The X8 Pro Max, priced at Rs 44,999, is a significant departure from POCO’s X-series. It now commands a premium price while offering specifications that openly threaten expensive flagships.

Allow me to tell you everything you need to know about this device so you candeterminewhetherit’sright for you.

Design and Build Quality

The X8 Pro Max offersa solidbuild quality as it comes with an aluminum frame, a mattefibreglassback panel, and Corning Gorilla Glass 7i to protect the front. Further, it does an exceptional job of resisting fingerprint smudges. There are unique RGB LED rings around the camera lenses called ‘Backlight Effects’. You can configure it to make these rings flash rhythmically for incoming calls (you can even assign it to specific contacts), sync with music apps like Spotify or Apple Music, flash for app notifications, or act as a camera status indicator.

Specialized lighting integration is also present for games like PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty. However, unless the phone is placed face-down on a table, its utility issomewhat limitedas the lights face away from you. You might find it a bit heavy asit’s8.2mmthick and weighs 218 to 220 grams, but here is the pluspoint–thephone is almostflatand the matte edges provide a surprisingly secure grip. Andthat’snot all, as you get an extraordinary durability profile with IP66, IP68, and IP69K ratings. This means the phone can easily survive being dunked underwater or blasted by high-pressure water jets.

Display

The front screen has a 6.8-inch 1.5K AMOLED display with a screen-to-body ratio exceeding 94%. You get a 120Hz refresh rate (which only steps between 30Hz to 120Hz, rather than dropping all the way down to 1Hz like true premium flagships) and a peak brightness of 3,500 nits, which isjust finefor outdoor visibility. Thecoloursappear incredibly vibrant and punchy as this phone fully supports 12-bit color depth and Dolby Vision on streaming platforms like Netflix. I also liked the fact that it includes an aggressive 3,840Hz PWM dimming and certified low blue light technology to keepusersheadache-free. Surprisingly, I could not activate the Always-On Display (AOD) as it inexplicably fades out completely after 10 seconds.

Performance

Performance is where the X8 Pro Max makes a lot of sense. You get a MediaTekDimensity9500schipsetthat’spaired with up to 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and fast UFS 4.1 storage, and it makeseverydaymultitasking quite fluid. This device effortlessly holds a locked 60fps at maxed-out graphics for Wuthering Waves. Even on high graphics with super-resolution turned on, itmaintainsa solid 120fps for Call of Duty: Mobile. There is a 3DIceLoopcooling system andmassivevapor chamber in this phone, and they all do an exceptional job. Yes, the phone gets slightly warm near the camera bump during extended sessions but never becomes uncomfortable to hold. They should’ve added bypass charging to tackle this issue, as there are plenty ofphonescosting around 45k-50k that we have in the market offering bypass charging.

Battery Life

I think the batteryis its ultimate superpower, where you have a9,000mAh silicon-carbon battery giving me three days of normal to medium usage. I remember travelling to Chennai and charging this phone once I returned after two days. I even helped someone by charging her phone as this comes with 27 watts of reverse charging. You also have this 100WHyperChargeadapter that juices up this phone from 0% to 100% in less than90 minutes.Though it comes with reverse charging, there is no wireless charging capability.

Camera

This is the trade-off while delivering solid processing, a massive battery, and a flagship display under Rs 50,000. The rear camera setup consists of a 50MP main sensor (OIS, f/1.5) and an 8MP ultra-wide lens. There is no dedicated telephoto lens, meaning all zoom beyond 1x is digital. The 50MP main camera is good, and daytime photos feature natural colors that are crisp and not over-saturated. To my surprise, the 2x digital crop zoom outputs remarkably clean images with great noise management, and the 2x portrait mode handles edge-detection beautifully (even around complex areas like ponytails).