Poco F6 review: All about power and solid performance

So, the Poco F6 has finally gone official and I have been using this phone for about a week now.  For the starting price of INR 29,999 (NPR 47,999), it packs some amazing specs for the price, SD 8s Gen 3, 12- Bit AMOLED display, 90-watt charging, Sony cameras, it's a pretty good spec sheet. But how does it perform in real life? Let's find that out in my Poco F6 review. Before heading in, let's take a quick look at the specifications, shall we?

Poco F6 Specifications:

• Design: Curved back with flat frames and flat screen
• Display: 6.67” AMOLED Panel, 120Hz refresh rate, 2400 nits peak brightness
• Resolution: 1.5K (1,220 x 2,712)
• Chipset: Octa-core Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 (4nm)
• RAM: 8/12GB
• ROM: 256/512GB
• UI & OS: HyperOS based on Android 14
• Rear Camera: Dual Camera (50MP Primary with Sony LYT-600 sensor + 8MP Ultrawide)
• Front Camera: 20MP Camera (Centre-aligned hole-punch cutout)
• Security: In-display fingerprint sensor, Face Unlock
• Battery: 5,000 mAh cell with 90W Fast Charging support
• Connectivity: Dual SIM, Dual 5G, WiFi 7, Bluetooth v5.4, NFC (Region-specific), USB Type-C
• Colors: Titanium, Black, Green

Poco F6 Review

Design and Build

Alright, first of all, I will get done with the one thing that’s not so good about this phone- the design. It is very basic and this is what most of 2024’s phones look like. Plastic back and plastic frames! It’s well built and lightweight though, the hands-on feel is not bad, but it doesn’t feel like you are holding a premium phone. Redeeming factors here are the GGV in the display and IP64 rating, but other than that, I think the design is pretty boring.

Display

Display is where the real gem is- I have had the best time interacting with this screen, 6.7 inch AMOLED screen, 12-bit display, 1920 Hz PWM dimming, 100% DCI P3 color coverage, 2400 nits peak brightness, the bezels are trimmed down, it’s an almost flagship like display. Almost… because, this is an LTPS screen, not LTPO, so its refresh rate cannot go as low as 1 or 10 Hz ..the max I have recorded is 30Hz. During the briefing, Poco also said that it can reach 45 and 90 Hz while you do certain things, in my tests, I was able to get the display switch between 30, 60, and 120Hz. Not complaining though, just letting you guys know!

Good touch response and brightness

A few of the things I really appreciate here are, the touch response of this display is good, especially while gaming, number 2, its brightness is sufficient in sunny outdoor conditions as well, and it can go up to 1200 nits in HIgh brightness mode, but its display can go really dim as well. So, when I am using the phone till 1 am, my eyes are slightly less affected.

A super solid performer

Anyway, the best thing about this phone is– –performance—Finally, I feel like the Poco F1 legacy is back, we have an SD 8 series chipset here, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 along with DDR5X RAM and fast UFS 4.0 storage. The 8s Gen 3 is almost as good as the 8 Gen 2, the only thing that the 8 Gen 2 does better is GPU performance because it uses a better GPU, but the CPU architecture is actually better on the 8s Gen 3.  Plus it also comes with on-device AI capabilities and it supports a few AI models as well. This phone does not necessarily support all the AI features, the chipset does support it, so that’s that, just letting you guys know. 

Gaming and Cooling

Real-life performance is solid! Games run smoothly, PUBG runs smoothly at around 88 fps with great stability..and I have also just received support for 120fps. Likewise, Genshin Impact runs at 58 fps in high settings with great stability as well. And the temperature numbers are really favorable too. I mean, I recorded a max of 44 degrees while playing Genshin Impact for 30 minutes, but the cooling solution here is effective, I noticed that heat dissipated rather quickly.  The reason is- that Poco has included a large vapor chamber cooling system here, which they like to call, Ice loop cooling, and according to them, this one is 3X more effective than traditional VCs. I am not sure about the 3X parts, but I never felt the phone getting uncomfortably hot, so I will give good points to it! I also tried shooting a 30-minute video in 4k 60 fps to check how much the phone will heat and, here are the numbers, pretty impressive right? (30 minutes video recording 4k 60 fps—front temperature: 45, back temperature 43), it didn’t throttle and shut down, so that’s nice.

HyperOS is also smooth

Anyway, Poco has improved a lot on the software side as well, Android 14- HyperOS out of the box- 3 years of OS and 4 years of quarterly security updates. I appreciate that HyperOS is not a very demanding skin, so you don’t have to deal with unnecessarily heavy animations and stuff. Plus, it’s also quite optimized. I tried finding flaws like I dug really deep, but I actually couldn’t find ads or things like that. I did notice that the system music app runs a few ads, but other than that,  in the UI, there are no unnecessary recommendations, so, the experience is pretty much clean. There are a ton of pre-installed apps though, but most of them can be uninstalled, so it isn’t a big issue! 

Speakers and Haptics

Even the overall experience has been good. The speakers here are really nice and loud and balanced from both the units on the top as well as the bottom. As expected, you don’t get a lot of bass, but they are nice, so no complaints. However, I am not a fan of haptics..they are not the worst, in fact, it’s better than something like the Galaxy A35 or the Moto Edge 50 Pro. Poco says they have used an X-axis vibration motor, but it's not very impactful. Just a day ago, I published the review of Realme GT 6T and it has much better feedback. I do appreciate that haptics is implemented in UI elements too.

Battery Life

Battery life is good. It is a typical 5000 mAh cell which gave me a full day of usage on moderate to heavy use. Charging is fast too- the phone takes around 40 minutes to fully juice up, 30% in 8 minutes, 50% in 17 minutes, and 100% in 45 minutes with the inbox 120-watt charger, which also supports PD charging, so you can charge your laptop, gaming console, and all with it too.

Cameras

Poco learned its lesson from last year, this time getting rid of the OmniVision sensor and including a Sony sensor instead, not just in the primary lens, but the ultra-wide lens as well. And after clicking a ton of pics, the quality of the cameras has improved, I mean Poco F5’s cameras were..for the lack of a better word, kind of garbage. Now, don’t be mistaken, the cameras here are definitely better than the F5, but not extraordinary for the price. You will notice good details and dynamic range but I think Poco could still work a little on color processing. Warm images, sometimes overbearingly warm primary images. I also found that the focus area here is quite narrow while shooting close-up shots and the colors are not the most accurate too. Still for general usage, the images are not bad, I did get some good shots like this one and this one too, so inappropriate lighting, you can get some good images from it, no doubts.

Ultra-wide

Ultra-wide images are just okay though in terms of details, but I like the colors on UW images more than primary ones.  I have also been comparing its cameras with Realme GT 6T and, Realme’s output is a little better than Poco’s, I will make a separate comparison video.

Nighttime

During the nighttime, the photos are not bad either, warmth is there, but it does not spoil the aesthetics, so no issues. I only wish the camera was able to maintain better sharpness though, here is a side-by-side comparison of nighttime images from Realme and Poco and evidently, realme is doing a better job.

Portraits

Portraits from the phone are decent most of the time, the subject's face is smoothened and sometimes there is a yellow tint on the skin, but it’s not entirely bad so I won't complain. I wish there was a 2x portrait option, that was a major miss!

Selfies

Anyway, I am happy with the selfies, good amount of smoothening, but end result is good, the exposure management is nice and the highlights are preserved well.

Videography

The videography side has improved and you get a 4K 60 fps option too. The phone can shoot smooth videos and nice details. It doesn't let you switch between the cameras, but overall good videos, not just during the daytime, but at night time too. No noise or grains whatsoever! On the selfie video side, there is no 4k option, only 1080p 60 fps here. I really feel, Poco should have given that option too.

Poco F6 Review: Conclusion

As with all the Poco phones, the Poco F6 is a great device for performance-centric users, and even for general usage for someone who wants a fast phone with a good display, speakers, and everything. It is a good upgrade to the Poco F5 in almost all aspects, the display, the cameras, charging, software, performance, everything.  That being said I wish the cameras were a little better in terms of color processing though and also, the design, as I said, very basic! If you can live up to those shortcomings, this is a competitive device, up for my recommendation, easily. And that's all for my Poco F6 review.

Poco F6 Review: Pros and Cons

Pros

• Great performance from Snapdragon 8s Gen 3
• Excellent display
• Good software and speakers

Cons

• The cameras could have been better
• Not-so-appealing design