Poco F6 vs. Poco F6 Professional

Poco undoubtedly has a terrific worth proposition going with its newest F6 collection. 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 worth distinction, and it leads us properly to the principle query we purpose to reply – which one is a greater deal and, finally, a greater match for you personally.

Regardless of sharing the identical mannequin household underneath the Poco model, the 2 units are fairly completely different. Poco depends on Xiaomi RnD and tends to rebrand already present Xiaomi fashions for its lineup. On this specific case, the vanilla F6 relies on the Xiaomi Redmi Turbo 3, whereas the F6 Professional relies on the Xiaomi Redmi K70. This strategy to product improvement 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 right ingress safety of its vanilla sibling in addition to the Gorilla Glass Victus entrance.

So how significantly better is the Xiaomi Poco F6 Professional to deserve its worth premium? Let’s look into it.

Desk of Contents:

For starters, you possibly can evaluate the entire specs sheets or immediately proceed with our editor’s evaluation within the following textual content.

Dimension comparability

The 2 telephones are very related in total dimensions, which is sort of pure provided 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 dimensions at 209 grams. That is most likely because of the distinction in supplies greater than anything.

The common Poco F6 has a plastic again and a plastic body, whereas the F6 Professional has a glass again and an aluminum body. Nonetheless, 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 provides higher total 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 discuss coloration choices. The vanilla F6 form 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 related 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 related in any respect. Past the signature sample on the Professional we already talked about, there may be additionally a significant distinction within the digicam islands. The vanilla F6 does not even have one with two massive round particular person cameras and an LED flash to the aspect. Alternatively, the Professional has an enormous digicam island stretching nearly all the width of the cellphone and far smaller circles for the cameras themselves. It is nearly as if the 2 telephones weren’t meant to be associated to start with (wink, wink).

Relating to 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’ve the SIM slot, which lacks expandable storage on both machine, in addition to the principle speaker and the Kind-C port. Each telephones help USB Host/OTG however nothing else fancy like video output. So, you’re caught with USB 2.0 knowledge speeds of 480 Mbps max on each telephones.

Show comparability

Each telephones have the identical massive show diagonal of 6.67 inches. The similarities do not finish there both, with 12-bit coloration, HDR10+, Dolby Imaginative and prescient certification and a 120Hz refresh charge. These are some fairly nice specs throughout.

Nonetheless, the F6 Professional nonetheless has a leg up on this division. To begin 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 could really respect with the bare eye. At round 446 ppi, the Poco F6 nonetheless seems a lot sharp. Nonetheless, the F6 Professional has a notably increased pixel density of round 526 ppi.

It’s also price noting that Poco advertises a a lot increased peak brightness of 4,000 nits for the Poco F6 Professional in comparison with 2,400 nits on the Poco F6. Nonetheless, additionally it is price declaring that in our extra sensible standardized testing, each telephones managed a really related most brightness output of simply over 1,200 nits. Greater than a lot to be comfy outdoor.

Battery life

Each telephones have 5,000 mAh battery packs on board and expectedly handle very related, nearly similar Lively Use Scores in our testing. Neither cellphone does significantly nicely within the battery division in comparison with its friends. This has been an ongoing development with latest Xiaomi units, so we will not say that we’re too shocked.

Charging pace

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 answer. 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 take a look at

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 vital 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 may be even some bass.

Efficiency

Each the Poco F6 and F6 Professional use what Qualcomm describes as premium chipsets. The vanilla Poco F6 relies on the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 – a reasonably new chip that’s primarily based on the common Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 however with a couple of cutbacks.

The Poco F6 is available in an 8GB/256GB base variant and can be obtainable in a higher-tier 12GB/512GB mannequin. In each instances, you get speedy UFS 4.0 storage, however there is no such thing as a expandable storage. Qualcomm additionally lowered the associated fee through the use of an older modem, nevertheless it nonetheless provides a high-end ISP in addition to next-generation connectivity, akin to Wi-Fi 7.

Talking of older components and reducing the associated fee, the Poco F6 Professional relies on final 12 months’s flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. As you possibly can think about, it nonetheless packs fairly the punch and has come down in worth a bit at this level.

The chipset is paired with LPDDR5X RAM and quick UFS 4.0 storage. You will get the cellphone in three configurations – 12GB/256GB base, 12GB/512GB and a prime tier 16GB/1TB mannequin. There isn’t any expandable storage right here. You get fashionable connectivity options right here as nicely, 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. Nonetheless, trying on the precise benchmark numbers, the distinction actually is not all that main.

In follow, the common Poco F6 is already a lot highly effective and simply chews by any process, together with heavy gaming.

Digital camera comparability

The digicam setups on the 2 Poco F6 fashions do look related at first look. Properly, moreover the truth that the F6 Professional has an additional digicam on the again. A reasonably insignificant 2MP devoted macro one, although. Dig a little bit deeper, nonetheless, and also you rapidly begin to see extra variations.

As an example, whereas each telephones use a 50MP principal digicam, 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 principal 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 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 digicam 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 a complete lot).

As for selfies, the Poco F6 Professional additionally takes a special path from the plain F6, and it has a 16MP front-facing digicam as a substitute of the 20MP one on the F6. Additionally they differ of their protection, with the Professional having a extra conventionally large 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 photographs with its major digicam. Element is great – random textures are rendered comparatively naturally, and there is minimal grain within the skies.

The Poco F6’s principal digicam does comparatively nicely, 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 nice grain right here or there. The colour rendition is sort of likable – it is a notch beneath the Professional’s barely extreme pop. Dynamic vary is nice, too.

Important digicam samples: Poco F6 Professional vs. Poco F6

The Poco F6 Professional does a superb job of capturing individuals and faces.

The best way the Poco F6 renders pores and skin tones and faces, basically, 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.

Important digicam samples: Poco F6 Professional vs Poco F6

Whereas each telephones use the identical ultrawide digicam, a minimum of as finest we are able to inform, we did discover that the F6 Professional produced barely nicer photographs. Possibly the 2 completely different Snapdragons have their very own specifics. Usually talking, the ultrawide digicam does alright, with out shining in any specific method, although we frankly anticipated worse from its unremarkable {hardware}.

Element is alright, given the decision, and no matter noise there may be does not get in the way in which. On the vanilla mannequin, specifically, 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 most likely been simply nice with the F6’s photographs, nevertheless it’s simply that the F6 Professional’s are a little bit bit higher.

Ultrawide digicam samples: Poco F6 Professional vs. Poco F6

The Poco F6’s principal digicam does not worry darkness and continues to ship stable photographs at night time. You needn’t fear a lot about going into night time mode because the cellphone does nicely sufficient in full auto mode. Tonal improvement is superb; you will sometimes get moderately vivid shadows and well-contained highlights. Element and noise efficiency are good, and we’ve no main complaints about coloration both.

At 2x zoom, you possibly can anticipate usable photographs, although taking a look at them at 1:1 will reveal their upscaled nature. The ultrawide digicam’s low-light photographs are fairly meh. Dynamic vary is alright, however colours are a little bit off. The pictures are additionally fairly comfortable – 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 superb photographs with its principal digicam in low gentle. There may be well-balanced publicity with good spotlight preservation and shadow improvement.

The 2x zoom stage stays usable at night time, as long as you do not anticipate miracles when pixel-peeping. The ultrawide digicam’s photographs are alongside the identical vein. They appear comparatively good from afar by way of 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 related video seize capabilities. Properly, excluding 8K@24fps, which is just obtainable on the Professional mannequin. 8K on cellular remains to be form of janky in most methods and never that completely different in high quality from 4K, so we can’t emphasize it a lot. The vanilla F6 additionally lacks the 4K@24fps cinematic possibility, 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 principle cameras of each telephones are stable. The Poco F6 has superb element at 30fps, which is on par with the F6 Professional’s outcomes, and there is a related minor drop in high quality at 60fps. The F6 is a little more restrained in its coloration saturation than the Professional mannequin, and we would most likely decide this one as the higher rendition – it is extra trustworthy with out trying 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 collection is alright. Strolling shake does trigger the occasional focus searching on the principle digicam, however in case you keep put, you will keep away from that concern, and the pans are easy.

At the hours of darkness, the Poco F6’s principal digicam does a decent job – even perhaps barely higher than the Professional. The ultrawide is finest averted at night time.

Verdict

Each the Poco F6 and the Poco F6 Professional got here out as glorious “flagship killer” provides 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 most likely personally go for the vanilla Poco F6.

With its notably cheaper price level, the F6 stands out as the higher deal.

Positive, the additional efficiency of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 contained in the Poco F6 Professional is good, 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 overlook that whereas the F6 Professional is perhaps made 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 ranking and Gorilla Glass Victus entrance.

Simply to be completely clear, each the Poco F6 and F6 Professional are glorious units and a terrific selection, however between the 2, our decide would most likely be the vanilla Poco F6.