Poco X3 Pro Review: Gaming Beast Sacrifices Balance for Raw Power

The Poco X3 Pro arrives in a mid-range smartphone market that has grown crowded and demanding since the original Pocophone F1 changed the game by stuffing flagship specs into a budget device. Poco is trying to repeat that trick here, but the landscape has shifted. Component costs have risen. Competition has multiplied. The question is whether a phone that bets everything on raw processing power can still win when buyers have so many other options.

The X3 Pro starts at £229 in the UK, €269 in Europe, and Rs. 18,999 (roughly $260) in India—a price that puts it squarely in the mid-range tier. The phone comes in three colors: Golden Bronze, Graphite Black, and Steel Blue. On paper, the design is a turbo-charged version of the standard Poco X3, which means the differences are minimal. The body is 1mm slimmer than its predecessor, though that's mostly because the battery is smaller. The back features a boldly placed Poco logo flanked by matte racing strips, with a glossy fingerprint-prone strip in the middle. The camera module is large and recalls the OnePlus 7T. The power button doubles as a fingerprint scanner and works reliably in daily use—a better solution than an in-display reader. The volume rocker has a spongy feel that doesn't inspire confidence. At the bottom sit a USB-C port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and stereo speakers that are well-balanced but lack bass and volume. There's also an IR blaster at the top, a feature common on Xiaomi phones. The 6.67-inch LCD display runs at 120Hz with fantastic contrast, though the reviewer recommends switching to the standard sRGB color profile for accuracy. Outdoor visibility is adequate but not optimal—the standard X3 actually performed better in bright sunlight. Black levels don't match OLED, but that's only a problem if you watch a lot of video on your phone. Overall, the design is iterative and fails to stand out.

The camera setup is where things get strange. Despite the "Pro" designation, the X3 Pro actually downgrades from the standard X3. The main sensor drops from 64MP to 48MP, and the ultra-wide falls from 13MP to 8MP. While Xiaomi likely saved money by switching to the more common 48MP shooter, the end results are comparable to the regular X3. The lower-resolution ultra-wide means less room to crop and edit. The color processing is oversaturated across the board—blues and reds are particularly boosted—and the default sharpness and contrast feel excessive. The 8MP ultra-wide has similar color imbalance issues. Low-light and indoor shots perform reasonably well, with good noise control, though the digital noise reduction is visible on close inspection. The over-sharpening from daylight carries over here too. The 20MP front camera is capable but the processing is a letdown: contrast is boosted unnaturally, and sharpening and skin retouching are heavy-handed. The 2MP macro camera is functional but its resolution limits what you can do with the images. Video tops out at 4K, 30fps, with decent quality marred by the same over-sharpening problem. For a phone positioned around performance, the camera deserved more attention.

Battery life is where the X3 Pro shines. The 5,160mAh cell easily lasts a full day and more, thanks to Xiaomi's strong optimization. The reviewer regularly saw over six hours of screen-on time with music streaming, calls, texts, and emails. With careful use, two days is achievable. Charging, however, lags. The 33W charger takes almost an hour to fully charge the phone—the Realme X7 offers 50W for comparison. There's no wireless charging, which is expected at this price.

Performance is the phone's calling card. The Snapdragon 860 is not the absolute best processor on the market, but it's a reheated version of the Snapdragon 855 Plus with the same core configuration and graphics chip. It remains very capable. The interface is well-optimized, staying silky smooth throughout testing. Gaming is where it excels: Call of Duty: Mobile runs at max settings without issue. Genshin Impact runs well too, though you'll need to lower resolution and effects to hit a solid 60fps. The phone didn't heat up excessively during testing.

Software comes with MIUI 12.0.4 and Poco Launcher. In India, the phone avoids ads, but bloat is still present. Facebook and Amazon are acceptable, but GetApps with its full-screen takeovers is problematic. Poco has a mixed track record with updates—slower cadence than some competitors, though it does deliver on two major update cycles. The phone ships without 5G support, a notable miss for global markets where 5G rollouts are underway. It does include an IP53 rating, which is nice for an affordable phone, offering protection in dusty environments or light rain, though not the full IP67 protection of pricier devices.

The X3 Pro is not an all-rounder. It's a niche phone built for a specific audience: budget-conscious gamers or anyone who wants processing power on a tight budget. For that performance, Poco sacrificed camera quality, display technology, and design refinement. If you need raw grunt for daily use, the X3 Pro is perhaps the best option in its category. But for standard workloads—music streaming, photography, texting—a more balanced phone like the Redmi Note 10 Pro (£249/Rs. 18,999) offers better value. Other alternatives include the Realme 8 Pro (£279/Rs. 17,999) with its 108MP camera and 50W charging, or the Google Pixel 4a (just under £300 in the UK), which excels at photography. The Poco F3 (£329/€349) offers a more powerful Snapdragon 870 chipset for those in Europe. The X3 Pro's laser focus on performance comes at a cost, and whether that trade-off makes sense depends entirely on what you actually do with your phone.