POCO M6 Pro 5G Review: Democratises 5G for the masses, but with tons of bloatware

The POCO M6 Pro 5G delivers on what it promises – an affordable 5G phone experience with reliable performance and solid battery life. It democratises the technology for the masses, and being the most affordable 5G smartphone in the market, it doesn’t cut too many corners – making it a decent, well-rounded experience. You’ve got a massive battery, a large 90 Hz display, and an eye-catching design. The misses in the camera and charging departments can be forgiven for the overall package the POCO M6 Pro 5G provides. 

The POCO M6 Pro 5G has the title of being the cheapest 5G smartphone in India. Priced at ₹10,999, the POCO M6 Pro narrowly beats out the Redmi 12 5G (review) – which launched recently – to claim this title. Coincidentally (or not), the phone is a replica of the Redmi 12 5G, with the same specifications across the board – barring storage variants and some design elements. One could even call it a rebranded Redmi 12 5G? Rebranded or not, the POCO M6 Pro 5G is already making waves in the Indian market, having sold out its stock merely 15 minutes after the sale went live. Packed with the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 SoC, a 90 Hz display, and a 5,000 mAh battery, this inexpensive phone seems to be an appealing purchase on paper. But it is actually worth your money? It is the cheapest 5G phone in the market though, which already builds its case – since POCO is democratising 5G technology for the masses. In fact, you can even buy it for just ₹9,999 with a bank offer on select cards. However, let’s find out if you should consider spending your hard-earned bucks on this or not in my detailed review.

POCO M6 Pro 5G Review: Build and design

Sporting a sleek and lightweight design, the POCO M6 Pro 5G is quite an attractive phone for its price. The phone is 8.17 mm thick and weighs only 199 g, but the edges are slightly sharp, so it can get somewhat uncomfortable to hold over long periods. POCO has provided a glass back at this price point, which is extremely rare. It gives the device a premium look and feel – which I really appreciate under ₹10K.

The glass back and the display is Gorilla Glass protected as well. However, the glossy glass back does accumulate a lot of fingerprints and smudge marks. POCO has added a dual-tone design where the camera module has a more frosted glass look while the bottom part is just plain glossy. It is a nice separation and catches the eye immediately. There’s no raised camera module though, so the camera lenses jut out considerably which makes it rock on a flat surface.

The frame is polycarbonate but it sports a subtle metallic sheen – looks real nice for the price. The power and volume buttons feel a bit cheap, they’re just slightly janky. You get a 3.5 mm audio jack and a microSD card slot on this phone but stereo speakers are missing. As for the front, there’s a punch-hole cut out for the selfie camera and considerably thick bezels; especially the chin bezel. Redmi has also added IP53 dust and water resistance which is a nice touch.

POCO M6 Pro 5G Review: Display

Packing a large 6.79-inch IPS LCD display with Full HD+ resolution and 90 Hz refresh rate, the POCO M6 Pro 5G is a good device for content consumption. Everything from YouTube to Netflix to Amazon Prime looked good on this phone. The phone comes with Widevine L1 certification, so you can view HD videos on OTT platforms. The display – at 396 PPI – looks sharp enough for the price, and the colours are nice and vibrant as well even though it may not be the most colour-accurate panel.

The display reached a peak brightness of 410 nits in our tests. Now, while this is decent enough for indoor and outdoor usage in most instances, you may face occasional difficulties viewing the screen under bright sunlight, especially like what we get here in sweltering Mumbai. 

The phone’s 90 Hz refresh rate means that scrolling feels quite smooth. Although not as path-breaking as 120 Hz, this does add a bit of fluidity to the motions compared to a 60 Hz display that is usually standard under ₹10K. The phone doesn’t switch to 90 Hz when scrolling through YouTube or Netflix though. The phone also has 240 Hz touch sampling rate, so the touch responsiveness in games is quite decent. 

POCO M6 Pro 5G Review: Performance

The POCO M6 Pro 5G is powered by the latest Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 SoC fabricated on a 4 nm process. The SoC has proved to be quite powerful in the budget segment and we’ve previously tested it on the Redmi 12 5G as well. The POCO M6 Pro sports up to 6 GB LPDDR4X RAM and up to 128 GB UFS 2.2 storage, which is expandable up to 1 TB. It runs Android 13 with MIUI 14 on top.

Starting off with benchmarks, the POCO M6 Pro 5G threw up impressive results in AnTuTu – beating out the Helio G88 processor on the Realme Narzo N55 and its own predecessor, the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 on the Redmi Note 12. We saw a significant lead in GeekBench as well. However, the phone scored lower than the Redmi Note 12 in PCMark Work. 

In GPU benchmarks, the phone scored 662 in 3D Mark Wild Life, which sadly didn’t match up to the Helio G88’s performance. The pattern repeated in GFXBench’s Aztec Ruins and Car Chase tests. So, the POCO M6 Pro with its Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 is a great phone for productivity and daily tasks but is not up to par with competition when it comes to gaming.

I played Call of Duty: Mobile and BGMI on this phone, and on Low graphics, I saw little to no frame drops. It is only when I pushed the graphics up to medium that I began to see some frame skips. So, I would say you can definitely game on this phone, but keep your expectations in check – it is not meant to be a monster gaming device. Basic tasks such as SMS, social media, calls, and web browsing are handled with ease and even Sheets and Docs work smoothly.

Moving on to software, MIUI is brimming with customisations, but it is also brimming with bloatware. There are several preinstalled games, a bunch of preinstalled social media apps like LinkedIn, Moj, and Snapchat, and many Xiaomi apps. It is an overwhelmingly crowded experience, so be warned, if you like a clean interface, look elsewhere.

POCO M6 Pro 5G Review: Cameras

Like the Redmi 12 5G, the POCO M6 Pro sports a dual rear camera setup. You get a 50 MP primary camera with an f/1.8 aperture and a 2 MP depth sensor.

Images from the primary lens have good detail but the dynamic range could be better. The highlights are almost always overblown but the shadows have decent detail. Despite these nitpicks, this is one of the better smartphone cameras on the market at this price range. Here are some camera samples, but note that they've been compressed for the web:

Portrait images have good bokeh – maybe a touch too aggressive – but you can adjust the levels are clicking the picture. Edge detection is mediocre, the cutout isn’t always very accurate. Selfies look decent from the 8 MP camera, the skin tone is surprisingly natural but the detail is quite soft.

There’s support for 1080p at 30 fps video from the front and rear cameras, and the video footage is nothing spectacular. It works in daylight, but low-light results are grainy and noisy.

POCO M6 Pro 5G Review: Battery life

Equipped with a 5,000 mAh battery, the POCO M6 Pro has impressive battery life. I consistently saw the phone lasting for 1-2 days with ease. The phone has a screen-on time of about 6-7 hours. In my tests, it lost about 8 per cent battery when running Google Maps for an hour and just 4 per cent battery when playing Call of Duty: Mobile for 15 minutes.

The 18 W charging speeds are quite slow though, by 2023 standards. The retail box comes with a 22.5 W charging brick, but the charging wattage maxes out at 18 W. The POCO M6 Pro took a good 1 hour and 57 minutes to go from empty to full battery, which is excruciatingly slow. 

POCO M6 Pro 5G Review: Verdict

The POCO M6 Pro 5G delivers on what it promises – an affordable 5G phone experience with reliable performance and solid battery life. It democratises the technology for the masses, and being the most affordable 5G smartphone in the market, it doesn’t cut too many corners – making it a decent, well-rounded experience. You’ve got a massive battery, a large 90 Hz display, and an eye-catching design. The misses in the camera and charging departments can be forgiven for the overall package the POCO M6 Pro 5G provides. It gets a definite thumbs-up from me for someone looking for a capable 5G smartphone that won’t break the bank!

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Apple will pay 5000 compensation to users of iPhone 6, 7 and SE: Heres why

Five years ago, iPhone users claimed intentional slowdowns on iPhone 6, 7, and SE models and started a dispute with the tech-giant. Apple acknowledged the slowdowns but denied any bad intentions. In 2020, Apple chose resolution and agreed to pay up to $500 million to avoid legal trouble. Some iPhone owners formed a lawsuit in 2018, contesting Apple's actions. The affected models included iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, SE, 7, and 7 Plus.

Recent reports from Silicon Valley indicate Apple's commencement of compensation for dissatisfied users affected by deliberate iPhone slowdowns. Legal advocate Tyson Redenbarger estimated an approximate $65 compensation per user, possibly signaling the resolution of the longstanding issue. In 2016, Apple openly admitted to slowing down older iPhones as a measure to prevent sudden shutdowns.

Also read: Apple issues formal apology for slowing down iPhones, offers cheaper battery replacements for anyone with iPhone 6 or later

Initially, Apple maintained its innocence, but in 2020, the company had a change of heart, agreeing to pay a sum ranging from $310 million to $500 million. While a few claimants initially received $25, two iPhone owners held out for more and ultimately declined the initial offer.

Three years ago, a specialized website was established to allow users to submit compensation requests, necessitating the input of their iPhone's serial number for verification. Users could select either a bank transfer or a mailed check as their preferred method of payment, highlighting the evolving landscape of remuneration methods.

Also read: iPhone SE 4 may launch next month, will look like iPhone 14

For compensation, people who owned an iPhone 6, 7, or SE may wonder if they qualify. However, those who didn't register their claims by October 6, 2020, are now ineligible for compensation. To seek compensation, users were required to register their serial numbers on a dedicated company website designed for logging performance-related grievances.

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Threads already lost 79-percent of users till date, in worrying news for Metas Zuckerberg

Twitter lookalike Threads was rolled out recently on July 5  and took the internet by quite the storm. But it turns out that the hype was really short-lived as the App is seeing a massive decline in active users. Currently, the Zuckerberg Twitter alternative is really struggling to regain its popularity with users. 

At the time of its launch on July 5, 2023, Threads got almost every Instagram user onboard with its popularity soaring high. It made records by gaining more than 100 million sign-ups on the App within the first five days of its launch. 

Also read: Twitter vs Threads: 5 cool Twitter features that Threads still doesn’t have

Zuckerberg had even used the correct timeline to launch his new App as Twitter was facing a lot of backlash for the new policies rolled out by Elon Musk and people saw it as an alternative to the blue-bird App. But it now seems that Threads only had a small shot at fame and couldn’t beat Twitter.

As mentioned earlier, Threads had gained more than 100 million users within the first five days but a month later the Meta App is struggling with only 10.3 million daily active users. Reports suggest that about 79% of the initial users have stopped using the app altogether. Other reports reveal that Threads has lost more than half of its users already. A Reuters report cited an internal call from Meta, revealing that Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Threads’ retention was 'better than what the executives had expected, it was not perfect'.

A new report by Indian Express cites Similarweb, revealing that Threads had about 49.3  million active users on July 7. But now the numbers have dropped disappointingly to just 10.3 million active users. Further, the report reveals that initially, the average time spent on this new social media platform was about 21 minutes which has now dropped down to just 3 minutes per day. 

Also read: Threads isn’t threading enough and here is why we think it is so

Considering this data, Meta is reportedly strategising to bring back its engagement through various new features including but not limited to a web version, mention buttons etc.

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X Twitter plans to roll out video calling feature soon, but will users care

Elon Musk is currently making some changes in the micro blogging platform. A few days back, he changed the bird icon to X, and now a new announcement came from the company. X, formerly known as Twitter, is going to feature video calling soon. The CEO of the company, Linda Yaccarino, has confirmed this feature in an interview with CNBC. 

Twitter usually focuses more on the home feed and not so much on chatting. But now, X is changing things up by adding video calls. This new feature is all part of X's bigger plan to make the platform an "everything" app. They want it to be a place for audio, video, messaging, payments, banking, and more – a global marketplace for all sorts of ideas, goods, services, and opportunities.

Also read: Twitter vs Threads: 5 cool Twitter features that Threads still doesn’t have

As I mentioned above, in the interview Yaccarino said, "We're evolving into long-form video and articles, and you can subscribe to your favorite creators who are making a real income on the platform. You'll soon be able to have video chats without giving out your phone number."

Andrea Conway, a designer at X, later confirmed this by sharing a picture of what the video call interface might look like.

The new interface will look familiar to those who use platforms like WhatsApp and Instagram. There's a new call icon at the top of your chats, next to the info icon. Tapping on it gives you options for audio and video calls.

Also read: Elon Musk wants you to find your next job on Twitter as it takes on Linkedin

X currently doesn't have voice calls, so this is a new addition. The video call screen lets you mute/unmute your microphone, turn the loudspeaker on or off, disable video, and end the call. We're still waiting to hear when exactly video calls will be available on X.

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Apple Watch X to come with blood pressure monitor: When is it launching

Apple is gearing up for its annual iPhone launch event, which is expected to take place on either September 12th or 13th. One of the anticipated releases is the Apple Watch Series 9 along with iPhone 15 series. This lineup is rumoured to bring some minor improvements, as the company has grander plans for an Apple Watch X, scheduled for later this year. The upcoming Apple Watch X is said to boast a sleeker design and might even include a blood pressure monitor, a feature that has been circulating in rumours.

Mark Gurman from Bloomberg has revealed that the Apple Watch's 10th anniversary is expected to launch sometime in late 2024, possibly even extending into 2025. Here are some details of Watch X, revealed by Gurman:

Also read: How to set up Medical ID for iPhone and Apple Watch

Apple could introduce a thinner watch case design that will be paired with a magnetic band attachment system. The current design allows bands to be attached and detached by sliding them onto the sides of the watch case. However, this approach takes up valuable space that could otherwise accommodate a larger battery or other crucial components. 

Apple might also introduce a microLED display in the Apple Watch X, adding a burst of colour and touch of premiumness to the device.

Finally, the long-anticipated blood pressure monitor might find its home in the Apple Watch X, putting an end to the speculations that have circulated for some time.

Also read: WWDC23: Apple Watch to get biggest updates, new features   If you are excited about the new Apple Watch X then you need to be more patient than being excited, because this smartwatch might not launch before one year. In contrast, the upcoming Apple Watch Series 9 is expected to make its debut in the same sizes that are 41 and 45 millimetres, while the Ultra model will reportedly feature a larger 49-millimetre size. The primary upgrades for the Series 9 will include faster processors and a fresh array of colours.

According to Gurman, the upcoming Series 9 might be the most modest upgrade in the Apple Watch’s history. He even suggests that if you've already invested in the Apple Watch Ultra, you might consider skipping this iteration altogether.

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Google Pixel 8 coming soon: Audio Magic Eraser and colour options revealed

After Google’s Pixel 7 series, the much awaited Google Pixel  8 series is expected to hit the floors later this year in October. And as is true with all anticipatory devices, rumors and leaks of this new series have started floating on the internet. We have now come across an alleged promo video highlighting the new phone. 

Twitter user EZ, took to the micro-blogging site to share a video which is allegedly the promo video for Google’s future Pixel 8 series. EZ shared the 14 second leaked promo. The 14 second video reflected the new ‘Audio Magic Eraser’. In the video we can see skateboarders removing unwanted background noises from their video clips.

Also read: Smartphone or digital thermometer? Google Pixel 8 Pro will be both!

One should note that Google introduced the ‘Magic Eraser’ feature for the first time with the Google Pixel 6 as well as the Google Pixel 6 Pro. What this feature did was that it allowed users to remove unwanted objects from their photos. 

So, if this promo turns out to be true, we could expect something similar, but this time with audio. This feature might be placed with other controls on Google Photos. The promo highlights the Google Pixel 8 as the“the only phone with Audio Magic Eraser”. 

But that’s not all that the alleged promo had to reveal. The Google Pixel 8 series is expected to offer a Blue coloured phone variant. 

Also read: Google Pixel 8 hardware leak suggests it will excel at night photography

As we wait for the Google Pixel 8 series, here’s what we know from the rumors surfacing online. The Google Pixel 8 series could offer two storage variants:  128GB and 256GB storage options. Further, we could see the smartphones running on Android 14 and Tensor G3 processor. On the battery front, we can expect a 4,950mAh battery with 27-watt wired fast charging support on the Pixel 8 Pro. Speaking of the Google Pixel 8 on the other hand, could be packed with a 4,485mAh battery along  with 24W wired charging and 12W wireless charging support.

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Whatsapp will increase your app security with passkey protection: Report

Whatsapp is expected to launch a new feature which will help in increasing the security by passkey. However, WhatsApp users have various options to safeguard their accounts, such as traditional passwords and two-factor authentication and now this could be another feature, if you like your Whatsapp packed and protected. This addition will join the ranks of apps and websites that have already embraced passkey functionality. While Meta hasn't made an official announcement yet, a hidden passkey setup menu was discovered in the latest WhatsApp for Android beta version by WABetaInfo.

The passkey feature is still in development, without a current activation method. Nevertheless, this discovery strongly suggests that WhatsApp might soon offer users the choice of using a passkey instead of a conventional password.

Also read: WhatsApp a stranger without saving their contact is now easier than ever

In essence, a passkey is part of an industry-wide initiative aimed at enhancing security during authentication. Rather than relying on standard passwords, users can verify their identity through facial recognition or biometrics, eliminating the need to create and input a regular passcode. This technology has originated from the FIDO Alliance and can be found in Google, Apple and Microsoft.

Apple has rolled out a new feature that uses passkey and it automatically assigns it to Apple ID accounts for users on iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and macOS Sonoma. This innovation permits users to authenticate themselves on Apple-related websites using their passkey as a credential, bypassing the requirement for a password. 

Apple users have been able to generate and store passkeys using Safari and iCloud Keychain since iOS 16. Now, with iOS 17, this capability extends to third-party apps. Recent announcements by TikTok and the well-known password manager 1Password also highlight their support for passkeys.

Also read: WhatsApp lands on Wear OS 3 smartwatches: Here’s all you need to know

Although, more information such as the launch date of this new Whatsapp passkey feature has not been announced yet. So stay tuned for the official news.

Also read: Google’s new passkey explained: Your password-less future’s here

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