Poco M2 Pro Review | NDTV Gadgets 360

Poco has been incredibly selective about its smartphone portfolio. It was spun off from Xiaomi and introduced the Poco X2 (Review), a lot more than a year following the Poco F1 (Review). Alternatively than releasing ‘flagship killers’ this sort of as the F1, the corporation is now concentrating a lot more on the price range phase. With the new Poco M2 Professional, it aims to just take on the sub-Rs. fifteen,000 rate phase. Poco states it has found huge good results with the X2 and hopes to replicate that method.

The Poco X2 Professional commences at Rs. 13,999 and searching at its requirements, it would seem like it could be a solid opponent to the Redmi Notice 9 Professional and Realme six, which are two excellent offerings with identical pricing. However, figures on a paper aren’t generally an exact depiction of true general performance. It can be time to place the Poco M2 Professional to the exam, to see if it is as very good as it is manufactured out to be.

Poco M2 Professional style: Deja vu

Poco wants to generate property the actuality that the M2 Professional is manufactured in India, with distinguished labels on the front and back again of the box. Even though this ought to absolutely appease some people today, the bundled charger has a ‘Mi’ symbol on it and you’re greeted by MIUI when you boot up the cell phone, so make of that what you will.

The Poco M2 Professional has an appealing style and is designed very well, but it also seems incredibly identical to the Redmi Notice 9 Pro (Review). On inspecting both equally phones aspect by aspect, they seem to have the correct very same entire body. All the things, such as the buttons, ports, gap-punch in the screen, and the rear camera bump, strains up correctly. Poco has utilised a new angular striped pattern on the base a few-quarters of the cell phone. The camera module has also experienced some cosmetic changes. The M2 Professional options a P2i drinking water-repellent coating, which is claimed to make it splash-proof.

The Poco M2 Professional seems strikingly identical to the Redmi Notice 9 Professional, from each and every angle

 

The Poco M2 Professional feels a little hefty and significant in the hand, but I got utilised to the pounds following a handful of days. A fingerprint sensor is embedded in the recessed power button, on the suitable aspect, and it authenticates you with a very simple tap. I do desire the quantity buttons ended up on the reverse aspect, as they are a little tough to get to. The SIM tray on the remaining supports two Nano-SIM playing cards and a microSD card. The headphone jack, USB Style-C port, and speaker are at the base, when on the leading, we have a secondary microphone and an infrared emitter.

Poco has utilised a six.sixty seven-inch complete-High definition+ Liquid crystal display screen, with a cutout for the selfie camera. You also get Gorilla Glass 5 on the front, back again, and the rear camera module. I generally discover pre-used display protectors genuinely frustrating, but the one particular on the M2 Professional is not intrusive. The screen will get vibrant, colours are punchy, and the Options app allows you tweak the color profile.

1 characteristic that is missing is a large refresh fee. A 120Hz panel is one particular of the defining options of the Poco X2, but the lessen-price tag M2 Professional will get a common 60Hz screen. The motive for this, as I was advised by Poco, was that a option experienced to be manufactured among rapid charging and a large refresh fee, in buy to retain the rate down. The Realme 6 (Review) proceeds to have the higher hand amongst phones priced below Rs. fifteen,000 with its 90Hz screen.

Over-all, the Poco M2 Professional feels incredibly very well designed and seems very good in blue. It can be also offered in black and eco-friendly. In the box, you can hope a silicone situation, charger, cable, and SIM eject device.

The Poco M2 Professional is designed very well and seems very good in this color

 

Poco M2 Professional computer software: MIUI with Poco launcher

The similarities to the Redmi Notice 9 Professional proceed with the computer software. The Poco M2 Professional runs on MIUI 11, which is based on Android 10, and my unit experienced the June protection patch. Aside from acquiring the Poco Launcher as a default, the options and features are incredibly identical to what you get on Redmi units. The complete suite of Mi applications is current, such as Mi Tunes, Mi Video clip, Mi Browser, and many others, and most of them won’t be able to be uninstalled. There are also a good deal of 3rd-bash applications this sort of as Helo, Fb, and some basic games, and all of these can be uninstalled.

Inspite of all the inventory MIUI applications, I was astonished to not see any spam messages from them in the notification shade. Certain sections of some applications nonetheless push random promoted information, but this can generally be disabled.

Poco M2 Professional general performance: Reputable

MIUI and app general performance ended up excellent in the course of our overview. This is mainly many thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G SoC. It can be the very same one particular utilised in the Redmi Notice 9 Professional and Realme six Professional. I’m testing the center variant of the Poco M2 Professional, which has 6GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 64GB of UFS two.one storage, and is priced at Rs. fourteen,999. There’s a lessen variant with 4GB of RAM and the very same amount of money of storage, which expenses Rs. 13,999, and a leading-finish variant with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage priced at Rs. 16,999.

Navigating by means of MIUI’s interface felt snappy, multitasking labored very well, and applications in normal ended up swift to load. Gaming general performance was incredibly very good too. I performed the common large-hitters and all ran efficiently with very good graphics. I didn’t detect any heating issues both, even following playing for very long stretches at a time. Match Turbo is a handy utility that presents you shortcuts for display recording, and many others, when playing games.

Videos seemed very good on the Poco M2 Pro’s screen. However, the one speaker is not incredibly remarkable. You can help computer software enhancements for audio if you use wired headphones, but you can find practically nothing to boost the quantity of the speaker.

The Poco M2 Professional has 4 rear cameras and a one selfie camera

 

Poco M2 Professional cameras: Superior, but not excellent

The Poco M2 Professional has 4 rear cameras, which include a primary forty eight-megapixel sensor, an 8-megapixel sensor with a extensive-angle lens, a 5-megapixel macro camera, and a two-megapixel depth camera. You get a 16-megapixel gap-punch selfie camera. The M2 Professional has the very same version of the MIUI camera app as the Redmi Notice 9 Professional. From what I could tell, the only real variance among the two phones in conditions of features is that you can use Night mode for the selfie camera on the M2 Professional.

There are some attention-grabbing options this sort of as the ability to file complete-High definition video with the macro camera, and the final results ended up shockingly very good. Professional mode also supports video recording, letting you to manually established the exposure for a shoot and also the ability to file in LOG format, which can be color graded afterwards. For what it is worth, the Redmi Notice 9 Professional has the correct very same options now.

Poco M2 Professional principal camera sample (tap to see larger sized graphic)

Poco M2 Professional extensive-angle camera sample (tap to see larger sized graphic)

Poco M2 Professional principal camera sample (tap to see larger sized graphic)

Poco M2 Professional macro camera sample (tap to see larger sized graphic)

 

In daylight, the Poco M2 Pro’s primary camera captured very good-searching photographs. Details ended up normally sharp in landscape photographs, and colours ended up vivid. The Professional color toggle allows you capture a lot more saturated colours, if necessary. Shut-ups seemed very good too, though the camera app brightened colours a little bit a lot more than they ended up in the true scene. The extensive-angle camera generated significantly weaker colours and information, in comparison to the principal sensor. Portrait mode labored very well, and the degree of track record blur could be modified.

Poco M2 Professional principal camera sample (tap to see larger sized graphic)

Poco M2 Professional principal camera sample with Night mode (tap to see larger sized graphic)

 

In minimal-light-weight circumstances, the principal and extensive-angle cameras struggled with exposure and information. The camera app did a very good job of suppressing sound, but the photographs normally seemed underexposed, and zooming in uncovered weak information. Night mode was not too effective both, barely accomplishing nearly anything to make improvements to the graphic.

Selfies shot below vibrant light-weight seemed very good. Details and pores and skin textures ended up normally very well represented. Pictures ended up good, as very long as there was more than enough ambient light-weight all-around.

Poco X2 Professional selfie camera sample (tap to see larger sized graphic)

 

The M2 Professional supports video recording at up to 4K 30fps. Videos shot at this resolution experienced a incredibly warm color tone, and colours seemed quite exaggerated. There’s no stabilisation at this resolution. Stepping down to 1080p, videos seemed superior many thanks to stabilisation and colours experienced a a lot more all-natural tone. Low-light-weight general performance was not excellent, and videos normally seemed a little bit underexposed and grainy.

Over-all, the cameras of the Poco M2 Professional performed decently below very good light-weight, but struggled to provide satisfactory final results in minimal light-weight.

Poco M2 Professional battery: Prolonged-long lasting

I located the battery lifetime of the Poco M2 Professional to be incredibly very good. The 5,000mAh capacity conveniently lasted for an total day, even with lots of gaming and camera usage. With lighter workloads, I was equipped to use the cell phone very well into the second day. The cell phone also ran for a little a lot more than seventeen hrs in our High definition video loop exam, which was very good. The bundled 33W rapid charger does a very good job of speedily charging the battery. I was equipped to charge this cell phone to about ninety five p.c in an hour.

The Poco M2 Professional is a very good addition to the sub-Rs. fifteen,000 phase

 

Verdict: Is the Poco M2 Professional worth shopping for?

I believe the Poco M2 Professional is a very good addition to the sub-Rs. fifteen,000 smartphone phase, and I have no issues recommending it. In a great deal of techniques, you could believe of it as a Redmi Notice 9 Pro (Review) with a lot quicker charging at a similar price. In addition, it ought to be a great deal easier to obtain in comparison to Xiaomi’s flash sale method. The M2 Professional offers very good develop good quality, a sharp screen, strong battery lifetime, and very good general performance. The cameras are not too terrible both, offered you’re capturing for the duration of the day.

However, in contrast to the Poco X2 (Review), I never see the M2 Professional disrupting this rate phase basically due to the fact it is so identical to the Redmi Notice 9 Professional which has been marketing below for some time now. The Realme 6 (Review) proceeds to be a strong alternate, as it is nonetheless the only cell phone with a 90Hz screen below Rs. fifteen,000. 

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