Last updated : 5/10/2024 (Rumors of Xiaomi closing bootloader unlock.)
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. Maybe there's the extra battery life... but then again the X3P's already good enough so the X3N's pointless at best.
Physical features
The X3(N/P) 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 (though I'd prefer having a case, if only for that giant camera bump).
- On the top section, there's the secondary mic, an IR blaster, & what appears to be a hole for the top speaker.
- USB-C charging port, speaker, headphone jack, & primary mic on the bottom corner, with the headphone jack at bottom-left corner. The jack's position isn't the best, but at least it's there.
- Left section contains only the hybrid (1x SIM; either 1 other SIM or 1 microSD) dual SIM tray.
- Right section is home to the volume rocker & power button. The power button doubles as a fingerprint scanner.
- Front side is reserved for the 6.67' 20:9 120hz LCD, earpiece, & a front camera in the top-center section of the display. The earpiece grill also hides a white-only notification LED.
- The back holds the rear cameras. My issue with the back panel is that there are some flexing when pressed at some areas, which unfortunately cheapens the already cheap feel. Said issue can always be mitigated with a case, which you will normally get if you get the X3(N/P) as a brand-new device.
- For materials, Gorilla Glass 5 (or GG6 in case of brand-new X3P, though I couldn't feel any difference) out front (plus a free pre-installed screen protector if you got it brand-new), with aluminium-ish plastic sides & glass-ish plastic back. I'm giving them an "ish" since they look the part, but don't feel like those aforementioned aluminium & glass - these doesn't feel cold like those 2 & scratches easily.
- As an additional note (and/or a side effect of compartmentalization on the X3(N/P)), the X3N can use some of the X3P's parts without issues & vice versa (see the 24/8/2021 blogpost for more details).
- For the buttons, the X3(N/P) feels fine & soft, though a minor wobble can be expected. On the other hand, the fingerprint sensor embedded on the X3N's (but not the X3P with its allegedly superior sensor, though both can be swapped with each other) power button is pretty finicky, occasionally not reading my finger. I believe this side-mounted scanner is more sensitive to dirt than the rear-mounted scanners like the F1 & V30, which provides a wider area to scan your fingerprint.
- In terms of haptics, the X3(N/P) is fine enough for me, at least around 40ms in Simple Keyboard. Definitely not as overwhelming as the F1.
Screen protector observations :
- Nillkin H (and H+ Pro with some caveats) (Poco X3(N/P) / [Poco X2 / Redmi K30] / [Poco F2 Pro / Redmi K30 Pro]) : Fully covers display. Recommended. H+ Pro can be used if you want thinner tempered glass & don't mind paying a bit more for it, though some older batches don't fully cover display so be careful when buying some.
- Nillkin H+ Pro (Samsung A72) : Pending (depends on whether I got to buying one). Should fit considering the A72 is somewhat shorter & wider than the X3(N/P). The M52 5G is a closer match, but I couldn't find Nillkin's offering for it around me yet.
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 bottom 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... though somewhat louder than the X3P in my personal anecdote.
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 (and it leaves a visible shadow around it), 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 X3(N/P)'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.
Some notes regarding those "OEM" displays since Lukas' X3N got conned into having one (though I replaced it with an original display soon after that "OEM" drama, if only because I found a decent deal for one & I owed him a new display before this) :
- Ghost touches actually occuring. Yes, the phenomena where your system seems to try & actively refuse your input. It finally happened; whereas the actual original display doesn't do that.
- Hole punch is bigger, to the point of going beyond the statusbar. Original display's hole mostly matches the statusbar's bottom corner.
- In terms of fitment, it seems to kind of sink in, as if it's using thinner glass.
- Viewing angle is horrendous - one light glean away & the screen's blacks seem to become bluish. Though the rest of the display's colors (at least when directly looked at) wasn't all that bad.
- The expected lack of oleophobic coating.
Bootloader unlocking (before HyperOS)
No changes from the F1 (except for wait time, though that's on Xiaomi), 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. With Xiaomi's server getting less reliable nowadays, good luck.
Repairability
In terms of repairability, the X3N (and X3P by hardware similarities) are in line with most regular glass-backed phones, if slightly easier due to the plastic back.
- Back panel demands heat (or isopropyl alcohol), suction cup, & adhesive-cutting pry to remove and glue to re-attach. On one hand, there's no component (not even the camera bump) adhered to it aside from some insulation tapes; on the other hand the back panel is plastic so extra care is required on heating the back for removal, as it may distort from excessive heating.
- Motherboard cover (which generally doubles as NFC antenna for most of us with the global model) is stuck with 11 Philips screws, whereas bottom speaker & daughterboard cover are stuck with 7 Philips screws. All of the cover screws are equal in size & length, so you can kinda get away with not sorting them out.
- microSD / SIM reader's soldered on the motherboard, though that's common for every phone nowadays except for ASUS ZS630KL / Zenfone 6 2019 / 6z (AFAIK). It's mounted on the back side of the motherboard & the tray doesn't need to be removed for the back panel and/or board cover to go, so you'll have to be really sure you've removed the microSD / SIM tray before trying to detach the motherboard.
- 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 expected of glue sandwiches, physical buttons (power & volumes) are in their holes within the frame. However, those buttons are on the same cable, forcing a replacement of both if either stops working (in which case, good luck - aligning the power button to perfection can be a bitch). Fingerprint sensor is on its own cable, which adheres to the frame; while the volume rocker is held by friction & can be pried out using a knife. The buttons' rubber cover attaches with friction. The fingerprint scanner (which doubles as the power button) can be easily replaced by unadhering its cable from wherever part of the frame it sticks to & carefully guiding it out of the frame.
- Every removable component except for antenna cable, buttons, NFC, proximity sensor, speakers, & vibration motor (which uses contact pins) connects to the motherboard using Lego-like BTBs. While the BTBs has some capacitors around it, some of them features arrows on the motherboard meant to indicate where to pry, so while removals do require some precision, there's some thoughts made for repairability.
- Camera bump doubles as cradle for the camera modules, with the main camera being separate from the rest as its connection point is on the motherboard's back. Said bump also hides 1 Philips screw holding down the motherboard, which is different from the rest of the device's screws (in color & length).
- Headphone jack & USB-C port is on the same board (daughterboard), forcing a replacement of both if either stops working. The daughterboard is held in with some adhesive and/or the bottom speaker assembly.
- Display is very much glued in place, so say goodbye to it if you ever wanted to try harvesting the earpiece grille and/or replace 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 (for X3P, which also applies for X3N) :
Custom ROM & Kernel Availability (as of 5/7/2024)
In terms of custom ROMs, the X3N is workable in A11 if you don't mind outdated builds from ArrowOS, crDroid, & LineageOS (as always, I'd go with the former 2). A12(L) & A13 swaps Arrow (which sucked anyway here) with /e/ (and also adds several ROMs I couldn't be bothered to use, let alone test), & ≥A14 has only Lineage (and its microG-infested variant) & crDroid.
For custom recoveries, I'd personally recommend brigudav's TWRP as it mounts partitions as RW by default (3.6.2_11-1 works for A11 but couldn't decrypt /sdcard, 3.7.1_12-1 works for A12 & beyond with /sdcard decryption). Ardjlon & rxuglr offers unofficial PBRP & SHRP Reborn respectively, but I can't say whether they mount partitions as RW by default (or if I would recommend them) as I haven't used either.
For flashable custom kernels, I don't see any new ones. There's Deluxe Kernel (with inbuilt setup wizard for optional KernelSU support), but the last time I tried flashing it (on Lukas' X3N; 30/7/2024, with his express permission as long as I get LineageOS A12L on it) it decided to not install itself (in either last ArrowOS A11 build with TWRP 3.6.2_11-1 or last LineageOS A12 with TWRP 3.7.1_12-1), leaving me with "ERROR 1". I did find some newfangled kernels in POCOHUB_X3EN Telegram channel (which replaced the dead PocoX3GlobalUpdates), but all of them (aside from Deluxe, which doesn't work at all) were closed source, and I couldn't be bothered to test out most of those kernels, especially when the X3N I'm going to test it on isn't mine anymore. Not to mention devuploads.com being a terrible hosting option (hello there, Shiryu Kernel; how's that ay-eye article?).
Other issues
Generally, there's not much problems with the X3N, aside from:
- The shit bootloader unlocking & EDL recovery issues inherent in most Xiaomi phones, including the F1 & X3P.
- Pointlessly oversized camera lens that's not even a full circle (but tries to look like one), complete with 2 useless camera sensors, a somewhat useful ultrawide, & an overspecced one (IMO). It's likely that you'll only use the overspecced one, depending on which camera app you're using (and whether the ROM supports those cameras - for example, A12 supporting only overspecced main while ≥A13 supports everything).
- Also adding in some stuttering caused by the fact that Snapdragon 732G is just a somewhat upscaled Snapdragon 730 - an upper midrange SoC. It's random & you may not detect it sometimes (unless you're on MIUI where it happens often). Let's just say you do not want to duel the swordmasters in Shimousa (or deathmatch in Heian-kyo?), farm / speedrun in any GPU-intensive areas (Camelot's Holy City Districts immediately comes to mind since I noticed the framerate went down hard there, only returning to normal whenever a Servant does their NPs), deploy and/or fight a Servant with GPU-intensive NP, or some combo (or all of them) of the mentioned things if you're playing Fate/GO using the X3N.
- The reality of a dynamic-partitioned device - you can't edit anything in /product, /vendor, & /system by TWRP without mounting them as rw. However, this issue has been mostly negated by brigudav's TWRP (which mounts them as rw by default & also provides a script to remount them as rw just in case).
- Random hard-bricking due to shitty QC allowing defective X3s to be released.
- The existence of the X3P that makes it nothing more than the X3P's "spare" parts (except for the camera & motherboard, the former's incompatible & the latter would be a downgrade).
- Xiaomi's firmware is averse to some background tasks, such as music listening (it prevents headset commands from being recognized if the device does not play music for some time). This flaw persists even in custom ROMs... except for /e/ A12 (not sure on A13 but fuck that).
As for avoidable problems, we got :
- A crappy inbuilt plastic screen protector - sure, free protection is good, but it's not properly centered right off the box. You can (and should) get a better screen protector.
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 (which sucks only if you have any use for it).
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 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.
12/10/2024 Update : With Xiaomi being rumored to shutting down its Global bootloader unlocking program (currently it's getting less reliable), I'm no longer able to recommend any Xiaomi devices unless you get it with the bootloader already unlocked. However, that is also somewhat risky as well since the seller might've fucked something up as well.
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