Poco X3 GT Review: Best Budget Gaming phone just got even better!

Poco X3 GT is the latest smartphone from Xiaomi's global brand which has been releasing i phone afterwards another in 2021. Earlier in jump, nosotros reviewed the fantabulous Poco F3 and Poco X3 Pro which was an excellent follow-up to the earlier Poco X3 NFC.

With the Poco X3 GT, it seems that Xiaomi decided to nautical chart a slightly unlike course from the prior X3 devices. The round camera assortment at the dorsum is gone and we at present get a rectangluar array in the top left corner. This layout is more 2021 but as well more generic-looking in my opinion.

Poco kept a lot of the X3 components in the newer X3 GT but instead of a Snapdragon this time effectually there is a MediaTek Dimensity 1100 series processor. Almost of the other tweaks likewise the photographic camera array and processor are pocket-sized simply yet event in a quite capable handset. At this betoken in Poco'due south journey, information technology has the luxury of looking through Xiaomi's very large parts bin to mix and lucifer various components in gild to hitting the correct performance to price ratio. And the Poco X3 GT is basically a direct output of this corporate parts bin raiding practise.

So let'south swoop into the total review to see if all the various tweaks past Poco/Xiaomi add up to make the Poco X3 GT worthy of your difficult-earned money or not.

Poco X3 GT Unboxing

At this bespeak, all of Poco devices have the familiar blackness outer box with a xanthous insert. The insert has a TPU instance, SIM tool, headphone jack dongle, and some paperwork. Below the insert is the Stargaze Blackness Poco X3 GT. For some bizarre Marketing/PR reason, we reviewers never get the colorful units for review. Information technology is always the black color model without fail. Below the phone are a hefty USB-C charging cable and a 67W fast-charging brick. Since this is a pre-production unit there was no factory applied movie screen protector but I doubtable the retail units volition have one.

At present that at that place is a 67W charging brick in the box yous may not need to lug around a split up charger for your laptop or Chromebook then that is quite squeamish.

Design is now more similar to Redmi Note 10 series

The Poco X3 GT loses the circular camera array which was unique to the X3 series. Also gone is the color-shifting backplate with the hashed lines. Instead, we have a rectangular photographic camera array that is like in pattern language to the one on the Redmi Note ten Pro.

I exercise like the color-shifting glossy backplate with a light to dark gradient from top to bottom. Some other interesting feature is a glitter that starts at near halfway and continues towards the bottom end of the backplate. This results in like stars in the sky at twilight type look – you practise have to await hard for this event though. Simply I call back this is why Poco calls this color Stargaze Black.

In that location are a few other tweaks differences compared to the X3 Pro as well. The fingerprint scanner/ability push button is at present raised instead of being recessed on the correct-hand side rail. On the top, we even so get the IR equalizer and the second microphone but in that location is also a speaker grille. The left-hand side runway still has the dual SIM carte tray slot. The big change on the lesser rail is the removal of the headphone jack.

Poco X3 GT has the aforementioned 120Hz LCD display with a center hole punch for the selfie camera. There is however Gorilla Glass Victus now protecting the front brandish which is a nice upgrade.

There is IP53 splash protection built-in which is practiced to run across in a lower mid-range device. A 67W fast charging brick is a nice add-on. I retrieve Poco did a reasonable chore of making the tweaks – extra speaker grille, mainstream camera array layout, Gorilla Glass Victus to proper name a few. I do not endorse the removal of the headphone jack but in Poco's defense force, they practice include the headphone jack dongle for free. Overall the design changes upshot in a muted but extremely functional smartphone.

Display is great simply Poco should have gone AMOLED road

Lately, most of the Xiaomi devices accept a high refresh rate AMOLED display. And then getting the Poco X3 GT with the aforementioned high refresh rate LCD panel every bit the Poco X3 Pro was a fleck of a downer.

The brandish is now slightly smaller 6.6 inches vis half dozen.67 inches. Merely we however get 1080 x 2340 FHD+ resolution (395ppi) and HDR10 compatibility. The IPS LCD screen has an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate with a higher 240Hz touch sampling rate. In that location is an pick in the settings to toggle the refresh rate down to 60Hz for increased battery life. For this review, I left the display refresh rate at 120Hz.

Let's talk about some positive aspects of the LCD display. This is an HDR10-uniform 120Hz refresh rate IPS LCD with pretty good color accuracy. And information technology does become plenty bright for reasonably good outdoor visibility and a decent contrast ratio of 1400:1. But next yous can come across how much ameliorate the 90Hz AMOLED display panel on the Mi 11 Light is which is roughly the aforementioned toll equally the Poco X3 GT.

I think the brandish is fine in general but Poco should have opted for the AMOLED panel in a smartphone bearing the GT moniker.

MediaTek Dimensity 1100 delivers great performance on the Poco X3 GT

One big modify from the previous X3 device is the processor powering the Poco X3 GT. Gone is the Snapdragon 860 and instead nosotros get the new MediaTek Dimensity 1100. However, the change from Snapdragon 860 to the Dimensity 1100 does not event in any loss from a benchmark performance standpoint.

Speaking of benchmarks, on AnTuTu (v8) the X3 GT scores 506800 versus 453223 for the X3 Pro. While on GeekBench (v5.1) multi-core score of 2892 is higher than that of the X3 Pro's 2575. So actually in that location is a reasonable bump in functioning. Kudos to Poco for bumping the processor performance with this new iteration.

Thankfully at that place is no alter in the GFXBench (ES 3.1 onscreen) test where the X3 GT nonetheless gets 38fps just similar its predecessor. And so yous volition continue to become impressive performance when playing PUBG or Genshin Impact.

Storage is still UFS 3.1 which is a good thing and the base of operations model comes with 128GB which is kinda necessary since the micro SD carte du jour slot is gone. My review unit of measurement came with the 256GB storage option. I propose that yous get the higher storage version if you lot currently exercise utilize a micro SD card.

In summary, you become better performance at present only lose the option for expandable storage so overall things are a wash in terms of operation in my opinion.

MIUI 12.five is good but some quirks still remain

My review unit is running MIUI 12.5.2 which is Android 11 and has the June 2021 security patch. There is an extensive amount of Google integration which works quite smoothly on the Poco X3 GT. Telephone, Letters, Contacts, Google Detect Feed are all identical to my daily commuter which is a Pixel 4a 5G.

As usual, in that location's a little bit of bloatware but you tin uninstall every single app without any hassle which is nice. I would rather Poco not put whatever unwanted apps but nosotros'll save that for some other day. Unlike some previous Poco devices, I did non encounter too many annoying ads within the UI.

At that place is an app drawer and on the Poco devices, MIUI automatically organizes your apps into categories. The first category is 'All', pregnant it has every single app on the phone. Then follow Communication, Entertainment, Photography, Tools, New, and Business. If you don't similar this you lot can edit these categories or even disable them birthday. I just ignored this aspect during my review period.

Notifications on MIUI 12 by default mimick what the iPhones do. You access them in the same way as on an iPhone, pull down from the pinnacle left role of the screen for the Notification Center, pull downwards from the correct for the Control Center. If you like the Android version look then information technology is better to just disable the Control Centre.

Software-wise at that place are more than options than y'all will ever need or use but Poco gives you enough options and so that you tin can tweak MIUI to your middle's content. If yous already have a Xiaomi/Poco device, you will feel right at home with MIUI 12.five.

Battery life is still excellent despite a slightly smaller cell capacity

There is a 5000 mAh battery onboard which is slightly smaller than the 5160 mAh cell on the Poco X3 Pro. Only the Dimensity 1100 is a 6nm processor which results in good power efficiency.

During my review period, I consistently saw Screen-on-Time of half dozen+ hours which translated to charging the phone every other day. On days where at that place was a scrap more gaming the phone still lasted a full 24-hour interval without any hassle.

And the large story here is that peak-up times are excellent at present with the 67W fast charging brick included in the box. While Samsung is busy removing charging bricks from its boxes, Poco is basically giving you a free laptop charger in the box which I think is just crawly. You lot can fully accuse the phone in under 50 minutes and get a 75% charge in merely half an 60 minutes. Those are some pretty fast recharging times indeed.

From a battery life and recharging perspective I recall Poco X3 GT is right at the top of the segment it competes in.

Audio quality is excellent merely the headphone jack is gone

Poco X3 Pro released earlier in 2021 brought back the headphone jack but only 4 months later Poco decided to opposite that decision. So while we get JBL tuned dual speakers – which sound amazing by the fashion – we lost the headphone jack on the Poco X3 GT.

The speaker audio output is great thanks to a split grille on the top rails for the acme speaker. Audio output via the USB-C port (using the dongle in the box) is bully as well. The same goes for audio output via Bluetooth. Nevertheless, the loss of the headphone jack is a bit wearisome.

In some other twist, the Dolby Atmos support returns on the Poco X3 GT afterward losing it on the X3 Pro. And so the theme of calculation one thing and subtracting another continues in the audio department besides.

In curt, the X3 GT has peachy speakers, loud but balanced sound, JBL tuning, Dolby Atmos back up and no headphone jack.

Cameras become an upgrade and that is a proficient thing

The Poco X3 GT features a triple-camera that's placed on a rather large rectangle in the back on the summit left corner. At that place is a 64MP chief photographic camera, an 8MP ultrawide, and a 2MP macro camera. Both the main and ultrawide cameras are better than the prior version. Fifty-fifty the flash is at present dual-LED dual-tone which is a small upgrade.

Essentially the main and ultrawide cameras are now from the Mi 11 Lite serial. The chief 64MP camera has a 1/ii″ OmniVision OV64B sensor with a Quad-Bayer filter. The sensor has 0.7µm pixels and sits behind a 26mm f/1.79 lens. The main photographic camera supports PDAF merely does not have optical image stabilization. Another thing to note is that at that place is 4:one pixel binning so essentially you lot get a 16MP flick from the main photographic camera.

The ultrawide camera is an 8MP i/4″ Sony IMX355 sensor with an ultrawide-angle 16mm f/2.2 lens. And the last macro camera is a 2MP sensor which is the merely bear-over camera from the X3 Pro. The 2MP depth sensor on the X3 Pro is gone and frankly speaking you will not miss it much on the X3 GT. The selfie camera goes downward from 20MP to 16MP likewise to lucifer what is on the Mi xi Lite.

Photograph quality from the chief camera is excellent

The default 16MP photos from the master camera are probably some of the best you tin arrive the mid-range segment. Photos have plenty of detail, expert colour accurateness and overall results are natural-looking. In some instances, the algorithm is a bit aggressive in terms of sharpening. However, this doesn't happen all the time then overall results in betoken and shoot mode are quite adept.

There is no telephoto lens just if you use the 64MP mode and so crop in digitally results are more acceptable. I of the few devices where using the higher resolution mode actually yields useful results. Note that this feature works well in good outdoor lighting. In night weather, you will only consume more than of the storage on your phone with no incremental do good to movie quality.

Portrait shots from the main photographic camera are more than than acceptable. Removal of the depth sensor doesn't affect the portrait shot quality one scrap. Colors are good, separation between subject and background is quite decent. Edge detection and false blur are in line with what you lot can await from a device in this segment.

Night mode results from the camera also dial way above the mid-range category. Transmission nighttime mode works well and you become better highlights and colour saturation but lose a bit of sharpness in commutation.

Overall I would argue that Poco/Xiaomi have some of the best pictures in terms of master camera operation outside of Pixel and Samsung.

Ultrawide functioning is adequate

The Poco X3 GT takes decent 8MP ultrawide pictures. There is a reasonable corporeality of item since the sensor is small in contrast to the master camera. Pictures have practiced contrast, decent dynamic range, and noise is on the low side. Color accuracy is non as proficient every bit the main camera which is a consistent Poco/Xiaomi theme for some reason. That said overall ultrawide pictures are decent enough for general social media sharing.

Accept a await at the pictures in the Photo Gallery below to decide for yourself.

Poco X3 GT Camera Samples - Flickr Gallery

Selfies and video performance are satisfactory

The Poco X3 GT snaps natural-looking selfies when the lighting weather are good. There is expert colour and contrast in pictures but they lack in detail while the dynamic range is average.

Ii means to overcome the selfie camera results. First, at that place is contrary upscaling with the selfie camera so resizing the pictures downwardly to 4MP is likely to yield better results. The second is to ensure that lighting conditions are good then pictures do not come out soft-looking.

Portrait shots aren't that bully in terms of edge detection so it is best to try and steer articulate of it for most selfies.

The Poco X3 GT tin do 4K at 30fps, every bit well as 1080p at 30fps and 60fps using the main camera. The ultrawide can only practise 1080p at 30fps. I would avoid the macro camera as far as video recording is concerned.

Videos in 4K from the main camera expect bang-up in terms of item, sharpness, colour, and contrast. They also take proficient dynamic range and white balance. And so for everyday videos, I recommend using the main camera for videos in 4K or 1080p modes.

Now if you switch to the other cameras the resolution of the video will automatically lower the main camera resolution to that of the lowest resolution sensor that you choose. And you lot will take to adjust it manually again when yous want to use the principal camera lonely so keep that quirk in mind.

Overall I recollect the video recording performance is quite good on the Poco X3 GT.

Connectivity gets a bump upwards to 5G speeds

The switch to Dimensity 1100 means 5G speeds out of the box even in the U.s.a.. I think this is ane of the best upgrades on the X3 GT compared to the previous X3 Pro. A 5G compatible device means information technology is slightly more than future-proof.

Here in Southern California on the T-Mobile network, the Poco X3 GT performed just as well equally the Pixel 4a 5G in terms of data speeds. During vocalism calls however, the X3 GT automatically toggles on 4G way. I doubtable that this result is carrier-specific and overseas in other countries, this should non exist an consequence.

Equally usual, there are other regular connectivity items such as Bluetooth, Mi Share, Nearby Share, Cast, and IR Blaster. My review unit also includes NFC and I had no problem using Google Pay on it. Full points to Poco for having a fully-featured smartphone chock total of the latest connectivity options.

Verdict: Poco X3 GT is an fantabulous 5G gaming smartphone

Poco X3 GT has a lot of little upgrades which make information technology a worthy upgrade over the prior X3 Pro. There is a better processor onboard with 5G connectivity. The design language while being less unique is arguably more modern. Despite a slightly smaller battery, we get identical battery life and a heftier charging brick. We lose 1 2MP photographic camera but overall results from the triple camera module are better than before.

The Poco X3 GT still keeps IP53 splash protection and gets an upgraded Gorilla Glass Victus. The but two slightly deadening changes are the loss of the headphone jack and no micro SD card storage. But there as well Poco gives u.s.a. JBL tuned dual Dolby Atmos speakers and a dongle in the box. And I think with all the upgrades the overall toll is withal unchanged from X3 Pro and so you lot tin can spring for the 256GB storage for just a picayune flake more compared to the base version. For that inconvenience, yous get a lot of upgrades which should help brand the X3 GT more time to come-proof.

Poco X3 GT is an first-class smartphone with premium features at an attractive price. That sounds like a winning formula to me.