I remember when I bought the POCO phone F1 in 2018. It was POCO’s first entry into the Philippine smartphone market, and I was absolutely blown away by the fact that I could get flagship-level power at a sub-PHP20,000 price point. I drove that phone to the dust, and it now rests with a bloated battery in my cabinet after over five years of daily abuse. I was recently able to take its great-great-great grandchild, the POCO F6, out for a spin, and I daresay the brand has kept up with its philosophy of making flagship killers at affordable price points. Read on for the review.
Design: 4/5
The POCO F6 boasts a true sleeper build that belies its powerful innards. It is minimalist on the design front, appearing as a plain slab of a stereotypical smartphone. The review unit we received came in Titanium (Black and Green options are also available), with just a stealthy POCO nameplate and 50MP OIS marker on the upper right corner to give it an identity. It has two functional camera modules stacked on top of each other, the upper one being the 50MP main shooter and the lower one being an 8MP ultra-wide lens. A sizable circular LED flash module sits to the camera’s right.
Up front is the likewise unassuming 6.67-inch display with a punchhole selfie camera and a built-in fingerprint scanner. A tour of the edges reveals a bare left edge; the power and volume buttons on the right edge; the SIM tray, microphone pinhole, USB-C port, and first speaker along the bottom edge; and a second speaker, second microphone pinhole, and IR blaster at the top.
But what it lacks in an eye-catching exterior, it more than makes up for with a top-tier spec sheet.
Hardware: 5/5
Let’s start with the headliner first: the processor. The POCO F6 runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor, a bonafide flagship killer released just this first quarter of 2024.
This new 4nm octa-core chipset has three Cortex-A520 cores humming at a max of 2.0GHz; four Cortex-A720 cores boosting up to 2.8GHz; and a workhorse Cortex-X4 core ripping at 3.0GHz. It also has a top-tier Adreno 735 graphics processor and is paired with either 8GB or 12GB of RAM for multitasking, and 256GB or 512GB of storage. With this new chipset and the aforementioned clock speeds and storage capacities in tow, the POCO F6 can provide reliable daily performance even after a few years. In fact, as of writing, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is in the top 10 current mobile chipsets according to various technical review sites.
Interfacing with the phone is done through a 6.67-inch CrystalRes 1.5K Flow AMOLED DotDisplay with up to 120Hz refresh rate and 2160Hz touch sampling rate for a very responsive experience. This display assembly has up to 2,400 nits of peak brightness for visibility under bright conditions; 100% DCI-P3 coverage for color vibrance and accuracy; and 1920Hz PWM dimming with TÜV Rheinland’s low blue light, circadian-friendly, and flicker-free certifications for less eye strain. Moreover, it is overlaid with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus and is certified IP64 dust and water-resistant to protect its otherwise all-plastic build. You’ll probably use a case on the POCO F6 (it comes with one out of the box), so this last bit won’t be too bothersome.
For the cameras, it has a functional duo of a main 50MP shooter with an aperture of f/1.59 on a 1/1.95-inch PDAF and OIS-enabled sensor; and a secondary 8MP ultra-wide camera with a 1/4.0-inch sensor. These are supported by a huge circular white LED flash and a 20MP f/2.2 selfie camera.
The battery is a fairly standard 5000mAh pack juiced with the included 90W USB-C POCO HyperCharger.
Lastly, the POCO F6 is equipped with dual stereo speakers—one at the top and one at the bottom—for a loud, immersive, and balanced aural experience.
User Experience: 5/5
On paper, the POCO F6 is an undisputed powerhouse. Spending over a week with the POCO F6 as a daily driver, I can attest that it’s very deserving of the moniker “flagship killer.”
Frontloading the real-world performance of the powerhouse processor, I was not surprised that the POCO F6 just rakes in the digits in the benchmarks we tested it on. However, what was surprising is that it actually broke one of the standard tests we always run and scored more than the software is able to display.
As for the tests it did not break, the POCO F6 scored 3,019 in 3D Mark Wildlife Extreme 4K UHD test which most other phones struggle to run; 15,042 on PCMark Work 3.0; 1,882 on Geekbench 6 CPU single-core; 4,730 on Geekbench 6 CPU multi-core; 8,773 on Geekbench 6 GPU OpenCL; and 927.05 MB/s and 765.22 MB/s on sequential reads and sequential writes on the Cross Platform Disk Test. It definitely runs ahead of its peers in terms of sheer computing power.
In fact, the POCO F6’s power was enough to render a “Maxed Out!” rating on the standard 3D Mark Wildlife non-4K UHD test, with the benchmark stating that the POCO F6 was “too powerful for this test.” That usually only happens with the best of the best flagships from mainstream brands and goes to show just what the Poco F6 is capable of.
For actual gaming, the POCO F6 steamrolled the rendering of many high-end games. Genshin Impact—arguably one of the most demanding Android games—with every setting maxed out and 60fps mode saw smooth gameplay even during skybox views. Diablo Immortal, another punishing title, saw the same high performance out of the POCO F6 even with everything maxed out, image resolution at high, and 60fps mode turned on. NBA 2K Mobile with maxed out graphics settings was also no problem to run. Of course, lighter multiplayer games, MOBAs, and first-person shooters are likewise child’s play for the POCO F6. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Call of Duty Mobile, and Pokémon Unite all ran like butter even with tons of particle effects happening on screen simultaneously. The fluid and vibrant display, along with the booming dual speakers, complemented the chipset nicely, making for an immersive all-around gaming experience.
The cameras are also decent. The POCO F6 is able to perform well across most lighting scenarios, and can even pull in a surprising amount of light, color, and details even in high dynamic range environments. The secondary ultra-wide camera does become quite light-starved in the dark, although that is to be expected from the spec sheet. I did find that during such challenging scenarios, the camera preview can be misleadingly dark. However, fret not as the HDR and post-processing will churn out perfectly acceptable shots.
As for the battery life, this is where the POCO F6 stutters. It is still lengthy—lasting 13 hours and 42 minutes using the PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test with 50% brightness and volume turned all the way up—but is quite middle of the pack at this price point. Luckily, the bundled 90W POCO HyperCharge is able to fuel the POCO F6 from zero to 100% in less than 50 minutes. What is impressive is that 50% battery life is achievable in just 15 minutes of the POCO F6 being tethered to the wall.
Value: 5/5
Coming in at just PHP21,999 for the 8GB RAM and 256GB storage variant and PHP24,999 for the 12GB RAM and 512GB storage variant, the POCO F6 offers so much value to those looking for the most bang for their buck. If you want the most powerful phone with decent cameras and good enough battery life for a day out but don’t want to spend a fortune, then look no further than the POCO F6.
The POCO F6 is available for purchase through Lazada and Shopee. If you want to get it’s even more revved up brother, the POCO F6 Pro, you can also do so via these Lazada and Shopee links.
Specifications
- Display: 6.67-inch, 2712 x 1220px 1.5K AMOLED DotDisplay with 120Hz refresh rate, 2160Hz touch sampling rate, 100% DCI-P3 wide color gamut, 1920Hz PWM dimming, and Corning Gorilla Glass Victus
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3
- OS: Xiaomi HyperOS (Android 14)
- RAM: 8GB/12GB
- Storage: 256GB/512GB
- Camera: 50MP f/1.59 with a 1/1.95-inch sensor, PDAF, and OIS (main rear); 8MP with a 1/4.0-inch sensor ultra-wide (secondary rear); 20MP f/2.2 (front)
- Connectivity: 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, GPS, NFC, OTG, USB 2.0 Type-C, dual nano-SIM
- Battery: 5000mAh, 90W POCO HyperCharge
- Others: In-display Fingerprint Scanner, AI Face Unlock, IP64 dust and water resistance
- Dimensions: 160.5 x 74.5 x 8mm
- Weight: 179g
- Colors: Black, Green, Titanium
What’s Hot:
- Benchmark-breaking performance
- Gorgeous display
- Immersive dual speakers
What’s Not:
- Cameras and battery life are only decent
- All-plastic build
Bottomline:
The POCO F6 is a definite flagship killer that won’t kill your budget.
Words and Photos by Chris Noel Hidalgo
Also published in GADGETS MAGAZINE July 2024 Issue