Poco F6 First Impressions: Feature Packed

Poco F6 5G has been launched in India after much hype and as expected, it is packed with features. You get a lot for your money, thanks to the intense competition amongst brands in this price segment. The new F6 reminds me of the Poco X6 Pro, which we found to be an excellent phone for the price. The handset has evoked similar feelings during the time I've spent using the Poco F6 over the past couple of days. The F-series is an important lineup for Poco, and the new Poco F6 seems like a nice upgrade over its predecessor. However, we would recommend that you wait for our full review to find out if you should buy the Poco F6 5G instead of the competition.

Now that we've mentioned the competition, it's worth noting that the Poco F6 5G is very well priced. The base variant with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage is priced at Rs. 29,999. There's also an option available with 12GB RAM and 512GB storage, that's priced at Rs. 31,999. The handset is also equipped with LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage.

The phone gets a plastic frame and rear panel

In terms of design, the Poco F6 5G has a polycarbonate rear panel and a plastic frame. The rear panel has a matte finish which doesn't show fingerprints and houses a dual camera setup. You get two large camera rings on the top left corner and a circle for the flash. Unlike the Poco F5, which had a triple camera setup, the new phone has two rear cameras. The phone also lacks a 3.5mm headphone port, but everything else — including an IR blaster — is still here.

The rear panel is slippery, but the frame makes it easy to grip with one hand. Moving over to the front, there's a 6.67-inch AMOLED LTPS panel that offers 1.5K resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, and a screen to body ratio of 94.7 percent. The bezels are quite thin all around, with a slightly thicker chin. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. The phone also carries an IP64 rating for water and dust resistance. I liked the feel of the phone in my hand. An aluminium frame would've made things much better, but we can blame the lack of it on the competitive pricing.

The display offers a peak brightness of up to 2,400 nits

The Poco F6 5G is the first smartphone in the country to be equipped with a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset, which in my few days of use, has been excellent. More on that in my full review, but for now, I can say with confidence that this is one of the most powerful phones in its segment, if not the best. The chipset borrows its architecture from the much more powerful flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC.

Poco has also upgraded the camera setup with the new phone. Although there's one less rear camera now, the two available sensors are better according to Poco. We'll have to test it out though. There's a 50-megapixel Sony IMX882 sensor with an f/1.6 and OIS, paired with an 8-megapixel Sony IMX335 ultra-wide unit with a 119-degree field of view. It's rare to find phones in this segment with a main camera that has such a wide aperture. This should help the phone perform well in low-light conditions. For selfies, there's a 20-megapixel front camera. 

The phone features a Sony IMX882 primary rear camera

The phone houses a 5,000mAh battery with support for 90W fast charging. You also get a 120W fast charger in the box, which is nice. The handset runs on Xiaomi's new HyperOS with Android 14. You also get a couple of AI features such as AI Image Expansion, AI Eraser Pro, AI Bokeh, and more. 

The Poco F6 5G seems like another phone from Poco that's poised to offer excellent value for money. The phone also packs in the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 SoC, which is enough to recommend this to folks. However, we'd have to put it through our tests to find out if other features such as the cameras, display, are also easy to recommend. Stay tuned to our full review to find out!