Poco C65 Review: A True Budget Champion?

The Poco C65 starts in India at a price of Rs.8,499 for a base variant with 4GB RAM and 128GB storage. Furthermore, the 6GB+128GB and 8GB+256GB models of the phone cost Rs.9,499 and Rs. 10,999, respectively.

It will be exclusively available in Matte Black and Pastel Blue colours on Flipkart.

The Poco C65 packs the following items inside the box:

• Phone
• 10W Charger
• Documentation
• SIM Ejector

Before we talk in detail about the device, let’s see what the on-paper specs look like:

• Display: 6.74 inch 90Hz IPS LCD
• Chipset: MediaTek Helio G85
• RAM & ROM: 4GB 128GB, 6GB 128GB, 8GB 128GB
• Software: Android v13
• Rear camera: 50MP + 2MP+0.08MP
• Selfie camera: 8MP
• Battery: 5000 mAh
• Weight: 192 grams
• Dimensions: 168 x 78 x 8.1 mm

The Poco C65 has a plastic build on the back with a glossy design, which looks good for the price. The Pastel Blue variant has a minimalistic look and does not have the typical black camera island like other Poco phones.

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Two large camera modules on the top house the triple camera setup accompanied by an LED flash. You also get a Poco branding on the right corner while the rest of the back remains clean.

The matte finish makes the phone slippery, so I highly recommend using a case. It weighs 192 grams and is around 8.1mm thick despite housing a sizeable 5,000mAh battery.

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The Poco C65 has a plastic frame and feels comfortable to hold in the hand. Regarding ports and placements, you get the volume rocker and the power button on the right, which also doubles up as a fingerprint sensor.

At the top, you get the 3.5mm headphone jack, while the left houses the dual-SIM tray with a microSD card slot. At the bottom, you will be greeted by the USB-C port, speaker grille and microphone.

The Poco C65 features a 50-megapixel primary camera, a 2-megapixel macro and a 0.08-megapixel “AI lens”.On the front, there is an 8-megapixel selfie shooter.

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During the day, the phone takes decent photos with good details and contrast. However, the camera has a tendency to overexpose, which sometimes results in washed-out images.

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Moreover, the 2-megapixel macro camera and the auxiliary “AI camera” are only good on paper. Poco has not elaborated on the purpose of this so-called “AI camera”, so I guess it only exists for capturing depth information in portrait mode.

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When it comes to low light, the photos have plenty of noise and do not offer much detail, although the noise mode does reduce noise to an extent. This is where the budget hardware shows its limitations, and it’s best to avoid using the camera at night.

The selfies taken with an 8-megapixel front camera are decent, with adequate details. It also supports video recording up to 1080p at 30FPS on both cameras. Overall, the Poco C65 can take decent photos during the day, but the lowlight performance is disappointing.

The Poco C65 packs a 5,000mAh battery with support for 18W charging. However, Poco only provides a 10W charger in the box, which is disappointing for a phone in this price range.

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It can easily last a day with normal usage, such as scrolling through social media and taking photos. If you are a light user, you can get two days of battery backup with the device.

Using the included 10W charger, the device can take over 2 hours to reach 100 per cent, so I highly recommend buying an 18W charger. It is unfortunate that brands like Poco are only offering a 10W charger in the box in 2024.

The Poco C65 sports a 6.74-inch HD+ IPS LCD screen with a 90Hz refresh rate. Furthermore, the screen has a resolution of 1650 x 720 pixels and Gorilla Glass 3 for protection.

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The display has an outdated teardrop notch with huge bezels surrounding it. Furthermore, using 720p resolution on such a large screen results in pixelation, especially when reading text or articles, making it evident that you are using a budget device.

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I can only hope Poco will offer a Full-HD+ screen in 2024 with punch hole cutout in future phones as competitors like the Infinix Note 12i provide a Full-HD+ AMOLED screen at a similar price.

The screen is bright enough for indoor usage; however, you might face legibility issues under bright sunlight. Thanks to the 90Hz refresh rate, navigating through the user interface remains smooth and fluid.

The display offers saturated colours and comes with Widevine L1 certification, meaning you can stream 1080p content. Despite the thick bezels surrounding the screen, I liked watching Season 1 of Rocket Boy.

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The phone also has TUV Rheinland lowlight certification for a flicker-free experience so that you won’t strain your eyes at night. It packs a single speaker at the bottom with decent output and adequate loudness.

Moreover, you get a 3.5mm headphone jack, which is always a welcome addition and a side-mounted fingerprint scanner that is fast and accurate. You also get support for face unlock, although you should avoid using it as it isn’t very secure.

The Poco C65 is powered by the MediaTek Helio G85 chipset paired with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. Moreover, the phone also supports up to 8 GB of virtual memory and 1TB of expansion via the microSD card slot.

During day-to-day usage, the phone runs fine and keeps most apps, such as Instagram, Snapchat, and LinkedIn, open in the background. However, I noticed that the app opening and loading times are slow due to the eMMC 5.1 storage, which has very low read/write speeds.

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Poco should have opted for at least UFS 2.2 storage to offer a decent experience, as the UFS storage type is now antiquated. If you have previously used a mid-range phone, you will immediately notice the longer app loading and opening times.

Moving on, the phone can handle casual games like Subway Surfers and Temple Run. Moreover, it can also handle demanding games like Asphalt 9, CODM at Medium and High Frame Rate (60 FPS) and BGMI at HD and High or Smooth and Ultra (40FPS).

I did not notice any major lags or stutters during my gameplay, although the phone did get slightly warm during my usage. Furthermore, when it comes to benchmarks, the device has a single-core score of 434 and a multi-core score of 1238 on Geekbench.

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In addition, the phone throttled to 94 per cent in the 15-minute CPU throttling test and achieved 99 per cent stability in the 3D Mark Wildlife Extreme Stress Test. It has an AnTuTu V10 score of 215979 and a score of 13559 on the storage test. Overall, the Poco C65 is a decent performer when it comes to day-to-day tasks and casual games.

The Poco C65 runs on MIUI for Poco 14.0.3 based on Android 13. The company has promised two years of OS updates and three years of security patches, which is excellent for a device in this segment.

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Unfortunately, similar to other budget phones, you get plenty of bloatware and preinstalled apps such as Facebook, Bubble Shooter, Crazy Juicer, Netflix, Opera Browser, Jewel Blast, etc. Thankfully, you can remove them by uninstalling them from the settings.

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There are other annoyances, such as the Glance Lock Screen, which changes your lock screen wallpaper to show ads and app recommendations that pop up as soon as you open the app drawer. You can disable them by heading into the settings.

In addition, the phone offers you the usual MIUI features such as Themes, Screen Recording, Game Turbo, and Video Tool Box. You also get the option to enable memory extension to add up to 8GB of virtual memory.