Poco X6 Neo First Impression, Unboxing: Best budget phone right now? Check price, specs, and more

The smartphone market is crowded, and the mid-range segment is particularly competitive. Poco's latest entry, the X6 Neo, aims to carve out a space for itself with a mix of specifications that are noteworthy for its price point. Here's what you need to know about the Poco X6 Neo.

Poco X6 Neo Unboxing

The POCO X6 Neo's box really stands out with its slick black and yellow design. Inside, it's the usual unboxing affair, but it's still exciting to see what you get.

Along with the phone, there's a black TPU case (always handy), a user manual (for those who actually read them), that all-important SIM ejector tool, a 33W power adapter for quick charging, and the USB Type-A to Type-C cable for charging and data transfer.

Poco X6 Neo Design

The phone's available in a few cool colors - Martian Orange, Horizon Blue, and Astral Black. We got our hands on the orange one for our review, but it's really more of a peach and absolutely gorgeous in person. The back's got this soft matte finish that doesn't just feel nice; it also keeps those annoying fingerprints away and has a prominent shimmer that catches the eye as you move it around.

The camera bump is there, making it a tad wobbly on flat surfaces, but it's something you can live with considering how good the phone looks. The screen's pretty big, framed by really slim and even bezels, and there's a neat punch-hole camera up front.

All the usual buttons and ports are right where you'd expect, including a much-appreciated 3.5mm jack on top. Poco also claims this is their slimmest phone yet, with a thickness of just 7.69mm, and it's pretty light too at 175 grams. Plus, the phone gets an IP54 rating, so it should be fine against the odd splashes of water.

Poco X6 Neo Display

The Poco X6 Neo rocks a 6.67-inch AMOLED screen. That's a pretty comfy size for binge-watching or scrolling through your feed. Plus, with a 120Hz refresh rate, everything looks buttery smooth. The screen packs a typical brightness of 500 nits but can kick it up to 1000 nits in High Brightness mode. There's also Gorilla Glass 5 protection upfront, so it's not a disaster if you're a bit clumsy.

Poco X6 Neo Camera

So, the star of the show here is the 108MP main camera, rocking a Samsung ISOCELL HM6 Large sensor and it features a 3x in-sensor zoom. Then, there's the sidekick - a 2MP depth sensor.

It's meant to add that nice blur, or bokeh, to your portraits, making them look more professional. But it kinda feels like it's just there to bump up the camera count. No ultra-wide angle lens on this one, which is a bummer if you love capturing wide landscapes or group shots.

And if you're into shooting videos, then you're looking at up to 1080p at 30FPS, which isn't exactly groundbreaking. To top off the camera lineup, there's a 16MP selfie camera upfront. It should do the trick for your social media posts and video calls.

Poco X6 Neo Specifications

Powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 6080 and sporting up to 12GB of RAM, the Poco X6 Neo seems well-equipped to handle the demands of a modern smartphone.

However, the performance of MediaTek processors, while generally solid, can vary greatly depending on optimization, so the Dimensity 6080's real-world performance remains to be seen.

The Poco X6 Neo is equipped with a large 5,000mAh battery. This means you're not constantly hunting for a charger, and when you do need to juice up, 33W fast charging means you're not out of action for long.

Exactly how long? Well, that depends on how glued to your screen you are, but we will be putting it to the test very soon.

Poco X6 Neo Software

On the software front, the phone runs on MIUI 14 based on Android 13. Plus, Poco is promising 2 Major Android updates and 4 years of security updates, which seems pretty standard for this price range.

Poco X6 Neo Price

The POCO X6 Neo comes in two variants: the 8GB + 128GB model is priced at ₹14,999, and the 12GB + 256GB model is priced at ₹16,999. These prices factor in a ₹1,000 discount for ICICI Credit/Debit card users and EMI transactions.

Poco X6 Neo First Impression

At first glance, the POCO X6 is quite the charmer in the budget-friendly market, though it does cut a few corners to keep its price tag under 20,000. It's definitely one of the best-looking phones out there for the money, but it's entering a pretty crowded field. We're excited to dive deeper in our full review, so watch this space for our final take.

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