Wednesday, July 28, 2021

POCO X3 GT Hands-on

POCO has officially launched its latest smartphone in the country, sporting a 6.6-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate, triple-rear cameras, 5G connectivity, and powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 1100 SoC, the POCO X3 GT. Check out our initial thoughts about the device below.

At first glance, the POCO X3 GT looks like any other premium Android smartphone. It’s got a large 6.6-inch display on the front with a hole punch at the top center for the 16MP selfie camera. Just above it is the earpiece.

The bezels are relatively thin, with the bottom part being thicker than the rest. For protection, it has Gorilla Glass Victus.

On the right side, we have the volume buttons and the power/lock button that also doubles as the fingerprint scanner. These buttons are clicky, firm, and easy to reach since they’re placed near the middle of the frame.

On the left side, we have the card tray for two nano-sized SIM cards. Unfortunately, there’s no support for microSD cards.

Up top, we have the secondary microphone, IR blaster, and a loudspeaker.

Down at the bottom, we have the main microphone, USB-C port, and another loudspeaker. Yes, this device has stereo speakers.

Flip it on its back, and you will see the large protruding camera module that houses the 64MP main, 8MP ultra-wide, and 2MP macro lenses, as well as the AF sensors and dual-LED flash. Check out some samples below:

The POCO X3 GT feels slim at 8.9mm. Despite the tall 163.3 mm frame, it’s narrow at 75.9 mm, so it’s easy to handle and grip. It feels premium with its metallic frame and glass back with curved edges. It has a decent heft at 193g. It’s top-heavy, though, given the placement of the cameras.

Our unit is the Stargaze Black model and has this silver gradient with a mirror-like finish at the top, then transitions into a darker shade at the bottom. That bottom has speckles that shimmer depending on the angle, like stars in a night sky.

It’s an attractive design easily marred by the glass panel’s ability to attract smudges and fingerprints. There’s a clear case included in the package to remedy that somehow.

Powering the POCO X3 GT is a MediaTek Dimensity 1100 SoC, Mali-G77 GPU, 8GB LPDDR4X RAM, up to 256GB UFS 3.1, MIUI 12.5 based on Android 11, and 5,000mAh battery with 67W Turbo Charging. Check our the benchmark scores below:

• AnTuTu v8 – 531,227
• PC Mark – 10,455 (Work 3.0)
• Geekbench 5 – 746 (Single-Core), 2,751 (Multi-Core), 4,634 (OpenCL)
• AndroBench – 1,883.12 MB/s (Seq. Read), 1,204.27 MB/s (Seq. Write)
• 3D Mark – (not available)

The POCO X3 GT is priced at PHP 15,990 for the 8GB + 128GB variant, and PHP 17,990 for the 8GB + 256GB. It will be exclusively available via Lazada. Both will be available for purchase at an early bird price of PHP 14,990 and PHP 15,990 respectively on August 3 for the Global Open Sale and the August 10 for the Local Sale.

Stay tuned for our full review.

POCO X3 GT specs:
6.6-inch FHD+ LCD DotDisplay
120Hz refresh rate w/ DynamicSwitch (30Hz/48Hz/50Hz/60Hz/90Hz/120Hz)
240Hz touch sampling rate
360-degree ambient light sensors
Corning Gorilla Glass Victus
MediaTek Dimensity 1100 (6nm) SoC w/ 2.6GHz octa-core CPU
ARM Mali-G77 GPU
6GB, 8GB LPDDR4X RAM
128GB, 256GB UFS 3.1
Triple-rear cameras:
• 64MP F1.79 main
• 8mp F2.2 ultra-wide
• 2MP macro
16MP F2.45 front camera
Dual-SIM, Dual-Standby
5G, 4G LTE
WiFi 6
Bluetooth 5.2
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS
NFC
IR Blaster
USB-C
Fingerprint scanner (side)
Face Unlock
Dual-Speaker
Hi-Res Audio certification, Hi-Res Wireless Audio
Dolby Atmos
MIUI 12.5 (Android 11)
5,000mAh battery w/ 67W Turbo Charging (67W charger included)
163.3 x 75.9 x 8.9 mm
193 g
Stargaze Black, Wave Blue, Cloud White