It’s been a hot minute since the POCO F6 came out, but it’s managed to keep the hype train going with quite the compelling showcase when it comes to gaming. Clad in a sleek, stylish exterior with premium specs right under the hood, it’s no wonder this smartphone has found its way into the gaming sphere.
Finding a reliable device that checks all the boxes is a tall task, and cutting corners usually involves one of the most important–yet, overlooked forms of recreation on the go. That would be gaming. Armed with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, a 120Hz CrystalRes AMOLED display, and LiquidCool Technology 4.0, the POCO F6 is more than ready to handle your favorite titles. One wouldn’t assume this from the get-go, based on its aesthetics–but once the gaming starts, you’ll know it’s the real deal.
Choose your adventure
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 mobile processor and Adreno 735 GPU do most of the heavy lifting. This, coupled with our 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage lays out the groundwork for all your gaming sessions.
It’s already a given that you can run your less demanding, competitive titles such as Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and PUBG: Mobile. You can basically install them, crank up the settings to their highest, then fire and forget. No sweat. Your friendly neighborhood gacha games are a completely different story, though.
We tested out three of the most popular–and most demanding mobile games on the POCO F6. These games being the modern classic, Genshin Impact, the newer turn-based sensation, Honkai: Star Rail, and the new kid on the block–Wuthering Waves. With the most detailed graphics, intricate mobile gameplay, and heaviest load on storage at more than 10GB each, they were the perfect candidates to see just how far the POCO F6 could go.
Each were set to max graphic settings with motion blur switched off. In our experience, no matter how powerful a device is, motion blur tends to work to our disadvantage. Once everything was set, around twenty minutes of gameplay was in order.
All three titles ran smoothly without a hitch. Save for the initial sluggishness while assets loaded upon logging in, we didn’t experience any major frame drops or excessive lagging. Traversing the overworld at 60 fps is always a treat–especially in Honkai Star Rail, where it’s impossible to get mobbed by enemies.
Now, an excessive amount of enemies on screen was still a concern. To test this out, we engaged mostly in Wuthering Waves’s Tower of Adversity and Genshin Impact’s Spiral Abyss. A bit of stuttering occurred once the explosions happened one too many times. Our biggest concern was if the game would actually crash, which, thankfully, it didn’t.
It’s also worth noting that the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is different from its Snapdragon 8 counterpart. On paper, and in-game, it’s generally a weaker chipset. Still, it’s much more powerful than most processors you’d find in midrange smartphones–so, there’s no need to actually worry.
Now, the POCO F6’s LiquidCool Technology 4.0 is quite interesting. While we’re not too privy on the machinations behind its technology, it’s safe to say it did its job. Playing three of the most demanding mobile games back-to-back can take a toll on your system, even if for as short a period as twenty minutes.
Throughout the gameplay process, the phone’s backside did get a tad warm, but it never reached overcooked Korean BBQ levels of heat. Having an overly hot phone in your hands can not only be annoying, but quite concerning, to say the least.
A snazzy display
The POCO F6’s 120Hz CrystalRes AMOLED display is definitely a major highlight, whether you’re in-game or not. But once you do fire up your favorite title, you can definitely expect the visuals to pop out. Of course, you can tinker with the phone’s settings to suit your preference, but we decided to keep things vanilla–like with most cases in life.
Now, for this test, we expanded our library just a pinch. Path to Nowhere and Final Fantasy: Ever Crisis aren’t as demanding for the processor, but they do a fine job in showcasing the phone’s display.
Final Fantasy: Ever Crisis has just about as much action as its major console counterpart, so you really want to catch all the acrobatic action. The 120Hz refresh rate made it so that the combat appeared on-screen more fluidly, in spite of its turn-based nature.
While browsing through your favorite manga and streaming the latest aespa videos aren’t within the gaming sphere, they’re very much recreational activities. If you so decide to do such in between your gaming sessions, you’ll be happy to know that the display will serve you well.
Supercharged and relentless
Gaming and longevity usually don’t mix when it comes to smartphone power–especially when you’re running on good, old-fashioned mobile data. It’s quite recipe for a quick and easy dead battery. As such, we highly recommend playing on Wi-Fi as much as possible, and limit your playtime if you need to power up the 5G. This is a general case when it comes to smartphones.
With that out of the equation, the POCO F6’s 5,000 mAh battery is large and in charge, working rather well with the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. The biggest fear would be bad optimization, as regardless of how powerful your chipset is, it’s not as useful if it conks out after a couple of competitive MLBB matches. That’s not the case here.
With four different battery modes, you can essentially tailor your power settings to suit your gaming needs. Ultra Battery Saver, Battery Saver, Balanced, and Ultimate Mode are your choices–with the latter being the best choice for gaming. You do get a prompt notifying you of an increase in power consumption, and it does make the phone run a bit warmer than “Balanced,” but it’s no cause for concern.
The proprietary “Gameturbo” engine runs in pretty much the same vein with Balanced and “WildBoost,” though we’re not exactly sure if they truly overlap with the baked in battery settings. Still, we did run them both at the same time and experienced a bit more snappiness in gameplay–at the expense of a bit more hand warmth. The game engine also comes with a few interesting features, like Enhanced Touch and a voice changer.
As for battery life, we were able to get a day’s worth of juice–accurate to what it says in the settings. That amount would drop to about 8 to 10 hours of continuous gameplay–as one needs to grind for skins whenever playing Call of Duty Warzone Mobile. As for topping up with the 90-watt charger, we were back in action in less than 40 minutes.
Formidable, affordable
Now, we talk on the subject of pricing. As an upper-midranger, it’s expected that the POCO F6 wouldn’t come cheap–but at the same time, it would be a crime for it to be overpriced. Coming in with two variants at 8GB + 256GB and 12GB + 512GB. Ours came with 8GB by default, so experiences may vary if you decide to dip your toes in the higher tier.
Still, with the aforementioned base version being priced at P21,999, it’s not a bad deal when compared to more gaming-centric smartphones. It’s worth noting that you’ll be getting a bounty of other POCO features, after all. Gameplay may be a highlight, but it’s not the smartphone’s be-all end-all. The beefier variant retails for P24,999, which may be a tad pricier, but not exactly egregious. All we can say is the POCO F6 can and will run your mobile games, and rather smoothly, to boot.
It all boils down to whether or not this particular smartphone tickles your fancy.
The POCO F6 is exclusively available on Shopee and Lazada in three colorways: Black, Green, and Titanium. For more information, visit the official Xiaomi website and Facebook page.