POCO X2 evaluation: The display effect of Redmi K30 vest 120Hz is amazing.

Xiaomi released POCO F 1 as early as 20 18, but no new products have been released since then, and POCO has been operating as a brand of Xiaomi. With the change of Xiaomi's overseas market strategy, POCO is officially independent. On February 4th, Xiaomi officially released POCO X2 in India. POCO X2 is the same as K30 4G version of Redmi in design and hardware configuration. We can understand this mobile phone as an overseas version of Redmi K30 4G. Overseas well-known digital media 9 1Mobile also took the lead in bringing POCO X2 evaluation. Let's translate the evaluation of POCO X2 and bring you the first-hand detailed test of this new mobile phone.

POCO X2 assessment

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As early as 20 18, POCO F 1 released by Xiaomi redefined the meaning of the word' parity flagship', and in this respect, it is even worth the money. After the release of POCO F 1, it was impressive, gained a lot of attention, and provided powerful hardware configuration at a very affordable price. Before the price reduction of POCO F 1, the flagship specifications and good camera performance were unheard of at a price below 20,000 rupees. Until the price of POCO F 1 was reduced, several companies were still trying to imitate the model of POCO F 1, although they failed.

Earlier, it was reported that POCO launched its second breakthrough mobile phone, which may be released in February. Many people speculated that it was a follow-up product of POCO F 1, so everyone called this mobile phone POCO F2 at that time. In the end, POCO announced that its next product will be called POCO X2, but it is also surprising that no mobile phone has been called POCO X 1.

The price of POCO X2 is 15999 rupees (about RMB 1574 yuan), which is undoubtedly the most affordable mobile phone provided by POCO. POCO X2 may not provide flagship performance, but the price range of this phone is unprecedented in terms of screen refresh rate. POCO X2 happens to be the only mobile phone whose price is less than 20,000 rupees, and its screen refresh rate reaches an incredible 120Hz. But what is the effect of this display? 120Hz display is really what users want? Can the performance of the mobile phone support this high refresh rate? How good is the camera? There are many questions, and I believe the most important question may have an answer. Please read carefully and find out the answer.

Design:

On the surface, POCO was once a sub-brand of Xiaomi, but no matter how independent POCO is, POCO X2 can still be designed from Xiaomi's mobile phone. The Redmi K30 and POCO X2 launched by Xiaomi in China are almost the same equipment. The back of POCO X2 is made of curved Corning Gorilla Glass 5, which has an amazing purple design and a round texture around the camera housing. The curve on the side means that it is easy to hold, but its smooth design slightly affects the feel. Four cameras are arranged vertically, with LED flash, and the bottom is POCO brand. I know very well (editor's note: I = original author) that I have never had such a high-level feeling in a mobile phone below 20,000 rupees. POCO X2 has a more dazzling appearance than pocoff1 However, the weight of POCO X2 reached 208 grams, and I encountered some problems when operating with one hand.

The top of the mobile phone is equipped with an infrared sensor, which can turn POCO X2 into a universal remote control. This is a very standard function in Xiaomi mobile phone, and it is also available on POCO F 1. There are USB Type-C interface, earphone jack and speaker opening at the bottom. There is a capacitive fingerprint reader on the left side of POCO X2, which is also the power button of the mobile phone, and the physical volume button is above the fingerprint reader. The reason for not using the off-screen fingerprint sensor is simple: this technology requires the use of an organic light-emitting diode display screen, which will push up the cost, which is not the original intention of the POCO brand. Coupled with the refresh rate of 120Hz, we can see why POCO chose LCD panel. On the right side of the mobile phone is a hybrid SIM card slot, which can support up to 5 12GB microSD cards.

High refresh rate screen:

What stands out on the POCO X2 screen is the refresh rate, or more accurately, how many times it is refreshed every second. Previously, one plus Pro provided a smooth refresh rate of 90Hz, bringing high refresh rate screens into mainstream smartphones. When one plus Pro becomes my main mobile phone, I can feel the difference between it and other mobile phones is very obvious and very easy to detect. Razer was once the first mobile phone with refresh rate of 120Hz. Later, ASUS introduced the 120Hz screen in ROG Phone 2. Now, this technology has penetrated into mid-range mobile phones.

Speaking of the whole screen, you can clearly see the figure of Redmi K30. In the upper right corner of POCO X2, there is a dual-hole camera position, which is reminiscent of Galaxy S 10 Plus. It can be said that it is a problem, but I think drilling holes is much less than water droplets, and it is much more convenient than popping up cameras. The screen size is 6.67 inches, FHD+ resolution, and the aspect ratio is 20: 9. As mentioned above, an IPS liquid crystal panel is used. So from a certain point of view, there will be some light leakage around the punch camera. Overall, I was impressed by the color accuracy and brightness level of POCO X2. Like Realme X2, compared with Realme, the red and yellow colors of POCO X2 are slightly dim, but they can only be seen by very subtle observation. Incidentally, POCO phones also have the authentication of Widevine L 1, which is not available on POCO F 1. You can watch HD content on Netflix, Prime Video and so on.

The key point is that compared with mobile phones with the same price, the POCO X2 display feels smoother, and animation, scrolling, browsing and navigation usually have certain fluency, giving people a faster impression. You can choose to reduce the refresh rate to 60Hz to save the battery, but I think the charm of the mobile phone has disappeared. Unlike the variable 90Hz display of Pixel 4, POCO F2 will remain locked at 120Hz unless you are watching a video or using a camera application. Games can take advantage of higher refresh rates, but processor limitations (mentioned later) hinder the overall experience. Overall, I was deeply impressed by the high refresh rate of POCO X2, which is a mid-range device.

Camera:

Four-shot has become a configuration in many mid-range smartphones, and it is not surprising that POCO has followed suit. You will get a 64-megapixel main camera with f/ 1.9 aperture, an 8-megapixel super wide-angle camera with f/2.2 aperture, a 2-megapixel macro camera with f/2.4 aperture and a 2-megapixel depth-of-field camera. You can also see the same camera configuration on Red Rice Note 8 Pro (Editor's Note: Xiaomi CC9 Overseas Edition). However, there is one difference. The main 64-megapixel camera on POCO X2 is Sony's IMX686 sensor, which is the first smart phone with IMX686 sensor in India, while Redmi Note 8 Pro uses ISOCELL GW 1 64MP sensor.

The camera UI on POCO X2 is as easy to use as other Xiaomi phones. You can usually find different photo modes by swiping left/right on the screen. Now, considering the image quality on the device, the mobile phone uses the familiar pixel merging technology, which can synthesize four photos with16 million pixels to produce high-resolution images with more details and better exposure (Editor's note: the original author may have misunderstood the four-in-one pixel). Although reasonable in principle, the actual result is only useful if you really want to enlarge the photo. However, ordinary daytime photos are the best of their kind. The contrast in the photo is very good, and so are the details. The camera can also handle the exposure well, but in some photos, the dynamic range may be uneven. Compared with Realme X2, the color of POCO X2 looks more natural, and my favorite sharpening effect is slightly worse. There is no telephoto lens, but you can get a photo of160000 pixels with digital zoom scissors.

Ultra-wide-angle lenses can only work normally when there is sufficient light, but most ultra-wide-angle sensors in many mobile phones are like this. The 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera can take enough fine photos, but the edge distortion is more than what I saw on Realme X2. Macro cameras can take useful photos, but they still need enough light. POCO X2' s macro sensor has autofocus function, which makes it easier to take macro photos. Even so, you will still see some color distortion in the photos, although this is not common. There is also a 2-megapixel depth-of-field color center on the phone, which can be used for accurate depth detection between the subject and the background. In my test, the background separation effect is very good, and I almost focus on the theme.

The night shooting of POCO X2 is also very good, and the dedicated night mode is really helpful. In this way, in most cases, when the subject is in focus, there are many software-based noise reduction methods in low light films. There may be some problems with exposure calibration, but night mode will solve this problem.

There is also a 2000-pixel f/2.2 camera on the front of the phone, and it is equipped with a 2-megapixel depth-of-field camera. Self-portrait photos are clear and delicate, and the exposure processing ability behind the subject is good. The added depth of field sensor means that the background can be separated when shooting in portrait mode, and the blur effect is much better than what we see on mid-range mobile phones such as Realme X2 or Galaxy A5 1. POCO X2 also has the recording function of shooting 960 fps slow-motion video and the ability of shooting 4K video at 30 fps.

Performance and software:

Since the starting price of the flagship mobile phone using Qualcomm Xiaolong 845 processor at that time was as high as 20,999 rupees, POCO F 1 became very popular. Comparatively speaking, the second lowest Snapdragon 845 mobile phone with one plus six cost 34,999 rupees. That's not the point of X2 POCO. This phone is equipped with Snapdragon 730G processor, while the RAM and storage versions are available in 6GB+64GB and 8GB+256GB versions. Like Realme X2 and Redmike20, POCO X2 uses UFS 2. 1 memory chips. Heavy applications such as Instagram and Facebook seem to be easy to open and run, and the switching between them is smooth. I have received the high-end version of 8GB RAM, but I believe that the low-end version of 6GB RAM should be enough to meet the needs of most users.

In the past year, India has been experiencing the craze of PUBG Mobile (editor's note: eating chicken), which I believe is one of the reasons for pushing POCO F 1 to reach such a high level. Through POCO X2's 120Hz display, I have high expectations for the game. However, all this is not ideal. Because the low-performance Snapdragon 730G has become a bottleneck, the first obstacle I encountered was that the frame rate option was locked at a higher level, not a limit level. The result is that because the game itself limits the number of frames, the mobile phone can't reflect the performance of the game well. Another point is that few games fully support the refresh rate of 120Hz, and many games are likely to be locked at 60Hz. However, we must remind ourselves that POCO X2 is a mid-range smartphone and an excellent smartphone. In all performance-related indicators, it has surpassed competitors, and most people should not complain because the game does not support 120 frames. At this price, there is no better mobile phone to choose from.

For fingerprint recognition, the capacitive fingerprint reader on the side is as fast as lightning, but because of its small surface area compared with the display sensor, it is necessary to place the thumb accurately. In my case, mobile phones are almost always unlocked quickly. There is also face verification, which works as fast as lightning, faster than adding 7 t. For security reasons, the phone will not be unlocked if you close your eyes. The audio quality of the single speaker at the bottom is acceptable, as is the quality of the receiver and microphone on the device.

In terms of system, POCO mobile phone runs MIUI 1 1 based on Android 10/. The advantage is that POCO allows users to brush the third-party ROM on the device without losing the warranty. The reason behind it is to increase the customization of the POCO community to the system. A big change of Xiaomi MIUI is that there is no advertisement in the interface of POCO X2 (Editor's Note: After all, it is not ADUI). In addition, Redmi K30 (Editor's Note: POCO X2) also has some functions, such as wake-up call, dark mode, enhanced digital health function and customizable voice notification. MIUI also has a security application that mainly scans your device for malware, manages data usage, configures battery behavior and releases some memory.

battery

POCO X2 has a powerful 4500mAh battery, and so does it, because the display screen of 120Hz may consume a lot of power. In our standard test, including circulating video, the battery life of the mobile phone is about 2 1 hour, which is really impressive. POCO provides a fast charging solution of 27W, which can completely charge the equipment in 75 minutes, so the charging speed on the equipment is also impressive. Even at the refresh rate of 120Hz, the service time is only about 6 hours, which is commendable.

Summary:

The refresh rate of mid-range mobile phones is 120Hz, which looks very surprising, but there is such a mobile phone. POCO started the revolution of mobile phone category below 20,000 rupees through POCO F 1, and continued to bring higher cost performance through POCO X2. POCO X2 has amazing smooth display effect, customizable system, excellent camera and excellent performance. My only worry is that the hardware limitation does not make full use of the advantages of 120Hz display, which may be the price to pay for making such an eye-catching mobile phone. Anyway, it's worth buying.

Editing score: 4/5

Advantages:

120Hz display effect is amazing?

Eye-catching design

Software can be customized.

The main camera is fine.

Disadvantages:

Processor performance may limit the potential of 120Hz refresh rate.