Within the first minute of holding this phone, I knew it wouldn’t become my daily driver. It’s just too heavy. And I don’t mean "has a bit of heft" heavy—I mean the kind of heavy that makes your pinky go numb and your wrist ache when you’re lying in bed scrolling; the kind that forces you to roll over and switch hands just to keep going. The official spec is 215 grams, and once you add a case and a screen protector, it’s enough to pull your pants down a bit when you’re walking. If you sit down, you have to shift it to a different spot in your pocket, or it’ll dig into your leg. I looked into it later and found I’m not the only one who feels this way—one user who’s had it for three years still says, "Everything is great, except for the weight."

Yet, strangely enough, the moment that 6.67-inch screen lights up, the weight issue fades into the background. The 120Hz refresh rate is genuinely smooth; scrolling through lists, flipping pages, or switching between apps feels snappy and responsive—a stark, almost jarring contrast to the device’s cumbersome, heavy body. But this smoothness comes at a price: if you lock the refresh rate at 120Hz, you can literally watch the battery drain. Some tests suggest it cuts battery life by 10% to 20%. My own solution is to let it switch automatically—it stays fluid while I’m scrolling, then drops back down when I stop to read text, which feels like a fair compromise with the battery.

Battery life itself is one of the few things I’m completely satisfied with. With a 5,160mAh battery, it easily lasts from the time I leave in the morning until I get home at night—with some juice to spare. With light usage, it can even stretch to a day and a half before needing a charger. Plug in the 33W power adapter, and by the time you’ve taken a shower and tidied up a bit, the battery bar has climbed from near-empty to almost full. Of course, there’s a catch: you have to accept that it’s a 4G-only phone, and the battery will inevitably degrade over time. I’ve seen several users mention that while the battery life was rock-solid for the first year, they eventually found themselves needing to charge it once a day—or even more often—thereafter. My own unit hasn’t reached that point yet, but whenever the battery drops below 30%, I find myself calculating: Should I charge it tonight? Will it have enough juice for me to head out tomorrow?

As for the camera—well, it’s the kind where you’re better off not having any expectations; occasionally, it might even offer a pleasant surprise. In good daylight, the colors lean toward the vivid side—perfectly fine for a social media post—but if you zoom in, the details turn blurry, especially around the edges or with text in the distance. At night, the image softens; highlights tend to blow out, and noise creeps into the shadows. It clearly struggles when compared to today’s mid-range devices. In low light, the front-facing camera is essentially a lost cause. I’ve developed a habit: whenever I want to take a serious photo, I reach for a different phone. For me, the Poco X3’s camera is strictly a utility tool—great for scanning QR codes, snapping a picture of a receipt, or capturing a quick note—but that’s about the extent of it.

Then there’s the software. I thought I could handle it, but using it day-to-day requires a fair bit of patience. MIUI is certainly feature-rich, and those accustomed to it might find it intuitive; I also prefer the side-mounted fingerprint scanner—it sits exactly where my finger naturally lands when I pick up the phone. However, pre-installed apps and system-level recommendations pop up in the most unexpected places. You have to dig through the settings and toggle off "msa" (and various other recommendation switches) just to achieve a relatively clutter-free experience. What’s even more concerning is its long-term stability; some users report that after eight or nine months, apps start opening more slowly, the phone occasionally reboots on its own, and the camera can take several seconds just to respond. My unit hasn’t reached that stage yet, but every time a system update notification pops up, I hesitate. If I update, I risk a drop in battery life or performance; if I don’t, I might miss out on important fixes. This constant state of "not feeling safe to update" is, in itself, quite draining.

So, after using it for a while, my feelings toward it are complicated. It’s simply not the kind of phone you can just use without a second thought. You have to keep in mind that it’s heavy, so you won’t be holding it up for long periods; you have to accept that its camera capabilities are limited, so you won’t expect much from its photography; and you’ll need to spend some time tidying up the software to get it running smoothly and unobtrusively. On the other hand, when it’s simply serving as a quiet hotspot, a secondary screen for watching videos, or a backup device sitting on your desk for quick lookups, features like the 120Hz display, the long-lasting battery, and the side-mounted fingerprint sensor—which unlocks the device at a single touch—make you think: "Fair enough—it may be a bit heavy, but it never lets me down when it’s actually needed."

If you’re looking for a phone that’s ready to snap a photo the moment you pick it up, light enough to carry in your pocket without a second thought, and features a system that never requires any maintenance or fuss, this definitely isn’t the one for you. But if you want a device to keep at home or in your bag—something to pull out occasionally for browsing, without the expectation that it will serve as your primary, all-day companion—then its more frustrating aspects (the weight, the camera, and the ads or quirks in the software) become easier to overlook. It’s not perfect, but it has a clear understanding of what it’s capable of. The secret to using it isn’t just tolerating its flaws; it’s making sure you don’t ask it to do things it simply wasn’t designed to handle.

XIAOMI 5060mAh/19.5WH 3.87V BN57 Battery for Xiaomi Pocophone X3 Poco X3