Poco X3 Pro: Raw power at Rs 18,999 comes with thermal trade-offs

Poco has built its reputation on a simple formula: pack cutting-edge hardware into phones that cost less than everyone expects them to. The Poco X3 Pro, arriving at Rs 18,999 for the base 6GB/128GB model, is the latest expression of that philosophy—and it's the most powerful phone you can buy under 20,000 rupees in India right now. The device houses a Snapdragon 860 processor, which is essentially a tweaked and overclocked version of the 2019 Snapdragon 855 Plus, paired with UFS 3.1 storage. Neither component is brand new, but the combination at this price point is genuinely rare. This is the first phone in its price bracket to offer both.

The appeal is immediate and visceral for anyone who games on a budget. The Poco X3 Pro can run Genshin Impact at medium settings and Call of Duty: Mobile fully maxed out, delivering steady 60-frame-per-second performance that would have seemed impossible in this price range just months ago. The Adreno 640 GPU handles the load, though it does throttle occasionally. For someone wanting to dip into competitive mobile gaming without spending significantly more, this phone opens a door that was previously closed. The device supports up to 8GB of RAM and expandable storage up to 1TB via a hybrid slot, giving users flexibility that feels generous at the price.

But power comes with a cost, and in this case, it's heat. The Snapdragon 860, like its siblings the 870 and 888, runs hot under stress. Poco equipped the phone with a cooling system called Liquid Cool Plus, but it appears to be the same system from the less powerful Poco X3, and it simply can't manage the thermal load for long. During extended gaming sessions, the phone becomes uncomfortably warm to hold. This is not a minor inconvenience—it's a genuine trade-off that buyers need to understand before committing.

Beyond gaming, the Poco X3 Pro largely retreads familiar ground. The design carries over the dual-tone aesthetic from its predecessor, complete with the bold, pill-shaped camera module and a recessed side-mounted fingerprint reader that works quickly and reliably. Poco did reduce the battery from 6,000mAh to 5,160mAh in an attempt to address complaints about the phone's heft, but the result is underwhelming. The device still weighs nearly 215 grams and measures 9.5mm thick—it remains an all-plastic phone that feels substantial in hand, and the smaller battery means it doesn't last as long as the original X3. The 6.67-inch IPS LCD display is unchanged: 1080p resolution, dynamic 120Hz refresh rate with 240Hz touch sampling. It's functional but unremarkable. The panel doesn't get particularly bright, colors appear muted, and viewing angles could be better. Compared to the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max, the screen looks seriously outmatched.

The camera situation is puzzling and disappointing. The original Poco X3 had a competitive camera setup for a gaming phone, but the Pro version steps backward. The main sensor dropped from 64MP to 48MP, the ultra-wide from 13MP to 8MP, and the phone now carries two 2MP cameras for depth and macro work. The 48MP Sony IMX582 sensor captures acceptable shots in good light, but detail and dynamic range fall short of what you'd expect. The ultra-wide lacks color consistency with the main camera. Portraits come out well with good subject separation and background blur, but low-light photography is disappointing, hampered by aggressive noise reduction. Video tops out at 4K recording at 30 frames per second. The 20MP front camera is identical to the X3's and takes decent selfies in good lighting.

Software represents another area where Poco is struggling to differentiate itself. MIUI for Poco avoids the aggressive advertising that plagues Redmi phones, which is appreciated, but the operating system is showing its age. It's essentially MIUI with a Poco launcher, and as Xiaomi has borrowed many of Poco's features—including the app drawer and Google feed—there's little left to distinguish it. The software has grown buggier and bloatier over time, and there's no clear roadmap for future updates. The review unit shipped with MIUI 12.0.5 and the April security patch, while cheaper Redmi phones like the Note 10S had already reached MIUI 12.5.4. This lack of update clarity is a real concern for a phone positioned as a long-term investment.

The Poco X3 Pro succeeds at what it sets out to do: deliver gaming performance at an unprecedented price. For someone whose primary use case is mobile gaming, this phone is genuinely hard to beat. But it's a phone built around a single strength, and that strength comes with thermal compromises. The cameras are weaker than the previous generation, the software story is muddled, and there's no 5G support—a notable omission given that the Snapdragon 860 can technically support 5G with an external modem. Poco built its legend on the Poco F1, a phone that felt like a complete package despite its flaws. The X3 Pro is powerful, but it's also a phone that asks you to accept significant trade-offs in exchange for gaming prowess. Whether that's a fair bargain depends entirely on what you plan to do with it.