Poco F3 Review

Last update : 8/5/2025 ()

Introduction

First off, I'm going to start this review with a bit of a prologue. This F3 doesn't belong to me ‐ rather, it belonged to Ms.Park, a coworker who was also a (though not the usual ones, as seen with her use of custom ROMs and readily agreeing with me on downgrading to A12L) Google zoo user... who inherited her F3 from her older brother (a fellow flasher as well, but more in the "tech enthusiast" side) after he got it "fixed" up by the mall ninjas (resulting in messy finish, "OEM" LCD panel, and ruined front camera). She kept the F3 stowed away until I accidentally brought it up in 17/4/2025 (by accidentally mentioning some family thing?) and got me to completely refurb (and re‐setup the F3) her F3 in 2 weeks starting from 19/4/2025. It was rather decently timed as well, as I had a bit of a free time in the office (aside from being too lazy to update the site but whatever goes...).

Anyway, if I had to summarize the F3 from the little time I had with it (compared to the other Xiaomi shitbars that I still had) : mostly a downgrade, except for the fingerprint when compared to its direct predecessor (the F2 "Pro", whose under‐screen implementation is a downgrade in terms of performance).

Physical features

Thinner X3(N/P) with camera island + mountain on the corner.

• Left side of the frame contains nothing but the frame.
• Bottom side contains one of the 2 speakers, the USB‐C port, and the dual SIM tray.
• Right side contains the volume rocker & power button, with the latter doubling as fingerprint scanner.
• Top section contains the other speakers' holes and an IR blaster port.
• The front is home to the 6.67' (15.5cm x 7cm) 20:9 120hz OLED panel, front camera in top‐center section of display, and what seemed to be tiny cutouts in the plastic bezel for the earpiece.
• The back holds the usual rear cameras, with its island + mountain on the top‐left section.
• For materials, the F3 is a Gorilla Glass 5 sandwich with plastic sides. And plastic buttons.
• The F3's buttons mostly felt like how the average plastic side buttons feel like. Fingerprint scanner is a touch better than the X3N/P.
• Haptics feel quite weak for me, with 72ms on Simple Keyboard feeling barely sufficient. However, it is also unfortunately not as good, as the vibrations felt like it was concentrated at the F3's lower areas instead of being evenly spread across the entire device.

Audio Quality

The F3 only comes with its stereo speakers. And those sounded quite nice for a shitbar speaker. That said, the F3's speakers seem to be inferior to the X3(N/P), with a top speaker that seems boxier and weaker.

As for USB‐C audio compatibility, the F3 seems to have its own internal DAC (as far as I've searched on the net), so you can get away with passive dongles.

Display

The 6.67' (15.5cm x 7cm) 20:9 120hz OLED panel with that centered punch hole is quite decent for an OLED display of the time. Turned off blacks (with barely any visible black crush issues), decently acceptable color reproductions, and decent brightness levels... resulting in what can only be described as nothing noteworthy. Unfortunately it is also obvious that I REALLY suck at advertising and/or reviewing displays, but then again I don't mind admitting this issue I suppose...

With that being said, "OEM" LCD (yes, it's NOT OLED, but LCD) panels also exist, and they should be avoided.

• Obviously thicker than the OLED panel, to the point of jutting out of the plastic border & overall even more exposed to drop damages.
• Struggles to smoothly render 120hz.
• Touch response barely keeping up in 120hz mode?
• Of course, the absent oleophobic coating. Disgusted the current owner to the point she kept the F3 in storage until this review, as a matter of fact.

Bootloader unlocking & custom ROM setup

The bootloader unlocking process is still the worst available (archive.org) of every unlockable bootloaders (archive.org), now made even worse because the F3 is "upgraded" from MIUI to HyperOS. That said, the previous owner unlocked the F3 back in the MIUI days, so we're spared from Xiaomi's bullshit.

1. Log in Xiaomi account on the device. The latter MUST be updated to the latest version.
2. Go to developer options > Mi Unlock Status & request device unlocking in Xiaomi servers (after either sucking up to Xiaomi's bullshit and hoping for Xiaomi to graciously grant your unlocking request or use some bypasser software to try & circumvent Xiaomi's bullshit).
3. Wait for ≥7 days (while keeping the device connected to the internet & not letting any additional Mi Unlock requests), and only then you can use Xiaomi's Windows‐only unlock tool for the bootloader unlocking. That is, if your Xiaomi account hasn't unlocked one device yet and if Xiaomi approved your bootloader unlocking request.
4. Of course, shit gets even worse if your device is from the Chinese market. Apparently the rulers of China has decreed that bootloader unlocking is taboo, and Xiaomi is happily following suit, slowly but surely extending the taboo enforcement to their Global market.

Repairability

In terms of repairability, it's in line with most glass-backed phones. And maybe took some pages out of OnePlus with the display connecting to an extension cable.

• Back panel demands heat (and/or isopropyl alcohol) & suction cup to remove and glue to re‐attach, with camera bump adhered to it. The back panel is glass, so it shouldn't distort from excessive heat but additional care on prying needs to be taken if you don't want it to break (and I recommend keeping some spare back panels at the ready in the likely case it breaks).
• Motherboard cover (which doubles as NFC antenna & place for camera rear mic) is stuck with 11 Philips screws, one of which is differently colored & smaller than the others. Bottom speaker is stuck by 7 Philips screws. All of those aforementioned screws (except for that one different screw) are equal in size & length so you can mostly get away with not sorting them out.
• Every removable component except for antenna cables, flash module, proximity sensor, speakers & vibration motor (which uses contact pins) connects to the motherboard using Lego‐like BTBs. Those BTBs are not designed with repairability in mind, as some of them features various capacitors around it (without some silicon border above them), making removals requiring some precision.
• The top speaker are held on the midframe by some adhesive and 2 small Philips screws ‐ the same as the odd small screw holding the F3's motherboard cover.
• The cameras are also held by adhesives.
• The 2 sub‐cameras do not have a frame underneath them, and are lightly adhered (using some tape) to the midframe.
• The main camera is not adhered to the midframe, but its underlying frame is. Though at least it's not like the front camera.
• The front camera is the worst ‐ its module is adhered to its own frame (good luck separating them without breaking camera lens), which is adhered to the midframe. Granted, the midframe adhesive isn't as tough as some others could be, but still. Unnecessary.
• Battery features orange static pull tabs meant to ease removal, and for first removal, the battery is lightly adhered to the plastic wrapping, which in turn is adhered somewhat heavily (not to Samsung / nubia's nonsensical levels) to the frame.
• As commonly seen on sandwich designs, power & volume buttons are adhered inside their holes within the frame, except this time the power button is its own module along with the fingerprint scanner it was fused to, with its flex cable adhered to the frame under the battery ; whereas said volume buttons are on their own flex cable (which meant replacing the volume button flex will not take the power down with it). The volume rocker is held inside the frame with some friction, while the fingerprint scanner / power button is a bit more of a hassle to properly insert (especially when getting its BTB head inside the hole) than the X3(N/P)'s power button clicker / fingerprint scanner. At least aligning the power button is not as troublesome as the X3s (which had a plastic clip that only held the clicker/scanner in place) as its metal clip contains a pair of tabs that attaches to the button.
• SIM tray is in its own cable, which also doubles as extension cable for the display. It's adhered to the frame under the battery just like the power button flex cable.
• Charging port is its own module, held by light adhesive at midframe and/or bottom speaker assembly.
• Display is very much glued in place, so say goodbye to it if you ever wanted to try replacing the entire thing for the 1st time (if sticking to same midframe). Then again, your display's probably beyond any helping in that scenario, so good luck.

Teardown references :

• PBKReviews's teardown video

Custom ROM & Kernel Availability (as of 5/5/2025)

For custom ROMs, the F3 is about as acceptable as it gets.

• A11 has abandoned builds of crDroid & LineageOS, except we didn't bother going that far back yet (mostly since ArrowOS used to be there until it isn't). But mentioning this for the sake of completion as I linked the A12L builds of those I tested out.
• Ditto for A12L ‐ A14, except we only tested the A12L builds of crDroid & LineageOS without knowing the F3's ARB index as of A13 MIUI firmware (let's just say you're never going to see this entire page if I triggered ARB & bricked the F3 we worked on).
• Of course, you can see more ROMs in Telegram (whereas we only found those 2 above in XDA). We couldn't be bothered to try out everything else, especially since I made sure the F3's owner kept her F3 by 30/4/2025.

Custom recoveries seem to be quite well maintained, with skkk's TWRP & official OrangeFox available.

As for custom kernels, we get at least 4 (which is better than what my other Xiaomi shitbars had nowadays, especially considering they're exclusively and/or primarily advertised in PocoF3GlobalUpdates Telegram group), but we only got to test one (fortunately none of them were openela stuff). Just watch out for "apollo" and "munch" builds ‐ those are for Mi 10T ("Pro") / Redmi K30S and Poco F4/Redmi K40S respectively, and make sure you get the "alioth" build.

• FakeDreamer Kernel (noksu/KSU‐Next/SUSFS) ‐ the only kernel we even managed to try out. Also comes with various dtbo options that can be set by renaming the zipfile (we went with FD‐stk‐eff‐uv for stock 4520mAh battery, efficient CPU, and undervolted GPU).
• ALPkernel (KSU‐Next/SUSFS)
• RealKing (bundles separate build for HyperOS & AOSP: KSU&38208;Next only)
• RvKernel (noKSU/KSU‐Next) (Changelog)

Other issues

Not much, aside from the usual (and some rather unusual ones?).

• 3.2GHz frequency of SD870 not justifying its costs. Unfortunately, it can only be mitigated by kernels with efficient CPU variant.
• Xiaomi. Background task allergy, horrible (ever‐worsening) bootloader unlocking, and unneccesary EDL lockdowns.
• Dynamic partitions & A/B. Not to mention the added variety of vendor_boot ROMS (that us TWRP flashers had no idea what to do with).

Conclusion

For me, the conclusion is clear. The F3 might've been a decent device... if it came with an extra port or two (a second USB‐C is enough); and if the X3P did not exist (as it is superior to the F3 despite its own line of issues). As is (and considering the shittiness of recent Android shitbars)... I don't think I'll want to whip out the isopropyl syringe for that 13th USB‐C port. Or let the other boys gamble on the obvious odds of me daily‐driving this shitbar.

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