First impressions of Poco F6: tons of features

Poco F6 5G has been launched in India after much hype and as expected, it is packed with features. You get a lot for your money, thanks to intense competition among brands in this price segment. The new F6 reminds me of the Poco X6 Pro, which we found to be an excellent phone at this price. The handset has evoked similar sensations while using the Poco F6 over the past few days. The F series is an important lineup for Poco and the new Poco F6 seems to be quite an improvement over its predecessor. However, we recommend waiting for our full review to find out if it’s worth buying the Poco F6 5G instead of the competition.

Now that we’ve mentioned the competition, it’s worth noting that the Poco F6 5G is priced very well. The basic version with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB memory will cost Indian rupees 150. 29,999. There is also a 12GB RAM and 512GB storage option available and is priced at Rs. 31,999. The handset also comes with LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage.

The phone gets a plastic frame and back panel

Design-wise, the Poco F6 5G has a polycarbonate back panel and a plastic frame. The back panel has a matte finish that is resistant to fingerprints and houses a dual camera. You get two large camera rings in the top left corner and a ring for the flash. Unlike the Poco F5 which had a triple camera, the new phone has two rear cameras. The phone also lacks a 3.5mm headphone port, but everything else – including the infrared module – is still there.

The back panel is slippery, but the frame makes it easy to hold with one hand. On the front, there is a 6.67-inch AMOLED LTPS panel that offers a 1.5K resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, and a screen-to-body ratio of 94.7 percent. The bezels all around are quite thin, with a slightly thicker chin. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. The phone also has an IP64 rating, which means it is water and dust resistant. I liked the feeling of the phone in my hand. An aluminum frame would significantly improve the situation, but we can blame its lack on the competitive price.

The display offers a peak brightness of up to 2,400 nits

The Poco F6 5G is the first smartphone in the country to come with the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset, and it performed admirably in my few days of use. More on this in the full review, but for now I can confidently say that this is one of the most powerful phones in its segment, if not the best. The chipset borrows its architecture from the much more powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 flagship SoC.

Poco has also updated the camera setup on the new phone. While there is now one less rear camera, Poco says the two available sensors are better. We’ll have to test it though. There’s a 50-megapixel Sony IMX882 sensor with f/1.6 aperture and OIS paired with an 8-megapixel Sony IMX335 ultra-wide-angle module with a 119-degree field of view. It is rare to find phones in this segment with a main camera with such a wide aperture. This should help the phone perform well in low light conditions. There is a front camera with a resolution of 20 Mpix for selfies.

The phone has a Sony IMX882 main rear camera

The phone is equipped with a 5,000 mAh battery that supports 90 W fast charging. You also get a 120 W fast charger in the box, which is nice. The handset runs on Xiaomi’s new HyperOS with Android 14. There are also several AI features like AI Image Expansion, AI Eraser Pro, AI Bokeh, and more.

The Poco F6 5G seems to be another Poco phone that can offer excellent value for money. The phone also comes with a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor, which is enough to recommend it to others. However, we would need to put it to the test to find out if other features like the camera and display are also easy to recommend. Follow our full review to find out!