POCO smartphones are now officially available in South Africa, through various retailers. As is the case in other markets, the company hopes to offer South Africans great value for money. Three devices have launched in South Africa – the POCO M3, POCO M3 Pro 5G and the POCO X3 Pro.
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The POCO M3 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 662, a lower-end chip that has proven very capable.
It also has a 48MP main camera with f/1.8 aperture in the triple lens setup, which also includes a 2MP macro lens and 2MP depth sensor. Don’t expect much from the latter two – the depth sensor doesn’t allow much additional functionality other the increasing detail in the main camera and enabling portrait mode shots. The 2MP macro cameras included in many lower-end devices is not much more than a gimmick, as the quality leaves much to be desired.
It has a massive 6,000mAh battery powering the large 6.5-inch Full HD+ LCD IPS display, meaning that you should be able to get a couple of days’ battery life from this device.
This device comes with 4GB of RAM and either 64GB or 128GB or storage, the two options costing R2,899 and R3,199 respectively.
The POCO M3 Pro 5G is very similar to the M3, with some buffs in important areas. It brings 5G connectivity to a much lower price point than you would expect. It also has dual-SIM capability, so that you can jump between the most efficient 5G networks in the area if you would like.
The M3 Pro has more RAM, coming in at 6GB. It has 128GB of storage and a similar 6.5-inch Full HD+ display, although this one has the faster 90Hz refresh rates, delivering a smoother experience. It has the same camera setup as its lesser brother and costs R4,199.
The POCO X3 Pro is the pick of the range – it has a lot in common with flagship devices that cost three times as much. It runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 chipset, the flagship silicon from 2019. It may not be the latest processor from the company, but it is still more capable than any of the new mid-range chipsets.
It comes with 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM. It has a slightly larger 6.7-inch Full HD+ LCD IPS display than its other siblings and supports the flagship level 120Hz refresh rates. It is also capable of 240Hz touch sampling that increases the sensitivity for more responsive input, mostly using for gaming.
It also has a big 5,160mAh battery that supports 33W fast charging. It costs R5,399.
