POCO M3 Pro 5G Review - It's A Trap? By Renzo Claros - Tech & Cameras

A few months ago, I reviewed the POCO M3, which was a budget phone that packed a massive battery, a FHD display, and a faux leather design that was unique and warmly accepted by most people. Half a year later, we now have the POCO M3 Pro 5G. Unlike other Pro smartphones, this one doesn't try to be the best at one thing, hence the marketing "more speed, more everything. " For starters, it has the 5G on the moniker, indicating that this budget of a phone is futureproofed and ready to support 5G data speeds if it ever becomes available. If we take a look at some of the affordable 5G phones that launched for the past several months, the overall specs of some of these devices come with decent packages but not as better as their 4G competitors. I guess at this point, we should just accept the fact that 5G is still relatively expensive to implement until it becomes more available and permanent in the market.

This poco m3 pro 5G is no exception to that fact. buht, it doesn't have to overachieve expectations considering the price tag of this phone. On June 6, hopefully on the same date this video goes live, poco m3 pro will retail for ₱7,490 for the 4/64GB and ₱9,490 for the 6/128GB. After that, the prices will revert to ₱8,990 and ₱11,990. Now obviously you should get this phone at its special price to get the best value out of your money.

And if that happens to be the case, this phone does most of the things right, considering that it's carrying 5G capability. The first time i saw this phone in person, at least for the black model, in my mind i reacted that this is a very flashy phone. part of that is because of this glossy, fingerprint-magnet back panel that works really well for me -- i do like it despite the downsides of glossy panels, at least for this phone -- but the huge separation of this Samsung-esque layer adds a distinct cue to the overall look. That layer is under the glass, so you won't feel the edges that may break the seamless feel of the device. The prints on the back are definitely more than what I'm used to, buht it does remind me of a Huawei phone back in the days more than a certain brand that usually loves to dare and leap.

This is a plastic panel, so you need to be extra careful to prevent micro-scratches and for all the glossy plastic phones that i've used, this one doesn't feel sticky even with sweaty hands. There might be some kind of coating on the back, buht that's just my assumption. There's a certain weight and thickness to this phone, but not as hefty as most devices on the market. And for a 5G phone, you still have the usual package from a POCO phone, such as the headphone jack, IR blaster, and NFC. The SIM tray now supports a hybrid slot for a microSD card and there's only one speaker at the bottom, which is a bit canny or tinny in tone and can deliver sharp highs, but it's clear and decently loud for watching movies.

All the buttons are accessible on the right-hand side, including the fingerprint scanner that's embedded onto the power button. It's not the fastest performer but it's fast enough and accurate. Despite the heft, this phone is a comfortable phone to use even with one hand. You have an FHD 6.5" diagonal panel here that supports HD playback on Netflix, buht there's no HDR, mind you. Compared with the M3, the M3 Pro has slightly better peak brightness and color coverage.

It's not the brightest in this category, buht it's bright enough to be used outdoors. The color reproduction is OK, too. I never felt the need for a better panel when I watched How i met your mother and community during my testing. One area where the M3 Pro one-ups the M3 is the use of a 90hz refresh rate. Some of you might be disappointed by this given the abundance of 120Hz on the market, buht i'd say that this is surely the sweet spot for a phone of this caliber.90hz is enough to let the user perceive the smoothness of the screen, and at the same time, minimize the perceived stutters of a phone. While this is an LCD panel, the refresh rate adapts to 60, 50, and as low as 30Hz for watching videos, though POCO clarified that 30Hz will arrive via OTA.

The selfie cutout on the display is one of the largest I've seen this year, it may be jarring at first, but just like most things, it just fades away in the background. this now brings us to the camera of the phone. At least on paper, you get the same 48MP wide, 2MP macro, and 2MP depth combo from the vanilla m3, including the 8MP selfie. buht, the quality of the cameras has certainly improved. For the most part, the photos you get out of the back and front sensors are passable, so long you give your subject sufficient lighting.

The software tends to overexpose most of my shots, so i suggest tapping and lowering the exposure if you want less noisy and sharper images. Although there's no 4K recording on the back nor 60fps option, 1080p is clearly usable in most conditions. The stabilization on both front and back is surprisingly praisable. Unfortunately, though, POCO couldn't include an ultrawide sensor on the back. If you're a follower of the channel, I posted that the Dimensity is the new Snapdragon.

So for the past few months, I've used Snapdragon devices and two Dimensity-powered phones, including this one. And based on my time with all of them, Snapdragon easily heats up the back of these phones while the Dimensity barely gets hot even when pushed to its limits. That's exactly what the Dimensity 700 on the M3 Pro 5G displayed during my time with it. If I had to describe the day-to-day performance of this phone, that would be fluid. Part of that is the 90Hz display and the other part is the chipset.

I do have the 6GB model here, so that may have played a role, but nonetheless, this is a smooth and fluid-performing phone. It's obviously not as fast as snappy as the note 10 pro or poco x3, but i can tell you that the software is more stable on this phone, notably when it's still on MIUI 12.0. In fact, I never had the frame drops and slowness of the UI when playing youtube in the background, and that's a consistent problem that I've seen from affordable Xiaomi phones. The only complaint that I have here is that sometimes swiping up to go home is registered as swiping left or right to switch to the next app. I've played wild rift, mobile legends, battle royale games, and this phone easily crushes it.

You do need to wait for devs to activate high refresh rate gameplay to take advantage of that 90hz display, but right now, it's looking good for the m3 pro. i guess the main takeaway here is that since the dimensity 700, despite what the papers and benchmarks say, performs a lot more stable and better than the Snapdragon 732G of the world because it doesn't overheat and throttle. And since this is a cool performer, the 5000mAh battery with Dimensity as its chipset can last me up to 7 hours of screen time with an hour of gaming on the side. It's a solid one, one-and-a-half battery for me. You just need to wait for two hours though for the 18W USB-C port to replenish the tank from empty to full.

So all in all, POCO M3 Pro 5G basically delivered more speed and more everything. This is by far the best affordable 5G phone I can recommend to anyone looking for a futureproofed phone that performs decently in all aspects. We're still not in the position where 5G phones can go head to head with 4G phones, buht we're slowly getting there. The last time we had this kind of phone was the Redmi Note 9T 5G, and that one tanked so hard that I hardly got any views. But this one, this phone is already sold out for its first-day sale.

If you happen to be comparing the Redmi Note 10 5G with this phone, they're basically the same, except for the design. so that's it for this review. Drop a sub or a like if you feel supporting the channel. And as always, until the next one, stay safe.

Source : Renzo Claros - Tech & Cameras