Have you ever looked at your phone screen at 2:00 PM with 15% power remaining and wondered how you are going to survive the rest of the day? POCO M8 Power 5G has the solution. The gadget has a massive 8,000mAh battery packed into a gorgeous casing and is aimed at those who put endurance above all else – so you can finally leave your charger at home for the weekend and still have juice to spare. And here’s how the ultimate everyday driver, the Poco, does in real-world stress, multitasking, and camera tests. This is our hands-on review.
In This Article
Design and Display
The first thing that strikes you about the Poco M8 Power 5G’s display is its size. At 6.99-inches, it is huge, even bordering on tablet status.
The Poco M8 Power 5G features a striking, industrial design, especially in the Blaze Orange model. It is mostly polycarbonate in its design, which gives it a unique look and an impression of toughness rather than cheapness.
The Blaze Orange colourway has a matte rear panel to help with the boldness of the colour while reducing fingerprint smudges. Poco M8 Power has a distinct look for a budget-friendly smartphone with a visible split in the top area around the camera. Overall, the design aspects make it sleek, attractive, and distinct from the rest of the category.
The M8 Power sets itself apart with a novel visor design, breaking away from the standard centred or circular camera placements prevalent on low-end handsets. The design has a split setup at the top, with the left side holding a slightly raised, round dual camera. The housing has a 50MP primary sensor and a 2MP depth lens, along with a flash. On the right side, the camera assembly is offset by a flat panel with the POCO logo. The overall look is very much like other premium models, borrowing design cues from the camera visor on other devices. The sophistication and geometric appeal raise its visual appeal, making it stand out from rival models in the budget market.
The build quality is really good, and it is quite durable. The best thing about the gadget is its 6.99-inch display, which is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 7i, and the glass offers very good protection against shattering and scratches. The gadget is also IP65-rated, offering durable weather sealing that can tolerate dust ingress and minor exposure to moisture, such as rain and splashes, making it suitable for regular use. The frame is flat in the design.
On the right side of the device are the standard power button and volume rockers. The power button isn’t a fingerprint scanner; the device uses an in-display optical fingerprint sensor instead. On the top edge, you’ll find an IR blaster, letting you use the phone as a universal remote via the Mi Remote app, and a secondary microphone for noise reduction on calls. On the bottom edge, you’ll find the USB Type-C connector that enables 45W charging, reverse wired charging, wired audio output, a main microphone, a loudspeaker grille, and a SIM ejector tray. On the left side, there is nothing whatsoever, while at the bottom, the SIM tray is home to two Nano-SIM cards and a microSD card for extra storage.
It is rather thick at 8.45mm, but it’s heavy at 225g, mostly because of the large 8,000mAh battery. You become tired when you use one hand for a long time. However, the design has gently rounded edges on both front and back panels, which prevent irritation and provide for a firm grip. The flat plastic frame adds stability in hand and reduces the likelihood of slipping. While it’s a little hefty, the sturdy appearance and practical battery design compensate for the weight, offering long use without constant recharging.
The Poco M8 Power 5G has a big 6.99-inch display that’s almost tablet-sized, offering enough screen real estate for consumers. Even with a focus on energy efficiency, the display quality remains exceptionally high. It has a Full HD+ OLED display with a 2396 × 1080 resolution, ensuring crisp, clear graphics. The panel also supports the DCI-P3 wide colour gamut, so you can enjoy rich colours and deep blacks. The contrast ratio is also great, so photos seem inky black (not drab, washed-out grey), especially in dark mode, which improves the overall quality of the display and the visual delight of viewing movies or scrolling through Instagram.
Phones on a budget sometimes struggle with screen visibility while you’re out in intense sunlight. That is a problem the M8 Power handles very well, with a peak brightness of 1,800 nits. Better screen brightness is very helpful for reading in bright conditions, so users can easily see maps or messages without squinting or blocking the screen from sunlight.
The 120Hz display rate also greatly boosts user experience with smooth animations, faster app transitions and seamless browsing across extensive online content. It also decreases the refresh rate while viewing static visuals, saving battery life.
Additionally, the 240 Hz touch sampling rate enables fast and precise registration of user taps, which is especially advantageous for activities like texting and casual gaming. You’ll like the fast response from this technology, with no input lag, although it’s worth noting that the display doesn’t get up to the ultra-premium esports level of frame rates over 480Hz.
The screen is large enough to make the phone hard to operate one-handed, so you may need to change how you hold it to reach the upper corners. Despite this issue, the in-display fingerprint sensor is easy to locate and provides a natural unlocking experience. The addition of Corning Gorilla Glass 7i further increases the device’s durability, delivering solid protection against scratches and drops. This should provide some peace of mind for those who like to keep their phones in bags.
In terms of multimedia, the Poco M8 Power 5G offers a mixed experience. The AMOLED screen delivers a great viewing experience for Full HD content on Netflix and Prime Video. However, it lacks HDR support and tops out at 1080p. The audio experience, however, is poor with a single bottom-firing mono speaker that lacks sound quality and stereo separation. The audio is flat, has low bass, and has a strong volume boost. The phone offers 24-bit/192kHz Hi-Res output; however, if you want better sound quality, it is recommended to use Bluetooth earphones or a USB-C adapter. Overall, it looks great, but you’ll want some extra audio gear to really get the most out of it.
Performance and Cameras
The Poco M8 Power 5G has a Snapdragon 4 Gen 4 CPU with 4nm technology that is designed for extended battery life and smooth performance for routine tasks.
You may get the phone with up to 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM, which is plenty to manage casual multitasking. It lets you run a few basic apps in the background without constantly dealing with them force-closing or refreshing. However, the device comes with UFS 2.2 storage that is not as fast as UFS 3.1 or 4.0 standards. Therefore, tasks such as big file transfers or launching large apps after a full shutdown may take longer to complete.
Casual games like Subway Surfers and puzzle games are popular on mobile devices. They run smoothly without any stuttering or overheating.
In contrast, heavier 3D games like BGMI (Battlegrounds Mobile India) and Genshin Impact put a lot of strain on the Adreno 613 GPU. For these heavy games, you will have to dial down the graphics settings to low or smooth presets to maintain consistent frame rates. This limitation makes the gadget a poor choice for serious mobile gamers. That said, performance remains solid and consistent for typical smartphone buyers who value cooler operation and lower power use over raw processing power.
It stays snappy and smooth during everyday tasks like browsing the web in Chrome, scrolling through Instagram, sending messages, and switching between streaming apps. The software also helps, with HyperOS running alongside Android to deliver fast system animations and a 120Hz refresh rate that adds to the overall visual fluidity. POCO offers long-term software support with four major Android upgrades and six years of security updates.
It has smooth animations that match the 120Hz display and the overall visual experience is more pleasing. You may choose how you want the layout to look, whether it is a standard app drawer or all the applications right on the home screen. HyperOS 3 has an interesting split design, as you can pull down from the right side of the top status bar for Quick Settings and from the left side for Notifications.
When you first set up this device, you will find pre-installed third-party apps, system app notifications, and promotional folders. But much of this garbage can be deleted or deactivated very easily. You can streamline the UI quite a bit by disabling system recommendations.
It also comes with lightweight AI tools like Google Gemini and Circle to Search, so you can work without losing system speed. The photo gallery gives you access to a variety of editing options, like simple object erasers and AI-powered sky and bokeh effects. However, it purposely excludes more resource-intensive on-device generative AI apps to retain responsiveness, especially on the Snapdragon 4 Gen 4 CPU.
The camera system on the Poco M8 Power 5G is all about practicality, mirroring the technical emphasis on the phone’s large battery and big display. On the rear, there is a 50MP primary sensor with an auxiliary AI lens, and on the front, there is an 8MP shooter.
The 50MP main sensor, which uses pixel-binning for 12MP shots, performs impressively in excellent lighting. The result is slightly punchier, more colorful photos, which make shots feel lively without editing. The auto HDR function also handles difficult lighting situations well, such as a dark street with a bright sky. It balances highlights and shadows effectively, ensuring the sky doesn’t become overexposed and preserving its details, so the photos stay well-defined even under complicated lighting conditions.
The software uses a second AI lens for depth mapping in portrait photography, allowing for clear background separation and realistic skin tones in well-lit settings. However, in low light, edge detection is less accurate, which leads to noticeable skin smoothing from the grain correction process. The device also lacks an ultra-wide camera, so you can’t capture expansive landscapes or groups of people without stepping back or using panorama mode. There’s no dedicated macro lens either, and close-ups are handled through digital cropping. That means fine detail won’t always be captured, but casual close-ups of food or flowers still look clear enough for social media.
The camera lacks OIS and uses a budget-grade sensor, which causes it to struggle in low light and nighttime shots. The phone’s limitations become apparent in low-light conditions, with night-time photos that need a steady hand to prevent picture softness and noticeable noise and grain, particularly in darker areas. The Night Mode may improve the night images by allowing a multi-second exposure, which helps recover details and increase brightness. But Night Mode is not good for fast-moving subjects, and its picture quality is compromised.
Video recording is restricted to 1080p at 30 frames per second (fps). And no Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) means that if you’re on the go, your video will be unsteady, so it’s better for still photos or smooth panning. This camera is a good point-and-shoot for daytime photos and casual memories, but it won’t be enough for night photography enthusiasts or mobile videographers.
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The Poco M8 Power 5G has an 8MP front-facing camera with an f/2.0 aperture, located in a centred hole-punch cutout on its big display.
In good lighting, especially outdoors, the camera captures clean selfies with realistic skin tones that suit casual social media posts. However, closely cropped photos show the usual softness associated with low-cost sensors. Portrait Mode uses software-based background blur, which works well in adequate lighting to separate subjects from the backdrop.
But low-light conditions are a major challenge; picture quality degrades quickly, with noise and grain rising in shadows and fine details blurring. There’s a screen flash option for gloomy situations, but it doesn’t do a great job of producing clean shots without optimal lighting.
For video recording, the camera supports up to 1080p at 30 frames per second. Perfect for the occasional video chat or short vlog, but handheld footage is a little wobbly on the go due to the lack of EIS. So the camera is good enough for short snaps and video chats, but may not appeal to content makers or those who love to capture selfies and want better quality.
The Poco M8 Power 5G is loaded with a huge 8,000mAh silicon-carbon battery for amazing battery life. The gadget may last up to 2 days on a single charge, while light users can get up to 3 days in usual use, including social media, chatting, taking photos and playing music. With 5G internet connectivity and the 120Hz display, the phone still delivers 8 to 9 hours of screen-on time for heavy users, making it quite dependable for long stretches without having to plug in.
There’s a trade-off for packing 8,000mAh into a relatively slim 8.45mm frame: charging requires patience. The battery gets to 50% in one hour with the included 45W fast charger and is completely charged in around two hours. The 10-minute connection provides enough juice for hours of basic standby and talk time with fast charging.
It also supports 22.5W reverse wired charging, which allows the phone to be used as a power bank for other devices such as a friend’s phone or wireless earphones. The battery has advanced cell chemistry and retains more than 80% of its capacity after five years of normal usage. Battery worry is past for those who may have to spend days without a charger, such as on a weekend trip, with plenty of juice left.
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Verdict
Poco M8 Power 5G is more about battery life and media consumption than top-of-the-line processing power and photography capabilities. It has a powerful 8,000mAh battery that lasts for two days of intense use and works as a power bank with reverse charging. Its 6.99-inch 120Hz AMOLED display has rich colours, deep blacks, and great outdoor visibility at 1,800 nits. The gadget also has long-term software support with HyperOS 3 on Android 16, providing 4 major OS upgrades and 6 years of security fixes.
It has a good look with the Blaze Orange colour and a textured back. But the phone has its heft (225g) and its audio performance is weak, making it not very practical. The mono speaker is also one-dimensional, and the camera does not do well in low light without an ultra-wide lens. The Snapdragon 4 Gen 4 chipset is enough for regular use, but it is not up to the mark for intense gaming.
Overall, the Poco M8 Power 5G is a solid budget media contender for customers who prioritise battery backup and screen quality, but it may not be the best choice for those seeking a lightweight design, gaming performance, or advanced camera features.
Pros
- An 8,000 mAh silicon-carbon cell easily lasts two to three days on a single charge
- Supports 22.5W reverse wired charging.
- Features a massive 6.99-inch FHD+ AMOLED panel with a smooth 120Hz refresh rate and 1,800 nits of peak outdoor brightness
Cons
- Heavy and bulky
- Single bottom-firing speaker
- Lacks an ultra-wide lens
