Camera
The Poco F3 being a 'flagship killer', you'd expect cameras to be one of its weak spots since traditionally that's been the case for such devices trying to maximize the bang for your buck. And you'd be right.
Even on paper, its setup is anything but impressive, with a 48 MP main camera with a ½" sensor and 0.8um pixels (that are binned to 1.6um). We've seen this formula for years now, and it's anything but high-end anymore. Still, it should be a competent enough solution for the least camera-focused people out there, especially during daytime. That's what the specs would have us believe, but let's take a look at some samples.
Indeed, the main sensor throws out good pictures in daylight, with reasonable amounts of detail, great contrast, decent dynamic range, and colors that ever so slightly 'pop' without changing too much compared to what the scene was actually like in real life. On the other hand, the images have this sharp look to them which is probably what people prefer on phone screens, but the instant you go and pixel peep, you'll notice that all of that sharpness comes at the cost of detail on grass, bushes, texts, and so on.
over-processing 101, and we assume the software couldn't really do much more with the hardware on offer here, and thus the choice was to emphasize the crisp, sharp look and hope no one zooms into the finished shots. You can shoot 48 MP images, but we decided not to as usual for long-term reviews, because most people wouldn't even know about that and just use all of the auto settings. Plus, the 48 MP shots are noisier than the pixel binned ones, and they really don't look any better - unless you count the marginal levels of increased detail on foliage. It's not worth it, though.
The ultrawide camera is fixed focus, so no macro shots from this one. Then again, the phone has a dedicated macro cam with autofocus if you're into that sort of thing, and it's among the better ones out there, but it's even lower-res than the ultrawide, and as such, the results aren't great. As usual, we decided to skip this one for the long-term review, as most people probably wouldn't even know it's there. And those who do, we'd wager, would take a few shots once and then promptly forget about it.
Anyway, back to the ultrawide. The 8 MP resolution already tells you that this is a low-end setup, and it shows in the images it produces. These are very average-looking pictures, with a lot of softness everywhere, thanks to the very aggressive noise reduction. Dynamic range is fine, but not more than that, the colors are pleasant, and it's actually quite a wide ultrawide if you pardon the pun. The problem is that the quality of the images is very obviously much lower than even those produced by the main sensor, and that's not outstanding, to begin with.
There's a 2x option in the camera viewfinder, but don't think this is 'lossless' zoom or anything like that. It's just normal cropping and upscaling. Still, a few times, you may find that you absolutely need to use this, and for such rare use, it's mostly fine. The images look quite good on the phone's screen, but again - don't go pixel peeping, or you'll be really disappointed. The look is almost identical to that of the 1x shots, which is hardly surprising considering the same sensor is used.
night, the main camera takes surprisingly decent photos, with nice exposure, good color saturation, and good levels of contrast. These are far from the best nighttime samples we've seen, but they're also far from the worst. Pretty much smack dab in the middle, we'd say.
You must be logged in to post a comment.