Poco X8 Pro Max offers the ideal power-packed balance in your hand
Poco is a household name in the market even if it is now seen as a Xiaomi sub-brand in the country. The X-series has been renowned for its performance credentials so when the company decided to launch the X8 Pro Max version this year, the expectations were high. Most people wanted a power-packed device with durability and endurance at the top of their wish list and not too expensive to buy.
Poco X8 Pro Max looks to check a wide range of boxes in a market where prices of phones have gone out of hand, and nobody has been able to control the rise. Does the X8 Pro Max break that trend and deliver a product which actually merits the extra cost? We tested the device to look for these answers.
Clean And Polished
The X8 Pro Max doesn’t do anything out of the playbook with its design and keeps it simple which is not a bad thing. You have a clean design language with strong overall dynamics that makes holding the phone comfortable and not lugging. It does feature a large screen which makes the overall footprint slightly bigger for some users.
Poco X8 Pro Max review
But having it available with an 8.2mm frame and weighing 218 grams means you have a strong hold on the device.
Poco X8 Pro Max review
The frame is made of aluminium while the glass panel at the back brings its own premiumness to the phone. And having IP68 as well as IP69 ratings baked into the same product is a hard-to-ignore feature these days with its practical use case.
Sharp And Smooth
The X8 Pro Max features a 6.83-inch AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate, Dolby Vision and HDR10+ supported. The display goes up to 3,500 nits in peak brightness which translates into reliable legible reading and viewing under sunlight.
It gets Corning Gorilla Glass 7i protection which is not the best in the range but handles the regular daily grind with ease, even though we are not sure how it works out in the long run.
Poco X8 Pro Max review
The bezels are thin and nicely blend into the panel without being a hindrance while viewing and even the smallish punch hole is easy to live with and does not feel overbearing on the screen whatsoever. Having HDR supported means you can watch the shows from streaming apps in decent quality and use the deep blacks of the panel to good effect.
Never Wanting In Power
Poco has opted for the newer MediaTek Dimensity 9500s chipset with up to 12GB RAM and up to 512GB storage. This hardware has been built to handle the daily tasks of mobile usage, as well as meet the demands of power users, including gaming.
This is a 3nm process chip from MediaTek derived from the flagship Dimensity 9500 version and the overall response from the hardware setup tells you the X8 Pro Max is power-packed and happy to handle the load without issues.
Poco X8 Pro Max review
And to keep the device cool, Poco has equipped the phone with a larger vapour cooling system which enables the heat to flow out effectively and keep the phone’s temperature well in check. Even the throttle figures weren’t too shabby and shows how well Poco has tuned the hardware to run everything smoothly.
HyperOS should ideally deliver the optimum experience but Xiaomi’s interface is still underwhelming, at least when you use the device. The Android 16-based version doesn’t mark as a clean software UI and you have plenty of pre-loaded apps cluttering the performance.
Poco X8 Pro Max review
Yes, Poco has added some useful optimisation tools to enhance gaming and other features but the OS in general does not score high in terms of fluidity. Having said that, Poco is offering 4 OS upgrades and we hope those roll out sooner than its usual timelines from the brand.
Do The Cameras Perform?
Poco is offering the standard 50MP main sensor with OIS along with an 8MP ultrawide angle lens with the Max variant. The main camera offers detailed images in most instances but the colours don’t look natural and even overprocessed in some cases. This could be linked to some software tuning pending which should improve the quality.
Poco X8 Pro Max review
But even then we would have liked the main sensor to offer better results, especially when the light takes a hit. The ultrawide lens offers nothing special and the images are mostly average with a basic amount of details captured in a more dynamic setup.
The Marathon Runner
We talked about the endurance of the X8 Pro Max earlier and that has largely to do with the massive 9,000mAh battery packed inside the device. Poco has also managed to deliver the unit with 100W wired fast charging support as well as 27W reverse wired charging to double up as a power bank if needed.
Poco X8 Pro Max review
Fair to say, the X8 Pro Max battery life is one of the best in the segment, and that large battery pack allows you to coast through a day and a half or even more with ease. Even the PCMark battery test scored over 22 hours which shows the value of using the phone and how it can last through a wide range of use cases.
Poco X8 Pro Max is aimed at power users who want a sleek but a workhorse device that can last for a few days. All that power is not wasted and even then the heat is passing out thanks to the efficient cooling system. The software and cameras could use some improvements and even then you have a strong option for buyers in an expensive market.
