Poco C71 Review: For Those on Extra-Tight Budgets

Could a smartphone priced at Rs. 6,499 really deliver sometime in 2025? It is a tightrope walk-in; after all, some feature phones from HMD or even the rugged and Android-powered Cat S22 Flip sit at a steeper price point. Nevertheless, a few manufacturers are willing to gamble that such a market exists: consumers on a tight budget who are eager to move from their button-laden feature phones to the allure of their very first smartphone. For these folks, the Poco C71 may just open a golden door.

Poco C71 Design

Though it might not have the charisma of its flamboyant cousin-the C75-it does deserve some recognition for adding a touch of glamour to the entry-level segment. The dual-tone design is a mere whisper of style; a somewhat ham-fisted attempt to spruce up the budget phone concept.

The ejector-type rear panel is a delightful homage to art deco. Imagine a cascade of perfectly straight lines, a waterfall of deliberate patterns running down the backside covering almost half of it. This enthralling design is then interrupted by a capsule-shaped camera island. Housing twin lenses, the polished gold finish of its sleek side contributes far more to the aesthetic, an old-world elegance afforded to a backdrop of textures.

The subtly art deco rear panel of the new Poco C71 is a nostalgic musing in the realm of the flamboyant Roaring Twenties, and no mere fancy, it is equipped with a reasonable IP52 dust and splash resistance rating.

Done up in “Cool Blue,” this phone’s polycarbonate frame and back panel would be a lesson in minimalism. The flat edges with matte texture making it look like an extension of the rear and creating a wonderful visual. Consider this if you will: going with all the charm is the smoothness that makes the phone a slippery little rascal to hold-well, it definitely needs a careful grip.

The missing bottom-firing speaker? I didn’t miss it. Whatreallycaught my attention was something much more intriguing: the brink-of-madness top-firing speaker. Does it share occupancy with the earpiece? Whatever the case, I remained quite curious about such an unusual placement.

The Poco C71’s receiver speaker doubles up as its primary speaker

This one tips the scale at 193 grams and makes its presence felt. One-handed texting gymnastics? Be ready to be challenged. However, don’t let the weight confuse you; with an IP52 rating, it can brush off dust and take a splash or two. The construction is all work and no play, which is perfectly acceptable at this price-range.

Looking face down, there sits the encompassing 6.8 LCD display with HD+ resolution, and the display touts a buttery smooth 120Hz refresh rate. But all of those beguilements are quite dimmed by these massive bezels surrounding the display, the thick chin below being particularly egregious and the water-drop notch at the top looking rather dated. The fingerprint magnet surface further exposes its budget category wherein it proudly stands as a class contender.

Poco C71 Performance

A phone screen out of the box locks in 60Hz to conserve battery. Going to the settings strikes a choice between 60Hz and 120Hz. And I must say it looked paramount; I flipped it to 120Hz for real smooth visuals! Because even though HyperOS is streamlined yet based on Android 15 (Go Edition), it tends to run up minor stutters and lags. If you are looking for silky smooth performance with an experience that ages well, then fork out a little extra.

Poco’s C71 is powered by Android 15 Go Edition, an extremely trimmed-down version of Xiaomi’s HyperOS

Being touted as an ambient light sensor, it is more of a phantom. So, there is no dedicated sensor here; rather, your phone makes use of the front camera to analyze your surroundings and adjust brightness accordingly. Theoretically, it is like a selfie brightness booster.

Ah! How crafty this trick! Cameras act as one-time light meters when phones are unlocked. Picture it as a 40-second instant peek, setting your brightness at that moment. Go into sunlight? Your dim screen now stays stubbornly dim unless you manually relock and then unlock it for recalibration. Instant adaptation! What a letdown!

Try to imagine being sunburnt and looking at the Poco C71: you will squint more than enjoy! Inside, it is a little better, but the angles are not so perfect, brightness fades if you move to some off-center positions.

Don’t let the spec sheet fool you. On paper, it should be the worst display ever, with its ultra-low resolution stretched over a massive screen: text and icons maintain surprising sharpness. Colors do pop, especially with the “Nature” display mode enabled at default. The catch? Widevine L3 DRM. Streaming from Netflix, YouTube, and other OTT apps max out at standard definition (SD). Expect soft visuals, much softer than on budget smartphones.

There’s much more to the power button than just powering up-a biometric key for you! A single tap unlocks the world thanks to the fingerprint reader-locker, no matter whose fingerprint it is-with capacity to store five unique prints. Need more space? Not at all. The dual nano SIM slots creation stands with a dedicated microSD duo slot that can go full load for a terabyte of memory. And if someone still likes tuning into the airwaves, rejoice! That reliable 3.5mm headphone jack comes handy with the stock radio app.

The Poco C71’s display, apart from its thick borders, also has a waterdrop notch

The call’s sound is okay, but there is almost no volume. Till this very day, it almost felt like the caller would whisper their secrets. The speaker suffered the same fate, unable to serve both calls and videos. To make it worse, its position is a design flaw. So easily does some stray finger muffle the sound during gaming or binge-watching sessions.

Unisoc T7250 serves as the central processing unit of this phone, and honestly, I approached its performance with a fair bit of skepticism, price tag or no. Day-to-day tasks? Yes, it manages app launches and basic navigation well enough. But here’s the catch: memory. Get ready for your apps to be crashing back to the loading screen every now and then. This is a phone that tends to forget what it was doing, forcing you to start over quite often, more than I’d like.

Those benchmark scores seemed to almost single-handedly kill any hope for gaming. Yet I immediately fired up Asphalt 8, taking all precautions for the worst. To my surprise, the engine came to life! Not buttery smooth by any means with dropped frames frustratingly punctuating the immersion, it was… playable. The Play Store, however, offered a reality check: it disallowed most titles on the graphical demanding front, creating a digital velvet rope barring entry to true high-end gaming on this device.

The Poco C71 has only one user-accessible rear-facing camera

With a 32MP main lens, this phone happily enjoys the blessing of being called a dual-camera setup-main plus depth sensor. This gives Portrait mode some serious gains. On top of that, an 8MP front shooter awaits to give you a stunning glow.

Poco C71 primary camera samples (tap images to expand)

With proper lighting, the primary camera can take… okay pictures. However, there seems to be a complete lack of attention to detail. Colors pop unnaturally, and the dynamic range appears to be squeezed by several factors. Even when Auto HDR is working, skies tend to go out while foregrounds retain their shadows. Things become worse when switched to the binned camera. Don’t expect crisp details, as it looks like a bad oil painting of sorts. Close-up shots are a tad better, but once zoomed in, that lack of detail becomes glaringly obvious.

Rear-camera portraits (above) wash every scenic detail out to nothingness, turning the background into a hazy glow. Selfies (below), meanwhile, aren’t spared either, giving faces that creepily bane soft focus. See that stark difference by yourself. (Tap the images for enlargement and comparison.)

Low-light photos from the primary camera come out with low detail and dynamic range and are very noisy.

The video standards, at most, promise a rather underwhelming configuration of 1080p at 30 frames per second. Prepare for shots that are soft on detail and plagued by the shakes – I mean, think shaky-cam documentary rather than cinematic archi-tecture. Walking or panning turns into a blurry affair, jittery; lowest-light scenarios do not even come into consideration. The image quality swiftly plunges into a noisy abyss, practically marking such videos as unusable. Breathe out, because the focus will never lock; at least under adequate street lights, it lazy-shuffles into sharpness.

The Poco C71’s 5,200mAh battery capacity sounds like a lot, but barely lasts a day with heavy usage

If put to hard use, the phone’s battery will do its job for a whole day. A light user might eke out a little extra duration, but with the 12nm Unisoc chip, that’s asking for too much.The phone gave us 14 hours 32 minutes on our HD video loop endurance test. The score is slightly below average for entry-level devices, with the Redmi A4 5G of Xiaomi, for instance, standing tall with a record of 19 hours 32 minutes on the same test. Charging, hence, will be another marathon session. Charging this 5,200mAh juicer through the bundled 15W charger would take about 2 hours 21 minutes.

Poco C71 Verdict

Entry-level smartphone market is heating up but still offers very few choices. Is the Rs 6,499 Poco C71 truly the budget champion? It leans very heavily on bare necessities; but for just around a thousand rupees extra, one can go the 5G-way, giving the specs a real kick and software real future-proofing. The C71 runs Android 15 Go Edition, making you think whether this extra grand is worth actually investing for the leap into future.

Looking for a cheap 5G phone? The Poco C75 5G, starting at a tempting Rs. 7,699, should not be slept upon. It is slightly older, yes, but still is capable of throwing some punches. Consider it the twin of the Redmi A4 5G, starting from Rs. 7,999, same internals, different skin. The catch is that both are basically stuck to Jio’s 5G network. In the Jio ecosystem? You’re solid. If not, just consider this a friendly warning.

It is a step above the rest; the Motorola G35 5G truly punches beyond its weight. A price tag shy of Rs. 10,000 does put it into the category right above that of an entry-level pricing. However, this jump really shows in the immensely satisfying performance and premium vegan leather finish on offer. Along with this comes a clean near-stock Android experience accompanied by a subtle Hello UI from Motorola, which is definitely a welcome breath of fresh air.

There is hardly anything left to desire for a tight budget. The Poco C71 with a generous 6GB RAM and 128GB storage, that is a killer deal for just Rs. 6,999. Get yours today!

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