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POCO M3 Pro 5G - Smartphone 4+64GB, 6.5" FHD+ 90Hz DotDisplay, MediaTek Dimensity 700 with dual 5G, 48MP AI triple camera, 5000mAh, Power Black (UK Version + 2 Years Warranty)

£9.9£99Clearance
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The Dimensity 700 is a very interesting platform because it delivers much better performance than the Snapdragon 662-toting M3. The chipset has two Cortex A76 cores that go up to 2.20GHz and six Cortex A55 cores that go up to 2.0GHz. There's a two-core Mali-G57 MC2 GPU, and of course there's dual SIM dual 5G connectivity.

The GPU is a huge focus for M3 series processors and introduces features loved by high-end gamers, such as hardware-based ray-tracing, mesh shading and a feature Apple calls Dynamic Caching. M3 Pro has 18 GPU cores and it’s 40% faster than the M1 Pro and 20% faster than the M2 Pro. There's an exciting design change at the front as well. The M3 Pro switches to a hole-punch cutout, making it look just that little bit more modern than the regular M3, which has a waterdrop cutout. The phone has a 6.5-inch LCD panel protected by Gorilla Glass 3, and this time, the refresh rate goes to 90Hz. The M3 Pro is the new chip that sits at the middle point of the M3 family of chips, between the M3 and M3 Max. It features 12 CPU cores. They are split between 6 high-performance cores and 6 efficiency cores. Apple says this makes performance 20% faster overall (30% for single-threaded) than the MacBook Pro with M1 Pro.The fact that it is on par with the POCO X3 should be welcome news if you're eyeing the phone. The Dimensity 700 is a great budget design, and you even get 5G connectivity. The M3 Pro is available with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, and 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. POCO is also adding marginally faster UFS 2.2 as standard; the regular M3 had UFS 2.1 for the 64GB model and 2.2 for the 128GB version. It's great to see POCO bring a 90Hz panel to the budget segment, and like most of its devices, there's dynamic refresh to maximize battery life. Based on the content that's being viewed on the screen, the M3 Pro dynamically switches to 90Hz, 60Hz, and 50Hz, with an upcoming software update bringing 30Hz. The M3 Pro runs MIUI 12.0.5 based on Android 11 out of the box, and there's significantly less bloatware than the standard version of the M3. Xiaomi has done a great job cleaning up MIUI with the Android 11 update, and that's immediately evident when you get started with the M3 Pro 5G. MIUI 12 has been around for a while, and I'm excited for the device to make the switch to MIUI 12.5. Xiaomi is giving you the ability to uninstall system apps with MIUI 12.5, and that means whatever Xiaomi services are present on the M3 Pro can be uninstalled. POCO will integrate these changes as well once MIUI 12.5 rolls out. The POCO M3 Pro is powered by MediaTek's Dimensity 700 platform, and it lowers the barrier to entry for 5G. The phone has global 5G bands and dual-SIM 5G, and if you're thinking of switching to a 5G phone on a budget, this is a great option.

The default screen refresh is set to 60Hz out of the box, so you will have to go into the settings and change this to 90Hz. The panel itself is decent enough, but colors tend to hue cooler out of the box, so you will need to adjust the color balance manually. I found that the auto brightness feature doesn't work reliably, and I had to manually drag the slider to view the screen under sunlight. verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ There’s up to 36GB of unified memory from up to 37 billion transistors. Apple says the Neural Engine is now 60 per cent faster than the Neural Engine in the M1 family of chips. So, this is quite the upgrade compared to M1-Series chips, but it’s less forthcoming about how it compares to M2 Pro models. Who is the M3 Pro chip for?

We've covered the leaks, and are now moving onto unashamed speculation, so please get your salt shaker ready. Extrapolating the M3 Pro to the 'usual' Max and Ultra SKUs might mean that an M3 Max will sport up to 14 CPU cores and 40 GPU cores, and the M3 Ultra coming with up to 28 CPU cores and over 80 GPU cores. Apple says M3 Pro based machines are designed for people like coders and creative professions. It’s great for handling vast panoramic photos in photoshop and testing data models or tens of millions of lines of dode. It’s also compatible with 2 external hi-rest displays for extra command centre space. When are M3 models available? POCO will still use MIUI, but it will start rolling out unique features on its devices, and it is likely the UI will be rebranded to POCO UI. We'll have to wait and see how that plays out, but for now, what you need to know is that MIUI for POCO is marginally different to what Xiaomi offers on its own phones. There are also efficiency gains on the GPU side with Apple claiming: “the M3 GPU is able to deliver the same performance as M1 using nearly half the power, and up to 65 per cent more performance at its peak.”

POCO is looking to differentiate itself in the budget segment with unique designs, and that's the case with the M3 Pro as well. The design looks like a supersized version of the metal-encased housing that Samsung went with on the Galaxy S21, but with a few key differences. POCO differentiates itself from MIUI on Xiaomi and Redmi phones in a few ways. MIUI for POCO has more modern icons, and you won't find any ads in the interface. POCO was also the first to introduce an app drawer, and it continues to offer new software features. On that front, POCO says that it will start delivering exclusive software features to its devices starting later this year.

5G and battery life are the highlights

As for 5G connectivity, the global version of the M3 Pro has 5G bands n1/n3/n7/n8/n20/n28/n38/n40/n41/n66/n77/n78. These bands will vary by region — the Indian model is likely to offer much more limited 5G connectivity to save costs. The phone also gets Bluetooth 5.1, and while the global unit I'm using has NFC, the Indian model will not have the feature.

The M3 Pro features the same 48MP camera as the standard M3, and while it holds up pretty fine in daylight scenarios, low-light photos have a lot to be desired. If you want a budget phone that takes great photos in all conditions, you should take a look at the Redmi Note 10 series. Source: Apoorva Bhardwaj / Android Central (Image credit: Source: Apoorva Bhardwaj / Android Central)

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