Poco X2 review: Best phone under Rs 20,000? 

The Poco X2 has been a long time coming and while it isn’t really what you’d expected, it’s still got almost every ingredient in the book to make it fly. Off the shelves and into your hands. And that is all that really matters. This is the first Poco phone to launch under newly spun-off ‘brand’ Poco and the second phone to launch under the Poco branding after the very popular Poco F1. But before we dig any deeper, you must know two things. The Poco X2 is not a successor to the Poco F1 and it is most certainly a rebranded Redmi K30 for India. 

While the Poco F1 was all about everything you needed and nothing you didn’t, the Poco X2 seems all about sheer extravagance. In almost all the departments. It’s rocking a near all-glass body, a segment first 120Hz display, 64MP quad rear plus dual selfie punch hole cameras, a fast and efficient Qualcomm chip designed for high-end gaming on a budget, lots of RAM and storage, and a whopping 4,500mAh battery with 27W fast charging – compliant charger in the box. That’s a lot of smartphone, especially for the price. 

Poco has launched the Poco X2 in India at a starting price of Rs 15,999 for the base model with 6GB RAM and 64GB storage going all the way to Rs 19,999 for the top-end model with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. There will also be a model of the Poco X2 with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage for Rs 16,999. 

There is no doubt that the Poco X2 is invariably a contender for the best smartphone under Rs 20,000 – at least on paper. But is it really, in the real world? Let’s find out. 

Design and build quality 

Unlike Poco’s first phone, its second offering seems designed from ground up to grab attention. The Poco X2 with its near all glass build is a phone that screams 2020 from every nook and cranny. It’s not as flashy as the Redmi K20. It's not as toned down as the relatively smarter looking Redmi Note 8 Pro either. It’s something in between – and that’s a good thing.  

The back boasts of curved Corning Gorilla Glass 5 that sort of melts into the sides – which is plastic, by the way. It’s plain and simple at the bottom half, while the upper half sees the ‘brand’ drawing some inspiration from Huawei’s Mate 30 phones. The vertically aligned camera module is housed ‘strategically’ inside a patch of light refracting circle that has a shimmery effect making this area stand out from the rest of the phone. 

The Poco X2 will be available in three fancy light-bending colors - Atlantis Blue, Matrix Purple and Phoenix Red. The Matrix Purple version that I have been reviewing looks nice, with a satin-like finish that sets it apart from others in its price range. The blue and red versions look more familiar. Be that as it may, Poco has done a good job here, whether it be with the choice of materials or all-round fit and finish.  

The Poco X2 by no means is a small phone. At 8.8mm and 208g, it’s not very slim or light either, something that you’ll have to get used to. But like a typical Xiaomi phone, the Poco X2 also has a well-balanced distribution of weight so you’ll probably get used to it sooner. Poco has opted for a side-mounted fingerprint scanner in the Poco X2. It’s fast and reliable but its recessed positioning is again something that you’ll have to get used to. The volume rocker is placed meanwhile placed just right so reaching out to it isn’t a task. The buttons have good tactile feedback too.  

Display 

The Poco X2, like the Redmi Note 8 Pro, uses an IPS LCD panel which is a bit of a letdown at a time when rival phones like the Realme X2 are offering OLED. So yes, this is one area where the Poco X2 will seem lacking. But the Poco X2 more than compensates for it by offering a segment-first 120Hz display.  

On any given day, the 6.67-inch 1080p+ display of the Poco X2 gets sufficiently bright and viewing angles are quite good too. Colors are nice and pleasing. As for that high refresh rate, that’s an experience that needs to be felt in person. It’s difficult to put into words but I'll still try. Scree refresh rate is essentially how fast the screen can refresh and load an image. This is set to 60Hz in most phones. 

In the Poco X2, which has a 120Hz display, the screen is capable of rendering images 120 times per second – sort of like the iPad Pro or the Asus ROG Phone II. This should theoretically entail in a more fluid motion – over a standard 60Hz display phone – while scrolling. Animations would tend to be faster too. In layman’s terms, a phone with a 120Hz display paired with the right hardware, will be faster and smoother than a phone with a conventional 60Hz display. 

The Poco X2 is, as a result, fast and smooth too. But, it’s not perfect. There are instances every now and there where it doesn’t feel fast and smooth. It feels jittery instead. Now it does not happen all the time, but when it does, you’re bound to notice it. This seems like a software thing. Poco has had a good track record with updates so far, so I am hopeful, a fix should be on the horizon. For nor, Poco does give you an option to tone things down to 60Hz as and when required, so you can choose to use the Poco X2 as a conventional phone should the 120Hz experience feels unsatisfactory.  

Elsewhere, the screen of the Poco X2 is HDR 10-certified, something that you rarely get in budget phones. The phone also ships with Widevine L1 support out-of-the-box – unlike the first Poco phone that well in fact started the whole debate around the lack thereof. There are two ‘separate’ punch holes at the top right, something that you’ll have to get used to while watching content/playing games on the Poco X2. The screen is further protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5.  

Performance and battery life 

The Poco X2 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G processor. The gaming centric Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G is built on an 8nm manufacturing process. More specifically, the Snapdragon 730G boasts of an 8-core CPU - two 'big' Kryo 470 cores based on ARM Cortex-A76 clocked at 2.2 GHz and six 'small' power-efficient cores based on Cortex-A55 clocked at 1.8GHz. The SoC has an Adreno 618 GPU. It’s a tried and tested hardware we’ve already seen inside phones like the Realme X2 and Redmi K20 and it works as efficiently here as well.  

The Poco X2 performs like a champion, in real world scenarios, be it at basic tasks or high-end gaming. There’s also Xiaomi’s handy little Game Turbo here that helps optimize resources so you can get the most out of your game – in addition to letting you view game stats like FPS count so you can tweak settings accordingly. All in all, save the minor stutters you get here and there in the UI, there’s nothing really to complain here. Those waiting for Poco to launch a true blue Poco F1 successor will have to look elsewhere – the Poco F1 still remains the most powerful phone South of Rs 20,000.  

The Snapdragon 730G’s ‘efficiency’ also reflects in the Poco X2’s battery life. The Poco X2 packs a sizeable 4,500mAh battery and is easily a one-day phone even with its refresh rate set to full 120Hz. Toning things down further should get you even more. The Poco X2 supports 27W fast charging and tops up in around 1 hour 10 minutes using the compliant charger which is bundled in the box – which is fantastic. 

Quick pointers on Poco X2 as an everyday phone - 

-- The Poco X2 comes in 6GB RAM/64GB, 6GB/128GB and 8GB/256GB configurations. That's LPDDR4X RAM and UFS2.1 storage. Which means, everything runs fast almost all the time. The Poco X2 also supports expandable storage via a hybrid micro-SD card slot. 

-- Software inside the phone is Android 10-based MIUI 11 with custom Poco launcher (with an app drawer interface) - and no ads. There are however lots of unwanted apps or bloatware and most of them push notifications, like a lot, something that can be annoying.  

-- The Poco X2 has a mono speaker out that gets loud and metes out clear audio even at maxed out volume. There’s also a 3.5mm audio jack for wired audio. 

-- Phone calls made with the Poco X2 are of acceptable quality across the board – nothing really to complain here. The dual SIM phone supports dual 4G VoLTE. 

-- There is an IR blaster on the phone. 

Camera 

The Poco X2 boasts of four rear cameras. It has a 64MP Sony IMX686 main sensor, which is Sony’s equivalent to Samsung’s 64MP GW1 sensor. This is paired with an 8MP ultrawide-angle camera with a 120-degree field-of-view, a 2MP dedicated macro and 2MP depth camera to complete the package. Those keeping a track will know, this is a camera setup very similar to what you get in the Redmi Note 8 Pro, with the only difference being that Xiaomi’s phone uses Samsung’s 64MP GW1 sensor.  

The Poco X2 is a fine example to show how not all camera sensors (with the same megapixel count and based on the same principle) are created equal. The Poco X2 with a Sony 64MP sensor is better than the Redmi Note 8 Pro with a Samsung 64MP camera – but only marginally.  

The Poco X2’s main camera can capture some well detailed photos with good dynamic range in well-lit situations – at both native 16MP and high-res 64MP. I like that even though there’s plenty of post-processing/over sharpening happening in the background, the Poco X2 photos come out true to life/natural than say the Redmi K20s, or even the Realme X2. Shooting at 64MP gives you the added flexibility of cropping and getting closer to a subject without much loss in detail. The main camera also does well in tricky and low light (at 16MP) provided you are super steady. Xiaomi’s long-exposure night mode can help shoot brighter, more detailed photos in low light, better than rival phones in an around its price point. 

The 8MP wide-angle camera meanwhile offers a wider perspective so you can capture a lot more of your subject, but its quality is nothing to write home about especially in low light. Additionally, the Poco X2 does portraits really well, and good macros in good lighting.  

On the front, the Poco X2 has a 20MP main and a 2MP dedicated depth or portrait camera. The main selfie camera gets the job done but the phone’s beautification algorithm can be so aggressive at times, it can destroy detail in almost all the lighting scenarios. You’ll be better off toning it all the way down for better results. Portraits shot with the dedicated 2MP camera are best in class though. 

Should you buy the Poco X2? 

The Poco X2 maybe coming from a newly independent Poco brand, but it’s still very much a Xiaomi phone at heart. That’s both a good thing as well as bad. As with all things Xiaomi, the Poco X2 also punches way above its weight for its price, in all the departments that make a smartphone tick. It looks and feels premium, it has a fast display, it performs very well, it has capable cameras, and it has fantastic battery life. What more could you ask for? 

But here’s the thing. While the Poco F1 was new and different for its time, the Poco X2 is just another value for money phone among a slew of other value for money phones. The Poco F1 is still a recommended buy after nearly one and a half years of launch – it was so special. Is the Poco X2 as special? Not really. Fans would know. Hopefully, a Poco F2 would change that – it's coming soon, so stay tuned for more.  

As for the Poco X2, it is clearly one of the best phones that you can get under Rs 20,000 today and should definitely be in your list when you’re out looking to buy a new phone in this segment.  

(Photos by Saurabh Singh)

Also Read:  Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro Review: This Smartphone Will Surprise You