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Camera
- Quad-camera setup
- 48MP primary shooter
- Comprehensive manual mode
The Poco M2 Pro comes with a quad-camera setup with a 48MP primary 1/2-inch Samsung ISOCELL Bright GM2 sensor, at an f/1.8 aperture. An 8MP ultra-wide sensor follows, with a 13mm equivalent field-of-view, and an f/2.2 lens. A 5MP macro shooter and a depth sensor bring the tally up to four cameras.
Primary camera results were better than we expected with accurate colors, temperature, and decent dynamic range. However, they break down fast when you try cropping in, even at the 48MP resolution. The noise was apparent in many shots, and the Night mode did little to improve that.
The ultrawide shooter is also great but faces the usual dynamic range and detail limitations. Matters got even worse in lower light.
The Poco M2 Pro of our favourite manual modes on any current smartphone. Not only are the usual toggles present, but those can be used for the secondary and tertiary camera as well. All of them carry forward to videos too. High-end features such as focus peaking and exposure warning are great additions
Battery life
- 5,000mAh battery
- 33W fast charging
The Poco M2 Pro houses a 5,000mAh battery which is one of the biggest on recent smartphones. That translated to excellent battery life in our usage. With regular use of social media, instant messaging and media playback, we were often able to cross 9 hours of screen-on-time on a single charge. Adding gaming to the mix does bring it down, but it will still be difficult to kill the phone in one day. Most users should be able to take their phone to the next day.
Things get even better with the charging, as the Poco M2 Pro sports 33W charging, taking only about 100 minutes to go from 0 to full. This is one of the fastest refill times in this segment when you account for the battery capacity - and another place where it beats the Redmi Note 9 Pro.
Verdict
The Poco M2 Pro is an easy phone to recommend under Rs 15,000. It takes everything we liked from another excellent phone in this segment, fixed upon the few minor aspects which weren’t great and somehow even went down the price ladder. That leaves us with very little to complain about.
The only thing we missed was a high refresh rate display, which is quickly becoming a norm even in this segment. If you haven’t been spoilt by a smoother interface yet, this might not be such a high priority for you. If it is, there do exist options from Realme with a similar spec sheet and price point.
As the market returns to normalcy, we're seeing more manufacturers focus on the sub Rs 15,000 segment. The best offerings continue to come from Xiaomi and Realme, and you can't really go wrong with either.
We also don’t think that the rebranding exercise is particularly bad because it has constantly yielded great phones at lower price points. Perhaps, it is Xiaomi’s way of helping Poco transition into a more household brand in the hottest segments of India rather than just serving the enthusiasts. If that is the case, then the Poco M2 Pro will probably not be the last smartphone to share genes with its cousin.
Check out the Poco M2 Pro on Flipkart
