Poco X6 Neo Review: The Neo Budget King?

The Poco X6 Neo base variant, with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage, costs Rs.15,999. The 12GB+256GB model is available for Rs.17,999.

The phone will go on sale via Flipkart from March 18 at 12 PM IST. It is available in Astral Black, Horizon Blue and Martian Orange.

The Poco X6 Neo packs the following items inside the box:

• Phone
• Manual
• Case
• Charger

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

• Display: 6.67-inch Full-HD+ AMOLED with 120Hz
• Chipset: MediaTek Dimensity 6080
• RAM & ROM: 8GB 128GB, 12GB 256GB
• Software: MIUI 14 with Android 13
• Rear camera: 108MP + 2MP
• Selfie camera: 16MP
• Battery: 5000 mAh
• Weight: 175 grams
• Dimensions: 161.1 x 75 x 7.7 mm

The Poco X6 Neo features a plastic back with a matte finish and a design similar to other phones in the Poco X6 lineup. Furthermore, the Martian Orange colour I have has a wavy pattern that reflects under sunlight.

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Although the matte finish looks great, it does not provide a good grip, so I highly recommend using the case included in the box. Speaking of the case, Poco has provided a premium rubberised case that fits snugly and offers a good grip. Kudos to Poco for providing a good-quality case instead of the typical transparent ones that become yellow within a few weeks.

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A large vertical camera module on the back houses a dual-camera setup with Poco branding and LED flash. The phone is also pretty slim, measuring just 7.69mm, making it the slimmest Poco phone yet. It weighs just 175 grams, making it ergonomic for one-handed usage.

Moving on to ports and placements, you get the volume rocker and power button on the right, doubling up as the fingerprint scanner.

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On the left, you get the hybrid SIM slot, including the micro-SD card slot for expansion.

Similarly, you get the 3.5mm headphone jack, secondary microphone and IR Blaster.

At the bottom, you will be greeted with the speaker grille, microphone and USB-C port for charging. In addition, the phone also has an IP54 rating for protection against occasional splashes.

The Poco X6 Neo packs a 108-megapixel primary camera and a 2-megapixel secondary camera. On the front, there is a 16-megapixel selfie shooter.

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During the day, the phone can take great photos with plenty of detail and sharpness. The images have saturated colours, although the pictures can sometimes be overexposed.

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With the 108-megapixel primary, you can also take 3x zoom shots with in-sensor zoom. The 2-megapixel depth sensor is only good on paper, and its photos are barely usable.

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Similarly, the low-light shots with the 108-megapixel primary are mediocre, with overexposed colours and much noise. This is one segment where budget phones usually falter, and the Poco X6 Neo is no exception.

The 16-megapixel selfie camera can take decent shots with accurate skin tones and colours. Regarding video recording, the front and back cameras can shoot videos up to 1080p at 30FPS. If cameras are your priority, then it is best to consider other phones like the Realme 12 5G in this price range.

The Poco X6 Neo packs a 5,000mAh battery, which can easily last 6 to 7 hours with normal usage. My usage includes scrolling through social media, watching videos on YouTube and clicking photos with the refresh rate set to 120Hz.

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Moreover, thanks to the 6nm chipset, you can expect a day of battery backup with moderate usage. Furthermore, you can turn down the refresh rate to 60Hz or use power saving mode to get even more juice out of it.

The 33W charger can fully charge the phone within 1 hour and 30 minutes, which is decent. However, phones like the Realme 12 5G and OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite offer 45W and 67W charging at the same price segment.

The Poco X6 Neo boasts a 6.67-inch Full-HD+ AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. Furthermore, the phone has Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and has 1000 nits of peak brightness.

The bezels surrounding the phone are very narrow, with a centre punch hole cutout, which even some phones that cost twice as much don’t offer(*cough* Galaxy A55 *cough*). Poco claims the phone has a screen-to-body ratio of 93.3 per cent, which is impressive.

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Moreover, it is rare to see a phone with a 120Hz and AMOLED display in this segment. The display has vibrant colours and is plenty bright outdoors. Thanks to 1000 nits of brightness, I faced no issues viewing the screen under harsh sunlight.

The colours are set to saturated by default, and watching content on the screen is a pure treat. I enjoyed watching Season 4 of The Sopranos. Moreover, you also get Widevine L1 support to watch 1080p videos on streaming platforms, although there is no HDR here.

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Thanks to the 120Hz refresh rate, navigating through the user interface remains smooth and fluid. Furthermore, you can switch between default, which automatically sets the refresh rate based on the content, and Custom, which keeps it at a constant 120Hz.

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You get a single speaker with Dolby Atmos support at the bottom for audio. It is loud enough and comes with a Volume Boost feature that increases the volume to 200 per cent. However, given the single speaker setup, it is easy to cover it with your right hand when holding it in your hand.

There is also a 3.5mm headphone jack, a dying breed on smartphones these days. Moreover, there is a side-mounted fingerprint sensor that is fast and accurate, as well as an IR Blaster for controlling appliances.

The MediaTek Dimensity 6080 chipset powers the phone, which is paired with up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage. Interestingly, this 6nm chipset is a rebrand of the MediaTek Dimensity 810, which debuted two years ago.

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The phone remained smooth during day-to-day tasks, and I faced no problems switching between multiple apps like Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc. Furthermore, the 12GB of RAM ensured that most apps stayed in memory.

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When it comes to intensive tasks like gaming, you can play games like BGMI at Smooth and Ultra (40 FPS) and CODM at Medium and High Frame Rates (60 FPS).

Moving on to benchmarks, the Poco X6 Neo has a Geekbench score of 657 in single-core and 1853 in multi-core test. Furthermore, the phone throttles to 95 per cent in the 15-minute CPU throttling test and a stability score of 99.2 per cent in the 3D Mark Wildlife Extreme Stress Test.

It has a score of 450773 in the AnTuTu V10 benchmark and a score of 44301 in the AnTuTu storage test. Overall, the Poco X6 Neo is a great performer in daily tasks and playing casual games.

The Poco X6 Neo ships with MIUI 14 based on Android 13 out of the box. It is disappointing to see a phone arrive with Android 13 in 2024, especially when its elder sibling, the Poco X6 Pro 5G, runs Android 14 out of the box.

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Hopefully, future Poco phones will debut with the latest Android version out of the box, and the Poco X6 Neo will soon receive the HyperOS update.

There are plenty of bloatware apps on the phone, such as Block Puzzle Guardian, Crazy Juicer, Facebook, Jewels Blast, Netflix, Phone Pe, Snapchat, Spotify, etc. Thankfully, you can easily uninstall them from the settings.

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The usual MIUI customisation options include themes, Always On Display support, live wallpapers and more. You also get features like Quick Ball, One-Handed Mode, Screen Recorder, Floating Window, Second Space and Dual Apps. There is also support for virtual RAM extension up to 12GB.

Poco has promised two years of OS updates and four years of security patches for the phone. This means the phone will receive updates till Android 15, which is disappointing, to say the least.