POCO C50 Review – Best Entry-Level Phone?

The POCO C50 has been launched in two variants in India. The phone costs Rs. 6,499 for 2GB RAM and 32GB internal storage and Rs. 7,299 for 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage.

The phone is available in two colour options: Country Gree and Royal Blue. You can buy the phone from Flipkart.

The POCO C50 packs the following items inside the box:

• Handset
• 10W Travel Adapter
• Micro USB Cable
• Sim Eject Tool
• Quick Start Guide
• Warranty Card

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Before we talk in detail about the POCO C50, let’s see what the on-paper specs look like:

• Display: 6.52 inches IPS LCD
• Chipset: MediaTek Helio A22
• RAM & ROM: 2GB RAM 32GB Storage, 3GB RAM 32GB Storage
• Software: Android v12
• Rear camera: 8MP + AI Lens
• Selfie camera: 5MP
• Battery: 5000 mAh
• Weight: 192 grams
• Dimensions: 164.9 x 76.7 x 9 mm

POCO always has nice looking phones in their category and the POCO C50 is no different. The phone looks very simple and subtle from the back. It is as basic as you would expect from a entry level phone. I like this approach of POCO rather than putting something flashy or vibrant look.

It has a plastic back which has a textured leather like feel to it. I have to say it feels really good in my hands. The textured finish offers a better grip and keeps the fingerprints at bay. The lightweight body (about 192 grams) of the phone enables it to be easily carried and used for long durations.

You will also see a squarish camera island on the back which does not protrude much and a physical fingerprint scanner underneath it. Lastly, there is a subtle POCO branding on the bottom left of the back panel.

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Overall the POCO C50 looks and feels much better than other phones in this price range. Three is no sort of IP rating so better keep it away from pools and rainy weather.

Talking about buttons and ports, the right side has the power button and volume rockers while the left side holds the SIM card slot. The bottom has the 3.5mm audio jack, micro USB port and microphone and the top has the loudspeaker.

As this is an entry level smartphone, I did not expect much from the camera and you should do the same. The POCO C50 features a dual camera setup on the back which includes an 8MP primary camera and a depth lens. The water drop notch houses a 5MP camera for taking selfies and making video calls.

The 8MP camera takes decent shots in good lighting conditions. Even though the images are not very detailed and sharp, they look just fine unless you zoom in. The colours also look fine. Photos taken in HDR mode were looking better.

Portrait shots were also average. The edge detection was not very precise and the blur effect did not look natural.

However as the light level drops, the quality of the image takes a big hit. Low-light shots were very grainy and the colours were also not good. The images lacked in detail and clarity.

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The selfies taken with the 5MP front camera were okay-ish in broad daylight. The selfies had some details and the skin tones looked natural. The portrait selfies also looked nice in proper lighting.

The phone can record videos at 1080p resolution at 30fps using the main camera. The footage was acceptable but the output was shaky.

The POCO C50 packs a big 5000mAh battery that is paired with 10W charging. The phone offers an amazing battery life. You can easily get two days of battery backup with casual usage. Even a heavy user who spends all day scrolling through Instagram can use it for a full day.

The reason behind this awesome battery life is the low resolution display and not so power hungry chipset. I got about 6 hours of screen on time which is solid. My usage involved some scrolling through my Insta feed, making calls and taking pictures.

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So yea great battery life but a very slow charging speed on the other hand. You get a 10W adaptor in the box along with a micro USB cable which you can use to charge the phone. The 10W charger takes almost two hours to fully charge the phone from 0 to 100 per cent.

It’s a long time I know but you can forget about the charger for the next two days.

The POCO C50 features an HD+ 6.52 inches IPS LCD display. There is nothing fancy here. It comes with a standard 60Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 400 nits. Not very bright I know. Although it gets sufficiently bright for indoor use, I struggled to use it outdoors on a sunny day.

Other than that, the display quality is just meh. The colours look fine but the details and sharpness are lacking. I did not enjoy watching videos on YouTube very much however your grandparents will surely love it. On the other hand, it’s a good enough display for reading purposes and texting.

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The touch response is fine and I did not notice any major shutters while navigating through the UI. The bezels are a bit thick on all sides with a wider chin at the button as expected. You get a water drop notch on the top which looks a bit dated but good enough for the price.

As for protection, the screen gets Panda Glass protection but I am not sure if it will survive any accidental drops. There is no support for Widevine L1, so you cannot steam high-quality content on OTT platforms like Netflix.

The POCO C50 is powered by a MediaTek Helio A22 chipset which is paired with up to 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage. It’s not a performance champ like other POCO devices. It is more focused on entry level users who just want to perform regular tasks like calling, texting and more.

The everyday tasks are handled pretty well. No major lags or app crashes but the phone does lag sometimes. I would not recommend it for multitasking as there is not enough RAM to handle multiple apps. The maximum you can do is browse on Chrome and have WhatsApp open in the background.

Heavy apps like Instagram and Facebook do not very smoothly and I am talking about the 3GB RAM variant. And if we talk about gaming, you can play games like Subway Surfers, Candy Crush and Temple Run without any issues. However, do not expect anything more from it.

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Well, it’s clear that it is not for heavy use. So what can it really do then? You can text on WhatsApp, browse on Chrome, make audio and video calls, check and reply to emails and many more general tasks without any issues.

The Poco C50 runs on Android 12 Go Edition which is specially made for low end devices. POCO made a wise decision to go with this toned-down version of Android OS rather than its own MIUI skin. It is basically the stock Android feel with a very clean look.

There are not many third-party and unnecessary apps pre-installed and only the lite version of some apps on the phone. All this makes sure that the phone runs smoothly.

The POCO C50 features a single speaker on the top which offers pretty nice sound quality. The output was better than what I expected. It could get pretty loud as well. Anyways you get the 3.5mm audio jack so you can just plug in your earphones anytime and enjoy.

Talking about connectivity, sadly there is no 5G support as the POCO C50 is a 4G phone. Other connectivity options include WiFi (only 2.4GHz), Bluetooth 5.0 and GPS.

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Biometrics is handled by the fingerprint scanner placed on the rear of the phone. It works fine and unlocks the phone with good accuracy. You can also use the face unlock feature which struggles to work in low light.