Poco has been delivering decent products for a while now, mainly targeting various price points. The X-series offers flagship-grade features, while the M-series packs a punch in the mainstream category. However, it’s the C-series that really offers bang for your buck. The latest addition to this series is the Poco C61, which brings a revamped design language, along with a good combination of software and hardware, all for a starting price of Rs 6,999. But how does it fare against the competition? We got some time with the device, so here’s our first look.
Poco has brought a fresh take to this segment where most phones have a standard design language. The phone comes in three color options — Diamond Dust Black, Ethereal Blue, and Mystical Green. We got the Mystical Green color option and it certainly stands out with the new Radiant Ring design. The back panel is made out of glass with a large circular ring that houses the camera module. Poco has also made sure to add some detailing to the Ring to make it look more appealing and premium. From the back panel, you can feel that it is a mid-premium smartphone which is a good thing. The flat bezels also make it easier to hold. The phone is 8.3mm thick and weighs 193 grams which despite the price tag feels really light and sleek.
Flip it over and you’ll see a large display with uniform bezels around the edges. It’s not the thinnest in the segment, but it strikes a perfect balance. The phone also features a punch-hole notch that houses the selfie camera. As for the display, you get a 6.71-inch HD+ LCD display with a 90Hz refresh rate and a screen resolution of 1650 x 720 pixels. The phone also supports 500 nits peak brightness and a screen-to-body ratio of 89.5 percent. The display is bright enough to enjoy your video content on the go. We’ll be discussing it in more detail in our upcoming review.
As for the performance, the Poco C61 is powered by the MediaTek Helio G36 processor, which is MediaTek’s chipset for entry-level gaming smartphones. The handset also features 6GB of RAM and 6GB of virtual memory, which brings it up to 12GB of RAM. Moreover, the handset also comes with up to 128GB of storage, which is expandable up to 1TB via a microSD card slot. The performance of the device seems to be quite satisfactory after a short period of usage, with scrolling and switching between various apps with ease. As for the software, the phones runs on the Android 14 operating system. We are yet to test the full capabilities of the device, though, so stay tuned for a detailed review.
For cameras, the Poco device offers a dual camera setup on the back with an 8-megapixel primary sensor and an unspecified secondary camera. On the front, you get a 5-megapixel selfie shooter. While the phone doesn’t seem to pack a huge punch in terms of camera sensors, the company has added some cool features like AI portrait mode, time burst, movie filters and more to make things more interesting. Further, the phone also features a 5,000mAh battery with support for 10W charging. In terms of connectivity, you get a 3.5mm audio jack, single speaker, Bluetooth, GPS, Type-C port and more.
That said, there are still a lot of things that we need to investigate about the latest Poco C61 to see if it can fiercely compete with the likes of Lava O2, Infinix Smart 8 Plus and more. So stay tuned as we release Poco’s new budget phone in shining armor.
