GSMArena Team,
22 February 2025.
1. Introduction, specs, unboxing2. Design, build quality, handling3. Our lab tests – display, battery life, charging speed, speaker4. Software and performance5. Camera, photo and video quality6. Final words, our verdict, pros and consXiaomi Poco M8 specificationUser opinions and reviewsReview comments (3)
Design, build quality, handling
The Poco M8 is practically identical in design to the Redmi Note 15 family. Other than the POCO logo on the back, you would really be hard-pressed to tell the models apart.
The design is simple and understated, making it easy to blend into just about any setting. Still, there are a few distinctive touches that give it some identity. The color-matched camera island is a particularly nice detail and lends the phone a recognizable Redmi/Poco character. The subtle silver accent ring around the module further enhances that familiar visual flair.
To be frank, curved displays no longer feel particularly modern, but they feel good in your palm, making the phone appear slimmer than it is. The curved body still feels excellent in the hand and offers a secure, confident grip.
As for in-hand feel, the Poco M8 doesn’t come across as premium. Both the back and the frame are made of plastic, and they look and feel accordingly. That said, the build is still reassuringly solid, with virtually no flex or hollowness to speak of.
One area where the Poco M8 diverges from its Redmi Note 15 sibling is the ingress protection. The M8 is only certified for IP66 (IP65 in Europe) just like the Redmi, but lacks the MIL-STD-810H compliance, likely as a cost-saving measure. We doubt that there is any difference in the actual construction. The Poco M8 should be able to withstand high-pressure water jets as well as drops from up to 1.7 meters. The front is covered with some undisclosed toughened glass.
The Poco M8 is available in Black, Green and Silver. All of them feature a color-matched middle frame as well as a camera island.
Despite the frame being quite slim, Xiaomi has widened it just enough to accommodate reasonably sized power and volume buttons. These are positioned on the right-hand side and offer a satisfyingly clicky feel. The left side of the frame is left completely clean.
Xiaomi Poco M8
The Poco M8 features a stereo speaker setup with a secondary top-firing unit, which helps improve stereo separation and overall balance. The top edge also houses the secondary noise-canceling microphone and an IR blaster.
The bottom edge is much busier. Here you’ll find the dual Nano-SIM tray, with one hybrid slot that can take a microSD card. Also on this side are the main speaker grille, the USB Type-C port, and the primary microphone.
The display bezels on the Poco M8 are not particularly slim, though that’s hardly surprising given its budget positioning. On the upside, no visible sensors are interrupting the front – everything is neatly concealed, which helps maintain a clean overall look.
The phone relies on an under-display fingerprint reader of the standard optical type. It’s positioned at a comfortable height and performs well in daily use. We found it both quick and accurate, with little to complain about.