Poco’s newest addition to its C Series is the budget-friendly C71. The entry-level smartphone is priced at Rs 6,499. In this price bracket, it goes up against the likes of the Redmi A5 and Samsung Galaxy M05. It rocks a Unisoc processor under its hood and flaunts a large display. If you’re thinking of buying your child their first smartphone or looking for a secondary phone for yourself, this device should be on your radar. After using the Poco C71 for a week, here is our review of the smartphone.
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In This Article
Poco C71 Review: Design and Display
Here’s what you get inside Poco C71’s retail box:
- Smartphone
- 15W power adapter
- USB Type-A to Type-C cable
- SIM ejector
- Quick start guide
The dual-pattern plastic back of the Poco C71 comes in 3 colour variants: Cool Blue, Desert Gold, and Power Black. The flat back panel does not have any flex to it. The matte finish gives it a nice in-hand feel. The vertically aligned oval camera cutout houses the primary shooter and the auxiliary lens. The LED flash is positioned outside the camera panel.
The plastic frame has flat edges and rounded corners. The right edge houses the volume rocker keys and the side button. The side button doubles as the fingerprint scanner. On the left lies the hybrid SIM + microSD slot. The microphone, USB Type-C port, and 3.5mm headphone jack lie on the bottom edge. The speaker grille is positioned on the top edge.
The highlight of the phone is its massive 6.88-inch display. This IPS LCD panel has a 120Hz refresh rate and 600 nits of peak brightness. The display is bright and legible in indoor conditions, but finds it hard to overcome the bright surroundings under direct sunlight. The touch response of the LCD panel is satisfactory. The bezels around the display get considerably thicker around the chin. The front-facing camera is housed inside a waterdrop notch.
The LCD panel has a 720 x 1,620p resolution, allowing you to enjoy HD content. We streamed titles from OTT apps like Netflix, Prime Video, and Hotstar on our Poco C71 review unit. The display produced good visuals with decent colour richness and contrast levels. While it is not close to what an AMOLED display can deliver, it is the best that you can get in this price bracket.
Poco C71 Review: Performance and Cameras
At the heart of the Poco C71 lies the Unisoc T7250 processor. The smartphone is available in 2 RAM (LPDDR4X) + storage (eMMC 5.1) variants:
- 4GB + 64GB: Rs 6,499
- 6GB + 128GB: Rs 7,299
The smartphone supports expandable memory up to 1TB. On the Geekbench 6 app, the smartphone scored 440 points in the single-core test and 1,468 points in the multi-core test. It can handle routine tasks like calling, texting, and web browsing with ease. The overall experience is smooth and largely jitter-free. Apps take a couple of seconds to load, which is something to be expected from all entry-level smartphones. Loading multiple apps at once increases the possibility of unwanted lags.
When it comes to gaming, the Poco C71 does a good job of running titles like Candy Crush Saga and Subway Surfers. It can also run FPS games like Call of Duty Mobile and Free Fire Max in low graphics, but the frame drops are unavoidable. If you want a better gaming performance, you will need to extend your budget to at least Rs 15,000.
The Poco C71 runs Android 15 Go Edition out of the box. This lightweight version of the Android OS offers only essential features in order to keep the performance snappy. While most of the interface is stock Android, the device gets custom Xiaomi apps for the dialer, calendar, messages, themes, and music. The only big miss is the lack of an app locker. Poco has promised 2 major OS upgrades and 4 years of security patches for this smartphone.
The massive 5,200mAh battery pack on this smartphone lasts a full day with ease. During the review period, we used the Poco C71 for tasks like calling, texting, media streaming, gaming, and web browsing. At the end of the day, we were left with ~20% charge. With more conservative usage, you can push the battery life to one and a half days. The 15W power adapter provided in the box can fully charge the phone in 2 hours.
The rear camera panel of the C71 houses a 32MP primary shooter and an auxiliary lens. Up front, an 8MP sensor is housed inside a waterdrop notch. The primary shooter takes average photos in outdoor daylight conditions. The images seem a bit overexposed, but they aren’t too bad for the price you’re paying for the smartphone. Images taken in limited lighting conditions are riddled with noise, and the Night Mode does very little to remedy that.
Portraits taken by the Poco C71 are clear and vivid. However, the background blur leaves a lot more to be desired. The front-facing 8MP camera takes good selfies, but tends to overcorrect the skin tone and texture. The front and rear cameras can record 720 and 1,080p videos at 30fps.
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Verdict
The Poco C71 is a decent buy under Rs 7,000. It gets the basic right – the big LCD panel offers a good viewing experience, and the 5,200mAh battery pack can keep the device running for an entire day. The Unisoc processor does a fine job of handling everyday tasks. The primary camera is reliable in daylight conditions. Sure, 5G connectivity would have been a big plus, but it would’ve demanded a small premium. As far as entry-level smartphones go, the C71 checks most of the boxes.
Poco C71: Pros
- Big display
- Good battery life
- Expandable memory
Poco C71: Cons
- No cover in the box
