Poco X3 NFC Review

Last update : 26/1/2023

- Introduction -
- Physical features -
- Audio -
- Display -
- Bootloader unlocking -
- Repairability -
- Custom ROM & Kernel Availability -
- Other issues -
- Conclusion -

Introduction

The Poco X3 NFC - the last Xiaomi / Poco device I'll probably want to take, if I'm not counting the X3P (which I already obtained).

Summary : X3P without the performance to fully utilize its 120hz display in games.

Physical features

The X3N is a bulky & thicc device (compared to most device I've used) with the best grip a big-handed being like me could ever ask - with or without a case (mostly without a case).

Audio Quality

The X3N has a bottom loudspeaker + earpiece / top speaker stereo combo & a headphone jack.

The speaker quality is very good - the top speaker competes with the top speaker well enough that it doesn't feel drowned out, but it'll also vibrate the back, which you'll feel the most when the X3N's not covered with a case.

The headphone jack quality is passable. Loudness wise, it squarely falls into "average" territory.

Display

The 6.67 inch 20:9 120hz LCD with a centered punch hole is pretty good, even though it's barely usable out in the sunlight at max brightness. Sure, that centered hole sucks, but that smooth 120hz screen somewhat makes up for it - no amount of smoothness will make up for a hole in the middle of the screen, unfortunately. But still, it's a nice panel, with decently uniform backlighting aside from the shadow caused by the camera hole.

One thing to note about the X3N's display is that it lacks adaptive refresh rate by default, which means it won't randomly adjust the refresh rate on usage unless the feature is added into the ROM you're running.

Bootloader unlocking

No changes from the F1 (except for wait time), so it's still the worst bootloader unlock protocol, no questions asked. You need a Xiaomi account, have to submit your phone number to Xiaomi servers, and use a proprietary Windows-only application to unlock its bootloader. That, combined with 168 real-world hours (maybe even more, up to 2 weeks at worst - and yes, it's longer than the F1, as far as I can remember) of wait time (which gets triggered somewhere around the unlocker app as far as I remember), makes it the worst.

munchy's bootloader unlock video for Poco F1

Repairability

Repair difficulty on the X3N is in line with most glass-backed devices (except the back is plastic, reducing the risk of it breaking as it's opened up), even though the camera lens aren't stuck to the back panel. The screws used for the external plastics are all similar, allowing you to get away with not remembering which screw hole a screw would belong to.

Once the panel's heated up & removed, it feels somewhat like the F1, except that 3 of the 4 rear cameras are stuck on the lens & the USB-C port is on the same board as the headphone jack (at least neither are soldered on the main board), forcing a replacement of both if either stops working.

PBKreviews' teardown video

Custom ROM & Kernel Availability (as of 9/1/2023)

In terms of custom ROMs, the X3N is less than ideal, with support for Lineage, LMODroid (if it counts), & crDroid (and some unofficial ROMs mostly from one buildbot dev, though it's mostly the ones I don't care about).

For flashable custom kernels, there's only Deluxe Kernel (GitHub source) at this point. Everything else is no longer developed.

Other issues

Generally, there's not much problems with the X3N, aside from:

As for avoidable problems, we got :

Conclusion

The X3N is basically a F1 that trades performance for better build, display, battery, & audio (and add NFC if you don't get the Indian variant). That's it. In my opinion, the Indian X3 (karna) is probably (ignoring the random bricking potential) better since it has a bigger battery capacity, even though you pay for it with an even thicker body (by 0.7mm) & removed NFC.

That said, the X3N has nothing to offer against X3P under direct comparison. Sure, brigudav's TWRP allows mounting partitions as rw (by default and/or inbuilt script), but the X3P can do that too, though with terminal commands. Development does not compare favorably, putting even less reason for me to recommend the X3N. Combined with the hard-bricking issue present on both, I don't recommend getting the X3N.

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