After the Poco X2, Poco launched a mid-range M2 Pro in India. It has a good set of features that the consumers look for in a value-for-money phone, but does the M2 Pro deliver the goods? Lets check it out.
Design, build quality, and display
Poco M2 Pro is quite a looker and exudes a premium feel when held in hand. The back case has a glossy dual-colour tone. The top part has a smooth finish, while the rest below the quad-camera module has angular stripes across the ends adding visual appeal to the device.
Have to say, the mid-range phone is a bit on heavier (209g) side, but the dimensions (165.75mm x 76.68mm x 8.8mm) are just right so that even the person with a small hand can fully hold on to it with less fear of dropping. And those who like me get panicky, when sensing no phone in the hand and start rushing through the pockets in the jacket, shirt, and the pant, the weight helps in self-insuring that the phone is safe and secured.
Poco M2 Pro's shell is glastic in nature, meaning the transparent like glass but made of polycarbonate materials. But, the build quality is quite good and sturdy. Furthermore, the phone has P2i nano-coating, which promises to protect it from accidental water splashes and light rain shower.
Add to that, the company is offering an additional silicone case with the retail package, and also on the front, the display is pre-fitted with a screen guard. That's a welcome initiative by Poco and I wish other brands follow the same to improve the durability of the device. The longer the phones are with the user, the stronger the loyalty gets developed between the consumer and brand.
Another advantage of owning the Poco M2 Pro is that it features a triple-slot tray on the left side and with this, users need not compromise between second SIM and extra storage. Here in the device, it can accommodate two nano SIMs and a microSD card.
On the right side, it features a very responsive side-mounted fingerprint sensor, which also doubles up as the power button. Just above it, there is a volume rocker.
On top, it has a microphone and IR blaster (for TV remote apps) and at the base, there is a 3.5mm audio jack port, Type-C USB port, a microphone and a single speaker.
On the front, it features a beautiful 6.7-inch full HD+ (2400 × 1080p) LCD display with a pixel density of 395 pixels per inch (ppi), peak brightness of 480 nits and has 20:9 aspect ratio.
Poco M2 Pro's screen is bright and I had no discerning issues viewing messaging or content while browsing indoors. Also, even under sunlight, I did not find anything pressing to complain.
Performance
Inside, it comes with a Qualcomm's Snapdragon 720G octa-core (Kryo 465 cores) processor (2.3GHz Gold – Cortex-A76 x 2 + 1.8GHz Silver – Cortex-A55 x 6) backed by Adreno 618 graphics engine, 4GB/6GB RAM (LPDDR4X dual-channel memory), 64GB/128GB storage (UFS 2.1, expandable up to 512GB).
Our Poco M2 Pro review unit came with 6GB RAM + 64GB storage and it fared well performing all day-to-day tasks such as internet browsing, video playback, and gaming, among other stuff.
The Game Turbo feature enhances the playing experience and I'd like to add, there was no over-heating during the entire testing period.
It comes with Android 10-based MIUI 11 OS out-of-the-box, but the company has released the latest MIUI 12 will a lot of interesting features. It offers smooth animations with improved details to the icons. Also, the calendar now features beautifully designed cards for every important event, dark mode support for third-party apps, and other value-added features.
Over-all, the phone worked smoothly and I found no pressing issues to complain about.
It comes with a massive 5,000mAh cell and it was able to deliver two days of battery life under normal usage and do not indulge in gaming a lot.
Even if you go on binging on multimedia content on OTT (Over-The-Top) apps or attend online classes for several hours, it will still be able to serve you the whole day without worrying about losing battery life. However, it is better to consume internet data on Wi-Fi for longer battery life, as the SIM's cellular network will drain it faster.
It can be noted that the Poco M2 Pro comes with a 33W fast charger and it powers up the device from zero to 100% in little over an hour. That's very impressive for it class. It can be noted that some phones costing more than lakh come with an 18W charger.
Camera
Poco M2 Pro houses a feature-rich quad-camera module-- 48MP main sensor (1.6μm 4-in-1, 6P lens, ƒ/1.79)+ 8MP 119-degree wide-angle (1.12μm, ƒ/2.2) sensor + 5MP macro sensor (with ƒ/2.4, AF: 2-10 cm) + 2MP depth sensor (1.75μm, ƒ/2.4) for portrait images. It supports Portrait mode with background blurring, dual pixel autofocus, single-tone flash, low light enhancement, HDR imaging, Panorama mode, burst mode, face recognition, AI Beautify, EIS for video shooting, and AI dirt detection.
In reality too, the Poco phone surprised me with crisp, sharp, and colourful images in the natural sunlight. As you can see the photo samples, they are really good for a mid-range phone.
Even the portrait and night mode images too, are really impressive. The phone was able to get most of the pictures with clear edge demarcation and also the low-light images retain the darkness of night without blowing it with artificial lighting. Another interesting aspect is that it can record multiple formats-- HD (720p), full HD (1080p), and 4K videos at 30 frames per second (fps). Also, it has slow-motion video recording capability and can capture HD and full HD at 240fps.
Also, the phone's camera is incorporated with an Artificial Intelligence(AI)-based algorithm capable of recognising 25 categories of objects and up to 206 different scenes including India specific scenes. With this, the phone can automatically and instantly optimise the camera settings to capture the best quality images at any time and place. To an extent, it worked fine and took good pictures in my uncle's garden.
On the front, Poco M2 Pro features a 16MP front camera and it supports AI portrait mode, AI detection of 10 different scenes, selfie timer, face recognition, night mode, front HDR, and Short Video, which comes handy for sharing on social media platforms like Chingari, and Instagram, among others.
The phone takes decent selfies during natural sunlight. While, in the controlled lightings in the home, it was good for a mid-range phone. Like the Xiaomi phones, Poco phone to comes loaded with a plethora of superficial filters to enhance the face beauty, good enough to share them on social media platforms.
Final thoughts
After using it for several days, I have no hesitation to say that this Poco phone is one of the best value-for-money in its class.
The Poco M2 Pro hits all the right notes in terms of features such as good display and build quality, dependable Qualcomm processor, long battery life and a decent camera.
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