POCO launched POCO X8 Pro series smartphone in Indian and global markets earlier this week. Here we have the X8 Pro Max, a new Max model with impressive on-paper specs, including a 1.5K 120Hz AMOLED display with Dolby Vision, a Dimensity 9500s SoC, and a whopping 9000mAh battery, the highest on a POCO phone yet. Is the phone worth the price? Let us dive into the review to find out.
Box Contents
- POCO X8 Pro Max 5G 12GB + 256GB in black color
- 100W fast charger
- USB Type-C Cable
- SIM Ejector tool
- Protective case
- Screen protector (Pre-installed)
- User guide
Display, Hardware and Design
Starting with the display, the POCO X8 Pro Max has a 6.83-inch 1.5K AMOLED display with a pixel resolution of 2772 x 1280 pixels and a pixel density of about 447 PPI. This uses the flagship M10 panel, integrating brand-new red luminous material, and offers up to 3500 nits peak brightness, covering 25% display area. It is bright outdoors or watching HDR content. It has a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, so the colors are vibrant, and it has 12-bit color depth.
The phone has a 120Hz refresh rate display that can switch between 30Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz and 120Hz, a 480Hz touch sampling rate, and a 2560Hz instant touch sampling rate that is activated under Game Turbo Mode. When enabled, it offers a buttery smooth user experience, especially when you are scrolling through the UI and when gaming.
The phone has a 3840Hz high-frequency dimming technology and triple TÜV Rheinland eye-care certifications, ensuring both visibility and comfort in various lighting conditions. It also has HDR 10+ support, which works for YouTube and Amazon Prime Video, and there is Dolby Vision, which works for Netflix.
Under the display options, there are different options to adjust colours and contrast based on your preference with Original colour PRO option. The phone comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 7i protection.
The phone has a tiny punch-hole that houses a 20-megapixel camera, which doesn’t disturb when watching videos since it just occupies a small space. Above the display there is an earpiece on the top edge, which also doubles up as a secondary speaker. You can see ultra-slim bezels around the display.
Coming to the button placements, the volume rockers and the power button are present on the right side of the phone. The dual SIM slot, loudspeaker grill, primary microphone, and USB Type-C port are present on the bottom. It doesn’t have a microSD expansion slot. On the top there is a vent for the speaker, a secondary microphone, and an infrared sensor. The phone has a CNC metal frame that looks and feels premium.
There is a fiberglass back panel that doesn’t attract fingerprints; a metal racetrack-shaped deco design; and a dynamic ring with RGB LEDs around the cameras that are customizable. It has IP66/IP68/IP69/IP69K dust and water resistance ratings.
In addition to the black color that we have, the phone also comes in white and blue colors. This time there is no leatherback variant. Even with a huge 9000mAh battery, the company has maintained 8.2mm thickness. It weighs 220g, which is slightly more due to the bigger battery and the metal frame, but the weight distribution is good.
Camera
- 50MP main camera with 1/1.95″ Light Fusion 600 sensor, f/1.5 aperture, OIS, EIS
- 8MP ultra-wide camera with f/2.2 aperture
- 20MP front camera with OV20B sensor, f/2.2 aperture
The camera UI is familiar with other Xiaomi or POCO smartphones running Hyper OS 3. You get all the features such as Pro, Night, 50MP, Short Video, Panorama, VLOG, Slow motion, Time-lapse, Dual video, AI watermark, and Long exposure. Pro mode lets you adjust white balance, focus, shutter speed (1/4000s to 30 seconds), ISO (50 to 6400), and the option to select the main and ultra-wide lenses. You can enable focus peaking, exposure verification, and more options.
Coming to the image quality, daylight shots came out well with good dynamic range. After pixel binning technology, you get 12MP output from the main camera. HDR shots are better with improved dynamic range. 8MP wide-angle shots are decent. The 20MP front camera is good, and you get full 20MP output. Low-light camera performance is good, thanks to the improved sensor and large aperture.
Check out the camera samples.
It can record videos at 4k resolution at 60 fps, and it also has slow motion 1080p at up to 240 fps, and there is interpolation to 960 fps. You can also shoot 1080 60 fps videos using the front camera. The HDR video option can be enabled from settings, but it lacks 4K video recording from the front camera and portrait video. OIS in the main camera does its job, and there is a separate steady video mode that uses both OIS and EIS, but it switches to 1080p.
Software, UI and Apps
This is the first POCO phone to run HyperOS 3 out of the box. It has got March 2026 Android security patch. The company has promised 4 years of OS updates and 6 years of security updates, which is better than last year. HyperOS 3 brings a redesigned interface, smoother performance, expanded AI features, stronger ecosystem connectivity, and upgraded privacy protections.
Xiaomi HyperConnect offers seamless interaction across devices; Xiaomi HyperIsland brings expanded live activity support for apps at a glance. Xiaomi Offline Communication ensures voice calls even without a network.
There are also AI features such as AI Writing, AI Speech Recognition, AI Notes, AI Recorder, AI Interpreter, and AI subtitles. You also get AI-powered editing features like expand, reflection remover, erase, and sky replacement.
Since the phone has an infrared sensor for remote function, it comes with Mi Remote that lets you control your home appliances easily. Out of 12GB LPDDR5X 9600Mbps RAM, you get 11GB of usable RAM, and about 5GB of RAM is free when default apps are running in the background. It also has up to 12GB of memory extension or virtual RAM, which you can disable from additional settings. Out of 256GB UFS 4.1 storage, you get about 232GB of free storage.
Apart from the usual set of utility apps, Google apps, and POCO’s own set of apps, it comes preloaded with Netflix, Amazon, Facebook, LinkedIn, Spotify, and more apps and some games. It also asks for additional app installation during setup, which you can skip. You can easily uninstall these apps, but these come up when you reset the phone. Even though there is a personalized ads option during setup and recommendations in all the apps, you don’t get any ads in the apps.
Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock
The phone has an in-display 3D ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, so it works even with wet and oily fingers, and the sensing is also faster. You can add up to 5 fingerprints. You can also use the fingerprint for local apps and payments in apps. There are also options to change the fingerprint animation. The phone also has face unlock, but it is not that secure.
Music Player and Multimedia
The Mi Music Player is the default music player with usual POCO audio effects and an equalizer. It also doesn’t have FM radio but comes with Dolby Atmos, and the phone has dual 1115F symmetrical speakers that offer an excellent audio experience, and audio through earphones is good as well. There is a 400% volume boost.
It has Widevine L1 support, so you can play HD content on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and other streaming apps without any issues. The phone also supports Dolby Vision for Netflix and HDR10+ for Amazon Prime Video. Vibration motors are good, so the haptic feedback is good as well.
Dual SIM and Connectivity
It supports 5G and has support for several 5G bands. There is also support for dual 4G VoLTE and VoNR, and the phone supports carrier aggregation as well. Other connectivity options include Dual-Band Wi-Fi 7 802.11be. It has VoWiFi / Wi-Fi calling support, Bluetooth 6.0 LE, Beidou: B1I+B1C+B2a+B2b | GPS: L1+L5 | Galileo: E1+E5a+E5b | GLONASS: G1 | QZSS: L1+L5 | NavIC: L1+L5, and there is also NFC support. This also has eSIM support, a first for the phone in the budget. You can disable the second SIM and use eSIM when needed.
Call quality is good, and we did not face any call drops, and the earpiece volume was loud. It has a Xiaomi dialer instead of a Google dialer seen in some Xiaomi phones. There is call recording as well.
The POCO X8 Pro Max’s body SAR is 0.791W/Kg and head SAR is at 0.929/Kg, that is well under the limit of 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g) in India.
Performance and Benchmarks
This is the first phone in India to be powered by MediaTek Dimensity 9500s 3nm processor. This has 1x Cortex-X925 up to 3.73GHz, 3x Cortex-X4 at 3.3GHz, and 4x Cortex-A720 at 2.4GHz.
The phone uses POCO 3D IceLoop Cooling System with a large 5,800mm² liquid cooling area. The Immortalis-G925 MC11 with POCO’s Wildboost optimization for high-quality image rendering and high fps has a new UI. It intelligently predicts per-frame computing demand within each frame generation cycle, enabling proactive intervention to prevent frame drops.
All these offer stable frame rates and lower power consumption even under heavy-load gaming. We did not face any issues or frame drops in the graphic-intensive games like COD, BGMI and Genshin Impact. Furthermore, WildBoost Optimization offers Smart frame rate, 1.5K Super resolution, 24x super resolution touch, and Game HDR.
In the 3DMark wildlife stress test, it scored 52.8%, which is better than POCO X7 Pro, but the POCO F7 is higher. The temperature shot up from 33 to 49 degrees, which is lower than the POCO X7 Pro and POCO F7. That said, check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.
As you can see, the POCO X8 Pro Max is better than the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 that powers the POCO F7 and is almost on par with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the phone packs a 9000mAh (typical) built-in silicon-carbon battery, the highest on a POCO phone to date. This can last for close to 2 days, even with heavy use. With minimal use, it should easily last for 3 days. I got over 7 hours of screen on-time with over a day of heavy use, mainly on 5G and bit of Wi-Fi in 120Hz.
There is 5G battery saver, boost charging and more features in the battery settings. Since the phone has support for 100W fast charging, it can charge up to 50% in less than 30 minutes and up to 100% in slightly over an hour. The phone also shows charging cycles. It retains 80% or more of its battery capacity after 1,600 charge cycles, which is approximately equivalent to 6 years of regular use, said the company. It also has 27W reverse wired charging that lets you use the phone’s big battery to charge other devices.
Conclusion
The POCO X8 Pro Max 5G is a bold statement from the brand, shifting from its traditional “budget flagship” identity into a more premium, “all-rounder” territory. By packing a massive 9000mAh battery into an 8.2mm chassis, POCO has solved the age-old trade-off between endurance and ergonomics.
The combination of the MediaTek Dimensity 9500s and the 1.5K AMOLED display makes it a powerhouse for both media consumption and high-end gaming. The camera system is reliable for daylight and low-light photography, but the lack of 4K selfie video and the tendency to heat up during sustained heavy gaming are small compromises in an otherwise stellar package.
If you are looking for a device that can comfortably last two days of heavy use without sacrificing performance or display quality, the POCO X8 Pro Max is currently in a league of its own.
Alternatives
There is no direct competition if you need a phone with a huge battery and performance in the price range. For performance and a slightly smaller display, you can consider iQOO 15R if you spend a bit more. We can expect more competitors in the segment soon.
Pricing and availability
The POCO X8 Pro Max is priced at Rs. 42,999 for the 12GB + 256GB model, and the 12GB + 512GB model costs Rs. 46,999. It will be available from Flipkart starting from March 23rd. There are also launch offers such as Rs. 3000 bank discount, and for buyers on the first day, there is a 1-year extended warranty and 1-year screen damage protection.
Pros
- 1.5K 120Hz AMOLED display with HDR10+ and Dolby Vision is brilliant
- Smooth performance and good gaming performance
- Solid build, IP66, IP68, IP69, and IP69K dust and water resistant
- Cameras are good enough
- Excellent battery life with 100W fast charging
Cons
- Gets heated quickly on intensive gaming
- No 4K video recording for front camera