The Poco X6 Neo is the most budget model in the X6 series and is essentially a rebranded Redmi Note 13R Pro. The X6 Neo sacrifices some features for its budget price. However, there are some intriguing aspects such as the slim body of the smartphone (the X6 Neo is considered the thinnest in the Poco series), an AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, and 3x lossless zoom on the 108MP camera.
Team Q has prepared a quick Poco X6 Neo 5G review that will help you decide whether this smartphone is worth buying or not.
Delivery set
The Poco X6 Neo comes in Poco’s standard black and yellow packaging. Inside, you’ll find the smartphone, a 33W charger, and a USB-A to USB-C cable. It also comes with a black silicone case.
Design
The design of the Poco X6 Neo is one of its special features. As mentioned earlier, this smartphone is considered the thinnest in the Poco series. With its thickness (only 7.7 mm), it looks very elegant in the hand. Even with the X6 Neo case, it remains thinner than many other models without a case. The entire body of the X6 Neo is made of plastic, except for the front panel, which is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. This choice of materials makes the smartphone especially pleasant to the touch, which is not so common in this price segment.
Particularly eye-catching is the back panel in the Martian Orange variant. It shimmers, creating the effect of sand dunes. This unique pattern adds individuality to the design of the phone. However, this effect is only available for this shade of the smartphone, while the Astral Black and Horizon Blue finishes look simpler.
In addition, the back panel at the top of the smartphone has a protrusion for the camera, which is characteristic of other Poco X6 models. There are only two cameras here, but in practice, only one is used. There is also an LED flash and a circular pattern, which is essentially just for visual harmony and does not serve any functional purpose.
The rest of the design of the device includes thin and smooth frames at the front with a small cutout for the camera at the top. All the physical buttons are located on the right, and at the top there is a headphone jack and an IR transmitter.
The overall design of the X6 Neo looks luxurious. It is also worth noting the robust construction despite the plastic case and the IP54 dust and water protection.
Display
The Poco X6 Neo features a 6.67-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels and a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. The display has a claimed peak brightness of 1000 nits, covers 100% of the DCI-P3 color space, and has a touch sampling rate of 240Hz. The X6 Neo does not support HDR.
The display is capable of refreshing up to 120Hz. In most apps, including some games, the smartphone does indeed run at 120Hz, but the way it is implemented leaves much to be desired. When you launch a game that supports a high refresh rate, the device switches to 120Hz. However, the X6 Neo also automatically switches the refresh rate to 60Hz when you are not interacting with the screen, which can be annoying, especially while gaming. As a result, the refresh rate drops from 120Hz to 60Hz when you stop interacting with the device. We’ve noticed that many games don’t handle this very well and start to stutter at 60Hz.
Battery
The Poco X6 Neo packs a 5,000mAh battery and comes with a 33W charger that supports fast charging. The smartphone charges quite quickly, with >50% charge in the first 30 minutes and a full charge in about an hour. While this isn’t the fastest charging we’ve ever seen, it’s good enough for most users. Additionally, you can disable fast charging in the battery settings, which can help extend the battery life.
Performance and Software
The Poco X6 Neo runs on MIUI 14, which is based on Android 13. As with other Poco devices, the MIUI version here is slightly different from the Redmi or Xiaomi-branded smartphones. This is due to a different launcher and minor tweaks to the UI.
The software on this smartphone offers extensive customization options. You can download themes that change the icons, fonts, wallpapers, and more. However, despite the ability to change the fonts, the Poco software interface does not support changing the icons manually using downloadable icon packs. The only way to change the icons is through Themes or by installing a different launcher. There are some negative aspects of MIUI as well, such as unnecessary preinstalled bloatware, ads, and notification spam.
The Poco X6 Neo is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 6080 chipset and comes in two memory variants: 8 + 128 GB and 12 + 256 GB.
The performance of the X6 Neo is a mixed bag. The smartphone often works well, but sometimes there are noticeable lags. These slowdowns last for no more than a second, after which the performance is restored. There may also be glitches when scrolling through some apps, such as Chrome or the Play Store.
Before we run our tests, it should be noted that the Poco X6 Neo exhibits unusual behavior in the Antutu app. We noticed that the smartphone often increases the clock speed of all cores and keeps it at maximum when the Antutu app is launched. This behavior is typical for the performance mode on some Android smartphones, but the X6 Neo does not have this option. We did not observe this in other apps or even in other tests.
This means that the Antutu test results should be taken with a grain of salt, as the smartphone behaves differently in this particular app than in other situations.
Camera
On paper, the Poco X6 Neo promises a dual-camera system. However, in reality, you’ll only be using one camera. There’s a 108MP primary shooter with an f1.8 aperture and a secondary 2MP depth sensor. Despite this, the device offers 3x lossless digital zoom, which is a sort of compensation for the lack of a second camera.
The camera app on the X6 Neo is pretty basic but includes all the basic features, including a Pro mode. However, there’s no option to capture RAW images.
In terms of image quality, the primary 108MP camera takes nice shots when zoomed in at 1x and with HDR enabled. Color reproduction and white balance are good, and the level of detail is acceptable without causing excessive sharpness. However, the auto HDR mode can be finicky and doesn’t always activate at the right moment (and there’s no way to turn it off), which can lead to slight glare in some photos. The X6 Neo doesn’t have an optical telephoto lens, but it does have a 3x lossless digital zoom, which is impressive.
When it comes to video, you’re limited to a maximum of 1080p at 30 fps. While there’s built-in digital image stabilization, don’t expect any great zoom effects, as the video is essentially just cropped from the middle of the frame. Video quality is average: while color reproduction and dynamic range are good, the image is a bit washed out and lacks much detail.
Conclusion
The Poco X6 Neo is an example of a well-designed, quality device with a high-quality display. Its design alone makes us recommend it, as it feels great in the hand and outperforms several more expensive competitors.
Performance is generally good, as is the camera quality. The only downside is the quality of the software, especially the intrusiveness of ads, notifications, and bloatware.
Having only one speaker is not what you would expect even in this price range, and some aspects of the software require further optimization to improve performance. However, considering its price, the Poco X6 Neo offers excellent value for money, so we can confidently recommend it.
