The glass rear panel of this phone is as reflective as a mirror, and it’s quite stunning when taken out of the box for the first time. MIUI design: I don’t know if they are bugs or features, but I faced many usability issues with MIUI. For example, when getting a Google reminder in my notification drawer, the “Done” button on the notification was small and hard-left-aligned. Because of this, I was only able to hit it accurately 50% of the time. The other 50% would open up the notification within Google Calendar. This was really annoying. There were lots of little annoyances like that during my time testing the phone.

Xiaomi Poco F3 Accessories - Tons of Deals - MTP - MyTrendyPhone Xiaomi Poco F3 Accessories - Tons of Deals - MTP - MyTrendyPhone

If, for some reason, the RAM amount the phone comes with isn't satisfactory for your needs, you can now also "add" 3GB of RAM by occupying storage. This is off by default, but you can flip the switch to On if you want, in Settings. We doubt this works as advertised, so we guess it's suitable for some very niche cases or apps. Battery life All-in-all during my time with the Poco F3, I found the display touches flagship-level performance; you’d usually have to spend twice as much money to get one this good. Poco F3 Performance – 5G connectivity and near-flagship capabilitiesAs you might suspect from such a one-size-fits-all approach, the F3 proves to be tidy, well considered, impeccably well built, and somewhat nondescript. You can find both third-party and original Xiaomi Poco F3 cases in our shop. The original solutions can be quite limited, whereas the compatible solutions offer a much wider range of options. Cases as well as waterproof and durable batteries and phone covers are all available in the category below. Just about the only criticism we have related to the display is actually a criticism of the Poco F3’s MIUI software. When diving into the color scheme settings menu to play with the color balance, you’ll find that it’s set to auto by default, which “Adjusts colors based on the current lighting.” Ads: I did see ads while using the phone. Most of the time, they would appear after installing a new app. I also saw a few POCO/Xiaomi ads pop up in my notifications. These were annoying but not as obtrusive as I expected and didn’t show up elsewhere in the UI unlike some equivalent Redmi devices.

POCO F3 review: Great hardware let down by sub-par software POCO F3 review: Great hardware let down by sub-par software

Fortunately for bargain buyers, the display is not the only specification that can hold its own among the very best smartphones. This device boasts a Snapdragon 870 chipset, which is near the top of the tree when it comes to Qualcomm’s smartphone silicone, and the processor certainly makes its presence felt. That's definitely not the smartest auto-adjusting refresh rate system out there on the market, but it's probably good enough for most people. Seemingly the main selling point for being able to go more granular is to save even more battery, but as you'll see in the Battery life section of this review, the Poco F3 does very well with that as it is. The point here is that numbers don't always tell the whole story, and while for indoor spaces the F3 definitely gets bright enough for any amount of light, outside on bright sunny days, we've seen better performers recently - though it has to be said that all of those are more expensive. On the flip side, the Poco F3 has the rare AMOLED panel we've handled recently that actually goes dim enough on its lowest brightness setting, and this is a blessing for using it in pitch darkness. For some reason, these days, a lot of the cheaper AMOLEDs can't pull this off, but this one can, and we were happy to see that. The product materials, which have a significant impact on the protection of the device, are one of the most important considerations when you choose a high quality Xiaomi Poco F3 case. As previously mentioned, there is an abundance of products in different materials to choose between. A silicone protector is definitely the ideal choice, if you are a really cautious person who takes good care of mobile phones. This is because of the fact that they are lightweight and give excellent protection to the smartphone.

How is the battery life? What about charging?

The camera module is led by a 48-megapixel main sensor, an 8-megapixel ultrawide, and a 5-megapixel telemacro lens. Generally, I found images from the main sensor to be bright and punchy, with decent though not brilliant levels of detail.

Poco F3 Phone Case - Etsy UK Poco F3 Phone Case - Etsy UK

With the quality of the best cheap phones and the best mid-range phones improving all the time, it can often be hard for devices at this end of the market to stand out. Thankfully the Poco F3 manages to outperform its price tag in a number of ways. Poco F3 Design and screen – Striking but smear-susceptible The Xiaomi Poco F3 has got ‘one of those faces’. You swear you’ve seen it before, even if you know full well that this is the first time you’ve laid eyes on it.Another element that makes the Xiaomi Poco F3 perfectly suited to gamers and video watchers on a mid-range budget is its superb screen. The official line is that it’s “Poco’s clearest display yet”, and we wouldn’t dispute that for one minute. Perhaps more impressively - albeit in a rather niche way - is the phone’s 360Hz touch sampling rate. This is a feature that enhances the responsiveness of your touch inputs, and is specifically targeted at gamers. Most modern flagship phones will give you 240Hz, so this is impressive stuff. Samsung’s latest mid-ranger is a good reference point here. The odd whiffed shot and overly punched-up colors aside, the Galaxy A52 5G offers a more complete, better-rounded camera system than its rival. The Poco F3 simply doesn’t capture as much fine detail, and its HDR tools don’t even out the shadows quite as well.

Poco F3 Case - Etsy UK

Many of our customers think that the original options are more quality conscious than the third-party alternatives. However, this is not the case with MyTrendyPhone, as we strive to only offer high quality items. Both types of products have the same goal to protect the smartphone to reduce the likelihood of needing a phone repair.Video: Capturing video with the POCO F3 is about as good as capturing images: fine under ideal conditions, poor under anything challenging. You can choose between 720p/30fps, 1080p/30fps, 1080p/60fps, or 4K/30fps. The default is 1080p/30fps. You can film using any of the three lenses and there are some cool settings like audio zoom and an anamorphic crop. However, be careful with how you hold the phone, as the bottom microphone is super sensitive and every brush of your palm creates heavy noise. Bluetooth: I saw terrific Bluetooth audio performance with the POCO F3. I was able to walk around my apartment while leaving my phone on my desk and barely heard so much as a skip. There's no wireless charging, which really is no surprise considering the 'flagship killer' positioning and the history of such devices omitting flourishes like this. The wired charging is nothing special (unless your previous phone was a Samsung, in which case you'll be positively surprised), but we'd call the charging time very adequate indeed for the price point here. You won’t get through much more than a day’s heavy usage, but that will suit most people fine as you would generally plug in your phone to charge at the end of a long day.