Poco M8 5G review: Simple, sensible, and affordable

Xiaomi’s sub-brand, Poco, kicked off the year with a new generation M series mobile, the Poco M8 5G, in India. The smartphone flaunts several upgrades over its predecessor, the POCO M7, in terms of design, display, performance, and others, making it a strong contender under the sub- Rs 20,000 segment. 

In terms of design, the Poco M8 5G is claimed to be the slimmest smartphone in the segment, and it measures just 7.35mm in thickness. The smartphone features a 120Hz AMOLED display and a powerful processor that gets the basics right. 

We have been testing the smartphone for over two weeks to test its reliability in the affordable segment, and to know how this 5G phone stacks up against the competition, especially given the fact that it mirrors the Redmi Note 15 5G mobile.

Poco M8 5G: Design and display

The Poco M8 5G has an attention-grabbing design due to its slim build, dual-tone rear panel, and curved display. While brands are chasing flat screen design, Redmi and Poco are such brands that are bringing curved displays back to market. 

Looking at the design, the smartphone measures 7.35mm and weighs just 178 grams, which feels quite comfortable in the hand. The Poco M8 5G comes with a two-tone design, flaunting matte-finish in the middle and decorative stripes on both sides inspired by the racing tracks. Overall, the smartphone looks classy and distinctive. 

The Poco M8 offers an IP66 rating for dust and water protection and MIL-STD-810H certification for impact resistance. Hence, it also feels durable and sturdy. Although considering it has a curved display, its unsure if it can withstand a direct impact on its edges.

For display, the Poco M8 5G features a 6.77-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate and up to 3,200 nits of peak brightness. This showcases a major upgrade from last year’s LCD panel. In terms of viewing experience, the smartphone offered crisp visuals, accrual colors, and smooth animations. However, it does not offer HDR support for OTT platforms like Netflix, hence it is limited to standard dynamic range.

Furthermore, many users may have concerns about the curved display, we did not encounter any accidental touches, and the slimmer bezel made the display feel more immersive without affecting usability. Lastly, the M8 features a brighter display, making it easy to use outdoors, even under direct sunlight.

Poco M8 5G: Camera

The Poco M8 5G features a dual camera setup that includes a 50MP main camera and a 2MP depth sensor. In daylight, the smartphone captures promising images with great clarity, but the colours are not quite vibrant. The final images showcased a noticeable yellow tint in most shots, making it look washed out. 

In low light conditions, the smartphone struggles with detailing and colour consistency, making it less dependable for night-time shots. Furthermore, the smartphone misses out on an ultrawide camera, hence it limits capturing wide-angle scenes.

Coming to the front-facing camera, the Poco M8 features a 20MP selfie shooter that captures impressive facial detailing, but the skin tone looks artificial.

Poco M8 5G: Performance and software

The Poco M8 5G is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 processor paired with 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of internal storage. Coming to the real-time usage, the smartphone offers reliable performance for everyday usage, and it gets the basics right. While running social media apps, browsing, and OTT platforms, we did not encounter any stutter or lag, even while switching between apps or closing apps instantly. Hence, for daily usage, the Poco M8 5G is a dependable daily driver.

As far as gaming is concerned, we ran BGMI on the device, and it ran smoothly on the lowest graphics settings. Even with over 30-minutes of continuous gaming, it did not show any major crashes or thermal throttling. However, the phone does get slightly warm, but nothing feels too concerning. 

Coming to the software experience, the Poco M8 5G runs on Android 15-based HyperOS 2. Firstly, an older generation OS feels disappointing, and the excessive amount of bloatware affects the usability of the interface. It comes with several pre-installed apps, which felt annoying, considering you have to uninstall them one-by-one. 

Apart from this, the animation and basic control felt decent, but not the best in the segment. Lastly, the Poco M8 offers 4 years of OS upgrades and 6 years of security updates, offering long-term usage.

Poco M8 5G: Battery

The Poco M8 5G is backed by a 5,520mAh battery, which offers an impressive battery life. The smartphone could easily last you more than 24 hours with basic usage. With the smartphone, you can easily get a screen time of about 18 to 20 hours, which is quite impressive for an affordable phone. 

Lastly, it supports a 45W charging, for which you get the adaptor in the box. As far as charge time is concerned, it takes slightly more than an hour to fully charge the device from 1 to 100%.

Poco M8 5G: Verdict

Now, is it an ideal, affordable 5G phone? Well, the Poco M8 5G offers an impressive design, bright and responsive display, reliable day-to-day performance, and a lasting battery, making it perfect for users who prioritise design, display quality, and battery life. 

However, the smartphone has an average set of cameras, and the older generation software, along with bloatware, could hamper its appeal for power users, despite its strengths in other areas. Despite its few shortcomings, the Poco M8 5G could be a perfect phone for students, first-time smartphone buyers, and casual users.