Review of the Poco C65: Good for the Price

The company’s most recent low-cost product in India is the Poco C65. It has three back cameras, a huge display, a massive battery, and a respectable set of specs. According to the business, Poco’s most recent C-series phone has a few firsts in the industry. The phone has some minor modifications, but otherwise, it is the same as the Redmi 13C 4G in terms of specs and design. After a week of testing, my thoughts on the new Poco C65 are as follows.

The Poco C65’s Indian pricing
In India, the basic Poco C65 model with 4GB RAM and 128GB storage costs Rs. 8,499. There are two additional variants of the phone available. The pricing of the 6GB RAM + 128GB storage option is Rs. 9,499, while the 8GB RAM + 256GB version is Rs. 10,999.

You may immediately save Rs. 1,000 on the Poco C65 when you pay using your ICICI Bank card. The phone is offered in Matte Black and Pastel Blue color choices for purchase on Flipkart. Along with the phone, the package also includes a 10W charger, a USB Type-A to Type-C connection, and a SIM ejector tool. Regretfully, the carton does not have a case.

Review of Poco C65: Design
Considerably impressive for a phone for under Rs. 10,000 (bank discounts included) is the Poco C65. With the exception of the front, the phone is made entirely of glass and metal, yet it still looks and feels good. I’ve been using the phone’s Pastel Blue model, which has a plastic frame and back. There are two design components on the back panel. The majority of it has a matte texture, while the top has a glossy, rectangular area that holds the LED flash, the triple camera arrangement, and the Poco logo.Poco C65 Reverse Poco-C65-Style

The phone is slick due to the smooth surface on the rear, but at least it doesn’t attract fingerprints. Although it is a large phone, its weight is hardly felt. There are 192 grams in the phone. The phone has substantial bezels around the display, which is protected by Gorilla Glass 3 on the front. The phone has an antiquated appearance due to the big bottom bezel.

Poco C65 Evaluation: Showcase
Poco’s new C-series phone comes with a big display. The 6.74-inch HD+ (720 x 1600 pixel) display on the Poco C65 has a refresh rate of 90 Hz. In my experience with the phone, the display is very viewable even in bright sunshine, so it’s not awful at all. By default, the phone is configured for auto-refresh, which alternates between 60 and 90 Hz depending on the content. Though the latter may drain the battery more, you can always adjust it to 60 or 90 Hz. The display has respectable viewing angles and a maximum brightness of 600 nits. The Poco C65 is a fun device for viewing videos, and it also receives L1 widevine certifications, allowing you to stream 1080p films from Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and other services. Additionally, the phone has flicker-free and TUV low blue light certifications, which contribute to a pleasant viewing experience.Poco-C65-display Poco-C65-front

Additionally, the Poco C65’s display provides options for Standard, Vivid, and Saturated color settings. In general, the phone’s display is rather good.

Poco C65 Review: Software The MIUI 14 skin, which is based on Android 13, is installed on the Poco C65 right out of the box. In the week that I’ve had the phone, I also got a software update that loaded the November Android security patch.

For a low-cost smartphone, Poco has offered up to two years of Android OS and three security upgrades.Poco C65 Program poco-c65-software

Although MIUI 14 has many more features than standard Android, it also has a large amount of bloatware. The Poco C65 packed a ton of pre-installed games and applications right out of the box. It’s wonderful that you can remove these applications from your phone if you decide you don’t want them there. Ads may sometimes appear, although they mostly take the shape of recommended apps. You are also prompted to enable the Glance lock screen during phone setup, which allows you to change the lock screen wallpaper each time you wish to unlock your phone. When you first open the app drawer, another keyboard appears. However, you may hide this keyboard so that it doesn’t attempt to suggest apps for you.

Poco C65 Evaluation: Capabilities
The Poco C65 has a passable performance. The MediaTek Helio G85 SoC, which powers the phone, is not a brand-new chipset. It seemed to lag a little when I used the phone. The slowness was noticeable while navigating between applications, scrolling through them, multitasking with many apps open in the background, and carrying out other regular actions.

On the Poco C65, Poco has combined the MediaTek SoC with up to 8GB of RAM. Additionally, you gain access to an extra 4GB of virtual RAM that is sourced from the internal storage. Since I didn’t believe it was necessary to evaluate the phone’s performance in regular usage, I didn’t run any benchmarks.

Can you use the Poco C65 to play games?
You certainly can. Nevertheless, in order to have a decent frame rate, you must lower the graphical settings in games like Asphalt 9 and BGMI. The game automatically adjusts the frame rate to High and the visuals to HD while using BGMI. With these settings, I was able to play the game without much latency, although sometimes I did. Touch sensitivity when gaming is acceptable since the phone’s touch sampling rate is 180 Hz. While playing resource-intensive games like Asphalt 9 and BGMI, the phone did grow warm.Poco C65 Video Games Poco-C65-Gaming

Playing games on the Poco C65 is perfectly OK, however when you play titles like BGMI, be prepared for some latency and subpar graphics performance. Additionally, I found that the phone heated up during resource-intensive conversations and games.

Review of the Poco C65: battery life
The 5,000mAh battery of the Poco C65 allows for up to 18W rapid charging. But the package only includes a 10W charger. The phone takes some time to completely charge using the included charger. The phone reached 22 percent after a 30-minute charge, and after an hour, it slowly increased to 44 percent. It took 2 hours and 32 minutes to charge fully. It might be wise to get an 18W charger.

With some gaming and camera usage, the Poco C65 comfortably lasted more over a day throughout my use of it. Maybe you could get two days of use out of it if you’re not a gamer.

Poco C65 Evaluation: Lenses
A main 50-megapixel sensor, a 2-megapixel macro camera, and a third AI depth camera for portrait shots make up the Poco C65’s triple AI rear camera configuration. An 8-megapixel camera is located under a waterdrop notch for taking selfies.Poco C65 Camera Poco-C65-Cameras Poco

With its intuitive design, the camera interface provides instant access to all of the primary picture and video modes. But the drop-down option conceals the Macro mode. In photo mode, you have the ability to choose several filters and enable HDR. Additionally, the phone’s 50-megapixel camera can capture images, however HDR is not supported. The Poco C65 has a 30 frames per second video resolution of either 720p or 1080p.

Even when I employed the maximum 50-megapixel setting, the main sensor’s picture and video quality for daytime shots had mediocre color and detail. I suppose for a phone that costs less than Rs. 10,000, the picture quality is adequate. Although there is a lot of noise when zooming in to 2x, the video clarity is still decent throughout the day. You receive autofocus but no optical or electronic picture stabilization.

Night vision from the main camera produces grainy, noisy images. Again, there is little benefit to selecting the 50-megapixel option. With the Poco C65, you can take better pictures in low light because to its Night mode. Compared to photos taken in the Photo mode, those taken in the Night mode catch more light and have less noise.

Additionally, a Macro mode that yields photographs with mediocre levels of detail is offered. Of the three back cameras, only the main 50-megapixel sensor and the secondary 2-megapixel macro sensor are functional. The purpose of the third camera is to gather depth data for portraiture. The smartphone can only zoom in at a ratio of 1x while taking portrait photos. While it isn’t ideal, having a specialized sensor for depth information helps with edge recognition. In a portrait, however, you may play about with the depth.

When it comes to selfies, the front camera produces good images. In addition to having adequate information, you also get a beauty mode. Time-lapse, portrait mode, and 1080p/30 frames per second video recording are supported by the front camera. Additionally, a flash function that draws light from the display is included. Once again, mediocre images and videos are to be expected from a phone in this price range.

What else is there to the Poco C65?
Both a headphone jack and a USB Type-C port are included in the Poco C65. In addition, the phone has dual-SIM compatibility, Bluetooth 5.3, 4G LTE, a microSD card slot, and dual-band Wi-Fi. Also included is a quick-responding fingerprint reader that is positioned on the side. There were a few times when my finger was not instantly recognized by the sensor. Occasionally, it takes many touches to function. Face Unlock is another feature that the phone enables, however, it’s not secure, so I wouldn’t suggest utilizing it.

There’s a single speaker at the bottom, which is respectable. It doesn’t have much bass, but it can get loud enough inside to be helpful. The haptic motor is powerful and the ear speaker is passable.

Poco C65 Evaluation: Conclusion
Yes, given the pricing, you should get the Poco C65, particularly if you are eligible for the immediate discount of Rs. 1,000. It has a large screen, a long-lasting battery, and respectable construction. The 50-megapixel back camera performs mediocrely throughout the day and poorly at night. Although there aren’t many phones in this price range with 5G capability, the phone does not. Give the Poco C65 a look if you’re looking for an inexpensive Android phone with a large display and a battery, but you’re not too concerned about performance or cameras.