The launch of the POCO F4 has essentially taken the POCO brand to new heights, and thanks to the impressive hardware that’s built into the new phone like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, trigger buttons, fast-charging, and AMOLED screen, it’s certainly a great contender when it comes to bang-for-your-back smartphones.
On the other hand though, it is a bit expensive coming in at around 500–600 dollars. With that said, you might be looking for a more affordable option that still falls under POCO-branded territory — this is where a phone like the POCO F3 comes in.
Despite launching a year earlier, I’d like to think that the POCO F3 still manages to strike a nice balance when it comes to price and performance, and today we’re going to revisit the phone and its features and see if it’s something still worth your cash in this day and age.
Design and Screen
Let’s start off with the design — the POCO F3 pretty much resembles a lot of other smartphones these days. You get slim bezels, and a hole punch camera in the display, and it even features Gorilla Glass on both the front and back, with a matte frame that goes around the edge of the device, where you’ll find the side-mounted fingerprint sensor. Despite the glossy look, it does feel solid overall and even comes with an IP53 rating.
Now, this is definitely a different look compared to what POCO has done with the POCO F4, which comes with a more “dynamic” design, and additional trigger buttons.
I really like what POCO has done with this device, and it retains a premium look to it, although I’d say that the glossy back is really prone to fingerprints and smudges, and if you’re particular about the design on your smartphone then this is something to take note of.
On the front, the main highlight of the phone is the large 6.67-inch AMOLED screen, and it’s pretty sharp with a 1080x2400 pixel resolution, and a maximum brightness of 1300 nits. It also comes with a 120hz refresh rate, and using it overall was a smooth and fluid experience.
Internal Specs and Performance
Moving on, let’s talk about internal specs and performance. The POCO F3 comes with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 870 5G chipset, and you can get the phone either with 6 or 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage, or 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage.
While the Snapdragon 870 is an older chip, it isn’t a bad one either. Gaming in general was a breeze on the POCO F3. Graphically-intensive games like Trials of Mana for example ran well on the phone. One thing to keep in mind though is that the POCO F3 does get a bit warm during gameplay, but that’s pretty much to be expected on most smartphones anyway.
I did notice that there was a bit of lag sometimes while navigating the user interface, and I suspect that this is mostly due to MIUI, which does add a lot of additional MIUI apps and visual customization. If you’re after a phone with a more “stock Android” feel, then MIUI is definitely not for you. On the other hand, users who are mainly after the performance will likely be happy with the Snapdragon chipset in the phone.
Battery life was alright in my usage, and the fast-charging feature can fully charge the POCO F3 in around 30 minutes or so. It should be said that if you’re going to be playing a lot on this phone, then the 4520 mAh battery might need a bit more frequent charging (maybe at least once throughout the day).
Camera
Let’s talk about the camera — the back of the phone has a triple camera set-up with a 48-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel ultrawide lens, and a 5-megapixel macro lens. The hole punch in front houses a 20-megapixel selfie camera, which should be more than enough to get decent quality on video calls and whatnot.
The cameras have decent quality, and dynamic range was mostly on-point, although nothing exceptional like you’d see on Google Pixel phones or iPhones. And while video quality wasn’t anything extraordinary, video stabilization was impressive and worked nicely to provide you with smooth-looking handheld footage.
There are some unfortunate omissions, sadly. The 3.5mm headphone jack and microSD card slot are nowhere to be found, as is the trend with a lot of modern phones. On the other hand, though, the phone features a stereo speaker set-up, as well as a conveniently-placed fingerprint reader on the righthand-side power button.
Price
You can get the POCO F3 for around $400 in the US, or £329 if you are in the UK, which is considerably cheaper compared to the newer POCO F4 GT.
It occasionally does go on sale so you can grab it at a cheaper price, and given that most high-performance Android phones go for £500 and up, this is definitely a great steal if you manage to get it for one of those deals.
Of course, if camera performance or a clean version of Android is something you prioritize, then you’ll probably have to look elsewhere. However, as far as the specs-to-price ratio goes in terms of smartphones, then the POCO F3 is a terrific consideration.
