Poco X8 Pro Max Review: Big battery, bigger bargain

Introduction

If it’s a tangible upgrade over last year’s smaller model you’re after, the Poco X8 Pro Max could be the answer. The chassis isn’t the only improvement over its dinkier sibling – performance sees a massive boost, too, making this one of the most powerful handsets at this very tempting price bracket.

Of course, to keep this in line with the Poco X-series price expectations, there are some noticeable differences between the Pro and the Pro Max – a few trade-offs to make the choice between form or function a little trickier. Let’s dig in.

Design

• iPhone-like appearance
• Comfortably rounded corners
• Clean metal look

Available in soft blue, deep black, and pleasing mint green styles, the Poco X8 Pro Max’s sublimely smooth, rounded matte metal frame has it looking like an older iPhone. In fact, it even dents just like the metal rim of an iPhone, with it taking the sort of tumble outside a Zara in Crete that a glass-backed iPhone could only dream of surviving.

In my case, it looks and feels a little too familiar, leading me to often mistake it for my typical daily driver; right down to the button placement on the right-hand side. It’s millimetres taller than said iPhone, too, making it shockingly befitting of its borrowed name.

On the flip side, don’t let the chamfered look of its fibreglass back panel fool you — the lines are just for show and aren’t etched into the material in any way. Though if you’re comparing this to the regular-sized Pro, we might as well call them speed lines. Underneath, you find much of what you’d expect: a USB-C port, a SIM tray, and a four-piece loudspeaker, with another loudspeaker on the opposite short end. That’s always a good sign.

Screen

• 120Hz “ultra-bright” AMOLED display
• 2772 x 1280 resolution
• super slim 94.27% screen-to-body ratio

Sporting a 6.83-inch display at 2772 x 1280 resolution, it feels wrong to call this a clear point of economic thinking. Sure, it’s “only” an AMOLED panel, but with virtually no bezel to speak of, it offers a wonderfully cinematic experience — though that would be a million times better if the smooth 120Hz display could scale down to 24Hz for accurate movie motion or 1Hz reading.

At least it has some tech to keep the gamers happy, like ultra-high polling for dependable swipes, and a reliable way to keep moisture from messing up your aim. That last one works well at the gym, too.

Thankfully, Dolby Vision credentials mean you’re still capable of getting a satisfying HDR performance. Its “M10 display” tech apparently allows the Poco X8 Pro Max to hit 3500nit peak brightness in the right conditions, and while it certainly doesn’t struggle outdoors, it’s worth noting this lofty feat can only cover 25% of the screen, leaving a fairly standard (but still impressive) 2500nit peak brightness rating to fend off the rest of that outdoor glare.

In practice, this all leads to a gorgeously colourful display that helps bring a little more life to a camera system that would otherwise look a tad dull without some tweaks.

More on that in a bit, but the takeaway is this: AMOLED tech is welcome to stick around if it keeps low/mid-range devices looking this good. Today’s anime-focused mobile games look brilliant on it, and even non-HDR streams pack a bold, beautiful punch. And though they’re positioned in a way that makes holding the phone without covering the grill a little difficult, the twin speakers on either side are fantastic at a moderate volume.

Performance

• Incredibly fast MediaTek Dimensity 9500s SoC
• Speedy UFS 4.1 storage
• 3nm process for energy efficiency

While the Poco F8 Pro is barely an 9% improvement over last year’s model, the Pro Max here is a whole other story. The MediaTek Dimensity 9500s, despite struggling to roll off the tongue like a simple Snapdragon revision, packs some serious power — and that Mali Immortalis-G925 MC11 GPU is incredibly competitive.

This chipset squeezes more than 900 more points out of the Poco X8 Pro in Geekbench 6, managing a single-core return of 2636. In the multi-core department, we’re looking at close to 1,800 points. In the GPU test? 19,928.

You could get a 20% uplift with the Vivo X300, but it would cost you more than four times as much. It scores higher than the Honor 600 Pro, too – an £899 device rocking the popular Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. It’s a staggering difference given the minimal price increase, proving you’re not just paying for a bit of extra screen real estate with this one.

Those point differences play straight into game performance, too. While many Android games lack unlocked frame rates, making testing a little tricky, what I can comfortably say is that it gleefully maxes out today’s boundary-breaking open-world gacha titles. And the odd AAA console port? Don’t sweat it.

3DMark’s Solar Bay – a demanding test of impressive lighting systems – climbs to 10,769, with its next-gen “Extreme” version skirting quadruple digits at 780. Turn back the clock to Wild Life Extreme, and its worst result (generally at the end of a 20-minute stress test) was still better than the Poco X8 Pro’s. Yes, performance does take a 43% hit over that period, but that’s nothing new.

In practice, this device flies. The manic arcade action of Zenless Zone Zero’s high-speed brawls never lost a frame below its Android-imposed 60fps, with the open-world anime cityscape romp Neverness to Everness fairing much the same. If you do happen to find a competitive shooter able to go higher than 60fps, there’s no doubt that the Poco X8 Pro Max will hit its higher cap.

Software and AI

• Google suite (including Gemini)
• On-device image expansion, generation, and writing prompts
• Five years of security updates

Like other Poco phones, the X8 Pro Max is disappointingly littered with app bloat. It’s far from the worst we’ve seen, but it’s obvious. Interestingly, it’s some big names rather than sketchy third-party suites sneaking in here: Amazon, LinkedIn, Spotify, and e-commerce like AliExpress and Temu.

At the very least, they’re easy to remove. Better yet, Xiaomi’s HyperOS fork of Android 16 has a very satisfying bubble pop uninstall animation, which makes deleting the fluff an oddly therapeutic couple of minutes. You really make it your own in that regard, but it’s a tad annoying that you have to do it at all. If it’s part of why this powerhouse is so affordable, so be it.

Ok, so what about the good stuff? The inclusion of some big tech apps also stretches to Google. The whole suite is here, with Chrome, Drive, YouTube, and the like pre-installed. That means the Poco X8 Pro Max can flex its strengths in AI applications like image extension, erasure, and adjustment, and also generate videos from still images. That last part is still a scary thought, but if it’s a welcome test of the tech you’re paying good money for, give it a go. 

Outside of Google Gemini’s handy bag of magic tricks, you’ll find these capabilities tucked away in the Xiaomi HyperAI banner in the Settings menu. Labelled as “AI App Boosts,” you’ll also find things like auto-translate/transcribe features, dynamic wallpapers, and writing prompts if you’re into that sort of thing. For gamers, slide Game Turbo out in the middle of a session, and you can put any extra performance headroom to good use with frame rate boosts and upscaling.

Camera

• 50MP main and 8MP ultrawide
• Great performance, but mainly in daylight
• No telephoto, but can digitally zoom

For a phone brand largely known for prioritising price and performance over its camera system, the Poco X8 Pro Max is still more than capable of snapping some solid shots in the right conditions. It isn’t going to be much use at night, but it’s more than good enough as a simple point-and-shoot everyday device. If you think you need an extra camera in your bag, you likely already have one. If you don’t, this is fine.

What’s interesting with the Poco X8 Pro Max is that while it, on paper, equips itself with the same camera system as the smaller Pro, there are some small differences. For the Pro Max, it swaps the Sony main lens of its sibling for a nondescript alternative. Whether that really affects the resulting shots is hard to gauge, but it could be a turn-off if you’re particular about your brands.

Even still, the 50MP rear shooter does a good enough job of capturing most moments, pulling plenty of detail into point-and-shoot photography. And while it’s without a telephoto option, snapping shots of animals at a national park isn’t out of the question – there’s just enough detail there to keep a punch-in looking good enough to peek back at once you’re home. The 8MP wide-angle does its job to sneak a few extra subjects into the frame or have close-ups looking a little less cramped without losing much in the way of detail, too.

With today’s photo albums largely a product of algorithmic magic, there’s reason to believe the powerful SoC puts those megapixels to good use. Snapping sequential shots is no problem at all, with snappy UFS 4.1 storage ensuring you’re always set to go again or quickly preview your last now-processed photo. Portrait mode on the pinhole selfie camera also manages a bokeh effect that isn’t overdone and does a frankly terrific job of avoiding an awful digital haze around a person or in-focus object. Well done, edge detection.

Battery

• 8,500mAh battery
• 100W fast charging
• 27W wired reverse charging

Another stand-out proposition of the Poco X8 Pro Max is its gargantuan battery. At 8500mAh, it borders on the capacity of a tablet more than twice its size and can easily go more than a day without a charge. And with 100W charging support, my fear that it would be considerably slower to juice up than its smaller sibling was hilariously proven wrong.

There’s just so much more to charge that the percentage increase over the same period just looks sluggish by comparison. Likewise, though the background drain issues of the smaller Pro model are still present here, they’re not nearly as noticeable.

Having a battery this size is obviously counteracted slightly by the more powerful chipset. Using a 3nm process could mean it’s more efficient, but the difference isn’t all that clear to see.

One highlight of this humongous cell, though, is that 27W wired reverse charging support. With so much power to spare, this really is like having a phone built into a battery bank. If your headphones need some juice on the go, keep a cable handy, and you’re probably set for anything life throws your way.

Should you buy it?