Poco M3 Review – Full Specifications, Features, and Price in Nigeria

GadgetsmartMarch 10, 2021

115 6 minutes read

Poco M3 is the latest mid-range offering from the Chinese brand and the direct successor of last year’s Poco M2. Unlike its predecessor that was powered by Helio G80 SoC, the new Poco M3 is powered by a more efficient Snapdragon 662 chip. Above all, it also comes with a bigger storage unit of 64GB and 128GB, an improved 48-MP main camera, and a whopping 6000mAh battery capacity.

Poco became an independent brand from Samsung in January 2020 and has since established itself as one of the leading phone manufacturers with the likes of F1, X3, M2, M3, and other products added to its collection. And now, the Poco M3 sports similarity with the rebranded Redmi 9 Power and it has almost the same set of hardware. However, with Poco looking forward to leading the market, they added a few tweaks including a bigger 6GB RAM variant, Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 chip, and massive 6000mAh battery cell.

So, in a smartphone that entices potential customers with lots of features and choices, let’s find out whether this phone is worth the price.

Table of Contents

Poco M3 Key Specifications

Display: 6.53-inches OLED
Resolution: 1080 x 2340 pixels
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 662
Front Camera: 8-megapixel
Rear Camera: 48-megapixel + 2-megapixel + 2-megapixel
RAM: 4GB /6GB
Storage: 64GB /128GB
Battery Capacity: 6000mAh
OS: Android 10, EMUI 12

Poco M3: Design and Display

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Upfront, the Poco M3 has an FHD+ display working at 1080 × 2340 pixel resolution with a 2.5D curved glass screen, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, and well-rounded edges. The display is showing at 6.53-inch screen size and a pixel density of 395 PPI. Fortunately, the Poco M3 display is one of the brightest we’ve seen on any mid-range phone, thanks to 400 nits brightness and possess a vibrant colors reproduction.

One feature we love about the Poco M3’s display is its sunlight legibility, thanks to a sunlight display that uses hardware-level technology to adjust the contrast of each pixel automatically, thereby making images less affected by glare. However, there’s no HDR display like its predecessor and other mid-range devices. Fortunately, the Poco M3 is equipped with a Full HD+ which is a massive upgrade compared to other competitors with HD+ screen. Also, the screen is covered by Gorilla Glass 3 protection.

Since the Poco M3 has a 19.5:9 aspect ratio screen, you can easily pinch to zoom to display a video clip in full screen, although the content will be cropped. Also, Poco provided an option that allows you to hide the notch that adds black bars on the top. On the phone’s display settings are varieties of options to set the contrast to your preference and adjust colors. Fortunately, Poco provided a reading mode that allows you to decrease the display’s blue light emission so you won’t have to stress your eyes while reading at night. Other display options include a Dark mode with customizations which is the same as those in other phones running on MIUI 12.

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Above the display is a 3.5mm headphone jack positioned on the top edge, though there’s no notification light. The Poco M3 has a gyroscope and a magnetic sensor also known as a magnetometer. On the top front pixel is a waterdrop notch that houses the 8-MP selfie camera. Unfortunately, there’s a small black bezel below the display, although it’s a normal feature on mid-range phones but we expected Poco to alter it on this new model.

Coming to the connection ports and button placements, the volume rockers and power button which double functions as fingerprint sensor are positioned on the top-right edge. On the left is a dedicated dual Nano-SIM and microSD slot vertically arranged on a single tray. The primary microphone, USB-C port, and primary loudspeaker grill are located in the bottom edge.

On the back of the Poco M3 is a triple camera bump which is slightly big due to the large sensor but it’s protected by scratch-resistant glass and the provided silicon case also helps to protect it. Besides the camera bump is a “POCO” branding logo. Although this is a large phone, it’s very comfortable for one-hand operation. Fortunately, there’s a leather-like finish on the rear panel that offers a very comfy hand grip and also prevents the phone from fingerprints and smudges.

The Poco M3 is available in Cool Blue, Poco Yellow, and Power Black color options. Fortunately, Poco provided the phone with a P2i splash-proof coating and corrosion-proof ports. Despite having a massive 6000mAh battery cell, the Poco M3 weighs just 198g. Finally, the overall build-up quality and design of the Poco M3 are more than good for this price.

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Poco M3: Camera Review

The Poco M3 sports a triple camera arrangement consisting of a 48-MP Samsung GM1 ISOCELL sensor, 2-MP depth lens, and another 2-megapixel camera with SK Hynix Hi259 for macro. Upfront, there’s an 8-MP selfie camera with OmniVision OV8856 sensor.

The Poco M3 interface is similar to other Xiaomi phones running MIUI 12 with flash, AI, Filters, HDR, Panorama, Google lens, and others on top. Selecting the camera’s menu option will bring out Macro, Tilt-shift, Movie frame, straighten, show grid lines, Timed burst, and many others. Also, you can switch to the front camera through the bottom corner with an option to select modes such as Portrait, Photo, Video, Pro, and others.

Coming to the camera quality, daylight shots are excellent, although the white balance isn’t as impressive as we expected as some images look dull even in daylight. However, the HDR shots are great with improved dynamic range, but we’re disappointed with the 2-MP camera as the macro shots are just average. Overall, the camera quality of the Poco M3 is great though there’s noise in low-light shots but with the flash, they improved a bit.

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Poco M3: Hardware Performance and Software

When it comes to performance, the Poco M3 is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 662 11nm chip which has 4 x Kryo 260 Performance CPUs (A73-based) clocked at up to 2GHz and 4x Kryo 260 Efficiency CPUs (A53-based) at up to 1.8GHz. it has Adreno 610 as its graphics card with either 4GB or 6GB RAM. Also, you can choose to buy any of the 64GB or 128GB storage variant all with an option to upgrade (up to 256GB) via a dedicated SDcard.

Fortunately, we did not encounter any slow down or frame drops while playing games. However, the phone will warm up a bit after long hours of intensive gaming, but it doesn’t get too hot when compared to other mid-range devices. Meanwhile, despite the phone having a good performance compared to other competitors, it fails to beat the Helio G80 when it comes to gaming.

The Poco M3 runs on Android 10 OS with MIUI 12 on top. Fortunately, the phone should get the latest Android 11 update in the coming months when it must have been released. However, the latest MIUI 12 brings a lot of tweaks including Dark mode 2.0, improved animation and Privacy, Dual apps, Quick Ball, App lock, Second space, Game turbor, Floating window, and many others. Apart from the usual set of apps from Google and Poco which you can choose to uninstall, it also comes pre-loaded with WPS Office, Facebook, Amazon, LinkedIn app, and few games.

Poco M3: Battery Capacity

Coming to battery life, the Poco M3 is equipped with a massive 6000mAh battery cell. Amazingly, the phone’s battery easily lasts for 24 hours even with heavy use but can last close to two days on average use. Fortunately, Poco equipped the phone with an 18W battery support which takes about 2 hours to charge the phone from 0 to 100%.

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Poco M3: Price in Nigeria and Availability

Priced at ₦65,000 (roughly $165) for the 4GB RAM with 64GB storage variant and ₦72,000 (equivalent to $184) for the 4GB with 128GB storage version. Unfortunately, the 6GB RAM isn’t available in Nigeria yet but we expect to see it in the coming months. The Poco M3 is available for purchase at www.jumia.com.ng/ and other reputable online and offline phone outlets in Nigeria.