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00:00You know what it's been a long time since I've actually wanted to spend this much time with a
00:05Affordable slash budget phone, but the Poco f3 kind of redefines what you can expect to get for this kind of money
00:12So I've spent the best part of the last month with this in my pocket
00:15I didn't want to rush out a quick review as this is something special and in my opinion at least it's the best phone
00:21You can buy right now for around 330 pounds or 350 euros
00:26So
00:28Why is the f3 so special well keep that price in mind and we're getting a 120 Hertz AMOLED screen the brand-new snapdragon 870
00:36G processor which supports 5g and in terms of performance is only just behind the flagship
00:42Triple-8 that you get in phones that cost two or three times as much we get great battery life a solid triple camera setup and an
00:49Impressively sleek design. This is just 7.8 millimeters thick and also we get this lovely white
00:54Satiny look to the Gorilla Glass 5 body and together with the 360 Hertz touch sampling and that 120 Hertz refresh rate
01:01It's an incredibly responsive phone, particularly in games and also the fact that we get stabilized 4k video
01:08Whereas usually at this price range, it's only smooth at 1080p
01:14It is genuinely as the title says an exceptional phone
01:18But nothing's perfect and there are still a few compromises with this
01:22For example, the camera setup isn't the best in the world and actually the IMX 582 sensor on the main lens is a couple
01:28Of years old now
01:29We also don't get any kind of IP water resistance rating and also the lack of micro SD card support and the fact that there's
01:36No, three and a half mil headphone jack are a bit disappointing
01:39Although Poco do bundle a three and a half mil to USB C adapter in the box along with the 33 watt fast charger
01:45There's also a whole bunch of pre-installed apps
01:48Aka bloatware, which you'll probably want to remove or hide into folders
01:52But aside from that, I think the MIUI 12 software on top of Android 11 is nice to use and there's tons of customization
02:00But you have to keep reminding yourself. This costs just
02:03330 pounds or thereabouts which is in the same ballpark as something like the new Nokia x20
02:10This is about 300 pounds and this actually comes with a 60 Hertz LCD screen and a much lower power
02:16Snapdragon 480 processor
02:18Again, similar price or you've got the new realme 8 Pro, which does cost about 60 pounds less
02:24So it's a little bit cheaper, but there's no 5g. We have a pretty old and slow snapdragon 720 G processor
02:31It's still only 60 Hertz as well. And also this slightly questionable design, which I'm not really a huge fan of but it's a little bit
02:38Less I guess so
02:39Yes
02:39This is a little bit more expensive, but you're getting a lot more for your money
02:42But speaking of the processor because this is actually one of the more interesting
02:45Specs on the f3 and it's slightly frustrating that Poco and Xiaomi actually block the use of benchmarks on some phones
02:53So on this Geekbench 5 crashes before it completes and it doesn't even let me download benchmarks in 3d mark
02:58But still what I do know is the snapdragon 870 G chip is essentially an overclocked version of last year's 865 plus
03:06It's about 10% faster
03:07So what it means is that this is faster than most of last year's flagship phones and together with that 120 Hertz refresh
03:15It's incredibly fast and it comfortably maxes out games that support the higher refresh
03:20So don't let this stylish thin and light design fool you
03:23This is one of the best mid to high-end gaming phones
03:27You can buy even more so than the traditionally more gaming oriented Poco x3 Pro now to be fair
03:32This is about 50 pounds cheaper than the f3
03:34Plus you get a bigger battery micro SD and a headphone jack as well as tougher
03:39Gorilla Glass 6 and some basic ip53 water resistance
03:42So the x3 pro is still worth considering
03:45but I would definitely pay the extra to get the f3 which gets you 5g an
03:49AMOLED rather than LCD screen a faster snapdragon 870 rather than the 860 and it's also one and a half millimeters thinner and about
03:5720 grams lighter
03:59Anyway back to the f3 and I want to talk to you guys about this camera because it's good
04:05But in what is otherwise an incredible phone, I do feel like the camera maybe is one of the more mediocre features
04:11It's a triple lens setup with a 48 megapixel main along with an 8 megapixel ultra wide and a third 5 megapixel
04:19Macro lens so by default we get pixel bins 12 megapixel photos and on the face of it photos look sharp with a good amount
04:26Of detail or if you do look a little closer fine detail often looks a bit over processed either
04:32Unnaturally sharp or quite soft and blurry this seems to be particularly true in portraits
04:37Her face kind of lacks detail and looks a bit artificial
04:41So in some respects the f3 actually falls behind
04:44Cheaper phones like the redmi note 10 pro or the realme pro 8 that actually have higher
04:49108 megapixel resolution cameras
04:51But to his credit the f3 does offer some impressive dynamic range and throughout the colors are accurate and true-to-life
04:58You can also digitally zoom in two times five times or ten times are the standard options and two times is fine
05:04But beyond that it's a bit of a mess since we don't have a proper
05:08Telephoto lens or any kind of lossless zoom that we might get on a 108 megapixel phone
05:14But it does seem to struggle in low-light even when I'm using night mode
05:17It doesn't make that much of a difference colors are still a bit unnatural and it just doesn't get that bright
05:24Selfies do look good, though
05:25Even accurately representing my purpley hayfever ridden eyes and on the whole I think the selfie camera is better than I expected
05:34And
05:36Finally when it comes to video you can shoot it up to 4k 30 or 1080p 60 up front
05:41But as I mentioned earlier, it is impressive that we're getting stabilized 4k video on a phone for this money
05:47For example, the Redmi Note 10 Pro is a shaky mess at 4k
05:52So the camera is good, but there's nothing really to write home about and I would have been good to see maybe a
05:58108 megapixel sensor like we get on the Note 10 Pro, but it's absolutely fine
06:02What I was surprised about though is the battery life. It's actually very good
06:06The 45 20 million power cell is a good size
06:10Although it's not the biggest and it's about 500 less than the Poco X3 Pro or the Redmi Note 10 Pro
06:15but still after 10 hours of YouTube at 50% brightness the f3 still has 30% of his life remaining and if you do keep it at
06:23120 Hertz like I do it will automatically switch between 60 90 and 120 depending on what you're doing to save battery
06:31So I wouldn't say it's best-in-class battery, but it's definitely above average and will comfortably get you over a day
06:38So that's the f3 fantastic design great battery life really really good performance with that Snapdragon 870 G chip
06:455g good camera, if not the best in the world and
06:49Overall, just a really good package. It'll say for an affordable slash budget phone. It's a shame
06:55We don't have a headphone jack or micro SD and it would have been good to maybe get that high-resolution camera option as well
07:01But for 330 pounds if you want a premium
07:05Affordable phone with 5g as well
07:07I don't think there's a better option than this which is saying something because there are about a billion
07:12Really good budget phones at the moment
07:14And if you do want to spend a little bit less then I would go with the red me note 10 Pro
07:18But what do you reckon? Would you be tempted to buy this? And if not, why not?
07:21Let me know in the comments below. Thank you so much for watching guys
07:24If you've got any questions about this at all, let me know and I'll see you guys next time right here on the tech chat
07:29Thanks for watching