, but has sometimes lost some detections. Summing
up, the POCO X3 NFC has a convincing design , despite its generous size.
Technical features
Under the body we find a Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G octa-core
processor operating at the maximum frequency of 2.3 GHz (2 x 2.3 GHz + 6 x 1.8
GHz), flanked by an Adreno 618 GPU, 6GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB UFS 2.1 internal
memory (expandable via microSD up to 256GB). It is one of the first smartphone
to mount this SoC, which was announced by Qualcomm at the end of August 2020.
We are talking about a processor that winks at the world of gamers, optimizing
performance from that point of view.
In any case, do not expect a huge upgrade compared to the
Snapdragon 730G, but it is very interesting that POCO X3 NFC is "on the
piece" at the hardware level when contextualized in the mid-range, despite
its price being lower than the competition. There is also a motor dedicated to
vibration, which offers more than 150 types of feedback.
The cooling system is based on copper heatpipes and graphite
layers. As for the screen, there is a 6.67-inch IPS panel with Full HD +
resolution (2400 x 1080 pixels), Gorilla Glass 5 protection, 240 Hz touch
sampling rate and 120 Hz refresh rate., a rarity considering the price. There
is support for HDR10, but clearly the Always On is missing, as it is not an
AMOLED display. Despite this, the high fluidity guaranteed by the increased
refresh rate and the good brightness, in line with the price range, make us
lean towards a positive evaluation. There is also no shortage of Widevine L1
DRMs, which allow playback of Full HD content via streaming services such as
Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. The only aspect that made us turn up our noses
a bit is a suboptimal contrast management that occurs when the brightness
sensor decides to set the latter to maximum indoors.
However, this is a minor inconvenience and it is enough to
act manually to solve everything. Generally speaking, we are faced with an
excellent display. The smartphone comes with a pre-applied film, which we
removed after a few days to better test the goodness of the panel. There is the
notification LED, located at the top.
Moving on to the photographic department, a front camera of
20MP (f / 2.2) and a quadruple rear camera of 64MP (f / 1.89, Sony IMX682) +
13MP (f / 2.2, ultra-wide, 119 degrees) + 2MP (f /2.4, for macros) + 2MP (f /
2.4, for depth of field). The four rear sensors can record videos up to 4K /
30fps, while at the front you get to 1080p / 30fps. The videos are well
stabilized in general: no problem from this point of view.
The features of the Camera application are what you expect,
from Pro to Portrait mode, passing through Night, 64M, Time-lapse and
Slow-motion modes (up to 960fps in 720p), just to name a few. However, there
are some new features, including one that will make gamers particularly
happy:the Cyberpunk filter .
Yes, you got it right: by accessing the filters section, you
can transform the night lights into futuristic neon, recreating an environment
similar to the one you will see in Cyberpunk 2077 , CD Projekt RED's
blockbuster coming out this year (yes, we are all in hype).
PHOTO WITH CYBERPUNK FILTER
Returning to the "basic functionality", the quad
rear camera takes good photos , able to compete even with higher-end devices.
The colors are well balanced and the quality is good during the day, while at
night the digital noise is noticeable in certain contexts. The special mode is
able to raise the situation, but as you can imagine it cannot work miracles.
The maximum achievable zoom is 10x, but better not to go beyond 2x, which is in
fact also the maximum reachable by "shortcut".
This is an interesting photographic sector, not at the top,
but which has everything the average user looks for in a smartphone that costs
less than 300 euros. If you want to better understand the quality of the
sensors,Drive folder dedicated to POCO X3 NFC .
Surely some of you will be wondering how much the high
refresh rate affects in terms of autonomy. In reality, the 5160 mAh battery is
able to always carry on at the end of the day even while maintaining the 120 Hz
active. There is also a feature called DynamicSwitch, which manages the refresh
rate automatically depending on the use of the smartphone by the user. However,
there is no "intermediate" step in the settings, as you can choose
between 60 Hz and 120 Hz (there is no option for 90 Hz).
In any case, the autonomy is excellent, since you can also
reach two full days by setting 60 Hz. Also not to be underestimated is the 33W
charger, which allows you to get hours of use in a few minutes of connection to
a power source. A full charge, on the other hand, takes about an hour.
There is also the IP53 certification for water sprays. The
connectivity department is also pretty comprehensive, as it includes 4G LTE,
Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac, NFC and Bluetooth 5.1. The audio sector is
excellent, which is stereo, a rarity for this price range, and has a good
maximum volume (our tests showed 77.9 dBA). Among other things, there is a
feature called Dust blaster, which automatically emits a sound wave capable of
removing dust from the area in front of the speaker.
Software
The operating system is Android 10 with MIUI 12.0.2 and
security patches updated to August 2020, at the time of writing. We know
Xiaomi's customization well: myriads of features are available and the
graphical interface is clean. Despite this, it should be note that in this case
we have a further customization, given that the POCO Launcher 2.0 is present.
Among the main differences with the other devices of the
Chinese company, we find a redesigned app drawer with a subdivision of applications
into categories and colors. There are also all the features that the user
expects, including the Dark Mode which also extends to third-party
applications.
As soon as the Dark mode is activated, the functionality for
third-party software is also enabled by default. This can be useful on
Facebook, but in some applications it may cause problems with the graphical
interface. Either way, you can choose which apps to enable this option in, so
that's no problem.
The MIUI 12 is very complete and the system runs smoothly,
thanks also to the high refresh rate. It must be said that some sporadic lag
here and there is not lacking, but it is nothing transcendental. It should be
noted the presence of advertising, as well as some applications of dubious
utility, such as the Crazy Juicer game. In any case, these apps can be
uninstalled and the ads only appear in a few screens.
Performance and benchmarks
POCO X3 NFC is in all respects a mid-range smartphone in
terms of performance, despite its price being lower than many other competing
models. In fact, the presence of a Snapdragon 732G SoC is felt positively.
To provide you with concrete data, POCO X3 NFC has achieved
a total of 282072 points on AnTuTu Benchmark . On Geekbench, however, it
recorded 568 points in single-core and 1691 points in multi-core. Rather
positive numbers for a smartphone that costs less than 300 euros.
To make you better understand the context, let's examine a
very popular device in this range: Samsung Galaxy M31. During our tests, the
latter stopped at 188266 points on AnTuTu.
The only devices capable of giving POCO X3 NFC a bit of a
hard time are Realme 6, which reaches 290,000 points, and Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G,
which dropped a lot in price and scored 320545 during our test. points on
AnTuTu. In short, we are at excellent levels in terms of performance.
Gaming
As mentioned above, POCO X3 NFC is a smartphone that winks
at fans of the mobile gaming world. We decided to test the device mainly with
Call of Duty Mobile, ARK: Survival Evolved and Fortnite.
Before going into the details of the playful performance of
the product, it is however good to dwell for a moment on the Game Turbo 3.0
functionality. In fact, the latter, which can be activated through a swipe
during the game phase, allows the opening in Picture in picture of applications
such as WhatsApp and Facebook, as well as the optimization of performance and
the display of statistics related to fps and the use of CPU and GPU. In
addition, there is also a feature that allows you to change your voice to
"distract" your opponents. There is also Turbo videogames, which acts
as a hub for installed titles.
Call of Duty Mobile runs smoothly with details and FPS set
to "Very High" . You cannot go up to "Max" like on some
more performing devices, but it is still an excellent result. Arriving at ARK:
Survival Evolved, the game runs well even at "Medium", while at
"High" you start to notice drops in frame rates. However, we are
talking about a particularly resource-intensive title, capable of giving a hard
time even to much more expensive smartphones, so it is almost a
"miracle".
Finally, as regards Fortnite, you can play properly with the
"Medium" preset and 30 fps. Among other things, during the
international presentation event it was announced that the device is compatible
with the Black Shark FunCooler Pro and Black Shark FunCooler external fans. We
have non had the opportunity to test these accessories, but we have noticed
that they are also on sale on Amazon Italy . In short, POCO X3 NFC is a smartphone
that can guarantee good satisfaction also with regard to gaming.
