Like many budget phones, the Xiaomi Poco M3 Pro 5G offers very good battery life – the combination of less vibrant screens and less powerful hardware means there isn't as much of a draw on the battery, which here has a 5,000mAh capacity. 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.

Overall, the images from the main camera can be good for use on social media platforms - if that’s what you are into.In the case of the M3 Pro we've not had notification issues like with some Xiaomi phones, instead there's some instability with certain apps. On reapeat we would get crash notifications for Photos, for example, with a report card popping up. While playing South Park: Phone Destroyer a 'file not found' pop-up would appear - something we've never seen in years of playing the game. But with so much else also occupying this space - including the Redmi Note 10 Pro - can the Poco truly compete?

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.IP53 rating indicates the device is protected from small splashes and typical dirt and dust, but not from full immersion or severe dust, sand, or other particles.