Today we are going to look at one of the most controversial phones of the last couple of years, the Poco X6 Pro. What a buzz it made when it was introduced in early 2024? We ourselves said in our review that this phone is a gaming masterpiece in its price range. How could it not be? Xiaomi had put a flagship-level chipset, the Dimensity 8300-Ultra, in a mid-range phone. This was the first phone to come with HyperOS and Android 14 out of the box, the screen was amazing, and it also promised 3 years of Android updates.
But here we are in a phone review, we are not being nice to anyone. This phone is called Poco. And Poco has a not-so-bright history, especially with the nightmare of the death of the motherboard in the Poco X3 Pro, in our minds. Now, after all this time, it is time to see if that wild horse has been tamed. Our main question in this long-term review is; has the Poco X6 Pro managed to escape the Poco curse? Or is this the end of it? We want to see if this phone can cope with the marathon of everyday life or if it is still the same monster that we saw on the first day. So join us as we put this phone under the microscope for a long-term review, section by section.
(Xiaomi Poco X7 Pro Review)

Poco X6 Pro — Key Summary

Long-term review of the design of the Xiaomi Poco X6 Pro

On the first day of our Poco X6 Pro review, we said that the design of this phone was nothing special. The frame was matte plastic, which didn’t feel bad. We had two models, black and gray, with glossy plastic back panels that were officially fingerprint-proof. There was also a yellow model with synthetic leather, which both looked more attractive and, thank God, didn’t get fingerprints.
Well, this is the first place where long-term performance hurts the phone. The yellow version that we all liked at first turned out to be a disaster in the long run. User reports during this time show that this synthetic leather is extremely vulnerable.
Many people have reported that this leather is peeling. But the worse problem is that it stains. This leather is extremely prone to stains, especially those that come from jeans dye, and according to numerous user reports, these stains cannot be removed by any method (no soap and water, no alcohol, no eraser).

On the contrary, those plastic versions (black and gray) that we mentioned earlier about how fingerprint-prone they are were much safer options in the long run. Yes, they do get scratches and scuffs, but at least they don’t get chipped and stained like the yellow version.

Here we can say that what seemed like a design strength on the first day (not attracting fingerprints on the yellow model) has become a major durability weakness in the long run. It seems that Poco used a very low-durability synthetic leather material to control the price.

In short, if you were fooled by the yellow version back then, you’re now 99% likely to end up with a stained and peeling phone. On the contrary, the black plastic that we said at the beginning was so smudge-prone has at least become more durable.
Xiaomi Poco X6 Pro Display Long-Term Review
One of the strongest parts of this phone from day one was its display. A massive 6.67-inch AMOLED panel with 1.5K resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, and Dolby Vision support. The bezels were minimal and the brightness was excellent. The good news is that this section has had almost no drop-offs.
According to various reports and reviews, there were no dead pixels or image burn-in issues. We had some comments about the yellowness of the display at the beginning of the launch, but these were more a matter of taste and color calibration (especially for those coming from Samsung panels), rather than a general hardware problem.
In short, the screen of this phone is the one that you can still swear by after a year and a half. Not a single green line has come into use, not a single burnt pixel. It is still readable under sunlight and watching movies on it is as good as the first day. It is hot. Poco did not skimp in this department and chose a high-quality and durable panel.(Xiaomi Poco F5 review)

Xiaomi Poco X6 Pro long-term battery review

5000 mAh battery. 67W charger in the box. Full charge in 43 minutes. Overall, it was great and fast. Well, if you thought the motherboard problem of Poco phones was scary, let me show you the real long-term disaster of the X6 Pro; the battery.
User reports of battery health decline are shocking. According to various people, the battery health decline is between 97% after a month and even up to 77% after 11-12 months of use!
This is a system problem in Xiaomi Poco phones. Most phones of this brand have a 10 to 20 percent drop in battery health, at least in normal use, according to various reports. This disaster is a direct result of the death cocktail in this phone. The formula is this; (hot chip + 67W fast charger + poor thermal management of the original software). Heat is the number one enemy of batteries. This phone is both constantly hot and hot when charging at 67W.
The marketing strength (67W charging) is directly creating a long-term weakness (battery death). Poco has made a phone that eats itself. That 5000mAh battery on paper, after 11 months, is actually a 3865mAh battery.
That 67W charger that we were excited about on the first day has become a scourge on the battery. The phone is constantly hot, and together these two become a death cocktail for the battery. User reports are terrible; 77 percent battery health after 11 months! 92 percent after 3 months! This means that your phone will, with a high probability, officially have a 3850 mAh battery a year later. Disaster!

Xiaomi Poco X6 Pro camera long-term review

Poco X6 Pro — Neon Camera Summary

A 64-megapixel main lens with OIS (optical image stabilization), an 8-megapixel ultrawide and a 2-megapixel macro. The selfie camera was also 16-megapixel. Our assessment was that the camera is average. In the long run, it is the same. No one buys this phone for its camera. The ultrawide and macro lenses are more decorative.
But this is where the community, or the user community, saved the phone. The main camera hardware (OmniVision sensor with OIS) is not so bad; it is Poco’s software processing that is weak. Users installed ports of Google Camera (GCam) such as the BigKaka version. What is the result? Definitely better than the stock camera. Photos with GCam have better details, take better HDR, although sometimes they are noisy or have been processed.
The camera of this phone has an interesting story. The stock camera itself? Average. It takes pictures, but not as well as that hardware. Installing a nice GCam version turns the phone’s camera upside down. It feels like you’re holding another phone. If you’re in the mood to mess around with it, its camera goes from mediocre to great.(Poco F7 Review: The mobile Flagship Killer)

Poco X6 Pro Hardware Long-Term Review

We’ve come to the beating heart of the phone. The thing that made the X6 Pro explode. The MediaTek Dimensity 8300 Ultra chip. A monster in every sense of the word that competed with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and 2 in benchmarks. It was a dream for gamers.
This is where the reports and feedback get worrying. That raw power doesn’t seem to be sustainable in the long term. According to reports and reviews, after a year of heavy use, the phone lags badly and becomes unstable.
And then there’s the curse of the Poco phone. The infamous legacy of the Poco X3 Pro, which was dying in droves due to motherboard and CPU issues, seems to have also affected the X6 Pro. We have numerous reports from users that their phone has bootlooped. That is, the phone gets stuck on the Poco logo and won’t boot up.
This bootloop issue is so serious that some think it’s a software issue, but many believe it’s the first sign of a motherboard or hardware issue. There seems to be a direct correlation between overheating (which we’ll talk about in the next section), performance drops, and sudden death. It’s likely that the excessive heat is damaging the motherboard’s connections and solder joints, which first manifests itself in the form of frame drops and lag, and eventually in the form of a bootloop or complete death.

Long-term software review of the Xiaomi Poco X6 Pro phone

It was the first phone with HyperOS and Android 14. The new Xiaomi phone interface was a complete mess. We said it started well. But the biggest hardware software problem of this phone is overheating. This overheating is not only when playing games. This is where the war between hardware and software begins. Poco has tried to control this hot dragon with HyperOS updates. But the user experience of this phone has been extremely unstable and dependent on updates. Some updates have made things worse. But it seems that newer updates (late 2025) have improved the situation and even made the phone not so hot anymore.
This shows that the hardware and software of this phone were not in sync at the time of launch. Xiaomi launched the phone and then, over the course of a year and a half, just started optimizing and fixing it in front of the customer.

Xiaomi Poco X6 Pro Speaker Long-Term Review

Dual stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support. They were good from the start. Like the display, this has been a less troublesome and durable part. We haven’t seen any reports of buzzing, tearing, or degradation in the speakers over the long term.
This section, along with the display, shows that Poco has left no stone unturned in the areas related to content consumption and used durable parts. The problem and omission were precisely in the areas related to performance and stability, namely the chipset, thermal management, and battery.(Xiaomi Poco M7 4G review)

Is the Poco X6 Pro still worth buying?

So, let’s get to the final summary. What kind of creature has the Poco X6 Pro become over time?
Summary of the situation:

• Strengths that have endured: Display (excellent and durable), speakers (excellent and durable).
• Strengths that have become weaknesses: Powerful hardware that led to heat, performance drops, and fears of motherboard death. 67W charging that has led to the destruction of battery health in some cases.
• Weaknesses that have endured: Average stock camera, yellow leather design that was a disaster.
• Weaknesses that have improved somewhat: Excessive overheating, which has been greatly improved with recent software updates (late 2025).
  If you’re a casual user who wants to take the phone out of the box and use it for 3-4 years without any problems, this phone is still not as suitable as it was when it was first released. But if you’re a tech geek who loves powerful hardware, is happy to install GCam and various updates, and is important to you to beat the family in benchmarks, and are willing to deal with overheating and battery drain and the risks that come with it, then it’s still a tempting option at this price. The Poco X6 Pro was a gaming masterpiece, but an old and troublesome masterpiece that is expensive and tedious to maintain. Thank you all for sticking with us until the end of this review. What do you think? If you have the X6 Pro, what has been your long-term experience? Let us know in the comments.
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