Poco M8 Review: A Practical Upgrade

Poco had a reasonably good 2025 among the Xiaomi family of brands. Both its X series and F series phones were received well in India. And, now the brand has started 2026 with the launch of its entry-level

offering — Poco M8 — a phone that aims to offer value for money experience. The phone claims to offer several 'first in the segment' features and can be considered a good upgrade over the previous generation Poco M7.The Poco M8 comes with a curved AMOLED panel, an better chipset and improved battery life. All of this also justifies its price tag of Rs 16,999. While there will always be obvious limitations for any phone in this price segment, I believe this phone still offers a great value for anyone in the market for a value for money device. Poco M8 Review: Design

I could instantly notice the difference and improvements over the previous generation Poco M8. The phone has a better in-hand feel than its predecessor. Even though it uses the same plastic back, the material used here feels far more assuring and comfortable to hold. The camera module is also not as big as on the previous generation and blends with the overall design. I have the Black color of the phone which looks good. In case you opt for this color, you need to know two things: One, the phone catches a lot of dust and that is easily visible due to the Black color. Two, the rear panel got some scratches within a few days of usage. So, I think you will be better off using the phone with a cover.

Overall, the phone is not that heavy. It weighs 178 grams which makes it easy to use for long hours, even though the size is big. It's also just 7.4mm thick which adds to the usability. The phone is IP66 rated for protection. So, the Poco M8 is a practical phone to use which looks simple and is comfortable at the same time. Even though the back is prone to scratches, the phone checks boxes for durability. If handled carefully, none of that should be an issue.Poco M8 Review: Display

Poco M8 features a 6.77-inch curved AMOLED display with a smooth 120Hz refresh rate. The screen supports 3200 nits of peak brightness and also has support for HDR 10+. The display is quick, responsive and smooth to use. Scrolling through the apps, reels and reading articles feels fluid and smooth. The curves melt into the bezels seamlessly, making it one of the most immersive screens under Rs 20,000.From a pure viewing experience perspective,

Brightness levels are excellent. Indoors or under direct sunlight, I never found myself struggling to read content.The phone has a sunlight mode that makes it easy to operate your smartphone under harsh sunlight conditions.

In terms of color production, the display looks punchy and vibrant. I saw documentaries on YouTube, and this display is good for watching entertainment content. Colors are mostly on the natural side, but in some situations, like when I was watching a planet documentary where there were lots of green trees and the sunlight was falling on them. At that time, visual were slightly washed out. Otherwise, the phone also has good viewing angles desipte the curved panel. Poco M8 Review: Performance And SoftwareUnder the hood, the Poco M8 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chipset based on 4nm fabrication. It is paired with 8GB of RAM and offers either 128GB or 256GB of LPDDR4X UFS 2.2 storage. For context, this represents a significant step up from last year’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 2, which powered its predecessor, the Poco M7.

The Poco M8 scored 78160 on AnTuTu which is almost 80 per cent more that the Poco M7. That's a major improvement in performance. However, it's less than some of the competing phones like Realme P4x and Motorola G57 Power.

On Geekbench 6, the phone scored 928 in single core and 2884 in multi-core, which is fine.Now let’s talk real-world performance:- So ,here I really tortured my device to see if it can really withstand the everyday usage. I watched reels for several hours, at the same time opened many tabs on Chrome and the phone ran smoothly. The user interface was nice, and it did not stutter. Apps opened quickly, and RAM management was solid. Even with multiple apps running in the background, the system didn’t slow down or heat up.- Now, gaming is where the phone still has limitations and understandably so. Playing BGMI, I could achieve Smooth + Extreme (60 fps) settings, but the average frame rate hovered around 55 fps, with occasional frame drops. So here I can say that if you want a gaming phone, then Poco M8 is not the option for you.This device comes with HyperOS 2.0 out of the box and is based on Android 15.

Talking about the UI experience, it feels smooth and responsive. The app opens quickly without any delay and the animations are clean. However, one area that genuinely disappointed me is the number of pre-installed apps. Poco M8 comes with pre-loaded gaming apps. Though you can delete them whenever you want, somewhere the first impression actually goes down.Overall, the software experience is smooth but not clean, mainly due to the heavy bloatware, which is something Poco should seriously improve in future updates.Poco M8 Review: Camera

Poco M8 comes with dual 50 mega-pixel camera setup with 2 megapixel depth sensor. For selfie camera you get 20 megapixel shooter.

Poco M8 delivers balanced and fine details. Colours remain on the natural side not much saturated or exposed. In daylight photography, the primary camera delivers fine details and balanced results. The camera tends to soften facial details, especially when capturing people.

Portrait mode performance is acceptable but inconsistent. While background blur looks fine, edge detection remains hit or miss, with subject details sometimes appearing soft. The overall output is usable, but it lacks the refinement seen on more camera-focused phones.Poco M8 does not have an ultrawide or a telephoto lens, which actually limits the versatility and keeps the experience fairly minimal if you are a photographer.

At the front, you get a 20 megapixel selfie camera. Here you get to see decent and usable selfies. Details are adequate, skin tones appear natural, and there is no aggressive skin whitening, which is a welcome touch. Selfies are suitable for casual social media use and video calls.Poco M8 Review: Battery

The Poco M8 packs a 5520mAh battery paired with 45W fast charging. With moderate to heavy usage (social media, videos, calls and some light gaming), I consistently got 7-8 hours of screen-on time, and it lasted the entire day very easily.Charging speed? From 0 to 100%, it takes about 50 mins to get fully juiced up. Not bad I will say according to the price, but in 2025, where competitors offer 65W or even 120W charging, this could feel slightly slow.Battery Drain Test:

• 1 hour Google Maps = 7% drop
• 4K YouTube Streaming for 40 mins = 6% drop
• BGMI (30 mins) = 8–9% drop

So while the battery is reliable, so is the charging support. Poco M8 Review: Verdict The Poco M8 is a well-balanced budget smartphone that just got launch under Rs 16,999 8GB RAM and 128GB Storage. This device focuses primarily on everyday usability.Who is this for?

• Anyone who wants a device with bright curved AMOLED display at an affordable price.
• Users who want a solid battery life with good charging support.
• Buyers who value a smooth daily performance over gaming power.

Who should skip it?

• Users who are into heavy gamers or are performance-focused.
• Photography enthusiasts looking for camera versatility.
• Users who prefer a clean, bloat-free software experience.

Overall, I felt that Poco M8 is not a budget king, but yes it is a practical, sensible upgrade over the Poco M7. It helps in filling a noticeable gap in the budget segment under Rs 20,000 with its display and battery strengths, making it a good choice for everyday users who value comfort and consistency over raw power or feature overload.