[REVIEW] POCO M3 Pro 5G is a surprisingly good smartphone for very little money

Among the first in Slovakia, we’re testing one of the most affordable smartphones with support for 5th-generation networks, POCO M3 Pro 5G. It comes with a 90 Hz display, a MediaTek processor, NFC support, and a great battery.

How did it perform in our test? In the review, you’ll find out all the important strengths and weaknesses.

Where to buy the POCO M3 Pro 5G?

The POCO M3 Pro 5G smartphone went on sale only a few days ago, on 20 May 2021. We got it in the editorial office even before the official launch, so we can be among the first in Slovakia to have the chance to test this smartphone. If you're interested in buying it, it's currently sold in the official POCO Store on Aliexpress.

Delivery is free of charges, as it ships from a European warehouse. So you don’t have to worry about any extra payment or customs processing.

Package contents

POCO M3 Pro 5G comes in a vivid yellow box with the brand logo. The inside is also yellow, just like the previous model in the M3 series. In the top part, there is the usual flat box with a transparent silicone case, a pin for opening the SIM card slot, and paper documentation.

Under that, you’ll find the smartphone itself in a protective film that highlights the phone’s key specifications. Under the phone, there’s also a charging adapter and a cable with a USB-C connector. A small bonus is a set of stickers with the POCO brand logo.

Design and placement of elements

The smartphone measures 161.81 x 75.34 x 8.92 mm and weighs 190 g. It feels very light, and the plastic build does not add to the sense of quality.

As for the design, it’s a classic smartphone in its class, with a cut-out for the front camera that’s a bit larger than we expected. However, the manufacturer stood out with an unconventional design of the rear camera module, which is separated from the rest of the cover by a black strip with the POCO logo.

The left side of the POCO M3 Pro 5G includes the SIM card slot. It can take two 5G SIM cards in dual standby mode or 1 SIM card with a MicroSD memory card. The right side typically features the volume buttons and the fingerprint reader.

On the bottom, you'll find a USB-C port for charging, a microphone, and a speaker. The top side houses sensors including an infrared one, a second microphone, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack that is slowly disappearing from smartphones.

We rate the design positively and appreciate that the manufacturer wasn’t afraid to go for an unconventional rear design that sets it apart from other smartphones.

IPS display with a 90 Hz refresh rate

Compared to its predecessor, the POCO M3 Pro 5G brings an improved 6.5″ IPS display with FullHD+ resolution (2400 x 1080 px). The contrast ratio is 1500:1, and the interesting part is the dynamic refresh rate. POCO calls this technology DynamicSwitch, and in this case it can switch automatically between 30 / 50 / 60 and 90 Hz depending on your current needs.

But don't expect any miracles. This is not a premium display. The 90 Hz refresh rate is an attractive spec, but it's still rather an average IPS display, where color shifts are clearly visible when viewed from the side. Brightness reaches 400 nits, and even in direct sunlight the visibility is sufficient.

That said, it’s important to remember this is a budget-category smartphone, so you shouldn’t expect a top-tier display. From our point of view, the biggest issue was occasional slower touch responses, especially in the lower part of the screen. Luckily, it disappeared after a restart and hasn’t come back so far, so we assume it will be fixed in the next software update.

A MediaTek processor

The smartphone is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 700 processor. It's an octa-core chip built on 7 nm process technology with a maximum clock speed of 2.2 GHz. Although MediaTek processors aren't very popular in our region, there's no need to worry.

After a week of everyday use, we didn’t notice any freezes or significant slowdowns that would be too noticeable. The system feels smooth, and we were very satisfied with the overall performance.

The processor is complemented by the Arm Mali-G57 MC2 graphics chip with a maximum clock speed of 950 MHz. In the AnTuTu v9 benchmark, we scored 315 000, which is decent for this price category. Compared with the M3 model, the score is about 45 % higher.

We had the version with 6 GB of LPDDR4X RAM, and we have to admit that even with such a cheap smartphone, you can easily play more demanding games like Call of Duty or PUBG. Of course, not on the highest settings, but gameplay is smooth without unnecessary lag.

Unlocking options

POCO M3 Pro 5G offers two ways to unlock the screen. The first option is the fingerprint reader on the right side, the second is face unlock using the front camera,

The fingerprint reader is accurate, but there’s a noticeable delay. The screen unlocks with about a one-second lag after you place your finger. Face unlock takes about the same amount of time too—it also has a slight delay.

The fingerprint reader is therefore not among the fastest, but its accuracy is at a good level. We almost never had to place our finger on the reader repeatedly. Unlocking on the first touch happened in 99 % of cases.

Runtime and charging

Compared with the previous M3 model, the battery has been reduced from 6000 mAh to 5000 mAh. The smartphone supports 18 W charging, and battery life on a single charge is still decent. During normal use, we easily reached battery life of 2 days even with the display set to the highest refresh rate. Longer battery life is also realistic, but everything depends on how intensively you use it.

The package includes a 22 W charger. Wireless charging is not available, but just like with POCO M3, you can use the smartphone to charge other phones. We connected the phone to the charger at 20 % remaining capacity, and the charging process looked like this:

• from 20% to 50% – 28 minutes
• 75% – 51 minutes
• 100% – 1 hour and 38 minutes

Camera and video

The rear camera module includes three sensors:

• a main 48 MPx CMOS sensor SONY IMX 582 Exmor RS with a 1/2″ sensor size and f/1.79 aperture
• 2 MPx GalaxyCore GC02M1 macro sensor with f/2.4 aperture
• 2 MPx depth sensor with f/2.4 aperture

The main sensor is not wide-angle, which we missed, and the quality is rather weaker, but it can still surprise in certain moments. In good light, the photos are nice, but in lower light it's worse. However, this is far from a disaster, and for the price category that POCO M3 Pro is in, the photos are good and the target audience of this model will be satisfied.

Let’s take a look at a few photos taken with the main sensor during the day. In good lighting, the photos look quite nice, color reproduction is faithful, and you don’t have to worry about any overly saturated, artificially looking shots.

In low light, quality is worse: slight noise starts to appear, and dark areas are too underexposed—which is typical for cheaper smartphones. On the other hand, the lighting atmosphere is captured well, and the shot is close to real life.

The macro sensor has a resolution of only 2 MPx, so don’t expect great macro photos. Personally, we would rather have a wider-angle lens instead. The selfie camera only has 8 MPx, and we didn’t like that the beauty filter always turns on automatically—you then have to switch it off manually. The photo quality from the selfie camera is very average; it ranks among the weaker ones.

There’s also a night mode. It brightens dark areas in most cases, but at the same time it loses some sharpness. Still, it can also surprise you. When you compare photos taken with and without night mode, you can see how well it handles strong light—where without night mode we only see a light glow (the last pair of photos).

As for video, the maximum resolution available is 1080p / 30 fps, with digital image stabilization. The video isn’t very high quality, but the digital stabilization at least partially reduces shakes while walking.

An elaborate environment with the POCO launcher

The POCO M3 Pro 5G is traditionally equipped with Android; this time it’s Android in version 11 with the MIUI 12 overlay (12.0.5) and the POCO launcher. Another not-so-positive tradition is the large number of preinstalled apps and games that are completely unnecessary, and most users uninstall them right away.

These include apps like Netflix, Bubble Shooter, Dust Settle, Jewels Blast, Tile Fun, WPS Office, or a link to PUBG.

As for the launcher and the interface itself, we basically have no complaints. Everything is neatly arranged in a logical and practical way, and the system responds quickly, without hesitation. There’s also an elaborate dark mode, which we highlighted already in our review of the base model POCO M3.

We tested the phone’s global version, and all notifications from popular apps like Messenger, Facebook, Instagram, Viber, Gmail, and similar ones worked properly.

Connectivity and 5G network test

Among the wired connectivity options, we have to highlight the presence of the 3.5 mm headphone port, which is slowly disappearing from smartphones.

For wireless connectivity, you’ll find IR, Bluetooth version 5.1, support for 5G networks, dual-band WiFi (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) with standards 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, and location systems GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and Beidou. WiFi 6 is missing, but that’s not standard in this price category.

Since during the test we also visited our capital, we tested the speed of our internet connection in the 5G network. For comparison, we also include a speed test while connected to a 4G network from the same location.

The speed on 5G is clearly higher, but for even better speeds you’ll probably have to wait a bit longer until the 5G network is more fully rolled out in Slovakia.

POCO M3 Pro 5G: Final verdict

The POCO M3 Pro 5G is a very decent smartphone for its price range. It’s an almost identical model to the Redmi Note 10 5G that was recently introduced.

It stands out with a nice design on the back, a sufficiently powerful processor, and a well-thought-out software experience. You’ll also like the battery with a good capacity, NFC support, and last but not least 5G—despite the fact that this new-generation network is only starting to roll out in our country.

For the downsides, we list the weaker speaker, a very average display, and a camera that doesn’t handle worse lighting conditions too well—though it can still surprise you in night mode from time to time. Compared to the M3 model, you can clearly see a performance improvement. Apps open faster, and from our point of view, it’s also a more successful piece in terms of design.

For a non-demanding user looking for a smartphone in this category, it’s definitely an interesting choice, since the price / performance ratio is a very tempting factor when picking a new phone.