POCO X3 NFC
Our editorial rating based on product testing.
- Very fast 120 Hz IPS display
- New Snapdragon 732G
- 5160 mAh battery
- 64 MPx camera delivers excellent results
- NFC chip
- IP 53 certification for enhanced resistance to water and dust
- Plastic build
- Worse night photography results
The POCO X3 NFC smartphone is a very tempting and affordable piece from the POCO sub-brand. In the mid-range segment, it offers—despite its very low price—e.g. a quality IPS display with a high refresh rate of up to 120 Hz.
The lineup also includes, for example, an NFC chip for mobile payments via Google Pay, a high-capacity battery, and a new Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G processor. Is it worth buying this smartphone? That’s what today’s review will answer.
POCO X3 NFC: Where to buy?
We purchased the POCO X3 NFC smartphone through the popular e-shop Banggood, which currently has it for the best price. It’s available right now at a discounted price.
EU Priority Line shipping is also available—customs-free—for a smaller fee. Thanks to this shipping method, you won’t pay any additional charges, since the seller takes care of everything for you.
POCO X3 NFC
DE warehouse
TIPExpress delivery from the German warehouse with no customs duty and no VAT.
This product will be delivered to you express from a local German warehouse. Delivery from Germany usually takes 7-10 days, and it’s brought by courier. When it arrives, you don’t pay any extra fees—no customs duty or VAT.
Packaging with accessories
As usual, POCO phones come in a colorful box in a blue-and-yellow color combination. The POCO X3 NFC smartphone packaging is the same—it includes the phone name and selected technical specifications.
At the top, right after unboxing, you’ll find a paper compartment with accessories. This includes a SIM / microSD eject pin, as well as a brief manual and a high-quality, hard, clear silicone case with the necessary cutouts to protect the device.
Below that, you’ll find the smartphone itself wrapped in protective film, plus a USB Type-C cable for charging. The package also includes a fast charger with a local, European plug, with power up to 33W.
Enhanced durability with IP 53 certification
POCO X3 NFC is truly a large smartphone. You can see that in its dimensions, which are 165.3 x 76.8 x 9.4 mm. The large battery capacity also shows up in the device’s weight, which is up to 215 grams overall.
As for the construction, the front is made of glass and covered with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protective glass. The side edges are rounded and made of metal, while the back is made of glossy polycarbonate material. The low price is reflected in this material—in return, you get a durable smartphone with increased resistance to water and dust with IP 53 certification.
The front of the device features a large 6,67” IPS display with standard side bezels for the price, as well as bezels above and below the display. Nothing out of the ordinary here, and the front camera is housed in the top part of the screen.
The display comes with a protective film already applied from the factory, which is a welcome plus. Above the display there’s a speaker grille for calls, which also acts as a stereo speaker when listening to media loudly. In the speaker grille, you’ll also find an LED for notifications, and below it there’s a group of sensors.
The sides are made of metal, the back is polycarbonate
The left edge has only a slot for two nanoSIM cards—it’s a hybrid slot, so you can use a combination of 1 x nanoSIM + 1 x microSD memory card.
The right edge contains buttons for volume control and the device power on/off button. This button is positioned well, is easy to feel, is elongated, and also includes a standard fingerprint reader.
The top edge features an infrared port to control your home electronics (it comes with the corresponding software). There’s also a secondary microphone for video recording, and surprisingly, there’s even a small opening for distributing stereo sound from the front speaker when you’re listening to media at high volume. It’s genuinely high-quality and loud—something especially appreciated by fans of movies and series.
The bottom side includes the very popular 3,5 mm audio connector in this class, but also a universal USB Type-C port for charging (with support for USB On-The-Go). There’s no missing a loudspeaker (it creates a stereo effect together with the speaker used for calls), and you’ll also find a primary microphone here.
There’s still the rear polycarbonate panel left. It’s glossy and has a very prominent colored stripe with the POCO logo and recycling information. In the upper part, there’s a protruding quad-camera module—it's not circular, but irregular. The module also includes an LED flash, and it can be aligned/protected with a protective case.
Display: A very fast 120 Hz IPS panel
The package includes a large 6,67” IPS LCD display with Full HD+ resolution (2400 x 1080 pixels) and an aspect ratio of 20:9. The display has a cutout for the front camera, and thanks to the narrow bezels it takes up almost 85% of the front surface. The display’s pixel density is 395 ppi.
However, the main advantage of this panel is the high refresh rate of up to 120 Hz. The low price of this smartphone and the use of this feature make it a truly unique combination on the sales market.
The difference compared to 60 Hz panels is really noticeable—the motion on the display is very smooth and fast. The smart refresh-rate switching via software and the used app is also true. This is how the manufacturer optimizes the use of this feature to achieve the resulting battery life.
HDR 10 support is not missing, plus Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protective glass and a factory-applied protective film. The manufacturer states a maximum brightness of 450 nits. With the maximum and minimum brightness levels, we were satisfied—the display was easy to read even in direct sunlight. We didn’t notice any issues even with automatic brightness adjustment.
Performance: New Snapdragon 732G
In terms of performance, you get a new mid-range to higher mid-range processor from the 700 series. Specifically, it’s an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G (2 x 2,3 GHz Kryo 470 Gold + 6 x 2,8 GHz Kryo 470 Silver) built on a 8 nm process.
This processor handles demanding multitasking and graphically intensive games at medium settings very well. You can also thank the integrated Adreno 618 GPU. For comparison with your smartphone, you can check the AnTuTu benchmark test results.
Memory: 6 GB RAM + 128 GB
Up to 6 GB of RAM ensures very smooth operation, and it’s paired with 64 or 128 GB of internal UFS 2.1 storage depending on the version. There’s also a hybrid microSD memory card slot (only 1 x SIM).
For testing, we received the version with 6 GB RAM + 128 GB storage. After the first boot, the Android system takes up about 15,5 GB. And this is the version we recommend buying as the optimal one.
Fingerprint reader in the side frame
This time, the fingerprint sensor is located on the right side edge. It’s integrated into an elongated power/lock button. It’s a standard fingerprint reader you can already recognize from some previous models.
It’s a fast sensor that recognizes your fingerprint on the first try, and even mild oiliness or moisture on your fingers isn’t an issue. The manufacturer definitely deserves praise for the sensor used—especially at the device’s low price.
In addition to the fact that the button with the sensor is positioned nicely, the real benefit is that you don’t have to press the button to unlock the device. Just place your finger on the fingerprint sensor.
Android + MIUI + POCO Launcher
On the software side, the smartphone offers a still current operating system—Android on Android 10 (10 QKQ1.200512.002)—with POCO X3 NFC.
The system is also updated with the latest security update as of 01.08.2020. That means only the September security patch is missing, which will most likely arrive with one of the next software updates in the coming weeks.
The operating system itself also comes with a major graphical overlay: MIUI Global 12.0.1 (Stable version 12.0.1.0 (QJGEUXM)). The global version is indeed significantly stripped down compared to the Chinese one, but it still offers several interesting features right away.
No new font is missing — a redesigned dark mode, though you need to enable it in your smartphone settings, and we personally also liked an interesting feature – waking up the display with a double tap on the screen.
Within the smartphone UI, you also won’t miss an apps menu. In addition to the MIUI overlay, there’s also a dedicated POCO Launcher 2.0, and this menu is part of it.
The apps menu can display apps alphabetically, but also based on usage in the top section. You can also sort into separate folders by the app’s function, and there’s even an interesting sorting option by the app icon color.
The system was very well optimized, and thanks to the fast 120 Hz display we didn’t notice any major slowdowns. Ads within the system aren’t particularly frequent—this is the standard type of display you also see on other Xiaomi smartphones, either in the Optimization app or when checking newly installed apps.
Camera: 64 MPx surprises
An equally important feature in an affordable smartphone is the camera. This model offers a main 64 MPx (f/1.9) sensor from Sony, placed in the protruding module on the back, and it’s also complemented by three additional sensors.
Specifically, it’s a 13 MPx (f/2.2) ultra-wide sensor, a 2 MPx (f/2.4) macro sensor, and a 2 MPx (f/2.4) depth sensor. There’s also a dual LED flash, modes like panorama and vlog (trimmed short clips with music), as well as HDR. You can record video from the rear camera in 4K resolution (30 fps). However, for stabilization, it’s better to use the 1080p resolution.
The front camera is very good—it offers up to 20 MPx (f/2.2), with HDR support and panorama, plus recording 1080p video (30 fps). The front-camera shots were sharp and delivered true-to-life colors. This camera is ideal for various video calls when working from home or from the office.
If we look at the photo capabilities of the rear cameras, photos from the main 64 MPx camera clearly dominate. Daylight shots are sharp and have a sufficiently high level of detail and depth of field.
Original photos in full resolution are available at the following link.
However, you also won’t be disappointed by the ultra-wide sensor: its images are definitely usable in daylight—at least for social media. The depth sensor also does its job, especially in portrait mode where it effectively blurs the background. The macro sensor delivered weaker results; those photos lacked detail.
When it comes to taking photos in nighttime or evening lighting conditions, for both the main and ultra-wide sensors the rule applies: the less light, the more noise the resulting photo has. The same is true for photos taken near sunrise.
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.1 and NFC
In terms of connectivity, this is a very well-equipped smartphone. It doesn’t miss support for 4G / LTE, including LTE-A technology (channels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28, 38, 40, 41). You’ll also appreciate dual-band Wi‑Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac with support for Wi‑Fi Direct and hotspot functionality.
For connecting accessories, there’s Bluetooth 5.1 LE with A2DP support. The equipment also includes integrated GPS (with A-GPS support), as well as GLONASS and BDS technologies.
A very welcome feature is the built-in NFC chip. You can use it, for example, for contactless payments via Google Pay. We tested the payment with this smartphone and it worked quickly and without any issues. There’s also an infrared port for controlling electronics, plus an FM radio with recording.
A 5160 mAh battery can handle a lot
The manufacturer equipped the POCO X3 NFC smartphone with a battery offering a total capacity of up to 5160 mAh. Besides the resulting battery life, this high capacity is also reflected in the device’s higher weight and thickness. On the other hand, the box includes a 33W charger for fast wired charging via a USB Type-C connector.
According to the manufacturer’s data, it should be possible to charge such a large battery up to 62% in 30 minutes, while going from 0 to full capacity will take 65 minutes. That’s definitely not a bad figure and it matches real testing. The battery life per charge is also very good—it ranges from 1 to 2 working days depending on use (7 hours of the display turned on).
Thanks to good software optimization, an efficient processor, and smart adjustments to the refresh rate, the smartphone had no problem handling a full workday. In our case, it didn’t lack actively using social media, hourly phone calls, hourly watching 1080p videos, or occasional photography.
Final verdict: The best you can get for the low price.
POCO X3 NFC is truly an excellent smartphone—without any exaggerated superlatives. For its low price, it delivers very good specs, a 120 Hz IPS display, a solid camera, and genuinely high battery capacity.
If you’re looking for a smartphone in the price range of around 200 €, you probably won’t find a better set-up—or a better price/performance ratio—on the current sales market. So we definitely recommend buying this smartphone.
POCO X3 NFC
DE warehouseTIPExpress delivery from the German warehouse with no customs duty and no VAT.
This product will be delivered to you express from a local German warehouse. Delivery from Germany usually takes 7-10 days, and it’s brought by courier. When it arrives, you don’t pay any extra fees—no customs duty or VAT.
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