Poco has launched the cheapest 5G smartphone in India, called the Poco M6 5G, but with a catch. The Poco M6 5G is definitely the cheapest 5G offering in India, but after the bank offer is applied. If not applied, the crown for the cheapest 5G smartphone is still held by the Itel P55 5G. Despite that, the Poco M6 5G carries an aggressive price tag for what it is offering. As it goes on sale today for the first time, here’s our take on whether you should buy the Poco M6 5G or not.
Poco M6 5G: Availability, Price
The POCO M6 5G comes in Galactic Black and Orion Blue colours and is priced at Rs 10,499 for the 4GB + 128GB version, Rs 11,499 for the 6GB + 128GB version and Rs 13,499 for the top-of-the-line 8GB + 256GB trim.
When clubbed with the ICICI bank or HDFC bank Debit/Credit Card offer, you can grab the M6 5G’s base variant for just Rs 9,499. There’s 50GB additional data offer for Airtel prepaid users. The handset will be available on Flipkart beginning today, December 26.
Poco M6 5G: Specifications
The Poco M6 5G gets a 6.74-inch IPS LCD with an HD+ resolution, Gorilla Glass protection, up to 90Hz refresh rate, and DC dimming support. It is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 6100+ Processor paired with UFS 2.2 storage and LPDDR4x RAM. There’s also a dedicated SD card slot for storage expansion.
There is a 5000mAh battery with 18W Fast charging support. On the rear, the phone sports a dual camera setup, comprising a 50MP primary lens with an f/1.8 Aperture and an unspecified auxiliary lens. For selfies, a 5MP front-facing camera will be included.
Additionally, connectivity options will include support for dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v5.3, 5G Dual SIM, and a 3.5mm Headphone jack. It will also have a side-mounted fingerprint sensor for security. The handset runs on MIUI 14 based on Android 13 and is also dust & splash resistant.
Poco M6 5G: Should You Buy It?
The Poco M6 5G is a rebadged Redmi 13C 5G which was launched in India earlier this month. However, it’s starting price was Rs 10,999 compared to Rs 10,499 of Poco M6 5G which now makes the Redmi 13C redundant, except if you want to purchase it over Poco’s phone just for the design. That’s because the design (and of course the model name) are the only two major differences between the two.
Coming to the main question of whether you should buy it or not, the Poco M6 5G seems like an impressive option over the competition, especially if you can claim the bank card offers. The Poco M6 5G undercuts the Itel P55 5G in almost every sense, including a better Chipset and more storage. Also, we think that the software on the Poco handset would be much better than that of the Itel device.
At Rs 13,499, Lava also launched its Storm 5G but once again, the Poco M6 5G comes out as a better smartphone. Poco M6 5G has a more powerful processor under the hood and offers double the storage (256GB) of what Lava is offering. However, if display matters to you the most, then Storm 5G is a better pick, thanks to higher refresh rate and resolution.
Poco M6 5G also is a better phone than Realme C67 5G in terms of chipset, RAM and storage. However, it falls behind when it comes to the display and charging speeds. To conclude, we would suggest you to buy the Poco M6 5G only if you can compromise with the display. If yes, then Poco’s handset should be your ideal 5G smartphone at a budget.