Poco X3 GT review

MIUI 12.5 for Poco on top of Android 11 core

The Poco X3 GT employs the latest Poco-spiced MIUI 12.5 version. MIUI 12 has been around for a while, and even if it uses an Android 11 base, you can't really tell that as it skins everything thoroughly. The Poco launcher uses a slightly different system theme compared to Xiaomi's own-branded phones, icons included, but you can change it to your liking.

You unlock the screen via the side-mounted fingerprint scanner. The reader is easy to set up, blazing-fast, and the accuracy is superb. We also liked the haptic feedback the X3 GT provides upon successful unlocking.

Depending on how you carry the phone you might want to set the unlock method to 'Press' as the always-on reader will often attempt reading your palm and/or other fingers and eventually disable the fingerprint unlock until you input your PIN. A 2D Face Unlock is available, too, but it is far less secure than the fingerprint option.

Security options

The homescreens are business as usual - they are populated with shortcuts, folders, and widgets. The leftmost pane, if enabled, is Google's Discover.

The Poco X3 GT does not support Always-on screen, there are no Super Wallpapers either.

Homescreen

MIUI 12 for Poco offers an app drawer, but unlike on the Redmi phones, you cannot disable it on the Poco X3 GT.

It automatically organizes your apps into categories. The first is All, meaning it contains all apps. Then follow Communication, Entertainment, Photography, Tools, New, and Business. You can edit these categories or even disable them altogether.

App drawer

MIUI 12 has its notification shade split into Notification Center and Control Center. Indeed, this is precisely what the iPhones do, and you even summon them in the same fashion - pull down from the left part of the screen for the Notification Center, pull down from the right for the Control Center.

If you are not fond of this new split - you can disable the Control Center, and the shade will revert to its more traditional Android looks and operation.

Notification Center • Control Center • Options • The old Notification Shade

The task switcher is business as usual. It shows all your recent apps in two columns. Tap and hold on a card for the split-screen shortcut, or just swipe it left or right to close it.

Split-screen multi-tasking is supported. There is no Floating Window shortcut, but the Calculator app does support Floating options once launched.

Task Switcher • Split screen • Split screen • Floating calculator

Themes are a huge part of MIUI, and they are available on MIUI 12, too. You can download new ones from the Themes store, and they can change wallpapers, ringtones, system icons, and even the always-on display style.

Themes

Xiaomi enhanced MIUI 12 with a couple of additional privacy options. Now, when sharing stuff, like photos and videos, you can opt to remove location info and/or other metadata (incl. device info) and thus protect your privacy better. Neat.

Gallery • Privacy Settings

MIUI also offers a Security app. It can scan your phone for malware, manage your blacklist, manage or restrict your data usage, configure battery behavior, and free up some RAM. It can also manage your installed apps' permissions and allow you to define the battery behavior of selected apps and apply restrictions only to the apps you choose.

MIUI 12 packs proprietary Gallery, Music, and Video player. In some regions, the music and video apps include paid streaming options. There is also Mi Remote app for the IR blaster. There is no FM radio on the Poco X3 GT.

Security • Security • Music • Video • Mi Remote

MIUI 12 supports Dark Mode, too, and you can even force it on wallpapers or restrict its application on incompatible individual apps.

Dark Mode

MIUI 12 is fully optimized to work on HRR displays, and it looks great on the Poco X3 GT. Everything is smooth and fast; animations are unobtrusive yet impressive, the attention to detail is excellent. We did enjoy working with MIUI on the Poco X3 GT's 120Hz screen for sure.

Some MIUI ROMs include ads in the default apps; it is a well-known thing.

How to disable ads

The international ROM version of this Poco X3 GT does come with baked-in "recommendations" or ads, but even if they were enabled by default - nothing appeared through the UI. Still, if your phone does show ads - you can disable those even if it's a bit tedious to do it. For example, if you are annoyed by the app scanner's ads, just hit the settings gear and disable recommendations. Ads in the File Manager - Settings->About should do it. Themes - go to Settings and disable Recommendations. It's not ideal, sure, but at least you can get rid of them all.

Performance and benchmarks

The Poco X3 GT is the first phone we meet that's based on the MediaTek's Dimensity 1100 chipset. The hardware platform is similar to the top Dimensity 1200 chip - it has the same CPU cores, graphics and connectivity suite, but differs mostly in the clock speeds.

So, the Dimensity 1100 chip offers an octa-core processor with a 4+4 configuration - meaning it doesn't have a dedicated 'prime' core. There are four Cortex-A78 clocked at 2.6GHz and four Cortex-A55 clocked at 2.0GHz.

For graphics, the chipset has a total of nine Mali-G77 computing cores. We cannot confirm if the GPU clocks are the same as on Dimensity 1200 though as MediaTek doesn't advertise those.

The Dimensity 1100 chip package also includes a 5G NR Sub-6 GHz and LTE, built-in modem. It is noteworthy that the Poco X3 GT and its Dimensity 1100 are capable of Dual SIM 5G standby (SA/NSA supported), which is not a given.

Speaking of connectivity features, the chipset also has Dual-Band Wi-Fi 6, NFC and Bluetooth 5.2. And everything is crammed into the chip package using a current and efficient, though not industry-leading 6nm manufacturing process.

The Poco X3 GT is available with 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and you can choose between 128GB and 256GB UFS3.1 storage options.

So, the synthetic performance of the Dimensity 1100's CPU is on par with the Poco X3 Pro's Snapdragon 860 and not that far from the Nord 2's Dimensity 1200.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Realme X7 Pro
  2997
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  2909
• OnePlus Nord 2
  2792
• Poco X3 Pro
  2574
• Poco X3 GT
  2310
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  1812
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  1780
• Poco X3 NFC
  1777
• Realme 8 Pro
  1678
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  1577
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S
  1576

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• OnePlus Nord 2
  814
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  803
• Realme X7 Pro
  756
• Poco X3 Pro
  735
• Poco X3 GT
  693
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  641
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  569
• Poco X3 NFC
  568
• Realme 8 Pro
  566
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  525
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S
  502

The 9-core Mali-G77 GPU is in a similar boat. It scored on par with Snapdragon 860's Adreno 640 (Poco X3 Pro), and the Dimensity 1200's GPU (Nord 2).

GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 GT
  97
• Poco X3 Pro
  93
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  78
• Realme X7 Pro
  64
• OnePlus Nord 2
  59
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  40
• Realme 8 Pro
  38
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  35
• Poco X3 NFC
  33

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Realme X7 Pro
  40
• Poco X3 Pro
  38
• Poco X3 GT
  38
• OnePlus Nord 2
  38
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  35
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  17
• Poco X3 NFC
  16
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  16
• Realme 8 Pro
  16
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  15

The AnTuTu compound benchmark rates the Poco X3 GT among the best in its price bracket.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• OnePlus Nord 2
  512164
• Realme X7 Pro
  510317
• Poco X3 GT
  506800
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  465534
• Poco X3 Pro
  453223
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  318672
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  295442
• Realme 8 Pro
  286666
• Poco X3 NFC
  283750
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  261282

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• OnePlus Nord 2
  598022
• Poco X3 GT
  578505
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  522490
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  391770
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S
  330909

The performance of the Dimensity 1100 turned out to be excellent - the chipset behaving as well as its specifications made us to expect. This means the Poco X3 GT will surely perform admirably for the next couple of years. It has the raw power to handle whatever you throw at it, including HRR-enabled games.

The MIUI for Poco runs smoothly and hiccup-free, too, and we did not observe any stutter or freezes working at either 60Hz or 120Hz smoothness.

Stability and sustained performance are always important, and we often include such tests in our reviews. The Poco X3 GT has a plastic frame and back. The chip heat dissipation is done via layers of graphite, copper coil, some thermal gel and a vapor chamber. While at 100% load the phone gets noticeably warm around the camera and on the same spot on the screen side. But this hot part is tolerable to touch and nothing to really worry about.

The Poco X3 GT scored a 99.5% stability score on the 3D Mark Wild Life Stress Test, but there is a catch. It did that on the fifth try and only when we put the phone in the fridge for the 19th and 20th loops. The phone always overheated on the 18th loop and the reason is that it applied no throttling at all upon reaching critical temperature. We suspect this might have been programmed for better benchmark results.

Then we ran the CPU Throttling test for a whole hour and things became much clearer. The Poco X3 GT CPU dropped its performance down to 60% mere minutes after launch and spend the next hour locked at these scores. This means the cooling solution allowed the CPU to keep only 61% of its maximum performance.

Overheating message • 3D Mark Stress Test • 3D Mark Stress Test • CPU Throttling Test

The Poco X3 GT is equipped for top-notch performance, but its cooling system isn't that good enough to deliver peak performance for prolonged periods of time. Then again, no game or app uses 100% of the available resources and we did not notice throttling or unusual heating under normal use.