Poco
X2 Review
BY: ERSHAD S ON 5-02-2020
The second coming of Poco isn't what you might expect, but still
packs a punch
The Poco X2 is priced starting at Rs. 15,999
in India
HIGHLIGHTS
·
Poco X2 boasts of a
64-megapixel rear camera and 27W fast charging
·
It has dual front
cameras embedded in the full-HD+ display
·
The Snapdragon 730G
performs well but the UI has spam and bloatware
JUMP TO
·
Verdict
IN THIS ARTICLE
Like many of its competitors, Xiaomi has spun
the Poco sub-brand off into its own company, just in time for the launch of the
Poco X2. The brand is of course well known because of the iconic Poco F1, but
it has been well over a year since that model was launched. Poco is now on its
own, though it will likely share many resources with Xiaomi for the foreseeable
future. The new Poco X2 is sure to be noticed, however fans should be clear
that this is not the next version of the Poco F1, and doesn't follow the same
formula at all. The Poco X2 is much more conventional and somewhat less
path-breaking than its illustrious predecessor.
This phone isn't made
of plain plastic and isn't trying to prioritise core specifications and raw
power over everything else. Of course people are still expecting Poco to take
the lead in terms of pricing, and to an extent, it does. Starting at just Rs. 15,999,
the Poco X2 takes
the Realme X2₹ 17,960 (Review) on and somewhat
overshadows the Redmi K20₹ 19,349 (Review) as well as
the Redmi Note 8 Pro₹ 14,999 (Review).
Will Poco set off another firestorm in the
Indian market, and does this mark the beginning of a new era of
competitiveness? We can't wait to get started on our review to find out.
Poco X2 design
While the Poco F1₹ 14,599 (Review) is unapologetically
plain-looking and made of simple plastic in order to remain affordable, Poco is
trying a different approach here. What we have is a bright, colourful glass
rear with a gradient tone and an unusual circular design around the vertical
camera strip. Our Atlantis Blue unit was lighter on the top and darker going
down, but you can also choose Phoenix Red or Matrix Purple. There's a Poco logo
towards the bottom, and no “by Xiaomi” tag like
the F1 had. The frame of the phone matches the colour of the lower one-third of
the rear panel.
The main bit of design
flair is the circular patch. You might think at first that Poco has gone with a
raised camera module like what we've seen on the OnePlus 7T₹ 34,999 (Review) and Nokia 7.2₹ 14,792 (Review), but it's just a
patch with a smooth finish while the glass around it looks frosted. Also,
despite the fact that it's quite flat, Poco has managed to make this patch
reflective like a convex mirror, and we were somewhat able to frame a selfie
taken with the rear camera. The vertical strip that actually houses the four
cameras sticks out quite a bit and has slightly rough edges.
With a 6.67-inch screen, this is undoubtedly a
large phone. The tall 20:9 aspect ratio helps with reachability and the
non-slippery rear makes for a decent grip. It's still difficult to get to all
parts of the screen with a thumb though, making one-handed use potentially
awkward. Your eye will be drawn to the wide dual-camera cutout in the upper
right corner of the screen – it isn't too noticeable in ordinary use, but
definitely is a distraction when watching full-screen video.
The wide dual-camera cutout in the screen is
quite noticeable
The power button on the right doubles as a
fingerprint sensor, but it's long and thin, which isn't ideal. The fingerprint
registration process took longer than usual, since the Poco X2 has to make sure
it can work with just a narrow slice of your fingerprint. Left-handed users
will find this placement awkward, and you'll need to enrol at least two or
three fingers so you can unlock the phone when it's in your hand and on a
table. The sensor is flush with the side of the phone which also meant we
didn't always line our fingers up with it perfectly.
The volume buttons are above the power button,
which puts them slightly out of reach. There's an infrared emitter on the top,
like with many Xiaomi phones. Sadly, the tray on the left is of the hybrid
variety so you'll have to sacrifice a second SIM if you need a microSD card,
and vice versa. There's a 3.5mm audio socket, USB Type-C port, and speaker on
the bottom.
Poco says it has used Gorilla Glass 5 for the
front as well as rear of the X2. A clear transparent case comes with this phone
and we're glad to see there's no pre-applied screen protector. You also get a
SIM eject pin, a 27W charger, and a USB
Type-C cable. The charger is one of the bulkiest we've ever seen.
Overall, it seems as though Poco wanted to
create a distinct identity for the X2 and for itself as a brand.
We're not sure that all the design choices here are for the best, but this
phone is at least unique and recognisable from the front as well as the back.
We would have liked a neutral colour option, though.
The Poco X2 is available in three vibrant
colour options
Poco X2 specifications
and software
As we stated earlier, the Poco X2 should not
be seen as the successor to the Poco F1, and as such it isn't trying to
offer a flagship-grade SoC at mid-range prices. You do get the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G,
which is pretty much the next best thing. This is the same chip that powers
this phone's primary competitor, the Realme X2, so we can assume that
gaming and general-purpose performance will be solid.
You can buy the Poco X2 with 6GB of RAM and
64GB of storage for Rs. 15,999; 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for Rs. 16,999;
or 8GB of RAM and a whopping 256GB of storage for Rs. 19,999. We have the
top-end variant with us for review and if you choose this one, the hybrid
dual-SIM tray won't be much of a problem.
The 6.67-inch 2340x1080-pixel display has a
killer feature to boast of – a 120Hz refresh rate. This
is a subtle feature but it really does improve the quality of the usage
experience, making the Android UI feel smooth and responsive. Poco calls this
feature “RealityFlow” and it isn't hard to see why. Games will benefit the most
from this, but they have to explicitly support it and not a lot do yet. HDR-10
is also on the spec sheet.
There's also a 4500mAh battery, dual VoLTE,
Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5, GPS, FM radio, and all the standard sensors.
Interestingly, the design and specifications of the Poco X2 are practically identical to
those of the Redmi K30 being sold in China. It will be
interesting to see how the two brands segment and differentiate themselves if
the Redmi K30 is launched here.
You'll find a USB Type-C port, 3.5mm audio
socket, and speaker on the bottom
Poco's UI is identifed
as Poco Launcher as well as MIUI 11.0.3 in different parts of the UI. It looks
and feels like what we've seen recently on the Redmi K20 (Review) and Redmi K20 Pro₹ 24,890 (Review). It's based on
Android 10, and we have the December 2019 security update which is good to see.
Xiaomi's software strategy has always been a
point of contention and now Poco has inherited the same issues. There's a lot
of preloaded bloatware and we saw multiple annoying notifications each day
asking us to download more through the company's own GetApps store, or watch
random celebrity-themed videos. There are also promotional messages on the lock
screen, which you can disable. You'll see ads and promoted content in many of
the default apps. On the whole though, we noted that all this seems to have
been toned down a little compared to what we've dealt with in the past.
Among the many preinstalled apps, you'll
find Mi Pay and Mi Credit, Xiaomi's apps
for UPI transactions and personal loans respectively. There's are of course
several redundant Mi apps including a Web browser, photo gallery and calendar,
but some others such as Mi Remote, Themes, and Screen Recorder are useful. The
third-party selection, including Helo, Gaana, Amazon Shopping, Dailyhunt,
Opera, and more, are removable. The GetApps store will try to make you download
plenty more, so be sure to look for the ‘Skip' option.
There are plenty of UI customisation options.
Not only is there now an app drawer, but it has tabs that filter various
categories of apps for easy access. Nice touches include a search bar at the
bottom of the drawer so you don't have to stretch, and neatly grouped “Special
features” in the Settings app. These features include the Game Turbo
optimisation mode, Quick Reply panels for messaging apps, and Second Space for
privacy.
There's a fingerprint sensor integrated into
the power button on the left
Poco X2 performance
and battery life
The Snapdragon 730G is no slouch, and the Poco
X2 breezed through all our apps and usage scenarios. We did see some very
slight stuttering in UI once or twice but it was only momentary. Multitasking
was not a problem at all. Of course, this experience applies to the top-end
variant that we are testing, which has 8GB of RAM. The only problem we had was
stretching our thumbs to reach all parts of the screen. The phone didn't get
too hot in use either, and we only felt a mild warmth when playing games or
using the cameras for a while.
The screen isn't the most vivid or crisp, but
it is fairly bright and engaging, and viewing angles are great. Whether or not
the wide dual-camera hole annoys you will be a subjective matter – we found
ourselves largely forgetting it was there when watching videos, but then
suddenly being distracted by it when a bright scene came on. We also noticed a
bit of backlight unevenness around the cutout.
You only get a single speaker on the bottom of
this phone but it's very loud and the sound is impressively deep and rich.
Music distorts if the volume level is above 60 percent or so, but anything less
than that is fine for personal listening.
A few of our benchmark tests were restricted
from running on our pre-release review unit, but we do have some numbers to
share. AnTuTu gave us a score of 2,80,912 which is very good. The Geekbench 5
single-core and multi-core scores were 548 and 1,759. 3DMark and GFXBench were
both unable to run so we don't have graphics scores, but we did run some of
today's more demanding games and got some real-world experience with the Poco
X2.
PUBG Mobile defaulted to the High preset. The
game was enjoyable and ran without any lag. Asphalt 9: Legends also worked very
well, not stuttering even when we smashed headlong into other cars, which is
typically a stressful visual effect.
We found the Poco X2's battery life to be
decent, and we didn't feel any anxiety about getting through a full day, from
morning to night. During that time we used the cameras quite a lot, played a
few rounds of PUBG Mobile, streamed about an hour of video, and spent some time
on social media apps. Our HD video loop test ran for 13 hours, 43 minutes,
which is not a great result but might be influenced by how large the screen is.
The Poco X2 has four rear cameras including a
64-megapixel primary camera
Poco X2 cameras
The Poco X2 has four rear and two front
cameras. The primary 64-megapixel rear camera has an f/1.89 aperture and uses
the Sony IMX686 sensor which succeeds the widely used IMX586. There's also an
8-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide camera, a 2-megapixel macro camera with a 2cm-10cm
focal range as well as autofocus, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. The primary
selfie camera has a 20-megapixel resolution and is accompanied by a 2-megapixel
depth sensor.
Poco's camera app takes a little time to get
used to. You have to use the zoom control to switch to the wide-angle camera
(marked only as 0.6x) but going the other way to 2x performs a digital zoom
since there's no optical zoom capability. There's a separate toggle button at
the top for the macro camera. It's a bit tedious to swipe through the mode
selector which has a lot of options including 64-megapixel, Pro, Portait,
Night, Short Video, and Slow Motion. Unfortunately, photos are branded with a
Poco watermark by default, and we wish all manufacturers would stop doing this.
Poco X2 daytime camera samples (top: primary
camera; bottom: ultra-wide camera), tap to see full-size
We very occasionally had trouble getting the
primary camera to lock focus perfectly, and stepping back from our subject a
bit often helped. Photos came out very well exposed with vibrant colours. When
the composition allowed, there was very natural-looking depth of field. Fine
details on objects such as flower petals came out well, as long as there was
good natural light and they were in the centre of the frame. In shadowy areas
and at the edges of daylight shots, details were somewhat lost and we did start
seeing some grain.
Poco X2 daytime camera samples, tap to see
full-size
The wide-angle camera takes poorer quality
shots, as expected, but were were happy to see that warping at the sides is
minimal. Macros were completely washed-out and it was often hard to take a shot
without the phone itself casting a shadow on our subjects.
Low-light shots were also relatively
impressive though of course detail is not as well defined as during the day.
You can get usable shots as long as there's a little lighting around, whether
indoors or out. The night mode does make a considerable difference and you
don't have to stand still too long. Using this brightens frames and shows
details that would have been lost in the shadows.
Poco X2 low-light camera samples (top: primary
camera; middle: Night Mode; bottom: ultra-wide camera), tap to see full-size
You can take portrait selfies and adjust a
virtual aperture to vary the intensity of the depth effect. Edge detection is
quite good too. However, the overall quality of photo taken with the front
camera isn't as impressive as we would have liked. Backgrounds were overblown
in the daytime and details looked a bit artificial. It also takes too many taps
and swipes to disable the default beautification.
As for video, we liked what the Poco X2
managed to capture in the daytime when recording at 1920x1080. Video was crisp
with smooth motion tracking and reasonable stabilisation. Sadly, when we
switched to 4K, colours became overexaggerated and there was a warm cast to the
clips we recorded. At night, even mild motion caused severe shimmer and motion
was quite jerky. Objects weren't clearly discernible and bright lights caused
exposure issues. 4K video shot at night was barely usable.
Poco X2 selfie camera samples (top: standard;
bottom: Portrait mode), tap to see full-size
Verdict
Offering high-end specifications at
rock-bottom prices is the simplest way to succeed in the Indian market,
and Xiaomi has been one
of the biggest forces here for years now. The Chinese giant constantly pushes
out new models that raise the bar in terms of value, whether the focus is on
style, battery life, cameras, specifications, or attention-grabbing features.
While the Poco X2 doesn't have quite the
impact that the Poco F1 did, it still does everything it needs to,
and pricing is its main advantage. The Realme X2 (Review) and Redmi K20 (Review) have dominated
the sub-Rs. 20,000 market of late and many recent models, such as the Oppo F15 (Review) and Vivo S1 Pro (Review) have simply
not been able to match them in terms of power and features. Now, the Poco X2
makes all of them look a little worse in comparison.
The processor, RAM, storage, battery, and
cameras are all strong, and there's nothing to complain about in terms of build
quality or the included accessories. We do, however, wish that the UI eased up
on the bloatware and nagging notifications much more, and frankly the rear of
the Poco X2 is a little too garish for our taste. Some people will also
struggle with the sheer size of this device.
If cost is your main motivator, then the Poco
X2 is the new obvious choice in its segment. That doesn't mean that it's a
clear winner over the Realme X2 though, especially if you can find it
at a discount, or if flash sales make the Poco X2 difficult to buy. If you're
undecided between these two models, you can expect a head-to-head comparison
coming up on Gadgets 360 very soon.
·
Good
·
Strong specifications at
attractive prices
·
Good overall performance
and battery life
·
Still photos in the
daytime look very good
·
Bad
·
Large and bulky
·
Ads and bloatware in the
UI
·
Poor low-light video
quality
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