Poco undoubtedly has an awesome worth proposition going with its newest F6 sequence. The vanilla F6 begins at $379 globally for a base 8GB/256GB unit, whereas the Poco F6 Professional has a $499 base MSRP for the 12GB/256GB mannequin. That is not an insignificant value distinction, and it leads us properly to the primary query we intention to reply – which one is a greater deal and, in the end, a greater match for you personally.
Regardless of sharing the identical mannequin household beneath the Poco model, the 2 gadgets are fairly completely different. Poco depends on Xiaomi RnD and tends to rebrand already present Xiaomi fashions for its lineup. On this explicit case, the vanilla F6 is predicated on the Xiaomi Redmi Turbo 3, whereas the F6 Professional is predicated on the Xiaomi Redmi K70. This method to product growth on Poco’s finish is not intrinsically unhealthy, nevertheless it does result in some fascinating disparities, like the truth that regardless of its “Professional” moniker, the F6 Professional lacks the correct ingress safety of its vanilla sibling in addition to the Gorilla Glass Victus entrance.
So how a lot better is the Xiaomi Poco F6 Professional to deserve its value premium? Let’s look into it.
Desk of Contents:
For starters, you may evaluate the entire specs sheets or straight proceed with our editor’s evaluation within the following textual content.
Measurement comparability
The 2 telephones are very comparable in general dimensions, which is kind of pure on condition that each have the identical show diagonal at 6.67 inches and the identical battery capability at 5,000 mAh. They differ barely in weight, with the vanilla Poco F6 coming in at 179 grams whereas the F6 Professional ideas the size at 209 grams. That is in all probability because of the distinction in supplies greater than the rest.
The common Poco F6 has a plastic again and a plastic body, whereas the F6 Professional has a glass again and an aluminum body. Nevertheless, as we already talked about within the intro, this does not inform the total story. Regardless of its extra modest invoice of supplies, the vanilla F6 gives higher general safety. It has IP64 certification, whereas the F6 Professional is caught with primary IP54. Additionally, the entrance of the vanilla F6 is roofed with Gorilla Glass Victus, whereas the Professional mannequin has a extra primary Gorilla Glass 5 end.
Let’s speak about shade choices. The vanilla F6 type of wins on this division because it is available in Inexperienced along with the extra primary Black and Titanium. The F6 Professional might be had in both Black or White. Then once more, we personally discover the slight marble-like impact on the again of the F6 Professional extra intriguing than the essential end on the vanilla. So, let’s name it a toss-up.
Talking of design, whereas the 2 telephones are very comparable from the entrance, with their flat shows solely interrupted by a punch-hole selfie and fairly skinny bezels throughout, we would not name their backs comparable in any respect. Past the signature sample on the Professional we already talked about, there’s additionally a serious distinction within the digital camera islands. The vanilla F6 does not even have one with two massive round particular person cameras and an LED flash to the facet. Alternatively, the Professional has a large digital camera island stretching virtually the complete width of the telephone and far smaller circles for the cameras themselves. It is virtually as if the 2 telephones weren’t meant to be associated to start with (wink, wink).
Concerning different fascinating titbits, each telephones have an IR blaster. Additionally, NFC in most markets. Each fashions even have a stereo speaker setup, with the earpiece appearing because the second channel.
On the underside, we now have the SIM slot, which lacks expandable storage on both machine, in addition to the primary speaker and the Kind-C port. Each telephones assist USB Host/OTG however nothing else fancy like video output. So, you’re caught with USB 2.0 information speeds of 480 Mbps max on each telephones.
Show comparability
Each telephones have the identical giant show diagonal of 6.67 inches. The similarities do not finish there both, with 12-bit shade, HDR10+, Dolby Imaginative and prescient certification and a 120Hz refresh price. These are some fairly nice specs throughout.
Nevertheless, the F6 Professional nonetheless has a leg up on this division. To start with, it has the next decision of 1440 x 3200 pixels, in comparison with 1220 x 2712 pixels on the vanilla mannequin. This naturally means that there’s a distinction in sharpness between the 2 telephones. Thoughts you, it’s not one which you can really admire with the bare eye. At round 446 ppi, the Poco F6 nonetheless appears a lot sharp. Nevertheless, the F6 Professional has a notably larger pixel density of round 526 ppi.
Additionally it is price noting that Poco advertises a a lot larger peak brightness of 4,000 nits for the Poco F6 Professional in comparison with 2,400 nits on the Poco F6. Nevertheless, it is usually price mentioning that in our extra sensible standardized testing, each telephones managed a really comparable most brightness output of simply over 1,200 nits. Greater than a lot to be comfy open air.
Battery life
Each telephones have 5,000 mAh battery packs on board and expectedly handle very comparable, virtually equivalent Energetic Use Scores in our testing. Neither telephone does significantly effectively within the battery division in comparison with its friends. This has been an ongoing pattern with latest Xiaomi gadgets, so we will not say that we’re too shocked.
Charging velocity
Xiaomi did not skimp out on the charging options for the 2 telephones. The Poco F6 Professional has a transparent benefit right here with its 120W charging resolution. In our testing, it introduced the F6 Professional from useless to full in simply 27 minutes. Nonetheless, the vanilla Poco F6 is fairly shut with its 90W charging and 37 minutes for a full cost.
In both case, you get the charger and a appropriate cable within the retail field, which is nice.
Speaker check
Each telephones depend on a hybrid stereo speaker setup. There’s one bottom-facing speaker and one which additionally acts as an earpiece. Each telephones managed a Very Good loudness rating in our standardized testing. The F6 Professional does have a small edge in loudness, however it’s not important sufficient to matter.
The audio high quality is nice on each telephones. Mids are very clear all through all quantity ranges. Highs barely get distorted, and there’s even some bass.
Efficiency
Each the Poco F6 and F6 Professional use what Qualcomm describes as premium chipsets. The vanilla Poco F6 is predicated on the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 – a reasonably new chip that’s primarily based on the common Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 however with a number of cutbacks.
The Poco F6 is available in an 8GB/256GB base variant and can also be out there in a higher-tier 12GB/512GB mannequin. In each instances, you get speedy UFS 4.0 storage, however there isn’t any expandable storage. Qualcomm additionally lowered the price through the use of an older modem, nevertheless it nonetheless gives a high-end ISP in addition to next-generation connectivity, equivalent to Wi-Fi 7.
Talking of older components and reducing the price, the Poco F6 Professional is predicated on final 12 months’s flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. As you may think about, it nonetheless packs fairly the punch and has come down in value a bit at this level.
The chipset is paired with LPDDR5X RAM and quick UFS 4.0 storage. You may get the telephone in three configurations – 12GB/256GB base, 12GB/512GB and a high tier 16GB/1TB mannequin. There is no such thing as a expandable storage right here. You get fashionable connectivity options right here as effectively, like tri-band Wi-Fi 7.
Each the Poco F6 Professional and F6 include the promise of three years of main software program updates and a further 12 months of safety patches. And naturally, they run the identical software program – the newest installment of HyperOS primarily based on Android 14.
Benchmark efficiency
Naturally, the Poco F6 Professional, with its “full-fat” Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, goes to have a leg up in uncooked efficiency. Nevertheless, wanting on the precise benchmark numbers, the distinction actually is not all that main.
In observe, the common Poco F6 is already a lot highly effective and simply chews by way of any process, together with heavy gaming.
Digicam comparability
The digital camera setups on the 2 Poco F6 fashions do look comparable at first look. Properly, moreover the truth that the F6 Professional has an additional digital camera on the again. A reasonably insignificant 2MP devoted macro one, although. Dig just a little deeper, nonetheless, and also you shortly begin to see extra variations.
As an example, whereas each telephones use a 50MP fundamental digital camera, the sensors are fairly completely different. The vanilla Poco F6 moved from a 64MP OmniVision in its Poco F5 predecessor to a 50MP Sony IMX 882 (LYT600) with out actually upping the dimensions of the sensor an excessive amount of (1/1.95″, 0.8µm – 1.6µm).
The F6 Professional additionally swaps the 64MP fundamental unit of the F5 Professional for a 50MP OmniVision OVX8000 one, however earlier than you dismiss it as a downgrade, keep in mind that the brand new sensor is a bigger one – 1/1.55″ (1.0µm – 2.0µm) as a substitute of 1/2.0″. The brand new lens can also be brighter (f/1.6 vs. f/1.8), making the F6 Professional sound much more promising for low-light endeavors.
The Poco F6 and F6 Professional do share an ultrawide digital camera setup. Each telephones use an 8MP Sony IMX 355 (1/4.0″, 1.12µm) sensor. The 2MP macro unit is unique to the Professional, although, for what it is price (not an entire lot).
As for selfies, the Poco F6 Professional additionally takes a distinct path from the plain F6, and it has a 16MP front-facing digital camera as a substitute of the 20MP one on the F6. In addition they differ of their protection, with the Professional having a extra conventionally huge 24mm equal lens, whereas the vanilla mannequin makes use of a wider 21mm lens.
Picture high quality
The Poco F6 Professional captures fairly nice daylight pictures with its main digital camera. Element is superb – random textures are rendered comparatively naturally, and there is minimal grain within the skies.
The Poco F6’s fundamental digital camera does comparatively effectively, too. The element is superb, if not fairly as natural as on the F6 Professional, whereas the noise is low, though there’s nonetheless some effective grain right here or there. The colour rendition is kind of likable – it is a notch beneath the Professional’s barely extreme pop. Dynamic vary is nice, too.
Foremost digital camera samples: Poco F6 Professional vs. Poco F6
The Poco F6 Professional does a wonderful job of capturing individuals and faces.
The way in which the Poco F6 renders pores and skin tones and faces, generally, is not our favourite – some pores and skin smoothing and whitening nonetheless stays regardless of us having disabled all of the beautification options. It is not unhealthy or something, simply not so good as it might be.
Foremost digital camera samples: Poco F6 Professional vs Poco F6
Whereas each telephones use the identical ultrawide digital camera, at the very least as greatest we are able to inform, we did discover that the F6 Professional produced barely nicer pictures. Perhaps the 2 completely different Snapdragons have their very own specifics. Typically talking, the ultrawide digital camera does alright, with out shining in any explicit method, although we frankly anticipated worse from its unremarkable {hardware}.
Element is alright, given the decision, and no matter noise there’s does not get in the best way. On the vanilla mannequin, particularly, colours is usually a little muted, and there is a basic aura of lifelessness, which we did not expertise on the Professional. To be honest, we would have in all probability been simply effective with the F6’s photographs, nevertheless it’s simply that the F6 Professional’s are just a little bit higher.
Ultrawide digital camera samples: Poco F6 Professional vs. Poco F6
The Poco F6’s fundamental digital camera does not concern darkness and continues to ship strong photos at night time. You need not fear a lot about going into night time mode because the telephone does effectively sufficient in full auto mode. Tonal growth is superb; you may sometimes get fairly brilliant shadows and well-contained highlights. Element and noise efficiency are good, and we now have no main complaints about shade both.
At 2x zoom, you may anticipate usable photos, although them at 1:1 will reveal their upscaled nature. The ultrawide digital camera’s low-light pictures are fairly meh. Dynamic vary is alright, however colours are just a little off. The photographs are additionally fairly gentle – extra so than on the F6 Professional.
Low-light samples at 0.6x • 1x • 2x: Poco F6 Professional vs. Poco F6
The Poco F6 Professional captures excellent pictures with its fundamental digital camera in low mild. There’s well-balanced publicity with good spotlight preservation and shadow growth.
The 2x zoom degree stays usable at night time, as long as you do not anticipate miracles when pixel-peeping. The ultrawide digital camera’s pictures are alongside the identical vein. They appear comparatively good from afar when it comes to publicity and dynamic vary, although colours is usually a bit overly heat and saturated.
Video high quality
The Poco F6 and F6 Professional each have very comparable video seize capabilities. Properly, aside from 8K@24fps, which is just out there on the Professional mannequin. 8K on cell remains to be type of janky in most methods and never that completely different in high quality from 4K, so we cannot emphasize it a lot. The vanilla F6 additionally lacks the 4K@24fps cinematic choice, which we are able to see being missed by some. Each telephones have always-on stabilization and the choice to decide on between AVC/h.264 and HEVC/h.265.
4K clips from the primary cameras of each telephones are strong. The Poco F6 has excellent element at 30fps, which is on par with the F6 Professional’s outcomes, and there is a comparable minor drop in high quality at 60fps. The F6 is a little more restrained in its shade saturation than the Professional mannequin, and we would in all probability decide this one as the higher rendition – it is extra trustworthy with out wanting boring. The darker shadows do make for a barely gloomier look, although. The ultrawide’s 1080p movies are so-so – they don’t seem to be significantly detailed, even for 1080p.
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Video screengrabs at 0.6x • 1x • 2x: Poco F6 Professional vs Poco F6
Stabilization on the Poco F6 sequence is alright. Strolling shake does trigger the occasional focus searching on the primary digital camera, however for those who keep put, you may keep away from that concern, and the pans are easy.
At nighttime, the Poco F6’s fundamental digital camera does a decent job – maybe even barely higher than the Professional. The ultrawide is greatest prevented at night time.
Verdict
Each the Poco F6 and the Poco F6 Professional got here out as glorious “flagship killer” gives if we insist on placing labels. Whereas they each have loads of deserves to face on, making it really laborious to select between the 2, if we had to take action, we’d in all probability personally go for the vanilla Poco F6.
With its notably cheaper price level, the F6 stands out as the higher deal.
Certain, the additional efficiency of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 contained in the Poco F6 Professional is sweet, however in sensible phrases, the distinction is not that massive and the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is the newer chip of the 2.
The identical goes for the sooner charging. Ten minutes or so extra for a full cost is not the tip of the world, and the Poco F6 already chargers a lot quick for our style.
And let’s not neglect that whereas the F6 Professional is perhaps fabricated from extra premium supplies like a glass again and aluminum body, the vanilla Poco F6 has it beat arguably the place it counts extra – safety, with tis correct IP64 score and Gorilla Glass Victus entrance.
Simply to be completely clear, each the Poco F6 and F6 Professional are glorious gadgets and an awesome selection, however between the 2, our decide would in all probability be the vanilla Poco F6.
- The cheaper price level.
- The higher safety, together with IP64 and Gorilla Glass Victus on the entrance.
- The marginally extra pure movies from the primary digital camera.
Get the Xiaomi Poco F6 for:
- The extra premium construct with a glass again and aluminum body.
- The sharper, higher-resolution show.
- The sooner charging velocity.
- The higher general efficiency.
- The marginally higher pictures from the primary and ultrawide cameras.
Get the Xiaomi Poco F6 Professional for:
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