Poco's X and F series have been the brand's most interesting series for years now, with the X series getting closer to the F series in terms of value and performance. The new X8 Pro series, with the X8 Pro starting at ₹32,999 and the X8 Pro Max at ₹42,999, seems to further continue on that path. Do they do justice to that price tag and bring enough performance to the tablet? Let's try and find out:
The first thing you might notice about both these phones is their curved corners, narrow bezels around the display and the separated camera modules at the back. Interestingly, the camera rings carry notification LEDs, which a lot of Android users might remember from a decade back.
Both phones are large, but the X8 Pro Max is especially big and doesn't seem comfortable to be carried and used with one hand for most people. The X8 Pro Max has a 6.83-inch display, while the X8 Pro comes with a 6.59-inch display — both have Corning Gorilla Glass 7i on top.
On the top, you have the infrared port, secondary mic; the left side houses the volume buttons and Power/lock key near the middle; and at the bottom, you have the dual SIM card trays slot, primary mic, USB type C port, and one outlet for loudspeakers (the other one is next to the front camera).
The X8 Pro has a frosted glass back, but the X8 Pro Max has a fibreglass back. Black and White (the ones I tried) are colour options with Blue as an added option for the X8 Pro Max and Green for the X8 Pro.
Coming to the displays, the 6.59-inch (2756x1268) display of the X8 Pro and the 6.83-inch (2772x1280) display of the X8 Pro Max have good viewing angles, support up to 120Hz refresh rates and are usable under direct sunlight, provided you have cranked the brightness high. These displays have good but not the most accurate colour reproduction for viewing images. While they are sharp, for viewing images and videos, colour calibration could have been handled a little better in terms of HDR playback. Otherwise, the displays are generally good for the price tag here.
The phones are equipped with new MediaTek chipsets — Dimensity 9500s on the X8 Pro Max and Dimensity 8500 Ultra in the X8 Pro, along with 12GB LPDDR5X Ultra and 8GB LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB UFS 4.1 internal storage. These are running on HyperOS 3, which is based on Android 16 with the February security patch in place.
The phones have some bloatware pre-installed, but most can be avoided during the initial setup steps and with a few minutes spent later. You can expect these phones to handle social media apps, navigating in Google Maps, watching 4k videos on YouTube and switching between apps without dropping frames. These are generally responsive and do not show any stuttering. For gaming, the X8 Pro Max can play a high-end game like PUBG at near-120FPS with a little bit of heating seen. Both phones are guaranteed to get 4 software upgrades and 6 years of security patches. The default icons, though, could do with a facelift. Of course, you can change these with themes.
Talking about their camera performance, this is, unsurprisingly, not segment-leading. You get a 50MP (f/1.5) main camera and an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera. The phones can take sharp shots but often lose out on focus details even in medium light conditions. Though the camera app is snappy, the focus could have been handled better. In daylight, there is better detail as well as dynamic range. The front-facing 20MP (f/2.2) camera takes nice, detailed shots on most occasions and handles video calling usually well, even in dim light conditions, but no 4k videos.
Battery life in both these phones is excellent. Powered by a 9,000 mAh battery unit, the X8 Pro Max lasted about 2 days quite frequently, while the X8 Pro, too, with its 6,500 mAh battery unit, went above a day most every single time. You get 100W chargers in the boxes that can charge the X8 Pro Max in a little under 2 hours, and the X8 Pro in about 1.5 hours with very little heating felt.
Loudspeakers on both phones are quite loud and have sufficient depth to them to be used for gaming and multimedia playback indoors. 5G network reception on the phones is excellent, perhaps better than any other 5G phone with a MediaTek chipset so far.
Keeping in mind the ongoing increase in memory and GPU chip pricing, the X8 Pro series is indeed a value-for-money offering from Poco. Though the price has increased a bit, the performance that's offered, the design that's in place, and overall experience make these two recommended options for their price tags.