POPULAR BUDGET PHONES. WHAT TO CHOOSE: POCO F3 OR POCO X3 PRO

Poco, the most unpredictable brand on the Chinese market, made a powerful leap in 2021, presenting a whole lineup of excellent smartphones that differ significantly in design and specifications.

Let's look at the most impressive new products in the mid-range market segment. These are the Poco F3 and Poco X3 Pro. The smartphones are quickly sold out, especially for the school year.

COMMON FEATURES

There aren't many common features between the models, but they are all important:

There is a working contactless payment chip. This is extremely important for mid-range smartphones.
3.5 mm jack for wired headphones. Yes, this is important. We still love ordinary wired headphones with good sound. Wired headphones are also lost much less often than wireless ones, and the sound quality is better.
The presence of an infrared port and the Mi Remote app, allowing you to use the smartphone as a remote control for TVs and other devices.
The main camera is equipped with artificial intelligence and has a resolution of 48 MP. Smart optics and sufficiently powerful hardware allow you to choose any options.
Fast charging and USB-C port – relevant and convenient. It is convenient to connect peripherals, additional keyboards, joysticks, and game consoles through the port. Important for everyone who values fast typing on a smartphone or decent speed in games.
An excellent silicone case with a USB-C plug included in the basic package. The cases are really of pleasant quality, the cutout compensates for the height of the camera module platform, and edge protection is implemented.

Everything else – performance, design, chipsets, screen refresh rate, camera parameters, charging speed, and test results – is different.

EXTERNAL APPEARANCE AND DESIGN

The smartphones cannot be confused externally. The Poco X3 Pro is one of the last representatives of the "spider eye," a cluster of cameras abundantly placed inside a circle on the back of the case. The convex camera platform has the shape of a truncated circle and is placed within a drawn circle on the case. The convexity is compensated by the included case, the phone does not lose stability, and the camera block does not outweigh.

The Poco M3 stands out among the entire Poco lineup. This device has the camera placed in a small cutout, which is also located in the upper part of the display and centered.

POCO X3 PRO 120 HZ + 240 HZ SCREEN

The screen is 6.67 inches, 2400 x 1080, with an IPS FHD+ DotDisplay matrix and a refresh rate of 120 Hz. The touch processing layer frequency is 240 Hz. The screen supports multitouch up to 10 touches.

In heavy gaming applications, the Poco X3 Pro behaves decently, but you need to adjust the screen refresh rate. Mortal Kombat, Dead Trigger 2, WoT Blitz, Asphalt 9 – without stress at maximum settings. Note: use the "game acceleration" mode to suppress throttling.

INTERFACES AND PERIPHERAL SUPPORT

Supported interfaces: USB-C, dual-band Wi-Fi 2.4/5G, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, OTG, combined SIM card block – you can insert two cards or one main SIM + memory card. Fingerprint sensor in the power button. NFC and IR port on board.

An interesting point. With the advent of data storage devices with USB-C interface, the need for quite vulnerable and expensive memory cards with significant volume has decreased. Using an external drive when working with large arrays of information (photos, videos, user libraries) is more justified, although it takes up more space.

External HDD drives must be powered. External flash drives and SSDs run without additional power. Wired and wireless peripherals are also supported – mice, keyboards, joysticks.

POCO X3 PRO CAMERA MODULE

The Poco X3 Pro camera module includes 4 sensors.

Main Sony IMX582 sensor with f/1.79 aperture at 48 MP (gives average photos with standard settings and excellent quality in skilled hands and with AI involvement). Without forced 48 MP resolution (8000 x 6000), the camera shoots at 12 MP by default.
2 MP macro camera.
119-degree wide-angle at 8 MP.
2 MP depth frame architectural sensor – needed for coordinating AI work and framing.

The front camera is 20 MP – quite decent + a full set of embellishments and settings. Selfie resolution is 5184 x 3880.

The plus of the cameras is that you can shoot "as is": with natural colors, good sharpness, and hand-composed frames. But you can take the complex path and try embellishments, color games, and artificial intelligence.

Built-in sound features stereo speakers, Hi-Res Audio format. There is a 3.5mm headphone jack. Noise-canceling microphones on the top panel.
5160 mAh battery with fast charging included. Supports 5/9/11V and 3A, 12V/2.25A, 20V/1.35A modes.
IP53 splash protection, Gorilla Glass 6 protective glass.
MIUI 12 for POCO operating system with OTA Update support (over-the-air updates).

No wonder there is a real hunt for the Poco X3 Pro.

POCO F3 FEATURES

Poco F3 will definitely find its fans. They will be those users who need great performance, and cameras are perceived as something secondary and are not the most popular scenario. The smartphone is pleasant to the touch and looks good. One of the color options has a quite pleasant matte glass. Its design is quite universal and strict, and for those who like to stand out, there is also a brighter blue version.