Not familiar with POCO? Neither where we before the POCO M3 Pro 5G landed on our review desk.

This brand is one of a handful of companies that have entered South Africa of late, aiming to grab some of the market share that Huawei has lost in the wake of ongoing issues with the US and a lack of Google support on new devices.

So is the POCO M3 Pro 5G a pretender to the throne or a surprise contender that could win over cost savvy consumers?

We spent the past two weeks with the device to find out.

Before we delve into our experience though, a bit of background to a brand that has foreign to us until very recently. You see POCO is a sub-brand of Xiaomi, much like Honor used to be for Huawei, with the company specialising in launching devices into markets like India starting in 2018.

Now that POCO phones are available in South Africa, is the experience comparable to what we’ve seen on other Xiaomi devices like the Redmi Note 10 Pro?

The short answer is pretty damn close and with the M3 Pro 5G (6GB RAM, 128GB storage) costing R4 199 (RRP) via retailers like Takealot, it certainly makes a strong case for itself.

Here’s why we say so.

Stock standard

Starting with aesthetics and the M3 Pro 5G is very much design by committee – being not too offensive nor too radical either. The only real flourish is the POCO logo appearing on the rear, in case onlookers were curious as to what the device is.

Apart from that, the M3 Pro looks like any other affordable Android-powered smartphone you’d encounter these days.

Looking at some of the other elements on offer here, minimal bezels feature on the sides and top of the 6.5″ FullHD+ display (2400×1080), with a central punch hole to house the 8MP front facing camera.

Added to this is a volume rocker and power button on the right hand side, with the latter also doubling as a fingerprint sensor. Shifting to the rear again, the camera array features a trio of lenses, with a large 48MP primary option that is paired with a 2MP macro and 2MP depth sensing lenses, but more about the camera performance later.

All in all, the M3 Pro 5G offers what you expect from a phone trying to make a winning first impression, with the aforementioned price tag and addition of support for 5G adding to an already strong case.

Xiaomi inside

Powering on the device and things are pleasant too. This thanks to the fact that Xiaomi is doing the heavy lifting in terms of the user interface and operating system.

To that end, MIUI 12.0.6 is running here. When we have encountered this OS perviously, it has always proved solid, looking clean while not being too invasive, as is often the risk with skinned Android UIs.

The same rings true on the M3 Pro, with MIUI serving up a simple and friendly experience.

There are a few duplicated apps, as is to be expected, but these can easily be uninstalled, which is not always the case with Chinese phone makers based on the devices we’ve reviewed in the past.

As for the speed and performance of the unit, an octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 7000 chipset is present, clocking in at a respectable 2.2Ghz when pushed. This is paired with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage, which is the better specced of the two options that POCO makes available.

This mix yields a relatively quick phone that showed no real signs of sluggishness, so any fears over stalling and stuttering while multitasking are gone here.

In terms of our own benchmarking, the M3 Pro scored 1 757 and 557 on GeekBench’s multi-core and single-core tests, which is comparable to the Redmi Note 10 Pro we cited earlier.

Lastly a word on the camera performance, which too is solid, but lacks some nuance. This is acceptable in the price bracket and with some tinkering in the Pro Mode, which focuses on the capabilities of the 48MP primary lens, some good shots can be produced, particularly while outdoors.

Low light photography is a little more mixed though, but again, that’s excusable given the price tag.

Final verdict

At R4 199 (RRP) for what’s on offer, the POCO M3 Pro 5G is hard to ignore.

All the necessary boxes are ticked here such as a 48MP camera, 6.5″ FHD+ screen and 5 000mAh battery (18W fast charging), with the Xiaomi-specific UI proving a welcome surprise after powering up the device.

Where relatively unknown brands can sometimes be a gamble, that is not the case here and if you’re happy to choose a phone that few people would have heard of, the POCO M3 Pro 5G should stand you in good stead.

Cost savvy consumers should definitely take note, as this phone is one to put on your radar when eyeing up your next purchase.