POCO M6 Pro 5G (Power Black, 4GB RAM, 128GB Storage)

I bought this phone for my mom. I will try to keep this review short for potential buyers.

Pros
1. Display is decent. Not HD but decent.
2. Camera is nice. Even the night vision pics are fairly clear.
3. 5G connection is smooth.
4. Battery performance is quite good.

Cons
1. Lags a bit on heavy usage.
2. Feels slightly heavy as a device.
3. Back glass cover is a finger magnet. And you have to be careful with it, cause I see potential for cracks.
4. Doesn’t offer higher resolution for videos on Yotube.

I purchased it under an offer, & received extra discount. At under 10k price it is a decent device to have.

Poco M6 Pro 5G (8GB/256GB) is an impressive phone using an Octacore 2.2 GHz Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 processor.

Its a clear equivalent of Redmi 12 5G except NFC. I saw many users write about it having ads and bloatware, issues with battery drain, etc. As soon as it was put on the network, it downloaded Xiaomi HyperOS1.0.1.0 UMWINXM, ANDROID 14. The update was 4.4GB, took some time but the OS is as smooth as MIUI 14/ Android 13.
Battery drain can be simply reduced by using the Battery saver mode. Further, you require to fine tune on background apps and disable ads, remove recommendations to reduce irritation. Camera is decent. Processor performance is good, no lagging. However, the famous quickball has been removed. For those interested to still want it on the device, the apk has to be installed additionally. For me, I like that wonderful feature as it was a life saver in older Poco/ Redmi/ Mi phones when the Menu/ Home/ Back navigation panel failed. With Quickball, my Redmi 3s is still working perfectly since last 7.5+ years. So, I did load the quickball version 15.0.1.0.1 and being tested.

POCO phones are always the beta for ‘go to market’ followed by the equivalent redmi versions. I have been using POCO (F1, C3, M3) user for many years, are truely worth the money, good hardware.
Many came with a 6000mAh battery but this one has 5000mAh battery (Hence ****). The charger is fast (22.5W) but I prefer to slow charge the battery at night with a 5V/ 0.7A or 1A charger to improve the battery life, reduce the risk of battery bulging. Due to no heat-up (Li-ion does not like heat, hence slow charging is safest), battery remains safe and long lasting. The box came with its own transparent back-cover but I prefer a thicker back cover.
Has a single Loudspeaker, hence lower audio volume (Hence ****). The protective film also had a small bubble (Hence ****). But the Screen is bright, even 30% is good for normal use.
The most important feature of Xiaomi is the backup and restore, making the new phone have the exact look of your old Xiaomi phone in less than 5 minutes, some apps may not get backed-up.
Finally, Amazon delivery was on time. Its just 4 days of testing and as of know I am satisfied.

Update after a week of use- Though the download speed is good, the phone does not show 5G (JIO SIM) on its display (it shows 4G+). This is an important part to resolve, probably a patch may be necessary if at all this is a bug, since the service provider detects it as a 5G phone but the phone itself shows 4G+. Requesting Xiaomi to validate my finding and close this accordingly.
When the same SIM is put in another phone (Samsung/ IPhone), it shows 5G clearly. So this is an issue to be resolved by XIAOMI to prove that it is genuinely a 5G phone.
No heating issue noticed after a week of use now.

UPDATE 2:
We can force the network setting to 5G through developer options as ‘NR’ in Set preferred network type. But the battery drains drastically, hence avoid that. So the phone is obviously 5G when network setting is forced. Obviously all may not want to touch developer mode, so best to leave it as 5G/LTE in normal network settings. If XIAOMI patches to augment the setting as NR only in addition to common settings, it can show up 5G on the display, but at the cost of high battery consumption.

UPDATE 3 (16 April 2024):
The legendary Xiaomi Quickball (apk version 15.0.1.0.1) has been tested and found to be working satisfactorily. Post hardening of HyperOS, the phone is almost AD free. Google loaded its own ‘Messages’ apk which will take control of the inbuilt default ‘Messaging’ app I have kept the Messaging app as default for messages as I dont want to use messages app of google for privacy control. Battery being 5000mAH, is found to be lasting for 2 days with mobile data ‘ON’. A 6000mAH battery would have been better as found on many earlier POCO phones. Quality of hardware is very good and performing. With the new HyperOS 1.0.2.0 loaded, 2 years of formal updates makes it a an economical phone with good features. Reminding all that ads-free performance can only be achieved after hardening through developer mode. I havent used memory boost function, I dont think I will require it with a 8GB (uses LPDDR5) memory. Only if needed, I will configure it. I have also installed a 128 GB memory card, which virtually reduces internal memory usage.

UPDATE 4 (18 April 2024):
A bug is identified on HyperOS. When Wifi calling is ON and Wifi is connected with a stable network, outgoing calls cannot be made. Incoming calls also do not get through. I have tested this multiple times. Xiaomi has to immediately act and fix this bug. Upon putting WiFi calling OFF, the phone resumes normally. This problem did not exist on earlier MIUI used by me.

Except this new bug identified and therefore stopping Wifi calling (actually stopping wifi calling has improved the battery life, so I dont mind not having this feature as JIO network does not have issues in our area and around), POCO M6 Pro 5G is a decent value for money. Most positives, smaller negatives for a phone in 11-12k range. Surely, Xiaomi should action it with a patch immediately.

UPDATE 5.. Only for MIUI phone users, wont work for other phones (18 May 2024):
When POCO M6 Pro is fully configured, take its backup using Additional Settings–> Backup and restore. A backup file is generated in MIUI folder under AllBackup–> Backups–> Filename with backup date. Simply copy that file and move it to your old Mi/ Redmi/ POCO phone (min. Android 10) in exacly the same folder. Then restore that file. While it will replicate the phone, you will get the benefit of the new look Control Centre. The old MIUI Control Centre will be replaced by the new HyperOS Control Centre with no change to Android Version or security patch. I liked this look and have retained the new HyperOS Control Center in my old POCO C3, which is a backup of the new phone (in case of exercising Disaster Recovery option). Its like the old Car in a new shell. Havent had any issue on that since last 15 days of using the HyperOS Control Centre in the old POCO C3. Others can enjoy too.

Regards….. AD

Pros :
5 g – future ready
Good hardware configuration
Good battery
Good build
Good looks
Regular os updates
Good display
Cons :
Average rear camera
Bad front camera
Very slow charging
Pre installed bloatware
18 w slow charger for 5000 mah phone battery.

Overall verdict
Performance & budget friendly 5g quality smartphone that can last 5 years is this phone.

Camera lovers , fast charging & wireless charging feature lovers should definitely stay away.

Best buy in this price segment. Future ready & durable. Very good build quality & touch screen display is very good at this price point .

Instead of wasting 7 to 8 k on average phone brands with bad configuration.better to go for a good one like poco by redmi.