Lifelong iPhone user switches to Xiaomi Poco F3 By Pete Matheson

Over, the last two weeks, I've completely switched away from my life longer session with the iPhone and instead picked up this budget 299 pounds Xiaomi Poco f3. Let's talk about it. Firstly, this budget phone that we're looking at today is the Xiaomi polo, f3 or Poco f3. It costs just 299 pounds, and this phone has a 120 hertz AMOLED display with a 1300 nits peak brightness, Dolby Atmos, a snapdragon 870 CPU, 5g 156 400 battery, and I could just go on. This- is not a budget phone not when it comes at least to specs hi. My name is Pete and over a series of recent videos.

I've been getting closer and closer to saying goodbye and switching from an iPhone to android of some form and every time I switch to an android phone, it does actually get easier, but that's not to say there aren't issues, so today we're going to take a look at the Poco f3 from the perspective of someone who has used an iPhone and Apple devices in general for over a decade. Firstly, let's talk about specs and pricing and, of course, the first of the good stuff is just its incredible value for a 299 pound phone. This thing is mind-blowing. The hardware specs are up there with well many of the flagships, comparing apples to well androids the cheapest iPhone is currently the iPhone SE at 399 pounds, but you get well. None of the flagship features that you get with this cheaper Poco f3 has there's no 120 hertz display only a single camera, half the storage, a smaller screen and well actually, it's just easier to say the things that the Poco doesn't have uh: it's not waterproof and there's no wireless charging.

That is basically- and I think, literally it. Everything else is better value when comparing hardware just side by side. Next is a random thing, but it does seem quite common with android phones to get a pre-installed screen protector and also in both the case of my OnePlus 9 and this Poco f3. They come with a case like included, which I felt was just a really nice addition, because well, I've noticed recently. The reason why I scratch my phones is that pretty much every pair of jeans has this like stupid metal button like right here, just why so a screen protector is actually quite nice to have, but you can, of course, just you know, pull that off.

If you don't like it. Next up is the UI 12, which is the operating system, or I guess, like the flavor of android, installed on the f3, which does have handy features like the video toolbox, which I've not come across on just any other android phone yet which lets you swipe it from the left and access, some like handy tools, whilst you're watching video content, but more on the main OS at the moment, but otherwise it is really, really snappy. I mean animations are quick, which makes the phone feel well really fast, and this does have the snapdragon 870, which was, I think, it's only released a couple of months ago on a budget phone again, a budget phone incredibly good and in some ways it feels snappier than my iPhone 11. But I also think this is somewhat due just for just faster animation speeds. In general, next, it is really nice to see face, unlock, make its way to an android phone and specifically, of course, a 299 pound phone.

Considering the likes of even more expensive, like google pixels. Don't have that and something that I've come across in this particular phone is that you can configure it so that as soon as you look at the phone, it skips the whole like swipe up gesture and go straight to the home screen or perhaps like the last app you're using. It is just incredibly fast and actually really handy. It's really quick. I like it.

I wish I had it on iPhone, and it just saves needless gestures and even seems to be like one step ahead of the OnePlus 9, which was your knowing, did have faced unlock but needed a physical key press to trigger it, even with like the wake on lift feature, enabled absolutely no such issues here put the phone down pick the phone up, and it's already on the home screen, it's just so, so good. Furthermore, I love that now on to video and something I do love about. Android in general is that you can watch YouTube videos and have them pop out natively on the phone. So you can leave YouTube. You can go to load up another app, and you can still see that video playing.

This is something that also Rene Richie mentioned is coming to iOS soon, but it's weirdly only for the US, for free anywhere outside the US you'll need to pay for YouTube premium, which just seems a bit like a dick move by google on to the cameras, and I do actually really, really like these cameras. They get some really great quality photos. The colors are great, and it's nice and responsive due to that snapdragon 870 CPU. So there's just like no tapping of the button and waiting for the shutter to happen, which I had on like the Pixel 4a, and I'd say that definitely the image quality is comparable to the iPhone pro max right now, which again is a phone that cost like 1500 pounds at time of purchase compared to one that is five times cheaper, incredible good stuff. Over now, let's talk bad and in no particular order.

Let's talk dark mode, this phone, and only this phone so far seems to have some weird bugs with dark mode and only in certain apps, like YouTube studio, only a minor issue, but again in the world of apple, those types of bugs just they just don't exist or not that I've come across in my years and years of owning an iPhone. The fingerprint scanner is next, and it's in a really odd position. It's not underneath the glass or in the back of the phone, but instead it's on the side here, which is fine if you're holding it. You know this specific way. It does mean that you have to shift your grip to get it right and typically means you just add a few kinds of different fingerprints just to cover holding it off in different ways.

But with that said and like I said earlier, it's great that this has faced unlock that works. So, so well, so you don't need to really use that fingerprint sensor that often mainly at nighttime, if at all, but going back to the way you hold the phone and there's another problem. Double tap gestures! Really not that reliable, but going back to the way you hold the phone. It is pretty big and even taller than the iPhone 11 Pro max, which it makes it just impossible to reach the top of that screen without adjusting your grip, and it can make using some apps a little awkward. But there are features built in that makes the screen smaller.

So you can reach all the errors which are okay, but it's not as nice, a form factor as say the s21 or the OnePlus 9, or even the Google Pixel 5, which, admittedly, is a smaller screen. But personally I was just really enjoying having a non-gigantic screen for a while touching on security and specifically with password managers, always a frustration with android, but I typically find that password managers just don't seem to trigger, as often as they should do. I find myself having to open the app find the password and copy and paste passwords very, very frustrating. I've had this across other phones, too. You know across other android phones and across all password managers and from my last video most people tell me that I should be using like google password manager, but please, please just I wouldn't use that ever it is so, so easy to get passwords out of Google Chrome's built-in password manager.

It is unreal for those of you watching, use the link down below and go get a proper password manager. Please, Google might be convenient, but it is not a proper password manager so get that sorted as long as it's not last pass battery life is also well just okay, given that this has a big battery and when you go into the battery settings menu, it shows you an incredible number of hours even days in some cases, but realistically it just doesn't get anywhere near this. For me, I definitely prefer the overall experience of the pixel 5 better, but for the value I mean come on 299 pounds. This is incredible, and I doubt there is much else out there that compete at this price point. So my advice: if you have a tight budget and need a new phone, this is probably the only real option.

You'll have, and it's a damn good one at that. I just can't wait to try their actual flagship phones now so go buy one using the links down below in the description. Thanks for watching, see ya.

Source : Pete Matheson