Poco X8 Pro Max review: Minimum spend, maximum speed

Best Prices Today: Xiaomi Poco X8 Pro Max

Poco’s X-series phones have always offered top-notch performance at bargain prices. Typically, we see a standard model and a Pro model each year, but with the X8 series, things are different. This year, there’s the X8 Pro, and the X8 Pro Max. Currently, there doesn’t seem to be a standard X8, but maybe that will arrive later.

This is the first Poco phone from Xiaomi to don the very Apple-esque Pro Max moniker, and I have been using it as my main phone for the past week. On paper, it’s a very impressive phone, at a very reasonable price.

It boasts a mammoth 8500mAh battery, 100W charging, a flagship-level Dimensity 9500s chipset, and a premium build with an aluminium frame and a glass back. And it comes in at a price cheaper than the Google Pixel 10a, Nothing (4a) Pro and Samsung Galaxy A57.

But what’s it like to live with? Let’s find out.

Design & Build

• Aluminium frame, glass back
• RGB LED rings around the cameras
• IP69 rated

The Poco X8 Pro Max has fairly understated looks, especially for a gaming-focused device. At a glance, you could almost mistake it for the base model iPhone 17, as it has a similar shape and camera layout. But there’s a hidden feature that makes this phone stand out from the crowd.

It sports an aluminium frame and glass back, just like you’d expect from a top-tier flagship.

There are RGB LED rings around each of the camera lenses, which can be set to illuminate with your phone notifications, pulsate along with media playback, or react to in-game events. Although the latter feature is only currently supported by PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty.

They’re not the brightest or flashiest LEDs we’ve come across, but they make enough of a statement to turn some heads. They also serve to inject some excitement into an otherwise fairly plain-looking phone. Turn the phone sideways and they give the phone a cute robot vibe.

Otherwise, the phone features a matte rear panel with a subtle striped design that appears when the light hits it. The camera island has an aluminium finish, which matches the frame of the phone, and the power button has a subtle red ring around its edge.

The X8 Pro Max has a surprisingly premium build, considering its price point. It sports an aluminium frame and glass back, just like you’d expect from a top-tier flagship. It’s a touch of luxury at this price, where most handsets are plastic slabs.

It comes in black, blue and white colours with the latter tested here.

The phone features the usual power button and volume rocker combination, with no additional buttons. All you’ll find here is a SIM card tray and USB-C port. Some gamers will be sore about the lack of a headphone jack, but I’m certainly not skilled enough for the latency of wireless buds to matter.

The Poco X8 Pro Max boasts the highest possible IP rating, IP69K, which means it’s certified to withstand full immersion in water, as well as blasts from jets of hot water. You can take this thing anywhere without being too concerned.

An exciting addition with this model is the new ultrasonic under-display fingerprint scanner. It’s a true rarity at this price, and it’s so much quicker and more reliable than the typical optical scanner.

Screen & Speakers

• 6.83-inch 120Hz OLED panel
• 3500 nits, 3840Hz PWM dimming
• Stereo speakers

As the name might suggest, the Poco X8 Pro Max has similar screen dimensions to the iPhone 17 Pro Max. It’s slightly smaller, but it also doesn’t have that massive pill-shaped camera cutout at the top, so I guess it evens out.

It’s a lovely screen, with deep blacks and vibrant colours

It’s an OLED panel with a speedy 120Hz refresh rate and 3840Hz PWM dimming, which should help reduce eye fatigue. It’s plenty bright, boosting up to 3500 nits in certain conditions, and I never had trouble seeing it in the sunlight.

It’s a lovely screen, with deep blacks and vibrant colours that look excellent straight out of the box. If you fancy tweaking the colour reproduction, though, there are plenty of options to mess around with in the settings menu.

The speakers are also very impressive. There’s a decent amount of bass and plenty of clarity, and they can get super loud.

These speakers easily rival some flagship devices, but I’d advise against maxing out the volume, as they begin to distort at the upper end.

Specs & Performance

• MediaTek Dimensity 9500s
• 12GB RAM
• 256/512GB storage

The Poco X8 Pro Max is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 9500s. Which is similar to the flagship Dimensity 9500 (found in phones like the Oppo Find X9 Pro), but it’s a slightly cut-back version that might not achieve the same lofty benchmark scores. 

On the other hand, this version is said to be more efficient, which results in better stability during long gaming sessions, lower temperatures, and better battery life. It’s still very much a flagship-level chip in a mid-range phone and a new one at that, having launched in January 2026.

My test unit came with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, which is the higher-tier option, while the base model comes with 256GB of storage. In either case, these are generous capacities that shouldn’t hold you back too much.

there’s plenty of power on tap

In use, the difference between the Dimensity 9500s and the full-fat 9500 feels minimal. Swiping around the OS is smooth and stutter-free, apps open quickly, and there’s plenty of power on tap for photo and video editing, gaming, and pretty much anything else.

I put a few hours into Wuthering Waves, a graphically impressive Android title that’s notorious for being hard to run. The Poco X8 Pro Max handled it with finesse, maintaining a pretty solid 60fps on the highest graphics preset. The phone got warm after a while, but it never became uncomfortable to hold.

Poco X8 Pro Max benchmarks

Cameras

• 50 Mp f/1.5 main camera (1/1.95-inch)
• 8Mp f/2.2 ultrawide
• 20Mp f/2.2 selfie camera

The Poco X8 Pro Max has two cameras on the rear, a respectable 50Mp main camera with a 1/1.95-inch sensor, and a somewhat less impressive 8Mp ultrawide with a tiny 1/4-inch sensor. Around the front, there’s a 20Mp punch hole selfie camera.

These snappers won’t appease discerning photographers, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t take great photos.

Clearly, Poco is more focused on the performance of this device, rather than chasing camera specs. These snappers won’t appease discerning photographers, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t take great photos.

The main camera is the star of the show. It produces the best-looking images in all lighting conditions, but that’s especially true at night. If you want Instagram-worthy pictures, it’s your best bet.

The selfie camera is decent, too, and solid portrait mode effects add to the appeal. Keep in mind there’s no autofocus, though, so if you’re taking a group photo, you’ll be better off using the rear camera.

The ultrawide is useful when the light is on your side, but it’s a noticeable step down in quality compared to the other lenses, and it has a fixed focus, so it’s no good for close-ups. At night, you’ll want to avoid this as much as possible, as the tiny sensor creates noisy, blur-prone images.

The biggest downside of this camera system, compared to rivals like the Nothing Phone (4a), is that there’s no telephoto camera. If you’re zooming, you’ll just be cropping into the 23mm equivalent main sensor, and as a result, you can only push to 10x – while some rivals zoom ten times further.

When it comes to video, the Poco X8 Pro Max can shoot at up to 4K 60fps on the main camera, while the ultrawide maxes out at 1080p 30fps, and the selfie camera goes to 1080p 60fps.

Stabilisation is fairly decent across the board, but the resolution discrepancy means switching lenses while recording isn’t always possible.

Battery Life & Charging

• 8500mAh battery
• 100W wired charging
• 27W reverse wired charging

One of the most impressive aspects of the Poco X8 Pro Max is the battery. It features a mammoth 8500mAh pack, and it outlasts almost every other smartphone I have tested. I’ve been using it for a week, running some pretty demanding tests, and I’ve still only needed to charge it twice.

To be more specific, when using the phone as I normally would, I charged the phone at 5pm on Wednesday, and I didn’t need to charge it again until about midnight on Friday. That’s well over two days of use. Impressive stuff!

A result of 21 hours and 53 minutes in our usual PCMark battery test is very respectable indeed.

It doesn’t stop there, either. When you eventually need to charge this phone, you won’t be waiting around for long. It supports up to 100W speeds, which should get you to around 60% charged in just half an hour, despite the gigantic capacity.

it outlasts almost every other smartphone I have tested

There’s no charger included in the box, but I was pleased to learn that you can get 100W speeds from compatible PPS chargers, not just Xiaomi’s first-party solutions. This meant it was able to pull 100W from my Sharge HyperTower power bank, for example.

With this method, despite the huge cell, I saw it charge 59% in 30 minutes.

Another neat feature is the ability to reverse-charge other devices at up to 27W (with a wire). It’s great for topping up your earbuds, and with a battery this large, it’s a feature you might actually start using.

There’s no wireless charging available, but that’s nothing unusual on a mid-range handset like this one. Look to the Pixel 10a if this is a dealbreaker.

Software & App

• HyperOS 3, based on Android 16
• Comprehensive gaming features
• 4 years of OS updates, 6 years of security patches

The Poco X8 Pro Max runs HyperOS 3, Xiaomi’s custom software built on top of Android 16. If you’ve used a recent Xiaomi or Poco phone, you’ll have a good idea of what to expect.

While these choices might not be the most original, they look great

The latest version has more iOS-inspired elements than ever before. HyperOS has its own version of Dynamic Island, called Hyper Island, and new lock screen options include depth effects and the ever-popular massive clocks.

While these choices might not be the most original, they look great, and the Hyper Island is genuinely useful. So, I’m all for it. 

For the most part, my experience of Hyper OS on the Poco X8 Pro Max was almost identical to Xiaomi’s flagship devices, like the Xiaomi 17. The only major difference is the amount of bloatware that comes pre-loaded.

There’s a fair bit of junk to clean up when you first set up the Poco X8 Pro Max, including folders full of recommended apps and games on the homescreen. It doesn’t take too long to clean it all up, and it’s nothing unusual at this price point, but it’s still an annoyance.

Most importantly, I found the software to be smooth, stable, and easy to live with. It’s super customisable, too, so if you don’t like the way something looks, you can almost certainly change it.

Poco promises four years of OS updates and six years of security patches for this phone. It’s a decent offering, outshining a lot of similarly priced phones, but it doesn’t match the likes of Samsung and Google, which offer seven years of OS upgrades on their A-series phones.

Price & Availability

The Poco X8 Pro Max is priced from £469 in the UK, with the 512GB model rising to £519. That’s the priciest X-series model we’ve seen from Poco so far, but it’s not the whole story. 

Currently, the Poco X8 Pro Max can be had for just £359/€429 on Xiaomi’s website. Meanwhile, the 512GB variant will cost you just £399/€469. How long these early-bird massive discounts will last remains to be seen.

It’s available to buy now in the UK and Europe, as well as most other regions globally, but as usual, the US doesn’t get a look in. You can find it at Amazon a

The pricing puts it in competition with phones like Nothing Phone (4a) and the Samsung Galaxy A37, but the X8 Pro Max has advantages over either of those (and some flagships, too). The base model gives you 256GB of storage, rather than 128GB, and it’s much more powerful, too.

Check out our list of the best mid-range phones right now.

Should you buy the Poco X8 Pro Max?

The Poco X8 Pro Max is tremendously good value. If you’re looking for a device that can game with the best of them, at a price that won’t break the bank, look no further.

I’m really impressed with the build quality and the LEDs around the cameras give it personality. The glass back and aluminium sides make this device feel like a flagship phone, when in reality, it’s less than half the price. The battery life is astounding, too. It’s easily a two-day device, and it charges super quick when you eventually manage to run it down.

It’s really only the cameras that fail to impress. They’re not awful, but the weak ultrawide camera and the lack of a telephoto mean that this phone lags a bit behind its competitors.

If photography isn’t a huge priority, but gaming is, you’ll love this phone. It’s a powerful performer at a price that’s hard to beat.

Specs

• HyperOS 3, based on Android 16
• 6.83-inch, 1280 x 2772, OLED, 120Hz
• Ultrasonic fingerprint sensor
• Mediatek Dimensity 9500s
• 12GB RAM
• 256/512GB storage
• 50Mp main camera
• 8Mp ultrawide
• 20Mp selfie camera
• Up to 4K @ 60fps rear video
• Stereo speakers (Dolby Atmos)
• Dual-SIM + eSIM
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6/7
• Bluetooth 5.4
• 8500mAh battery
• 100W wired charging
• No wireless charging
• 162.9 x 77.9 x 8.2mm
• IP69 certified
• 218g
• Colours: Blue, White, Black