POCO C85: A strong package with some rough edges

Poco’s C series is known for offering some pretty powerful and specs in the budget category, and the Poco C85 largely sticks to that formula. It has a refreshed design over the previous generations a slightly larger display, a better IP rating, and a noticeably bigger battery. I’ve been using the purple variant for the past three days, and while the formula feels familiar, a few surprises along the way genuinely caught me off guard, especially when you consider that the C85 starts at ₹11,999. Here’s what I made of the C85.

Design: A tidier look 

Poco C85 gets a proper grooming this year with a new, refreshed design. The camera bump has been changed from a circular camera module to a square camera module, tucked into the top left corner. The protruding camera is so subtle that the phone won’t wobble. Another impressive thing is the dual-toned design on the rear, with the bold Poco branding, which gives it some personality for sure. 

It comes in 3 color variants: green, black, and purple, the variant that we tested. Despite its 205g weight, carrying the phone is easy and doesn’t feel heavy at all. And, the 7.99mm frame sits comfortably in the hand. Since the frames are flat, they give a good grip and a good in-hand feel as well. The only downside I feel is the back made of plastic, but because it’s a budget phone, that’s totally acceptable. 

You get basics right: a USB Type-C 2.0 charging port, a 3.5mm jack, and a nano speaker grille. And speaking of speakers, you get mono speakers on the C85. This would have been fine, but competitors like Moto G57 Power comes with stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos, so Poco could step up in this arena. There is a power button towards the right side, along with volume rockers, and a hybrid nano SIM tray along with microSD card support. 

Display: Bigger and better 

The Poco C85 gets a 6.9-inch HD+ IPS LCD, slightly bigger than the 6.8-inch display of the Poco C75. The 120Hz refresh rate is the real star of the show, which makes navigating the UI pretty smooth, mostly switching between 60Hz and 120Hz. 

Colour reproduction is decent, sharp enough for everyday viewing, though not calibrated for accuracy. Netflix lacks HDR support, although YouTube streams at 1080p without issue.
But, overall, you will enjoy watching content on the phone despite the IPS LCD panel. It is a fairly lit display that features a 660-nit typical and 810 HBM, upgraded from the 450-nit typical and 600-nit HBM on C75. 

Moving on to the protection, you get an IP64 rating, which means it’s pretty sorted against water droplets and dust. The side-mounted fingerprint sensor is snappy, and the haptics are surprisingly refined for this segment.

Performance & Software Experience: Scope for improvement 

Under the hood, Poco C85 packs a Mediatek Helio G81 Ultra processor with three RAM options: 4GB, 6GB, and 8GB RAM. For storage, there are 128GB and 256GB. 
The chipset isn’t meant for gaming, and benchmarks echo that. It scored 574,456 on AnTuTu, with Geekbench posting 731 (single-core) and 1,972 (multi-core). These numbers may not be that impressive, but for the price range, they are pretty consistent. 

In real-world usage, I played Genshin Impact for 30 minutes, thrice on the phone; it was not as smooth as I would expect, but it wasn’t bad either, and there were no heating issues as such, and no lags either, which is what people usually complain about. The only issue I faced was that the app loading was slightly slower than I expected. However, it is not a gaming phone, so I would give this a pass. 

Moving on to the software, the Poco C85 ships with HyperOS 2.0 based on Android 15. Personally, I am not a HyperOS fan; it looks outdated and slightly cluttered because of the UI. However, you can choose between the app drawer and the classic option and change fonts, icons, etc, to mitigate that to an extent. There is bloatware, but it can be uninstalled. But you also get some useful preinstalled apps like Gemini and Netflix, so I don’t mind that. Overall though, the software experience can be definitely be improved. 
You get 2 years of OS updates and 4 years of security updates which is great for the price segment. 

Battery: Easily a one-day powerhouse 

The Poco C85 packs a massive 6000mAh battery with 33W charging support; there is also 10W PD charging support. Talking about the usage, I have used the phone rigorously for 2 days, and the battery lasts more than a day on a single charge easily. 
Coming to the charging speed, Poco claims that it can charge 51 per cent in 30 minutes, and it’s true. I put the phone on charge, and it was pulled up to 53 per cent charged in 30-35 minutes. To get fully charged, it took around 2 hours. All in all, the battery works pretty decently and lasts you for a good enough time on a single charge. 

Cameras: Definitely Instagram-worthy 

There is a 50MP camera on the rear and another camera on the rear. You also get an 8MP selfie camera at the front. The daylight pictures from the main camera are pretty good for the price range. The pictures are bright, detailed, and Instagram-worthy. 
The skin tones are slightly saturated, and it's the same issue I faced with both portraits and selfies. Talking of portraits: you get natural-looking, detailed portraits; detection is okayish. The separation between foreground and background is decent too. The same goes for selfies as well; the skin tone is saturated, and it looks washed off. Low-light pictures are fine, too, except for the visible noise around the light in the pictures. 

For video, you can shoot on 1080p at 30FPS from both front and back camera. 
But this, being an entry-level budget phone, obviously doesn’t match up to flagships or mid-rangers for that matter. Having said that, for the price, you’re getting a pretty decent set of optics that gets the job done. 

Verdict: A decent budget buy with a few caveats

The Poco C85 delivers good value under a 15k price tag. You get a bright 120Hz display, solid battery life, IP64 resistance, reliable connectivity, and a design refresh that genuinely makes a difference. It even handles casual photography decently. OS updates and security updates offered are decent too. Where it needs work is performance and software refinement. The chipset is pretty serviceable for its segment, but HyperOS still feels behind the curve. There’s also no NFC—a feature increasingly common in this segment.
If you’re on a strict budget, the Poco C85 is absolutely worth considering, especially as a meaningful upgrade over the C75. But if you can stretch your spending a bit, the Motorola G57 Power remains a stronger all-rounder for roughly the same price bracket.