POCO recently took the wraps off the F6 series at a global event we attended in Dubai, providing price-sensitive customers a serious option for mobile gaming and heavy smartphone tasks.

We already published our full review of the POCO F6 Pro, so in this article, we’re taking a deep dive into its real-world gaming performance with a variety of popular games, from the spacefaring adventure of Honkai: Star Rail to the classic open world of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – The Definitive Edition.

The POCO F6 Pro boasts some serious muscle under the hood: a flagship-grade Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor paired with 12GB or 16GB of RAM options and a staggering 1TB of speedy UFS 4.0 storage. On paper, this screams smooth performance for even the most demanding Android titles. But does it translate to real-world gameplay? We put the smartphone to the test, beginning with the visually stunning Honkai: Star Rail, to see if it can truly live up to its impressive specs.

Honkai: Star Rail

Honkai: Star Rail blasts onto mobile and PC as a free-to-play JRPG-slash-gacha game with a familiar anime aesthetic and a fresh coat of spacefaring adventure, courtesy of miHoYo, the developer behind the global phenomenon Genshin Impact. You take the reins as a conductor, a seemingly ordinary person who awakens on the Astral Express with amnesia. A cast of quirky crewmates with unique fighting styles joins you, each with their own agendas and secrets. Expect the story to delve into familiar themes of fate, rebellion, and the nature of reality, all wrapped in the developer’s signature brand of anime melodrama.

The POCO F6 Pro muscles its way through Honkai: Star Rail at a buttery-smooth 60 fps, even with all graphical settings cranked to the max. This is impressive considering the game’s detailed character models and flashy effects. However, that power comes at a cost. A 22-minute Honkai: Star Rail session chomped through 9% of our battery, the highest drain we saw during testing. That said, keeping a charger nearby might be necessary during extended sessions. The phone also got a bit toasty — but nothing to be concerned about, really — hinting at the graphical horsepower required.

Genshin Impact

Genshin Impact takes the free-to-play gacha formula and injects it with a massive dose of open-world exploration. You take control of the Traveler, a customizable avatar separated from their sibling and adrift in the vibrant world of Teyvat. While you can earn new characters through free in-game means, the real powerhouses often reside behind a paywall. However, the sheer amount of free content and the gorgeous world to explore make it a compelling option even for both gacha enthusiasts and budget-minded adventurers alike.

The POCO F6 Pro proves its mettle once again, this time tackling Genshin Impact. With all graphical settings maxed out, the phone delivers a near-flawless 60 fps experience. From lush meadows to towering mountains, Teyvat renders in all its glory, a testament to the device’s gaming capabilities. However, Genshin Impact’s console-quality graphics and open-world demands take their toll on the battery, too. Our 20-minute playtime resulted in an 8% battery drain.

Solo Leveling: Arise

If you’re a fan of the breakout webtoon Solo Leveling, the recently launched action gacha game Solo Leveling: Arise probably needs no introduction. Developed by Netmarble, the game lets you experience the meteoric rise of series protagonist Sung Jin-Woo from beleaguered hunter to the all-powerful shadow monarch who saves the day. Arise stays faithful to the webtoon’s story, while also offering new scenes to flesh out the world and characters. It is available on both mobile and PC, and offers console-quality visuals and polish, much like Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail.

There’s a wrinkle in Solo Leveling: Arise’s performance on Xiaomi‘s POCO F6 Pro. While the unit effortlessly handles maxed-out graphics settings, battles remain stubbornly tethered to 30 fps even with the 60 fps option enabled. The lobby areas, however, showcase a glorious 60 fps, suggesting a software limitation rather than a hardware bottleneck. Here’s hoping a future update irons out this inconsistency and unlocks the full 60 fps potential for a truly seamless experience, particularly during combat sequences. On a more positive note, the game’s battery consumption seems extremely reasonable — 20 minutes of playtime only resulted in a 5% battery drain.

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, or simply MLBB, brings the thrills of competitive MOBAs to your smartphone. Engage in 15-minute matches where teamwork and strategy reign supreme. Choose from a growing roster of heroes, each with distinct abilities that fit into roles like tank, marksman, or mage. The core gameplay revolves around pushing lanes, battling enemies, and ultimately destroying the opposing team’s base.

MLBB isn’t as demanding as the other games on this list, but it can run at a much higher frame rate of 120 fps with maxed-out settings. The POCO F6 Pro is capable of such a feat, even when the action gets frenetic in Brawl mode. Two Brawl matches, clocking in at around 27 minutes, resulted in a 10% battery drain on our unit.

Better still, the POCO F6 Pro stayed admirably chill during our Mobile Legends session. Even after two games, the back of the device remained comfortable to the touch. This suggests the phone’s cooling system effectively dissipates heat, ensuring smooth performance without overheating concerns. This is a welcome bonus, especially considering the handset’s ability to push high frame rates in the game.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – The Definitive Edition

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – The Definitive Edition marks a curious entry on this list — a remaster of a mobile port of a beloved open-world classic. You once again step into the shoes of Carl “CJ” Johnson, a former gangster returning home to Los Santos after his mother’s murder. A web of gang warfare, corrupt cops, and family drama awaits CJ, propelling him on a journey to reclaim his life and take control of the streets.

As a “remaster of a remaster,” GTA: San Andreas – The Definitive Edition brings some improved visuals, with enhanced lighting effects, richer colors, and better character models, though the core gameplay experience remains faithful to the original. With all the visual effects enabled at full resolution, the game ran at a steady 30 fps on the POCO F6 Pro, only getting a little warm after more than 15 minutes of continuous playtime. Our entire session clocked in at 21 minutes and resulted in a 7% battery drain.

Final thoughts

The POCO F6 Pro emerges as a compelling option for mobile gamers on a budget. It effortlessly handles even the most graphically demanding titles like Honkai: Star Rail and Genshin Impact at high frame rates, albeit with some completely understandable tradeoffs in battery life if you crank up the graphics settings.

While keeping a charger nearby for extended sessions might be prudent, this POCO’s power never falters. For less demanding games like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, the phone shines even brighter, delivering super-smooth 120 fps gameplay with impressive thermal management. Overall, the POCO F6 Pro proves itself as a powerful and versatile gaming phone, offering flagship-level performance without the flagship price tag. To say that we highly recommend it to price-conscious users who are serious about mobile gaming would be an understatement. Well done, POCO!

In the Philippines, the base model of the smartphone with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage starts at an immensely reasonable P26,999, which translates to roughly $464 converted. Prices climb to P28,999 ($498) and P32,999 ($567) if you opt for the 12GB/512GB and 16GB/1TB configurations, respectively.

Philippine pricing and availability in summary

POCO F6 Pro specs

• 6.67-inch OLED flat display, 3,200 x 1,440 resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, 3,840Hz PWM high-frequency dimming, up to 4,000 nits peak brightness, 12-bit colors
• 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 5G chipset
• Adreno 740 GPU
• 12GB/16GB LPDDR5X RAM
• 256GB/512GB/1TB UFS 4.0 storage
• Triple 50-megapixel main, 8-megapixel ultrawide, 2-megapixel macro rear cameras
• 16-megapixel front camera
• Under-display fingerprint reader
• 5,000mAh battery with 120-watt fast wired charging
• Xiaomi HyperOS based on Android 14
• Color options: Black, White

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