Is the POCO F6 the Best Mid-Range Smartphone of the Year?

The POCO F6 is a device that repeats its classic formula of excellent spec-price ratio with special attention to performance and design.

The Chinese company has managed to position itself in the mid-range mobile segment with premium features as one of the most important, and this year it has once again hit the table with the POCO F6 Pro and its little brother, the POCO F6, that I have had the opportunity to test during the last few weeks.

Their main credentials? An exceptional processor that has practically just been released and is intended for the high end that you are going to love, whether for gaming or demanding tasks, and a design that prioritizes everything over comfort in hand.

It is something that has not convinced me at all, but to find out, I invite you to venture into this review of the POCO F6 so that it is very clear to you what I thought after a good time with the device as my main equipment.

Design: Feather-Light and Ultra-Comfortable

This is one of the points that I liked the most about the device. Not only because of its sober and elegant look but also because it is one of the most comfortable pieces of equipment that has passed through my hands this year.

Surely a delicious grip and a total weight of 179 grams play in its favor here, which makes it always a pleasure to have in your hand. To this is added a rear with a very pleasant touch made of quality plastic that shines when the light hits and leaves no trace.

Otherwise, it has a button panel located in the right area, easy to access with the thumb without having to make strange movements with the hand, and a USB-C speaker and SIM slot in the lower area.

Finally, it should be noted that in addition to the black unit that you can see in the images of this review, there is also another model in green and one in titanium color, in case you are looking for something more differential.

What Are the Pros and Cons of the POCO F6?

Features and technical data sheet of the Poco F6 

Xiaomi Poco F6 5G

4G LTE 512GB + 12GB Global Version Unlocked 6.67″ 120Hz 50Mp Triple Camera (Tmobile Mint Tello & Global) + (w/Fast Car 51W Charger Bundle) (Green Global ROM)

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Display: Bright, Fluid, and Efficiently Utilized

When flipped, the construction is still excellent, with a very well-used and narrow frame that gives the feeling of being in front of an all-screen panel, except for the small hole in the selfie, centered as usual.

A 6.67-inch CyrstalRess AMOLED screen with 1.5K resolution and 120 Hz refresh rate with which you achieve a vibrant, color-filled, and very fluid experience.

To this, it adds a maximum brightness of 2,400 nits, something that is below the POCO F6 Pro, logically, but that still offers a frankly good visualization in all kinds of scenarios.

As key points, Gorilla Glass Victus protection stands out, as well as a fingerprint reader under the screen that flies. I assure you that the unlock is practically instantaneous. Come on.

Finally, in terms of sound, it’s more than enough for anything you have in mind, but don’t expect excellent quality. That is, it sounds powerful at an intermediate level, but it starts to lower quality once you get above this point.

Performance and Software: A Powerhouse with Room for Improvement

This is where the first big surprise is: it mounts a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor, one that is above the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 that mounts its big brother.

This recently launched chip, which has already been seen in the Realme GT 6, the Honor 200, or the Motorola Edge 50 Ultra, achieves fantastic numbers and is halfway between Qualcomm’s Gen 2 and Gen 3.

And how does it behave in this POCO F6? Well, the truth is fabulous. It is a chip built in 4 nanometers and has 8 cores, and with this, it achieves fantastic gaming performance in high-power games, as well as very good cooling thanks to its IceLoop cooling system.

As you can imagine, if gaming works like a scandal, imagine what it does with day-to-day tasks such as social networks, browsing, and opening applications of all kinds: excellent behavior.

And, as for the operating system, it comes with HyperOS based on Android 14; although it offers a lot of customization, it has a major problem: the enormous amount of bloatware that comes from the factory.

Camera: Capable but Limited

The photographic section has never been a priority for poco phone, and this model still does not measure up in this aspect.

It’s not that the camera is bad, but also that it falls a little short in functions. In the end, the composition of the chamber is as follows:

• Main: 50 Mpx with OIS, ƒ/1.59 aperture with LYT-600 sensor
• Wide: 8 Mpx ultra-wide angle with an IMX882 sensor and <0xC8>/1.59
• Selfie: 20 Mpx

With this composition of cameras, it achieves the most important thing in an evolution, surpassing the poco mobile, the previous generation, so it is already something to highlight.

As for the results, it achieves good naturalness in the snapshots and photographs with a good level of detail and acceptable sharpness with the main lens.

The wide-angle, on the other hand, achieves images that are not bad but pale in comparison to the main lens in color and vividness.

For its part, the selfie camera is simply correct with a good blur, although with a high level of beauty, and leaves aside the lack of dynamic range, or HDR, a shame.

The app, on the other hand, is quite functional and intuitive, with the main modes of use at the bottom, where a Pro mode stands out in case you like to experiment and a document mode designed to serve as a scanner that has caught my attention because of my curiosity.

Battery Life: Enduring and Quick to Recharge

The battery is another of its strengths, with a capacity of 5,000 mAh that allows you to reach more than a day of use without breaking a sweat.

Logically, if you ask a lot of the phone with processes that burn battery, such as demanding games or high-consumption apps, the number of hours is reduced, but I don’t think you will have problems getting to the full day before you have to go through the charger.

A 90 W charger that allows you to achieve 0 to 100% in about 35 minutes, according to figures from the brand. It’s something I haven’t been able to test, as the charger doesn’t come in a box, so you’ll have to buy it separately.

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Conclusion: is the Poco F6 worth it?

The POCO 5G is a very complete mobile phone that repeats once again its classic formula of excellent specs-price ratio. For that price, you not only get a state-of-the-art processor that is in higher-cost devices, but also a fantastic design that prioritizes comfort and ergonomics, a high-level screen, and fabulous autonomy.

The camera may indeed fall short and the software is full of bloatware, but I think these are weak points that can be overlooked seeing how well it performs in the rest of the sections.