Xiaomi-owned POCO has finally announced the rumored POCO M3 in a live stream on YouTube, and the phone offers impressive specs for the price. It is a device that budget phone shoppers should keep on their radar.
Unfortunately, it looks like the phone is only coming to Europe, so those in the US and other regions won't be able to snag this cheap smartphone.
What Does the POCO M3 Bring to the Table?
Two big things make the POCO M3 stand out from the crowd: the camera and the battery.
First, there's a massive 6,000mAh battery. That colossal battery comes with 18W fast charging, which isn't the fastest available but is still good. You can also get an additional cable and use the POCO M3 as a power bank that'll top off your other devices.
Second, the phone comes with a 48MP triple camera setup, which is pretty high for a budget-friendly smartphone. It even comes with an f/2.4 aperture, which is excellent. Supporting that high-resolution lens is a 2MP macro camera and 2MP depth sensor. The front-facing camera is nothing special, but at 8MP, it'll do the job of taking decent enough selfies.
The screen is also quite large. It's an FHD+ 6.53-inch display. Again, when compared to other budget phones, this screen is above average in size. The company didn't announce the screen's refresh rate, but we'd assume it's on the slower side since the phone is so cheap.
The POCO M3 features an entry-level Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 chip with 4GB RAM keeping things moving. It won't blow you away with its performance, but again, it is reasonable for the phone's price. There's also an Adreno 610 GPU.
MIUI 12 for POCO is installed out-of-the-box, which is based on Android 10. Presumably, the company will release its own version of Android 11 at some point, but we'll have to wait and see.
Some other notable features of the POCO M3 include a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, face unlock, dual speakers (a feature typically only found on far more expensive phones), a 3.5mm port, and support for expandable storage up to 512GB.
POCO M3 Price and Availability
As mentioned, the POCO M3 will only go on sale in Europe. It's scheduled to release on November 27.
The company offers a 64GB version of the phone for $149 and a 128GB version for $169 when they're full price. On Black Friday, the release day, the company is offering the phones for $129 and $149.
Regardless of which storage amount you choose, the phone is available in three colors. You can choose between Cool Blue, POCO Yellow, and Power Black.
