Poco M8 Pro review: this phone makes a great case for ignoring superior specs and spending less

Introduction

One of Xiaomi’s affordable smartphone sub-brands has been singing from the other’s hymn sheet – but which has the more heavenly voice? Based on my week spent testing the M8 Pro, I think it’s Poco. The firm’s latest cut-price handset makes exactly the right hardware sacrifices to reign in costs just that little bit more than its Redmi sibling.

While $510/£350 will buy you a Redmi Note 15 Pro+ with a 200MP main camera, the $399/£299 Poco M8 Pro drops down to a 50MP snapper. Yet it keeps the same styling, same screen, same Qualcomm chipset, same beefy battery, and virtually the same Xiaomi-flavoured version of Android.

Here’s why, even after breaking out the magnifying glass to spot the camera quality differences, I can’t see the point in paying more.

Design & build: start your engines

Motorsport fans or members of ska bands will appreciate the silver version of the M8 Pro; it’s rocking a two-tone finish, with glossy carbon-effect checkerboards running down the edges of the polycarbonate back panel. The green and black alternatives are more nuanced, though not having seen them in person I can’t say if they do as good a job of shrugging off fingerprints as my silver review unit.

Colours and patterns aside, the only thing distinguishing this phone from the Redmi Note 15 Pro+ is the small Poco logo on the back panel. The two are otherwise identical, with flat sides, a squircular rear camera setup that doesn’t poke out too far – and isn’t very honest with the number of sensors it contains – and a build made entirely from plastic.

It’s a big phone, having made room for a 6.83in display, yet it sits comfortably enough in the hand thanks to a svelte 8.3mm thickness and 2.5D curves on both the front and rear. The screen is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2 glass, and the phone is both IP66 and IP68 rated against dust and water – or rather the European variant is. Other markets also have IP69/69K resistance against high pressure jets, for some reason.

The under-display fingerprint sensor gave me no reason to grumble, being about as fast to recognise my thumb as any optical-based sensor I’ve used on an affordable smartphone. The punch-hole selfie camera can only handle basic face recognition, so is no good for apps that demand higher levels of security like banking apps.

Western audiences may not be bothered by the inclusion of an IR blaster, but it can be handy for any older tech you still use on the regular.

Screen & sound: no weak links

Everything looks gorgeous on the M8 Pro’s enormous 6.83in screen, which has 60/120Hz adaptive scrolling and a respectable 1.5K resolution. The 120Hz mode was quick to activate with scrolling or onscreen motion, so didn’t need leaving on 24/7.

The subtly curved edges on all four sides won’t be to all tastes – entirely flat screens are the phone world’s current favourite – but the extra light reflections they kick up are largely contained to the bezel (which is fairly slim for an affordable handset).

The panel plays nicely with the HDR formats used by most streaming services, and shows the sort of colour vibrancy and contrast you only get from OLED. Blacks look properly dark and deep, while highlights have a nice amount of impact. Outdoor brightness is competitive too.

Meanwhile, the M8 Pro’s volume slider puts Spinal Tap to shame by topping out at a ridiculous 400%. Few other phones can get anything like as loud, though the stereo speakers’ sound quality takes a dive into tinny territory in the process. They’re more composed at 100% and below, though don’t expect much in the way of bass presence.

Software experience: driven to distraction

The M8 Pro arrives running Android 15, so one of Poco’s four promised operating system upgrades will be spent simply bringing it up to speed with the competition. While I’ve explained elsewhere why you shouldn’t worry about how long your phone will get software updates, this isn’t a great look.

The HyperOS 2 skin that sits on top is very user-friendly, at least, with clean icons, sensibly laid-out menus, and clever shortcuts like long-pressing the brightness slider in the Quick Settings menu to reveal the dark mode and reading mode toggles. It’s all very customisable too.

While you can politely say no to the initial setup screen that prompts you to install a bunch of bloat, the Poco M8 Pro’s app drawer still has a disappointing amount of dross waiting for you anyway. Most are easy enough to delete, and this isn’t unusual for a budget phone, but even some of the system apps are loaded with adverts. I mostly dumped them in favour of Google’s defaults.

AI hasn’t seeped into the M8 Pro’s every pore, without even the usual scattering of apps that try to make your life easier with algorithms. That means no voice recording transcription or foreign language translation, no generative image editing tools, and no text summarising – which might be a good thing, depending on your point of view. Google’s Gemini assistant and Circle to Search both make appearances though.

Performance & battery life: affordable sweet spot

Power comes from the same mid-tier Snapdragon 7S Gen 4 chipset as the Redmi. Are you beginning to see the pattern here? It’s a departure for Poco, though, having used MediaTek Dimensity silicon in the outgoing M7 Pro. Benchmark tests put it in the middle of the affordable phone pack, being beaten by both the OnePlus Nord 5 and Google Pixel 9a – though those phones do cost a fair bit more.

Android runs smoothly enough, opening apps without much delay and not grinding to a halt when attempting to multitask. Gaming is where the phone shows its budget leanings, with graphically intensive releases defaulting to lower settings. Red Dead Redemption looked fairly low resolution and the lack of antialiasing on objects was pretty noticeable, but it remained playable enough. Slower fare like Disco Elysium played perfectly, so casual gamers will be perfectly happy. Thermal throttling never once came into the equation.

My review unit came with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage for a small price premium, but not enough to make the Note 15 Pro+ look like the better buy. Unless you need more space I think you’re better off with the 8GB+256GB model, as the extra memory has relatively little impact on daily use.

The benefit of a mid-tier chipset and beefy 6500mAh battery is epic endurance. The M8 Pro has more than enough in reserve to make it through a full day, even when being blitzed by games, HDR videos, and demanding apps. Stay sensible and two days isn’t out of the question. Only the Honor Magic8 Lite and its simply massive 7500mAh cell lasts longer, but you pay an extra £100 for the privilege.

Hooked up to one of Xiaomi’s 100W HyperCharge adapters, the M8 Pro refuelled fully in less than 45 minutes. Even a 15-minute splash and dash got me to around 50%, or enough for another day of use.

Cameras: fifty’s nifty

Finally, the main point of difference between the M8 Pro and its Redmi half-brother. Both phones only have two sensors apiece lurking behind their four rear camera cutouts: one main snapper and one ultrawide. While the Note 15 Pro+ has a physically larger main sensor with a higher 200MP pixel count, the Poco makes do with a slightly smaller 50MP unit.

Not that you’d notice, as picture quality is very similar across all lighting conditions, even when using the camera app’s 2x “zoom”, which is really just cropping into your shot. There’s no shortage of resolved detail, colours are pleasingly vibrant (a little too much so in some cases) and dynamic range is decent too. I prefer the Nothing Phone 3a’s more realistic treatment, and quality understandably takes a step up when you move into the next price bracket up, but this is still very capable budget fare.

4x shots where things start to go in the Redmi’s favour, but I wouldn’t call the photos it takes at this “magnification” particularly good looking, even in the best light. The Poco’s are even less defined.

At night, colours stay largely true to life and dynamic range isn’t compromised to any major extent, but sharpness definitely takes a hit. That’s true at 2x, so this is quite flexible overall for a budget cameraphone with no dedicated telephoto.

With just an 8MP sensor, however, the ultrawide lens is a distant second place quality-wise. Colours aren’t as impactful, shadow definition isn’t as good, and there’s nowhere near as much detail on show.

The 32MP front-facing camera is fine, though I wish Poco would disable the beauty mode by default; it’s something Redmi is guilty of as well. There’s a good amount of resolved detail, at least, but the extra resolution has no bearing on video recording. It’s limited to Full HD at 60fps, while the rear camera can manage 4K.

Poco M8 Pro verdict

It’s easy to be dazzled by big numbers, but they’re not always worth paying extra for; the Poco M8 Pro proves you gain very little by choosing the more expensive Redmi Note 15 Pro+ and its 200MP snapper. Marginally better 4x photos that still can’t compete with more capable mid-range phones don’t justify the premium.

With styling, screen, software battery life and power otherwise being so similar, the Poco just makes more sense if you’re shopping to a budget. It also comfortably outlasts the Samsung Galaxy A56 and Nothing Phone 3a, though it lacks the former’s software finesse and the latter’s distinctive styling.

Poco M8 Pro technical specifications