POCO launched POCO X8 Power smartphone in the X8 series last month. This gets the 1.5K 120Hz AMOLED display with Dolby Vision from the X8 Pro Max but has the latest Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 SoC and gets a whopping 10,000mAh 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 Power 5G 8GB + 256GB in yellow 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 Power 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 offers up to 3500 nits peak brightness, up to 2000 nits HBM brightness and up to 1060 nits typical brightness. 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 3200Hz 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 3840 Hz 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 Victus 2 protection.
The phone has a tiny punch-hole that houses a 32-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 and a secondary microphone. The infrared sensor is present on the back, inside the camera deco. The phone has a plastic frame, but it looks like metal, offering a premium look and feel.
The yellow color variant that we have has a vegan leather finish that offers a premium look. It also comes in black and has a polycarbonate matte finish. It has IP66/IP68/IP69/IP69K dust and water resistance ratings.
Even with a huge 10,000 mAh battery, the company has maintained 8.65mm thickness. It weighs 229 g, which is slightly more due to the bigger battery, but the weight distribution is good.
Camera
- 50MP main camera (f/1.5 aperture), OIS
- 8MP ultra-wide camera (f/2.2 aperture)
- 32MP front camera (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 32MP front camera is good, and you get full 32MP 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 30 fps fromt the front and rear cameras, and it also has slow motion 1080p at up to 120fps. It lacks HDR video and portrait video options. 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 runs HyperOS 3 out of the box and has August 2026 Android security patch. The company has promised 4 years of OS updates and 6 years of security updates, similar to the other phones in the X8 series. 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 8GB LPDDR5X RAM, you get 7.3GB of usable RAM, and about 3GB of RAM is free when default apps are running in the background. It also has up to 8GB of memory extension, or virtual RAM, which you can disable from additional settings. Out of 256GB UFS 4.1 storage, you get about 224GB 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.
You can cover the rear camera and flash as instructed by the screen, then hold still to measure heart rate.
Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock
The phone has an optical in-display fingerprint sensor, which is quick to unlock the phone. 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 6 802.11ac. It has VoWiFi / Wi-Fi calling support, Bluetooth 6.0 LE, GPS: L1 | GLONASS: G1 | BDS: B1I+B1C | Galileo: E1 | QZSS:L1 | A-GPS , but it doesn’t have NFC support.
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 Power’s body SAR is 0.841W/Kg and head SAR is at 0.853/Kg, that is well under the limit of 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g) in India.
Performance and Benchmarks
This is the first smartphone in India to be powered by Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 Mobile Platform. It has 4 x Cortex-A78 Performance cores at up to 2.6 GHz, and 4 x Cortex-A55 Efficiency cores at up to 2 GHz.
The Adreno 812 GPU promises smooth, crisp graphics. It can handle graphic-intensive games like Genshin Impact, but not at max graphics. In BGMI, HDR and Extreme work. There is no mention of cooling, but I didn’t face any heating issues with normal use, but it gets hot when gaming for long. The experience was smooth.
In the 3DMark wildlife stress test, it scored 99.5%, which is good. The temperature shot up from 33 to 42 degrees, which is not much. That said, check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the phone packs a 10,000mAh (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 10 hours of screen on-time with 2 days of use, mainly on 5G and a 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 about 30 minutes and up to 100% in slightly over an hour. I also tried 100W PD charger, which worked without any issues. 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 Power stands out as an endurance powerhouse without cutting corners on core media features. Its massive 10,000mAh battery effortlessly delivers two full days of demanding use, while the 100W fast charging and 27W reverse charging eliminate the usual downtime associated with such large capacities.
Beyond its headline battery life, the handset punches well above its weight with a stunning 1.5K 120Hz Dolby Vision AMOLED panel, solid IP69K-grade ingress protection, and reliable day-to-day performance via the Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 SoC. While the 229g heft is noticeable in hand and prolonged heavy gaming pushes thermal limits, it strikes an impressive balance for media consumers, travelers, and power users who prioritize screen quality and sheer battery longevity over sheer peak gaming frame rates. If you want a phone that virtually eliminates battery anxiety without looking like a rugged brick, the POCO X8 Power is an easy recommendation.
Alternatives
The realme P4 Power with a 10,000mAh battery is a direct competitor at a cheaper rate, but it lacks stereo speakers.
Pricing and availability
The POCO X8 Power 5G is priced at Rs. 35,999 for the 8GB + 128GB version, and the 8GB + 256GB version costs Rs. 38,999. With the ongoing offers, the phone is available for as low as Rs. 30,999 and gets cheaper with bank offer. It will be available from Flipkart.
Pros
- 1.5K 120Hz AMOLED display with HDR10+ and Dolby Vision is brilliant
- Smooth performance
- Good build, IP66, IP68, IP69, and IP69K dust and water resistant
- Cameras are good enough
- Excellent battery life with 100W fast charging
Cons
- Might be bulky for some
- Heats up quickly on intenstive gaming