Xiaomi POCO F6, opinion after first contact. Video and photos

A few hours ago POCO presented the new POCO F6 Pro and POCO F6, its most ambitious proposal to try to reign in the high mid-range due to its high quality-price ratio, especially if what you are interested in is is power. After trying the POCO F6 Pro in our first impressions we had the opportunity to just give the glove to the POCO F6 and it pleasantly surprised us with its balance.

Its technical sheet shines thanks to claims such as its powerful and modern Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor or its 90W fast charging, but leaving these features aside it has left us with such good feelings in the world that it does not runs not just for war. in terms of quality and price, even in the tight middle segment. It’s going to be fierce competition for his older brother.

POCO F6 technical sheet

Design and screen: a success

There’s little left of those strident designs from the original POCO and for me, that’s good news. And their specs may have been attractive, but with a few exceptions, they generally turned me down. While the Pro model features a striking top for its glasses that detracts from the aesthetics, elegant flat metal edges that add and attractive ridges that attract attention so that as a whole its design goes up a level, that of the POCO F6 is a commitment to minimalism.

So it maintains this shape of flat edges and gentle curves and integrates the two rear lenses and the flash on the back without any more frills, quite harmonious appearance and pleasant in the hand and leaning on the table. In this case everything is plastic, but a plastic with good finishes and which depending on the color is quite pleasant to look at (titanium and green, the black that we tested is the ugly duckling of the house). The good news is that thanks to this total commitment to this material, it is moderately light and manageable even if it is not excessively large. Note: black is not only the least aesthetic, it is also the least resistant, since the oil on the fingers remains marked.

A detail that never hurts: it has IP64 water and dust resistance, which gave me enough peace of mind to try it in a pool and take it with me to the beach. Be careful, it is recommended to immerse it in water, but at least if I drop it by mistake, I have more peace of mind.

The screen retains many of the virtues of its older sibling, except for more modest brightness, handling and resolution. In all cases, we are dealing with a 6.67-inch AMOLED panel at 120 Hz at 1.5K compatible with HDR and Dolby Vision content. In the few days I’ve been able to test it, I’ve been happy with the video viewing, sharpness, and color reproduction, although those 2,400 nits of brightness take their toll during use. of the device under direct sunlight, so there are times when it may be difficult to clearly see the contents. It’s not dramatic in the overall experience, but it’s annoying when it happens.

Performance and autonomy: aim high without complexes

The section that gave me the most satisfaction is the following, since the great claim of this terminal is that it houses a better and more modern SoC than the Pro (something inexplicable at the level of product segmentation) , a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 with IceLoop cooling and comes with the options of 12/16 GB LDDr5X RAM and 256 GB/512 GB UFS 4.0. The one I had to try is the most powerful version and the truth is that moving my daily apps was a breeze.

As a user, rather than using demanding applications, I use a long list of them simultaneously and have had no problems, achieve a seamless experience while I’m browsing the internet, checking email, checking social media, chatting, or watching a video. Likewise, I was even able to retouch certain articles on the fly. Since I’ve been here and to put something more difficult in front of me, I’ve been playing “Genshin Impact” and the feeling of fluidity is a constant.

It is true that in this day and age and if we like to install many applications, record videos with the highest quality or simply let everything accumulate on the device, we can end up having space problems over time , but nothing like a good cleanup or an external backup. can’t resolve.

I’ve been using POCO for years (I gave one to my mother last year and my sister left another one for Christmas) and if there’s one thing I didn’t like about handling it, It is the previous POCO layer, somewhat invasive and heavy to my taste. Fortunately, with HyperOS That feeling has dissipated a bit, which I’m grateful for.

POCOs generally have a good battery and this F6 is no exception, it shares a 5,000 mAh battery with its older brother and the truth is that it is a guarantee: even when using the cell phone a lot and in its configuration the more ambitious, the battery has reached the day of use. With my normal use, it lasts a day and a half without problems. That a cell phone comes with a charger in this day and age is good news, but it’s also the charger is 90W, so that’s a blessing.

With the phone dry in minutes, you’re ready to take it with you for the afternoon (something that actually happened to me: I forgot to charge it and left it plugged in while I was getting ready to go out and within 10 minutes I had it I was half done), but if you want to fully charge it, it takes about half an hour, which isn’t bad at all.

Photography

When I cold compared the specs of the Pro and the non-Pro, I had a major surprise in the photographic department. Yes, it is true that the older brother has its own software functions, but ultimately the big difference between one and the other is that the mobile phone which is the protagonist of this article It suffers from a macro lens and I can tell you it’s not a big loss. So, it has a 50-megapixel main sensor with f/1.59 and optical stabilizer accompanied by a wide-angle sensor as popular as the 8-megapixel IMX882. As for video, it is capable of filming in 4K and 60 frames per second.

Although I was able to take few photos, I think the main camera performs quite well in favorable scenarios with good lighting and without much movement, achieving moderately faithful but somewhat intense color reproduction and good sharpness. With the wide angle, we capture more information, even at the cost of losing sharpness in certain areas, which can appear somewhat grainy. These days this combination is the minimum expected in a mid-range and although the proposition is basic, it is at least manageable.

Below are some photographs with the different lenses as an example:

POCO F6, a balanced mobile with power as its flagship

The truth is that It is difficult to find competitors in the segment that will give you power, whether we consider this recommended price of 449 dollars or even more if we go down to 389.99 dollars for the special launch offer. The second thing I liked the most concerns the autonomy and the recharge. It is true that nowadays it is relatively common in the mid-range for batteries to be around 5,000 mAh, but this is not the case for all of them and of course, few of them charge as quickly and include a charger.

Additionally, the on-screen experience is overall good and I think the design is perfect. It may not be premium, but it’s minimalist, modern and manageable, which isn’t exactly a bit. The icing on the cake is this resistance to dust and water.

POCO’s strong point has never been the camera and in this generation, this is not the case either, despite the improvements. That’s not to say it takes bad photos and that’s not enough for a lot of people. But just like in this budget it has no competition in terms of performance, others can paint their face photographically.

In any case, overall I think it’s a balanced and interesting mobile in itself and even more if possible by contextualizing it in the mid-range. Thus, the POCO F6 presents itself as one of the best potential candidates. So much so that your proposal can reach cannibalize your older brotherwhich paradoxically has a less good processor.

It’s not that overall it’s worse, but if you prioritize performance and have that budget, chances are its other proprietary virtues won’t make enough of a difference to make it worth it. worth spending more. And so may be a problem at home.

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