The Poco C40 boasts a good screen and exceptional battery life, but falls short in terms of performance and camera quality. Despite its affordable price, the compromises may leave you feeling unsatisfied with the purchase. Poco, known for making some of the best budget devices out there, hopes to continue that trend with the new C40.
Pluses
- Great battery life
- Acceptable design
Cons
- Poor performance
- Bad cameras
- Little built-in memory
- Slow loading
Xiaomi Poco C40 Specifications
- Release date: 2022, June 06
- Colors: Power Black, Coral Green, Poco Yellow
- Dimensions: 169.6 x 76.6 x 9.2 mm.
- Weight: 204 g.
- Screen: 6.71" in, 720 x 1650, IPS LCD
- Camera : Dual, 13MP
- Chipset: JLQ JR510 (11 nm)
- CPU: Octa-core (4x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55 & 4x1.5 GHz Cortex-A55)
- Memory: 32GB 3GB RAM, 64GB 4GB RAM
- Battery: 6000, Li-Po, non-removable
- Network: GSM / HSPA / LTE
- Operating system: Android 11, MIUI 13 for POCO
- Sensors: Fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, proximity
If you are curious to find out all the details before reading the full review, visit the page for Xiaomi Poco C40 Specs, where you will find even the smallest detail about the phone.
Xiaomi Poco C40 Design
The Poco C40, as expected for its price range, has a simple design. The front panel features a 6.71-inch display with a centered teardrop notch for the camera. The back and sides feature a textured plastic material that gives the phone a faux leather look, providing a good grip instead of the slippery feel of other modern smartphones.
The power and volume buttons are located on the right side, while the left side holds the SIM slot, which accommodates two SIM cards (no 5G support) and a micro SD card for storage expansion.
There's a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top edge, a rare feature these days, and sound comes from the single speaker located on the bottom edge near the USB-C charging port.
The Poco C40 doesn't have any camera bumps or other decorations. Instead, the camera matrix, which appears to have four lenses, is located at the top of the rear panel. It actually has two lenses combined with flash and AI circular decoration.
The fingerprint sensor, a rare and appreciated addition, is located just below the camera matrix, but it is a little high and can be difficult to reach. Despite its height, the sensor works well, but requires some stretching to reach.
The C40's 170 x 77 x 9mm dimensions make it slightly thicker and taller than other Poco devices like the Poco F4 and Poco X4 GT, but its 204g weight is typical for budget and mid-range phones in 2022 Mr.
The Poco also adds an IP52 waterproof rating, making it safe to use in light rain, but not for submersion.
The phone is available in three colors: Power Black, Coral Green and Poco Yellow. In the box you'll find the phone, a 10W charger, a USB-C cable and a SIM removal tool, so you can start using the device right away.
Xiaomi Poco C40 Display and speaker
The Poco C40 features a 6.71-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1650x720, making it an HD+ panel. Despite its affordable price, you won't find OLED technology on this phone, unlike the similarly priced Poco M4 Pro. The display offers decent color rendition, although it can look washed out at times.
Brightness is a bit of an issue, maxing out at around 350 nits, which may not be enough for outdoor use in bright sunlight. Viewing at an angle is average at best, with the panel going dark as soon as you tilt the phone. In indoor conditions or when the sun is not shining directly on the display, the C40 has a usable display. Keep in mind though
The single speaker performs well, with clear highs and mids, but lacks bass.
Xiaomi Poco C40 Specifications and performance
The Poco C40 is powered by a JR510 processor from JLQ, a Shanghai-based semiconductor manufacturer that recently entered the smartphone market. The JR510 processor consists of four 2GHz ARM A55 cores and four 1.5GHz ARM A55 cores supported by an ARM Mali G52 GPU.
While the specs look promising on paper, the C40's actual performance suggests the JLQ still has work to do to compete with established players like Qualcomm.
The Poco C40 experiences some lag and stuttering in daily use, with apps taking too long to load and sometimes crashing completely. While the C40's price doesn't guarantee top-notch speed, slow responses can be frustrating, and it's uncertain how the phone will perform over time.
Gaming on the device is possible, but performance is choppy in standard games. Benchmark test results are lower than recent budget devices, barely beating the TCL 30+.
The performance of the Poco C40 can be disappointing due to its limited RAM of 4 GB. Although having a smaller RAM allows for a smaller device manufacturing budget, it can negatively impact the device's ability to handle tasks.
The cheaper 3GB RAM variant is not recommended as it may degrade performance.
However, the storage can be expanded with a microSD card up to 1TB. Additionally C40 has features like NFC, Bluetooth 5, Wi-Fi 5, GPS and FM radio.
Xiaomi Poco C40 Cameras
The Poco C40 has a dual camera setup on the back consisting of a 13Mp f/2.2 primary camera and a 2Mp f/2.4 depth sensor. The latter is mainly used for portraits, and the main camera takes care of the rest. However, the camera performance is unsatisfactory.
Images with bright light tend to be overexposed and colors are dull. Some photos are too sharp and may miss the desired focal point. While you can take decent photos with the C40, it's not reliable for capturing important moments.
The quality of photos taken with the Poco C40 is not impressive, especially in low light. While night mode can produce decent results, there is still significant noise and focus issues.
The 5MP front camera produces average quality selfies that are only suitable for sharing on social media.
The phone's video recording is limited to 1080p/30fps, with mediocre performance typical of phones in this price range. Focusing can be soft, exposure can be uneven, and there's no OIS to reduce camera shake, resulting in quite a bit of jitter in videos.
Xiaomi Poco C40 Battery life and charging
The Poco C40 has a large 6000mAh battery and supports 18W fast charging, although the included charger is only 10W. Battery life is excellent and can last a full day with a little charge for the next day.
Charging is slower, taking 2.5 hours to reach 100% with the included 10W charger. While the large battery size is something to consider, it would be better for Poco to include a charger to match the phone's charging capabilities.
Xiaomi Poco C40 Software and applications
The Poco C40 software is based on Android 11 with MIUI 13 overlay. As per Xiaomi's usual pattern, the C40 should receive software support for at least three years, including security updates, and reach Android 13 before support ends.
The MIUI interface is user-friendly, with typical Android swipes and gestures. However, there are many pre-installed apps that need to be deleted, especially with the limited storage space.
Themes can be customized via a theme store, with a variety of wallpapers available. If you've used a Xiaomi or Poco phone before, the software will be familiar.
Xiaomi Poco C40 Price and availability
The Poco C40 is available in Europe for €189, with the 3GB/32GB model available for €169.
While it's a decent price for a smartphone, the Poco C40 has a few performance compromises that might make you consider other options, such as the Poco M4 Pro with a better camera at a similar price, the Realme C35, which offers a lot at £149 , or last year's Poco X3 Pro, which can often be found at a discount in the Xiaomi store.
Xiaomi Poco C40 Conclusion
Creating a low-cost smartphone is a challenging task as consumers now expect good performance, solid cameras and reliability from their devices. In the past, Poco has done well in this regard, but with the C40, it falls short.
Despite its affordable price, the phone lags a lot in daily use and its camera quality is low, making it an unpleasant device to use.
On the other hand, however, the C40 boasts excellent battery life and a decent screen. However, its overall cheap feel in key areas makes it a device to avoid. Fortunately, Poco offers a range of better models for users to choose from.
Xiaomi Poco C40 video review
Disclaimer: The information presented in this article is based on our team's personal experience with the Xiaomi Poco C40 and third-party sources. While every effort has been made to provide accurate and reliable information, readers should keep in mind that this is a subjective assessment. The writing of this article was not paid for or sponsored by Xiaomi.
