The Xiaomi Poco X6 Series Is a Great Value, but Not Our Pick

If you’re in the market for an affordable Android smartphone, the latest midrange Poco duo from Xiaomi should be on your radar. Available now in the UK, Europe, and India, but not the US, the Poco X6 (£319) and Poco X6 Pro (£369) offer stacked spec sheets with few weaknesses. You can expect excellent displays, good battery life, and solid performance from both, though there are a few cons lurking here.

Xiaomi offers a truly gargantuan line-up of smartphones. Not content with its budget Redmi sub-brand, it launched the midrange Poco sub-brand in 2018. There is considerable overlap, with many phones released under the Redmi name in China being tweaked and rebadged as Poco for the European market. The X6 and X6 Pro fall into that category. If you are wondering, the word poco means “a little” in Spanish and Italian.

The Poco brand has taken off as a value phone. The X6 and X6 Pro sit at the bottom end of the midrange, undercutting much of the comparable competition. With so much in common, the Poco X6 will be the better choice for bargain hunters, but I will lay out the differences so you can decide whether the X6 Pro is worth digging deeper for.

Poco Peas in a Pod

At first glance the Poco X6 and X6 Pro are very similar. The X6 is a teensy bit taller, slimmer, and lighter, but the differences are paper thin. Both have plastic frames with a volume rocker on the upper right side and the power button below. Only the X6 has a 3.5mm headphone port. The in-screen fingerprint sensors are responsive, with camera cut-outs at the top of the near bezel-less screens. Both phones score an IP54 rating, so rain is fine, but dunking is not.

Photograph: Simon Hill

Turn them over, and they are much easier to tell apart because the X6 Pro has a slightly curved back and a camera module that includes four equally sized lenses (though one of them is actually the flash). The X6 has two pronounced lenses on the left with a smaller third lens and flash. The camera modules are the only design element that stands out, unless you opt for one of the more “interesting” finishes. The Poco X6 Pro colors are black (like my review unit), gray, or, for the brave, striking bright yellow in a fake leather finish. The Poco X6 comes in plain black or blue, or white with a marble effect.