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Poco announces its independence with the Poco M3 reveal

Poco has just unveiled its newest entry-level smartphone, the Poco M3. The company also took this opportunity to announce that it would be parting ways with Xiaomi and establishing itself as an independent brand.

The Poco M3 is a budget smartphone that packs a triple camera, 6,000 mAh battery and Full HD+ display.

The phone is the first in Poco’s M-series, offering an entry-level alternative to “young entertainment-on-the-move enthusiasts” who don’t want to spend more on the brand’s mid-range X-series or flagship F-series.

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The M3 comes in three vibrant colours: Cool Blue, Poco Yellow and Power Black. It features a side fingerprint scanner to unlock the phone and weighs just 198g. It has an edge-to-edge 6.53-inch FHD+ display with a 2340 x 1080 resolution and the screen is made from Corning Gorilla Glass to protect it against drops and scratches.

There’s a dot drop notch where the 8MP selfie camera lives, along with a triple camera layout on the rear. This includes a 48MP main camera, a 2MP macro camera and a 2MP depth sensor.

Other camera features include movie frame, which gives footage a cinematic look, time-lapse to capture unique scenes, colour focus to make specific tones pop, and night mode to boost colour contrast in low-light environments.

The phone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 chipset, along with the Adreno 610 GPU for hopefully smooth gaming and video. It also includes a dual speaker system to boost audio when watching content and playing games.

The M3 boasts a huge 6,000 mAh battery, which Poco claims will last over five days with light usage, just under three days with moderate usage and one and a half days under heavy usage. The battery also supports 18W fast charge, along with reverse wired charging.

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The M3 is also Poco’s first phone as an independent brand. The company announced its split from Xiaomi today after debuting its first device, the Poco F1, under the company back in 2018.

“The POCO philosophy embodies an attitude we all strive for – to be different and confident”, said head of Poco Global Kevin Qiu. “As a newly-established independent brand, we’re looking forward to continuing to deliver technology that matters in an ever-evolving world”.

The 4GB/64GB version of the M3 is priced at €149, while the 4GB/128GB option costs just €169. Poco has yet to confirm UK pricing or a release date, but this works out at about £132 to £150 depending on how much storage you opt for.

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