Xiaomi Poco F3 5G 256GB/8GB RAM

Relatively cheap top spec phone – This is a great phone, great rival to the flagship phones for a half of the price. The performance is excellent, the amount of RAM and storage is just great. So far everything works without issues. Supports two SIMs, and allows to specify through which SIM data will go. Even can set individual rules for the programs. NFC and Google Pay work… Read more

without issues here in Australia.

The camera is fast, quality is good, yet not very convenient for switching between normal and ultra-wide modes. Yes, ultra-wide camera is present.

Infra-red blaster is present, but unfortunately my TV (Hisense 50K220PW) doesn't exist in MiRemote database so can't confirm if it works or not. Tried to use a few of remotes from Google Play store - all crap heavily riddled with ads to the point of being completely unusable.

MIUI launcher is pathetic, but it can be replaced with a third-party launcher. I am using Nova Launcher Prime instead and did not encounter any problems so far. Everything just works.

Xiaomi tries to lure the user into using its own software like MiCloud or sign up to Mi account, but fortunately all of this can be disabled/refused/hidden/deleted and will not cause any problems.

The standard software from Xiaomi is riddled with ads. When I realized this, I was about to return the phone back as I was not forewarned about this dodgy practice. I did not even think that such things could exist. It was said that this way they are trying to keep their price lower. Fortunately, after watching some manuals on YouTube and some non-trivial manipulations with different apps I managed to disable all of them. Remember, Xiaomi replacement word for "ads" is "recommendations".

No locked out features, yet there is some amount of undeletable bloatware, which again fortunately can be disabled and hidden.

5G. Haven't tried yet as I don't have access to 5G.

The battery leaves mixed feelings. Overall, after a couple of weeks of usage, with all software loaded and being used actively the average life time (as calculated by AccuBattery) is the following: screen on - 11.5 hours, screen off - 74 hours, combined usage - 34 hours, which is not bad. If the smartphone is not touched it stays in deep sleep for about 80% of screen off time and sometimes up to 95%. Also, the phone has an ability to power off and then power off by schedule. At the same time the advertised capacity of the battery is 4520mAh, while after a number of charges AccuBattery shows that the actual capacity is about 4400mAh. Not a big difference, yet all new phones I used previously were usually slightly above the designed capacity.

UPDATE: as of 10 months passed AccuBattery gained a lot of information about the battery health and capacity decrease. The forecast is ~7%/year, which is not fine. All Samsung phones I ever had have much better batteries where the capacity decline is about 2-3% year. This means than the capacity drop to the point of what can be considered a technical failure is 3 years.

Stereo speakers on the top and the bottom sides of the phone. Can't praise them for great sound, but I never use them anyway so nothing to complain about. At the same time there is no standard 3.5mm audio jack so you will have to use USB->audio adapter shipped with the phone. This actually turns into a problem when you want to charge the phone and listen to the music or watch a video at the same time.

The fingerprint sensor is on the phone edge. It is fast and precise, no questions. However, it turned out that the concept of having a fingerprint sensor on the edge comparing with a location on a back panel, like in LG G5, is horrible.

Let me explain the difference. With a sensor on the back panel, when you intend to use the phone you pick it up by any hand. Your pointing finger naturally gets on the sensor and unlocks the phone. And what is most important, this grip is completely different from a situation when you want to pick-up the phone from a table, or put it into a pocket. With the sensor on the edge there is a frequent problem with false negatives and false positives.

If you pick up the phone without an intent of actually using it, just because you want to take the phone with you, there is a fair chance that you will accidentally touch the sensor with a part of your finger that is not the fingerprint memory. The phone will vibrate, will think that there are too many false fingerprints scanned, and occasionally will ask you to enter PIN "cause too many failed unlock attempts".

The opposite case is when you put the phone in your pocket and accidentally touch it with your fingertip. The phone gets unlocked and keeps getting commands further from unintended hip touches, even through the fabric. Once I found that such unwanted "activity" caused an SMS messaging program to start and "typed" in some garbage ready to be sent to one of the recipients. Fortunately, the message wasn't sent.

None of this happens with the fingerprint sensor on the back panel.

UPDATE: These false unlocks pose a problem. You put the phone into the pocket, it gets unlocked as it slides into the pocket, and starts living on its own - starting apps, doing various random stuff, playing music, once it made a call to a random person from the contact list.

The phone is not water resistant. It is splash resistant, which means that it will not die immediately if a couple of drops fall on it, but nothing more. So just don't drop it into water and don't leave it under the rain.

The phone is not equipped with wireless charge, yet the standard phone charger charges battery to 100% in less than an hour.

The phone includes a transparent soft protective case. It is pretty convenient and even protects phone edges. However, the camera module is barely protected. An unfortunate landing on the camera module will damage it as the soft protector is just a little bit over the camera, less than 1mm.