It’s been almost two months since POCO Philippines released their new budget smartphone, the POCO C65, and I’m going to share with you our insights on this phone because I’ve been testing it for a few weeks now.
Display and Multimedia
Let’s start with its display which is a bit in the middle for me because it has a 6.74-inch display with only HD+ resolution. The good thing about it, as we said in our unboxing, is that it has a 90Hz refresh rate.
The only thing I don’t like about its display is the large bezels. But because this phone is so cheap, we have nothing to complain about. It is still fine for multimedia use because it is sharp and the colors it produces are also okay. Its display is also very clear even when I’m outdoors because its max brightness is 600nits.
The screen of this POCO C65 has Corning Gorilla Glass protection and its aspect ratio is 20:9, so it’s quite wide. So far, I’ve enjoyed using it and it’s perfect for browsing and gaming because apart from the beautiful color it produces, the experience here is smooth thanks to its 90Hz screen refresh rate feature.
It’s just that, the quality of its stereo speaker is not so good and its sound is a bit cheap. But the good thing is that it has a 3.5mm headphone jack so you can use earphones or speakers when you want to play it.
Camera
I was a little surprised by its camera because I didn’t expect the image quality I could get here to be good, especially in its 8MP selfie shooter. In terms of colors, for me, it’s not that saturated so the color is not very lively. I also liked its HDR because I’ve only seen a budget phone that handles the dynamic range decently.
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Its Night mode is a bit overwhelming because the shadows and highlights are not balanced, so the ending seems to overexpose the other part of the picture. But among the phones around 5,000 Pesos that I have tried, I think, this one has the best Night mode.
As for the video, the quality is fine, it seems to be usable. Just take note that it doesn’t have stabilization so the video you get is a little shaky. These are our sample photos and videos:
Overall, the pictures you can get here are sharp, especially if you are in good lighting conditions. For a phone that is only around 5-6K, its image quality is really good. But also consider its video quality, if you need stabilization, this phone is not for you.
Performance
I was also a little surprised by the performance I got here on the POCO C65 because of all the phones with the Helio G85 chipset that I’ve tested, this one has the smoothest and most stable experience, so kudos to MIUI 14. The one we have is the 6GB/128GB variant and so far, the performance we get here is enough.
Although to be honest, the Helio G85 is a bit behind today, especially since apps and games are getting high hardware requirements. But if you can stretch your budget, I suggest you buy only the 8GB/256GB for a smoother experience.
As for gaming, I tried to play Mobile Legends: Bang Bang here and Call of Duty: Mobile, and the experience was fine. Since it’s a Helio G85, expect some lags and frame drops, so this phone is only recommended for light gaming.
The benchmark scores we got here are also good because it got 270,945 scores in the AnTuTu Benchmark and 9248 scores in PCMark Work 3.0.
Battery
After almost a month of testing this phone, it offers a good battery life in my opinion. It got 12 hours and 52 minutes in the Work 3.0 battery life benchmark in PCMark, which is longer compared to the OPPO A18 and OPPO A58 which also have Helio G85. Maybe that’s why it takes a long time to drain its battery because its screen resolution is HD only.
However, POCO’s trade-off here is the included charging adapter because it only comes with a 10w adapter which is considered slow. But it supports 18w PD charging, so I said previously that if you already have 18w in there, it’s better because it takes too long to charge when you only use the 10w adapter. It takes almost 2 hours before it is fully charged.
Conclusion
This POCO C65 is one of the cheapest phones I have reviewed this year that I can recommend to you because for me the specs and features that you can get here are worth it in your budget of around PHP 5K. It also has a Helio G85 chipset that still has decent performance. Its camera is also good so you won’t regret buying it or giving it as a gift this holiday season. You just need to consider its downsides like it only includes a 10w charging adapter and its screen resolution is only HD+.
POCO C65 Specifications
- Display: 6.74-inch IPS LCD, HD+ 1600 x 720 resolution, 260 PPI
- CPU: 2.0GHz 12nm MediaTek Helio G85 octa-core processor
- GPU: Mali-G52 MC2
- RAM: 6GB, 8GB + Up to 6GB Virtual RAM
- ROM: 128GB, 256GB
- Rear Camera: 50MP + 2MP Macro + 0.08MP auxiliary lens + LED flash
- Front Camera: 8MP
- Battery: 5,000mAh, 18W PD charging
- OS: MIUI 14, Android 13
- Connectivity: 2.4GHz & 5GHz WiFi, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.2, GPS, dual SIM (nano), NFC
- Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic
- Colors: Blue, Black
- Others: side-mounted fingerprint sensor, face unlock, USB-C, DC dimming
Price and Availability
- 6GB/128GB – PHP 5,499 | Shopee link
- 8GB/256GB – PHP 6,499 | Shopee link
You can now buy the POCO C65 in the official global store of POCO on Shopee with a price starting at PHP 5,499.
