ISSUE 88 • ANDROID ADVISOR 45
that is negatively
affectedwhen
selecting120Hz.
Combined
with a 360Hz
touch sampling
rate, gaming on
the Poco F3’s
screen is about
as good as it gets
on a mid-range
phone, short of
buyinga dedicated
handsetlike the
Red Magic 6.
The display is flankedby some
extremely slim bezels,givingthedevice
an impressive 85.9 percentscreen-to-
body ratio. A hole-punch20Mp selfie
camera is centrally locatedatthetopof
the phone – a very naturalpositionfor
face unlock, which workswell.
However, I muchpreferredtheother
biometric unlockingoption.Theside-
mounted fingerprintscanneris built into
the power button, andit’sextremelyfast
and reliable. My experiencewithunder-
display sensors has beenhit-and-missso
far – I wish more phoneswouldadopt
this feature instead.
The regular volumerockeris found
directly above it, leavingtheleftsideof
the F3 completely free.Dualspeakers
on the top of the devicecombinewitha
single downward-firinggrille for a stereo
setup.It deliverscrisp,full-bodiedaudio
that you won’t find on many handsetsat
thispricepoint.
Theonlyotherdesignfeatureofnote
is theSIMtray.There’sonlyspacefor
onecardhere,andnoroomtoexpand
on-devicestorageviamicroSD.It also
meansyou’llhavetodowithouta
3.5mmheadphone jack.
PERFORMANCE
The Poco F3 has an attractive design, but
performance is where the phone really
excels. It’s powered by Qualcomm’s
Snapdragon 870 processor. It isn’t the
top-of-the-line Snapdragon 888, but
acts as an overclocked version of 2020’s
flagship 865+. Given this phone retails
for £329, I can’t have any complaints.
The side-mounted fingerprint scanner is built into the power button.