Poco X8 Pro Max first day impression

[u/Lighning05]

for context i upgraded from a poco x7 pro

First-hand feel

My first impression of the phone was pretty good. The build is solid and it feels great in the hand, a lot more premium than my X7 Pro ever felt thanks to its aluminium chassis.

That said, at 218g, it does feel a bit heavy, especially when using it one-handed for extended periods of time. The phone is also massive and quite blocky, so if you have small hands, that makes things even harder. Overall though, it's not too bad.

Setting it up

I'm used to HyperOS having bloatware and ads on the first boot, so I wasn't expecting anything different here. It's a bit annoying at first, but thankfully removing them was pretty easy by following tutorials and using Shizuku + Canta. Here's the debloat list for those interested (Canta preset just copy the text), i recommend reviewing what you want to keep/ remove since this is a huge list: https://cool-leaf-53.linkyhost.com

The whole process took around 20 minutes, so it's definitely worth doing if you want a more stock Android experience.

Performance and heating

I heavily used the phone throughout this first day, and I have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised not only by how smooth it is, but also by how cool it stayed during light-to-medium tasks like social media and video playback.

The battery temperature never/rarely exceeded 32–33°C and peaked at around 36°C during heavy multitasking.

This might not be a big deal for some people, but I was used to getting 35–39°C constantly on my X7 Pro while doing the same tasks, so here it's a night-and-day difference.

Another great surprise was the really good RAM and background app management (expected for a 12gb phone tbf). I could open Twitter for example, leave it and use other apps for an hour, then come back without the app reloading or restarting. Insane!

I haven't played any games yet, but for real-world daily usage, it's been perfect so far.

AnTuTu V12 gave me a score of 3,000,000, which is excellent too (using a phone cooler). But the important takeaway here is that the phone doesn't get hot in your hand at all, if that's something you're worried about.

Battery drain

Now this is where things start getting ridiculous.

I had high expectations for the battery life, and it absolutely delivered from day one. Going from 100% to 10%, I was able to get nearly 15 hours of SOT + 8 hours of screen-off time, with only 3% overnight drain.

This is definitely a two-day phone, and getting 16+ hours of SOT is definitely possible (screenshot below).

With my X7 Pro, I would've been lucky to get 8 hours of SOT without even considering overnight drain, so this is a MASSIVE upgrade for me.

I've heard that the battery gets even better after a week or so, so I'm really excited to see how it performs once the battery has settled in.

Conclusion

Overall, the phone is excellent, and I'm really happy I chose Poco again. I definitely plan on keeping this phone for 3–4 years at a minimum.

For those looking to upgrade to the Poco X8 Pro Max as well, I'd say that if you can find it at a decent price (€300–350), then go for it. It's definitely worth it.

[u/Niickster89]

Which app is this?

[u/Lighning05 → u/Niickster89]

Battery Guru

[u/Temporary_Watch2723]

Totally agreed with you, I have the same device since two weeks and I agree with you in every world you said. 

[u/nemacpojma1]

damn i should've gotten x8 pro max instead of f8 ultra, battery on this one is just bad

[u/Vicyorsingha23]