Today we are reviewing another budget phone from the Poco family, the Poco C71. This phone, which was introduced and released in early April 2025, is trying to win the hearts of users on a limited budget with a series of interesting specifications such as a 120 Hz screen and a large 5200 mAh battery. Its price in the market is about $ 100 for the basic version. Now the question is, is this phone really worth buying and can it have something to say in the crowded market of budget phones? In this review, we are going to open the Poco C71 for you from garlic to onion.
Review of the design and build quality of the Xiaomi Poco C71 phone
First of all, let’s go to the unboxing. Inside the box you will find a 15-watt charger, a Type-C cable, a SIM card needle, a transparent protective case and its booklets. The presence of a case and charger in this price range is a positive point and prevents additional expenses. This approach from Poco is especially valuable for buyers on a budget, as they don’t have to pay extra for essential accessories right away. Measuring 171.8 x 77.8 x 8.3 mm and weighing 193 grams, the Poco C71 is a relatively large phone, but it’s not too heavy to hold thanks to its design and weight. Of course, if you have small hands, it might be a bit difficult to get used to at first. The body is made entirely of plastic, which is normal in this price range. The back panel has a matte texture that both helps with grip and reduces fingerprints. Poco offers the phone in three colors: Power Black, Cool Blue, and Desert Gold. The blue version has an attractive metallic two-tone finish that makes it look and feel like a more expensive phone. With these design choices, Poco has tried to convey a better feeling to the user, even in a budget phone, and show that a cheap phone does not necessarily have to look poor. The camera module design is also capsule-shaped and vertical, with two lenses (one of which is auxiliary and has more of an appearance than a specific function) and an LED flash. This camera module design style looks modern and is a departure from the monotony of old designs.
One of the positive points and perhaps a little surprising in this price range is the IP52 certification. This means that the Poco C71 is somewhat resistant to splashing water and dust penetration. Of course, not to take it to the pool with it, but if it suddenly rains or you spill a few drops of water on it, you will feel better. This level of resistance, although basic, is a bonus for a budget phone that usually does not benefit from such protection and increases the durability of the device in everyday use to some extent. There is no Gorilla Glass to protect the screen, so be sure to get a good glass for it because the screen is always exposed to scratches.
The power and volume buttons are located on the right side of the phone. The fingerprint sensor is also integrated with the power button and has good speed and accuracy. The bottom of the phone has a USB Type-C 2.0 port, a 3.5mm jack, and a microphone. The good news for fans of wired headphones is that the 3.5mm headphone jack is also present on the bottom of the phone. This means you don’t have to look for a dongle to listen to music with your old headphones or pay extra for wireless headphones. The SIM card slot is also on the left side and you can insert two nano SIM cards and a separate microSDXC memory card into it at the same time. This feature is very useful and important for users who need both two lines and want to increase the phone’s memory, because they don’t have to choose between a second SIM card and a memory card.
Poco C71 Display Features
📱
Poco C71 Display Features
Summary of key display specifications and performance
Feature
Specification
Rating
Display Size
6.88-inch IPS LCD
Excellent
Resolution
HD+ (720 × 1640 pixels)
Average
Pixel Density
~260 PPI (pixels may be visible on close inspection)
Average
Refresh Rate
120Hz adaptive refresh rate
Excellent
Touch Sampling
240Hz for better responsiveness
Excellent
Brightness
450 nits (normal), 600 nits (HBM mode)
Average
Color Reproduction
Acceptable for budget phone, not highly accurate
Average
Outdoor Visibility
Readable in shade, difficult in direct sunlight
Limited
Gaming Performance
Mali-G57 MP1 GPU can’t maintain 120fps in heavy games
Limited
Overall Experience
Smooth UI with 120Hz + Android Go
Good
Poco C71 Display Review
Now we come to one of the most attractive parts of the Poco C71, its display. A large 6.88-inch IPS LCD panel with HD+ resolution of 720 x 1640 pixels. The pixel density is also around 260 pixels per inch, which is not very high for this resolution and size, and if you look closely, you might be able to distinguish the pixels, but it is not very annoying in everyday use. The aspect ratio is also 20.5:9, and about 84.1% of the front panel is made up of the display. Choosing HD+ resolution for such a large display is a clear trade-off to achieve a 120Hz refresh rate in this price range. While the image smoothness improves, the image clarity and sharpness are reduced, which is a point that users should pay attention to before buying. The overall image quality and color reproduction are acceptable for a budget phone. The colors may not be very accurate and sharp, and for those who care about color accuracy, it may not be the best option, but for everyday use, browsing the web and watching cartoons, it will do the trick. You should keep your expectations within the price range of the phone; this display is not going to compete with the AMOLED panels of more expensive phones, but it offers satisfactory performance for common tasks. The maximum brightness of the screen reaches 450 nits in normal mode and 600 nits in maximum mode (HBM). This means that it is readable indoors and even outdoors in the shade. However, in direct sunlight, you may have a little trouble seeing the content. This brightness level is acceptable for a budget phone, but compared to mid-range phones that have higher brightness, it shows poor performance in very bright environments. And the Poco C71’s trump card: the 120 Hz refresh rate! This feature, usually found on more expensive phones, makes working with the phone, scrolling through web pages and social networks, and even UI animations seem much smoother and more enjoyable. The touch sampling rate is also 240 Hz, which helps with better responsiveness in games. Of course, this refresh rate is adaptive and increases to 120 Hz for supported apps. This high refresh rate, especially when combined with the lighter Android Go edition, can significantly improve the user experience and give the user a sense of speed, even if the hardware is not very powerful. However, it should be noted that the Mali-G57 MP1 GPU of this phone is not capable of consistently running games at 120 frames per second in most heavy titles, and this advantage is felt more in the user interface and lightweight apps.
Poco C71 Battery Review
One of the biggest strengths of the Poco C71 is its massive 5,200mAh battery. This battery can easily last up to a day and a half or even two days with normal use. Even with heavier use like gaming and watching videos, you can expect to get through a full day without needing to recharge. Poco claims that this battery is enough for 28 hours of talk time, 108 hours of music playback, or 20 hours of video playback. This excellent charging performance is a huge advantage, especially for users who do not have constant access to a charger or use the phone a lot. The Poco C71 supports 15W fast charging, and the charger is included in the box. However, given the high capacity of the battery, this charging speed is not very fast and you have to wait about 2 hours or even more to fully charge from zero to 100%. This is one of the phone’s weaknesses, especially if you are in a hurry. This means that if you forget to charge your phone at night, you won’t be able to fill up a large percentage of the battery in the morning with a quick charge of a few minutes.
The Poco C71 has a 32-megapixel main camera with an f/1.8 aperture. Next to it is an auxiliary lens that is most likely used for depth sensing and helping with portrait photos. The selfie camera is also 8-megapixel with an f/2.0 aperture. There is no mention of an ultrawide or proper macro lens, which of course, considering the price, you shouldn’t expect much. In fact, the number 32 megapixels may look good on paper, but the final quality of the photo depends more on the size of the sensor, the quality of the lens, and the image processing than just the number of megapixels.
In daylight and good lighting conditions, the Poco C71’s main camera captures acceptable photos. The details and colors are suitable for sharing on social networks and casual photography. The photos look bright and bright. But don’t expect a lot of detail or amazing dynamic range. Sometimes, photos can look a little blurry or out of focus, and colors can be dull. The camera’s performance in daylight seems to be mediocre at best, and you shouldn’t expect much from it.
Unfortunately, the camera’s performance in low light and at night is the Poco C71’s Achilles’ heel. Photos in these conditions are noisy, detail is lost, and colors are not very defined. Night Mode helps with brightness and detail to some extent, but it doesn’t work miracles and noise is still noticeable. Overall, if night photography is important to you, this phone will disappoint you. This weakness is probably due to the small sensor, not very wide aperture, and the not-so-powerful image processor of the Unisoc chip.
The 8-megapixel selfie camera is also mediocre. In good light, it takes acceptable selfies for social media and is sufficient for video calls. However, in low light, the quality of selfies also drops and the colors may not be natural or the photos may look washed out. There is also a software feature for better exposure of portraits (fill-light) and beautification of faces.
Both the main camera and the selfie camera can shoot videos in 1080p quality and 30 frames per second. The quality of the videos is average for this price range. Unfortunately, there is no optical image stabilization (OIS). In terms of software, the Poco C71 camera offers various modes such as HDR, portrait, night mode, time-lapse, short movie and cinematic filters. Another interesting feature is the ability to add a customizable watermark to photos. These software features try to cover up the camera’s hardware weaknesses to some extent.
Hardware Performance of the Poco C71
The beating heart of the Poco C71 is the Unisoc T7250 chip, which is built with a 12-nanometer architecture. This octa-core processor includes two Cortex-A75 cores with a frequency of 1.8 GHz for heavier tasks and six Cortex-A55 cores with a frequency of 1.6 GHz for lighter tasks and more efficient consumption. Its graphics processor is the Mali-G57 MP1. Poco claims that the performance of this processor has improved by 83% compared to the previous generation (Poco C61). Overall, it offers smooth and lag-free performance for everyday tasks such as chatting, web browsing, using social networks, and watching videos. But don’t expect it to run very heavy games with high graphics. This processor is quite sufficient for users who do not use the phone heavily and professionally and meets their daily needs well. The Poco C71 is available in several RAM and memory configurations: 3 GB of RAM with 64 GB of memory, 4 GB of RAM with 64/128 GB of memory and 6 GB of RAM with 128 GB of internal memory. The RAM type is LPDDR4X and the internal memory type is eMMC 5.1. The eMMC 5.1 memory is not as fast as the UFS memories used in more expensive phones, so you may feel a little slow in loading apps and games. This type of memory is one of the parts that Poco has saved on to reduce the final price. Fortunately, it also has a dedicated microSDXC memory card slot and you can add up to 2 TB of memory to it. There is also the ability to increase the virtual RAM up to 6 GB (depending on the original RAM version).
In the AnTuTu benchmark (version 10), the Poco C71 scored between 260,000 and 307,000. In Geekbench, it also scored a single-core score of around 440 and a multi-core score of around 1481. These scores are acceptable for a budget phone and show that it can handle everyday tasks well, but it has nothing to say when competing with the mid-range. These numbers clearly show the Poco C71’s position in the budget phone market: a work phone, not a speed monster. If you are into light and casual games, the Poco C71 will run your cartoon and you can play with a decent frame rate (for example, 60 frames in light games like Mobile Legends). But for heavy and graphic games like Call of Duty Mobile or PUBG, you should set the graphics settings to low or medium for a smoother experience. This phone is not made for professional gamers at all, and if you are looking for high gaming performance, you will have to spend more. In fact, the 120Hz refresh rate of the display is more useful for making the user interface and web browsing smoother than for heavy games, because the GPU is not capable of producing high frame rates in these games. Software performance of the Xiaomi Poco c71 phone The Poco C71 comes with Android 15, but the Go Edition, out of the box. On top of this Android Go, Xiaomi’s HyperOS shell is also installed. Android Go is a lighter version of Android that is optimized for phones with weaker hardware to have smoother performance. HyperOS has also tried to add Xiaomi’s appearance and features to this mix. This software mix is an attempt to provide Xiaomi’s familiar user experience on hardware that is not built for heavier versions of Android. The user experience is smooth for everyday tasks, thanks to Android Go and Poco’s optimizations. HyperOS also adds a number of customization and appearance features. However, it should be noted that Android Go also has some limitations. For example, not all apps may be available in the Go edition, or some of the more heavy-duty HyperOS features that we see on Xiaomi’s more powerful phones may be absent here.
Poco has promised that the C71 will receive two years of major Android updates (up to Android 17) and four years of security updates. This is a good and acceptable software support for a budget phone, and you can rest assured that it will be up to date for a few years. Unfortunately, like many other budget phones, the Poco C71 also comes with a number of pre-installed apps, or bloatware. The good news is that most of these apps can be removed to avoid taking up space on your phone. Although annoying, this issue is somewhat manageable with the ability to remove it. Speaker quality Unfortunately, the Poco C71 only has a mono speaker. The sound quality and volume are average for a budget phone and it gets the job done, but don’t expect very loud, clear, high-quality sound or deep bass from it. It’s better to use headphones for watching videos or listening to music in crowded environments. This is one of the areas where Poco has cut corners to cut costs.
Poco C71 Performance & Features
📱
Poco C71 Performance & Features
Complete summary of specifications and performance metrics
83% improvement over previous generation (Poco C61)
Excellent
Daily Usage
Smooth for chatting, browsing, social media, video streaming
Good
Gaming Performance
Good for light games (60fps in Mobile Legends), struggles with heavy games (CoD Mobile, PUBG)
Average
Speaker
Mono speaker with average quality and volume, lacks bass
Limited
Benchmark Scores
260K-307K
AnTuTu v10
~440
Geekbench Single-Core
~1481
Geekbench Multi-Core
Feature
Specification
Rating
RAM Configurations
3GB+64GB, 4GB+64GB, 4GB+128GB, 6GB+128GB
Good
RAM Type
LPDDR4X
Good
Storage Type
eMMC 5.1 (slower than UFS in premium phones)
Average
Expandable Storage
Dedicated microSDXC slot (up to 2TB)
Excellent
Virtual RAM
Up to 6GB (depending on original RAM version)
Good
Processor Architecture
12nm fabrication process with octa-core design: 2 powerful cores for heavy tasks and 6 efficient cores for light tasks and battery saving.
Gaming Capability
Good for casual gaming but not suitable for heavy gaming. The Mali-G57 MP1 GPU cannot maintain high frame rates in demanding games.
Audio Quality
Single mono speaker with average quality. Recommended to use headphones for better audio experience during media consumption.
Feature
Specification
Rating
Operating System
Android 15 Go Edition with HyperOS
Good
Android Version
Optimized Go Edition for smoother performance on budget hardware
Good
UI/UX
HyperOS provides Xiaomi’s familiar interface with customization options
Good
Update Policy
2 years major Android updates + 4 years security updates
Excellent
Pre-installed Apps
Includes some bloatware, but most can be uninstalled
Average
Software Limitations
Some apps and HyperOS features may be missing in Go Edition
Average
Software Experience
Android Go Edition ensures smooth performance on budget hardware while HyperOS adds Xiaomi’s signature features and customization.
Update Support
Excellent update policy for a budget phone with promised updates up to Android 17 and security support until 2028.
Pre-installed Apps
Comes with some bloatware but offers the ability to uninstall most of them, which is better than many competitors.
Should we buy the Poco C71 or not?
Well, we have come to the end of our review of Xiaomi’s Poco C71. The Poco C71 has some important strengths, but also some weaknesses that cannot be ignored. This phone is actually trying to make a place for itself in the budget phone market by focusing on a few key features, such as a smooth display and a large battery. In the budget phone market, there are many competitors for the Poco C71. Phones like the Redmi A5 (which is actually a rebranded version of the C71), the Realme C55, and the Samsung Galaxy A05s are among its competitors. Each of these has its own strengths and weaknesses. For example, the Samsung A05s may have a better Snapdragon processor or the Redmis sometimes perform better in the camera department. Choosing between these phones depends on your priorities and the budget you have set aside. The Poco C71 is a budget phone that has tried to set itself apart from the rest with a few attractive features, such as a 120Hz display and a strong battery. If you are looking for a phone for everyday tasks, web browsing, social networking and watching videos, and a bright display and long-lasting battery are your priorities, and on the other hand, camera performance and charging speed are not very important to you, the Poco C71 can be a good option at a good price. It can be a good choice especially for students, college students or those who are buying their first smartphone. But if you are a gamer or mobile photography is very important to you, it is better to look at other options. We hope this full review of the Poco C71 was useful for you. Let us know what you think about this phone!
