The Poco M3 is now official, becoming the third member of the company’s most affordable series. The new smartphone is succeeding the relatively recent Poco M2 with a redesigned rear design and a Snapdragon chipset instead of MediaTek.
Table of Interests
Poco M3 Design and Build
The biggest change in the Poco M3 as compared to its predecessor is the rear design. The brand completely revamped the back design on the new model, making it more recognizable and youth-centric. In fact, this kind of design is unseen in such cheap models, making the Poco M3 a refreshing option among its cheaper looking rivals. The rectangular camera housing is placed on the top left corner like other budget models, however, the camera unit is further placed inside a larger, all black housing with the Poco logo on its right. This back design cleverly hides its budget identity, which is only revealed when you come to the front.
The Poco M3 features the same 6.53-inch IPS LCD waterdrop / dot-drop display as its predecessor with FHD+ resolution and Gorilla Glass 3 protection. The phone also comes certified with TUV Rheinland’s Low Blue Light Certification.
The fingerprint sensor is on the side. You also get an IR transmitter, dual speakers and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the device.
The Poco M3 comes in three color options: Poco Yellow, Cool Blue, and Power Black.
Hardware
The Poco M3 is powered by a Snapdragon 662 processor underneath clocked at 2.0GHz with 4GB RAM and 64GB (UFS 2.1) / 128GB (UFS 2.2) storage options. Note that the predecessor, the POCO M2 featured a MediaTek chip, specifically, the Helio G80.
One of the biggest highlights of the hardware is the super large battery inside. The Poco M3 features a massive 6000mAh battery inside that should keep you going for more than a day. This is a significant upgrade from the 5000mAh battery found on the Poco M2. And what’s surprising is that the company has managed to keep the weight the same as the M2. So the Poco M3 weighs 198 grams, which is exactly the same as the M2. But the thickness gets slightly increased to 9.6mm. Note that the phone still supports only 18W charging, so it should be painfully slow to fully charge this device.
Poco has made a surprising tweak to its new model in the camera department. The brand decided to take off the ultra-wide angle sensor from the Poco M3, leaving you with a triple camera setup instead of a quad-camera setup found on its predecessor.
Photography
But to compensate for the loss of an important camera sensor, Poco M3 comes with a large 48MP f/1.79 primary camera. There are two other sensors, a 2MP Macro camera and another 2MP depth sensor. On the front, you get an 8MP f/2.0 selfie shooter.
As for software, the Poco M3 is running MIUI 12 for Poco, based on Android 10.
Xiaomi Poco M3 Specifications
Network Properties
- 2G bands: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 – SIM 1 & SIM 2
- 3G bands: HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700(AWS) / 1900 / 2100
- 4G bands: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28, 38, 40, 41
- Speed: HSPA 42.2/5.76 Mbps, LTE-A
Launch
- Announced: 2020, November 24
- Status: Exp. release 2020, November 27
Design
- Dimensions: 162.3 x 77.3 x 9.6 mm (6.39 x 3.04 x 0.38 in)
- Weight: 198 g (6.98 oz)
- Build: Glass front (Gorilla Glass 3), plastic back, plastic frame
- Colors: Cool Blue, Poco Yellow, Power Black
- SIM: Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
Display
- Type: IPS LCD, 400 nits (typ)
- Size: 6.53 inches, 104.7 cm2 (~83.4% screen-to-body ratio)
- Resolution: 1080 x 2340 pixels, 19.5:9 ratio (~395 ppi density)
- Protection: Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Operating System
- Android 10, MIUI 12
Hardware
- Chipset: Qualcomm SM6115 Snapdragon 662 (11 nm)
- CPU: Octa-core (4×2.0 GHz Kryo 260 Gold & 4×1.8 GHz Kryo 260 Silver)
- GPU: Adreno 610
- RAM: 4GB
- Internal Storage: 64GB, 128GB
- Memory Card slot: microSDXC (dedicated slot)
- UFS
- UFS 2.1 – 64GB 4GB RAM
- UFS 2.2 – 128GB 4GB RAM
Cameras
- Main Camera: Triple
- 48 MP, f/1.8, (wide), 1/2.0″, 0.8µm, PDAF
- 2 MP, f/2.4, (macro)
- 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth)
- Features: LED flash, HDR, panorama
- Video: 1080p@30fps
- Selfie Camera: Single – 8 MP, f/2.1, (wide), 1/4.0″, 1.12µm
- Features: HDR
- Video: 1080p@30fps
Multimedia
- Radio: FM Radio
- Loudspeaker: Yes, with dual speakers
- Audio 3.5mm jack: Yes
- 24-bit/192kHz audio
Connectivity
- WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot
- Bluetooth: 5.0, A2DP, LE
- GPS: Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS
- NFC: No
- Infrared port: Yes
- USB: USB Type-C 2.0, USB On-The-Go
Features
- Sensors: Fingerprint (side-mounted), accelerometer, proximity, compass
Battery
- Battery Type and Capacity: Li-Po 6000 mAh, non-removable
- Charging: Fast charging 18W
Models: M2010J19CG
Xiaomi Poco M3 Price and Availability
The phone is priced at.
- 4GB RAM + 64GB (UFS 2.1) – $129
- 4GB RAM + 128GB (UFS 2.2) – $149
Note that these prices include the $20 special discount for Black Friday sale.
The phone will go on sale from November 27 via Aliexpress Amazon, Mi.com and other retailers.
