Every brand is pushing hard to earn its place as the top performer in the mid-range segment. This competition, from a user’s perspective, is very beneficial, giving them a lot of options to choose from. Adding to those choices, Poco, with its latest launch, is trying to power its way up to become one of the top contenders in the segment.

The brand has unveiled the Poco X8 Power, which starts at a price of ₹35,999. However, the question here is whether it has enough power to become users’ favourite.

I have used the phone for a few days, and here are my observations.

Starting with the design, the Poco X8 Power is not a lightweight phone. It measures weighs 229 grams.

The weight is something you will notice, especially when compared with phones in a similar range such as the Motorola Edge 70 Pro and the Motorola Edge 70 Fusion, which are considerably lighter. The extra weight is a compromise, but considering the 10,000 mAh battery inside and the level of protection on offer, I think it is a compromise many users can accept.

However, Poco has a good reason for going with this build. The phone comes with IP66, IP68, IP69 and IP69K ratings, along with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and double five-star quality certifications from SGS and TUV.

The Poco X8 Power comes with a large 6.83-inch 1.5K AMOLED display with a 2772x1280 resolution and a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz. It also supports HDR10+, Dolby Vision, 12-bit colour and DCI-P3, with peak brightness going up to 3,500 nits.

I found the display to be one of the stronger parts of the phone. The large screen works well for watching videos and browsing, while the 1.5K resolution keeps the content sharp. The 120 Hz refresh rate also makes scrolling and animations feel smooth.

However, this is another area where the competition is slightly ahead on paper. Both the Motorola Edge 70 Pro and the Edge 70 Fusion come with 144 Hz displays, while the OnePlus Nord CE 6 also offers a 144 Hz AMOLED panel.

That said, I don’t think the difference in refresh rate takes away from the overall display experience on the Poco. The combination of AMOLED, Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and high brightness makes it a very good screen for consuming content.

Poco has also included TUV Triple Eye Protection, Wet Touch 2.0 and up to 3,200 Hz instantaneous touch sampling in Game Turbo.

The Poco X8 Power runs Xiaomi HyperOS 3 based on Android 16. It is listed with four Android updates and six years of security updates.

There is one thing I did not like about the software experience: the phone comes pre-installed with several unnecessary apps, which add to the clutter and take away from what could otherwise be a cleaner experience. I would have preferred Poco to keep the number of pre-installed apps to a minimum and let users decide what they actually want to install.

The X8 Power also comes with AI features as part of the HyperOS experience. Rather than making AI the entire focus of the phone, Poco has integrated it into the broader software experience.

Overall, HyperOS 3 is feature-rich and offers plenty of customisation, but the unnecessary pre-installed apps are something Poco could have handled better.

The Poco X8 Power is powered by the Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 processor, paired with LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.1 storage. It comes with up to 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage.

In my testing, the phone scored 920 in Geekbench single-core, 2,866 in multi-core and 987,724 on AnTuTu.

These numbers show that performance isn’t where Poco is trying to lead this segment. The Motorola Edge 70 Pro scored 1,669 in single-core, 5,508 in multi-core and 1,868,482 on AnTuTu, while the OnePlus Nord CE 6 recorded 1,098 in single-core, 3,111 in multi-core and 1,142,518 on AnTuTu.

The Motorola Edge 70 Fusion also comes ahead with 1,242 single-core, 3,454 multi-core and 1,147,225 on AnTuTu.

So, purely from a performance perspective, the Poco X8 Power is behind all three.

But I think this is where the phone needs some slack. The X8 Power is not trying to be a performance-first smartphone. Poco has instead focused heavily on battery capacity, durability and the overall hardware package.

During everyday usage, these benchmark differences don’t mean the phone feels slow. Regular tasks such as browsing, social media, streaming, switching between apps and multi-tasking are handled well.

The Poco X8 Power comes with a 50 MP primary camera with OIS, an 8 MP ultrawide camera and a 32 MP front camera. The primary camera also supports HDR, portrait mode, Pro mode, panorama, documents and 2X in-sensor ultra-clear zoom.

In well-lit conditions, I found the primary camera to be quite capable. It captures good and detailed images, with colours that look pleasing for everyday photography. The OIS also helps keep shots steady, especially when there is some movement.

Even at night, the primary camera does a decent job with regular photos. With enough light around the subject, the images retain a good amount of detail.

However, the experience changes when you start using the zoom at night. This is where the camera starts losing detail, and the images can look softer. So, while normal night shots are fairly good, I would avoid pushing the zoom too much in low-light conditions.

The 8 MP ultrawide camera is another area where Poco has made a compromise. The Motorola Edge 70 Pro looks considerably more ambitious with its triple 50 MP setup, including a Sony LYT-710 primary camera with OIS and a 50 MP ultrawide. The Edge 70 Fusion also has a 50 MP Sony LYT-710 primary camera with OIS and a 13 MP ultrawide lens.

This is where the Poco X8 Power really distinguishes itself. The phone packs a 10,000 mAh silicon-carbon battery with support for 100W HyperCharge and 27W wired reverse charging. A 100W charger is also included in the box.

This is easily the phone’s biggest advantage over the Motorola and OnePlus alternatives. While those phones can offer better performance or a lighter design, Poco has gone all-in on endurance.

The Poco X8 Power is an interesting phone. The company has chosen to put its biggest bet on endurance, with the 10,000 mAh battery, 100W charging, reverse charging and a highly durable build.

At ₹35,999, I think that makes the X8 Power a reasonable proposition. If you want the fastest performance or the strongest camera setup, there are other options. But if your priorities are battery life, durability, a big AMOLED display and a phone that can keep going without constantly needing a charger, the Poco X8 Power presents a very strong case.