Xiaomi Poco M8 Pro Review: Great value comes at a price

Price upon review

Not available in the US

Best prices today: Xiaomi Poco M8 Pro

Xiaomi has a number of sub-brands, namely Redmi and Poco, which are below the flagships in terms of positioning. Poco is generally pitched as a youthful brand that offers good value while supporting gamers and tech fans, while Redmi is more about mid-range-mass market value.

The Poco M8 Pro is essentially the same phone as the Redmi Note 15+ Pro, but with a much simpler name and a budget-friendly price of £299.

However, you get high-quality mid-range hardware, a big and powerful screen and the kind of battery life that puts flagship phones to shame.

But when you get so much good for so little money, a compromise has to be made – and with the Poco M8 Pro it does. I’ve been testing it out for the past few weeks to find out if it’s worth buying.

Design & Build: Striking but solid

Poco has a habit of producing phones that look more like gaming phones than their rivals. While the design is the same as its Redmi sibling, the colors are much more interesting.

Pictured here is the “Green,” which has a wide striped finish with details most phones don’t offer.

It is a plastic construction with a large camera housing on the back. That’s mainly about design, because while it looks like there are four lenses, there are actually only two, so it’s a design statement to make you think it’s a better camera offering than it actually is.

Weighing 205.9 grams, this phone is quite hefty, with the large screen and battery accounting for a large part of the weight. The screen and frame curve back making this large phone easier to grip and I found it comfortable to use.

Further thoughts

• The phone has IP66 and IP68 protection against dust and water
• The Poco M8 Pro comes with a protective case in the box

Screen and speakers: Brilliant display

It’s clear where the effort has gone into the Poco M8 Pro, with a 6.83-inch AMOLED screen that’s bright, vibrant and highly capable. This speaks to Poco’s core proposition and there’s little to complain about when it comes to the display.

There’s plenty of detail, it supports refresh rates up to 120Hz and there’s plenty of brightness too – up to 3,200 nits of peak brightness, which is great for bringing HDR content to life. In normal use it achieves 1,800 nits, meaning content remains visible even in bright sunlight.

I looked Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery on Netflix – labeled Dolby Vision – and loved the HDR presentation.

The Poco M8 Pro’s stereo speakers are good, reaching surprisingly high volume, but can be a bit shrill at high volumes. They’re perfect for watching video on the go and gaming, although I found it easy to cover the bottom speaker with my hand, blocking the sound.

Further thoughts

• The Poco M8 Pro supports Dolby Vision and HDR 10+
• The screen is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2

Specifications and performance: Solid mid-range hardware

At this price, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 is the most interesting for buyers.

This is mid-range hardware, a step down from the Snapdragon 8 series chips found in flagship phones. But it offers great efficiency and although it does not deliver the same power, it is sufficient for daily tasks and gaming for all but the most demanding users.

I thought it was played Call of Duty mobile satisfying, but it doesn’t have the graphical prowess to let you get the most out of the game at higher settings. Even under load, this phone doesn’t get terribly hot, but its graphics performance can’t compete with flagship models.

I found the Poco M8 Pro to provide a solid connection and found calls and reception to be made without any issues, with callers coming through nice and clear. But there’s no microSD card slot and no eSIM support, just a dual physical SIM card.

Further thoughts

• There are two versions of the Poco M8 Pro, 8/256GB or 12/512GB
• Supports WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4 standards

Cameras: A fairly simple experience

There are two cameras on the Poco M8 Pro, a 50Mp main camera and an 8Mp ultra-wide camera. There is a 32Mp selfie camera on the front.

The main camera is generally good in bright light, but isn’t particularly strong in low light, where even indoor daytime shots show signs of noise.

The main camera also offers 2x zoom via crop and looks good enough, but up to 20x via digital zoom, which is best avoided as quality deteriorates quickly. The ultra-wide camera isn’t great, with a slightly different color tone to the main camera – noticeable in near-perfect conditions.

The front camera is best used in good light, as the slightest dip in brightness introduces noise, while images can be very contrasty and not too flattering. The portrait mode works well, with customizable bokeh effect and I think it’s worth turning it down a notch to get the best results, as the edge detection is a bit harsh and not too realistic.

Further thoughts

• Ultra HD mode allows you to shoot at full 50 MP resolution if desired.
• Video recording up to 4K 30 fps is offered.

Battery and charging: flagship scandals

Some brands are aggressively increasing the battery capacity and charging speeds of their devices and Poco is just one of those brands.

That means this phone has a massive 6,500mAh battery, compared to 5,000mAh in the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

The massive battery not only accounts for some of the phone’s size and weight, but also ensures it can last a full day. Thanks to that mid-range hardware, endurance is something this phone is really good at. I didn’t need to charge the phone at the end of most days, but instead liked to charge it every other day.

To make that charging possible, there is support for a massive 100W wired charging function. For most European countries, there is no charger included in the box as standard, but in some regions a charger is included.

I tested it with a 100W charger and found it hit 71% in 30 minutes, charging from 23% to 94%.

Further thoughts

• Supports 25W reverse charging for accessories.
• There is no wireless charging on the Poco M8 Pro.

Software and apps: a bloated mess

Where Poco falls down – and it’s something that Redmi and Xiaomi phones also suffer from – is the software experience.

This is available in a number of forms for the Poco M8 Pro. Firstly, the phone will launch on HyperOS 2 based on Android 15, so it is already outdated.

There are 4 years of OS updates and 6 years of security updates, which is typical for this level of phone, but not competitive with phones from Google, Samsung or even Honor.

Then there are extensive changes that come with HyperOS, which make this phone feel substantially different from a typical Android phone. Part of that equation is the bloatware – pre-installed apps on the phone (I counted about 14 apps that I couldn’t choose not to install) – and then there’s the duplication that comes from Xiaomi’s apps.

Stick with Google’s apps, they are much better.

The user interface is filled with options and some may like the extra choices for customization and control, others may find it a bit overkill. Sure, the experience is slower, less consistent and less refined than something like the Pixel 10a, but at half the price.

Further thoughts

• Most pre-installed apps can be deleted once the phone is set up.
• Gemini is present on this device for all your AI conversations.

Price and availability

The Poco M8 Pro is available at the time of writing for £249 direct from Mi.com, with an RRP of £299. It’s also available from Amazon and as always, not available in the US.

The Redmi Note 15 Pro+ is a natural alternative but with a 200MP main camera, but for £100 more I don’t think it’s worth it.

Elsewhere, Google’s cheapest phone costs £499 – the Pixel 10a – and offers longer software support, a cleaner experience and better cameras, but a smaller screen and less impressive battery.

Samsung’s rival device would be the Galaxy A36 (£399), although Poco beats it in almost every area on the spec sheet. Samsung’s advantage is cleaner software with longer support.

Check out our list of the best budget phones and best mid-range phones for more options.

Should you buy the Poco M8 Pro?

The Poco M8 Pro delivers a lot of hardware and great performance at a great price. It’s hard to beat Poco for value, making this a great choice for those who can’t afford a flagship phone but want some of that power. Battery life and charging are also better than most flagship rivals.

But the software doesn’t make for a great experience and a lot of work needs to be done to remove bloat and switch to Google apps to make everything smoother and cleaner. It’s a phone you’ll have to tinker with to get the best experience – and for the price, it might be worth it.

Ultimately, this is a great budget phone, with an impressive screen and battery life, for not a lot of money.

Specifications

• HyperOS 2, based on Android 15
• 6.83 inches, 1280 x 2772 AMOLED, 120 Hz
• Optical fingerprint scanner
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 chipset
• 8/12GB RAM
• 256/512 GB storage
• 50 MP, f/1.6 main camera
• 8 MP, f/2.2 ultra-wide
• 32 MP, f/2.2 selfie
• Up to 4K @ 30 fps video on the back
• Stereo speakers
• WiFi 6
• Bluetooth 5.4
• 6500mAh battery
• 100W wired charging
• 163.34 x 78.31 x 8.31mm
• IP66/68 certified
• 205.9g
• Colours: black, silver, green