Poco M2 Pro Review

HIGHLIGHT

Poco M2 Pro comes with 48MP quad rear cameras

48MP main camera uses Samsung's GM2 sensor

Little M2 Pro starts at Rs 13,999 in India

Poco M2 Pro has just been announced in India as the new entrant in the mid-range smartphone segment, launching a new line under the Poco brand. The M2 Pro features a quad camera setup on the back, neatly housed within the square camera bump that looks quite prominent. There is a 48MP main camera that uses the Samsung ISOCELL Bright GM2 sensor with an f / 1.8 aperture, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera with a 119-degree field of view, a 5MP macro camera, and a 2MP depth sensor. At the front, there is a 16MP selfie camera housed inside the hole drilled in the middle. The rear cameras are capable of recording 4K UHD videos at 30FPS, 1080p videos at up to 120FPS, and slow motion videos at 720p at 960FPS.

Interestingly, the Poco M2 Pro doesn't go with a high-resolution 64MP camera, as we've seen with Redmi Note 9 Pro Max, which is likely to be done to keep the price down. Otherwise, the rear camera setup is as versatile as it sounds, at least in this budget segment.

Poco M2 Pro Specifications: 6.67-inch FHD + display | Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection | 16MP front camera | 48MP AI Quad Rear Camera | 5000mAh battery | side mount fingerprint sensor | Support 33W fast charge

Poco M2 Pro software: MIUI with Poco launcher

The Poco M2 Pro runs on MIUI 11, which is based on Android 10, and my unit had the June security patch. In addition to having the Poco Launcher as the default, the features and functionality are very similar to what you get on Redmi devices. The complete set of Mi applications is present, including My Music, My Video, My Browser, etc., and most of them cannot be uninstalled. There are also many third party apps like Helo, Facebook and some basic games, and all of these can be uninstalled.

Despite all the stock MIUI apps, I was surprised not to see any spam messages from them in the notification tone. Certain sections of some apps still send randomly promoted content, but this can usually be disabled.

Poco M2 Pro performance: reliable

MIUI and app performance were excellent throughout our review. This is largely thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G SoC. It is the same used in Redmi Note 9 Pro and Realme 6 Pro. I am testing the average variant of Poco M2 Pro, which has 6GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 64GB of UFS 2.1 storage, and is priced at Rs. 14,999. There is a lower variant with 4GB of RAM and the same amount of storage, which costs Rs. 13,999, and a high-end variant with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage priced at Rs. 16,999.

Navigating the MIUI interface felt nimble, multitasking worked well, and overall apps loaded quickly. The performance of the games was also very good. I played with the usual heavy hitters and it all ran smoothly with good graphics. I also didn't notice any warm-up issues even after playing for long periods at a time. Game Turbo is a handy utility that gives you shortcuts for screen recording, etc., while you play.

The videos looked good on the screen of the Poco M2 Pro. However, the individual speaker is not very impressive. You can enable software enhancements for audio if you are using wired headphones, but there is nothing to increase the speaker volume.

Design

Little does he emphasize his "Made in India" commitment on the front and back of the box. The company offers a silicone case, charger, cable and SIM eject tool inside the box. The design of the M2 Pro is quite similar to that of the Redmi Note 9 Pro. The phone comes in three colors, including blue, green and green, and two shades of black. The green and green finish seemed too flashy for our liking.

The phone features Gorilla Glass 5 on the front and back, with a plastic frame. On the front, the display has a perforated notch with a square-shaped camera bump on the back. The phone boasts of a solid finish that doesn't feel cheap.

The volume and power button are to the right of the phone, while the latter works as a fingerprint reader. The fingerprint reader is quite fast and accessible.

Audio

The speaker is at the bottom and is surprisingly loud, although the lack of stereo speakers is noticeable by the lack of bass. The Poco M2 Pro features AptX, AptX HD and LDAC, ensuring that the sound quality with the wireless headphones is perfect. For the price, the M2 Pro does a pretty decent job across the board.

Monitor

The phone's display comprises a 6.67-inch LCD panel with an FHD + resolution (1,080 * 2,400 pixels) with an aspect ratio of 20: 9 but lacks a high refresh rate.

It offers decent color reproduction, brightness, and viewing angles for an LCD panel, but it doesn't measure up to an OLED screen. The M2 Pro's display is Widevine L1 certified, allowing you to stream content from OTT platforms in Full HD.

The M2 Pro offers around 450 nits of maximum brightness and the screen is bright enough for outdoor use, you will have no problem using the phone in direct sunlight.

Although the similarly priced Realme 6 makes up for the lack of an OLED panel with a high refresh rate display, the Poco M2 Pro falls short here. The Poco M2 Pro's display is decent for consuming entertainment and is pretty good for its price, but it's far from the best in the segment.

Performance and battery

In terms of performance, the Poco M2 Pro has a Snapdragon 720G chipset, which offers performance on par with the Snapdragon 730G SoC on the Poco X2.

The chipset is paired with up to 6GB of RAM, though it's 4GB in the base model, which seems a bit disappointing for 2020.

The Snapdragon 720G chip can handle most tasks smoothly. The Poco M2 Pro achieved an overall score of 270014 in our benchmark AnTuTu test, which compares it to some of the best mid-tier phones, in terms of gross performance.

We tested quite a few games on the phone, including Call of Duty: Mobile, Asphalt 9: Legends, Raid: Shadow Legends, PUBG Mobile, and Fortnite.

Call of Duty: Mobile defaults to medium, but you can play at high settings without lag or thermal throttling. Overall, we have no complaints about performance; the M2 Pro certainly beats its price here.

The Poco M2 Pro includes a massive 5,000 mAh battery, which can help you get through an entire day and more. There's not much to say about the M2 Pro's battery, other than the fact that it's one of the best in this segment.

Another "Pro" in the Poco corner is the 33W fast charge adapter included in the box, which allows you to recharge your phone in about an hour and 20 minutes.

software

The phone runs the MIUI 11 based on Android 10 with the Poco launcher. Not much has changed since the Poco X2 on the software front. While browsing is fairly smooth with some customizations, MIUI 11 is still plagued with bloatware. Many third-party apps can be uninstalled, but stock MIUI apps are here to stay.

This phone has Poco Launcher instead of the default MIUI Launcher; The latter adds some versatility, such as an app drawer, as well as smart app categorization. It is safe to say that the main complaint with MIUI is "spam". We were glad to see that "advertising spam" was not a problem on the Poco M2 Pro.

Our overall MIUI experience on the Poco M2 Pro was quite satisfactory; We believe that Xiaomi Mi 10 can also learn a couple of lessons on the Poco software front.

Camera Performance POCO M2 Pro Daylight

Poco M2 Pro can take attractive photos in well-lit, daytime environments with near-natural colors. Close-ups are as good as you'd expect on a phone in this price range with lots of detail and attractive bokeh. However, if you enlarge some images, you will be able to distinguish the noise input around the edges and for objects at a distance. The main camera has decent dynamic range with good detail in shadow regions, and generally does a fair job of highlighting the object's textures.

The 2X digital zoom works well if you have a steady hand as it can deliver images with good clarity but with some noise in the frame, once again depending on how well the environment is lit. Autofocus is snappy and you can quickly acquire focus, which is great.

Pro Color mode increases saturation levels for a more vivid image, but if you prefer natural colors, it's best to keep this mode off.

Then the ultra wide-angle camera does a decent job creating wide-frame images, but the images often have a warmer tone with low saturation and are not in line with the colors produced by the main camera.

Details are often missing in ultra-wide images, especially in the corners. That said, the images are quite usable, it just takes a few tweaks to make them Instagram-worthy.

The M2 Pro's 5MP macro camera can create well-detailed close-up images, however, it is an unpredictable affair due to the shallow focus plane that is difficult to acquire when automatically focusing on an object. On the other hand, if the subject is stable and there isn't much movement in the frame, the macro lens can surely create a detailed image, albeit with noise around the edges and less vibrant colors.

Lowlight POCO M2 Pro Camera Performance

Low-light camera performance is where most smartphone cameras in this budget fail to make a distinctive mark. The same goes for the Poco M2 Pro, as it creates images with a lot of noise, low lights, without much detail and sometimes with faded colors. Night mode in the camera app optimizes the phone's performance in low light, but the details aren't as pronounced as you'd expect. It improves the exposure level, adjusts the white balance and makes the textures in the image appear sharper than in normal mode.

Night mode also works with the ultra-wide-angle camera, however, images taken in this mode came out grainy with very low sharpness and in-frame detail along with exaggerated reflections.

48MP Resolution Images

Poco M2 Pro does a decent job producing 48MP high-resolution photos. It's not great and it's something you'll use frequently, but it works anyway. 48MP mode allows the camera to create an image without pixel grouping at 8000 x 6000 resolution.

Images taken in this mode had natural-looking colors with more detail than the 12MP clustered image, even at 100% crop.

Selfie POCO M2 Pro Camera Performance

The front 16MP selfie camera can produce some attractive photos with accurate colors and great details. We refrained from using the built-in beautification mode as we found it to be a bit aggressive in image processing.

There's a vertical self-portrait mode that creates an artificial bokeh effect, as well as a night mode for the front camera. Overall, the M2 Pro has a decent selfie camera that will deliver great images in daylight or in a well-lit environment.

Poco M2 Pro follows the same proven formula as its distant cousin and offers a good four-camera setup at an affordable price. The cameras work well during the day, but cannot deliver attractive images at night or in a low-light environment. The M2 Pro is best for people who want to upgrade to a mid-range phone, and that's where the versatility of the cameras shines through. If you are taking photos in good lighting conditions, cameras will rarely disappoint you with the results. However, don't expect too much from the phone when shooting in low light situations and you'll be fine with the images it creates.