POCO M3 Pro 5G Review

Rear cameras, photo and video samples

The POCO M3 Pro has three rear cameras. The main one utilizes a 48MP OmniVision OV48B PureCel Plus-S sensor and has an f/1.8 aperture. The sensor has a 1/2" optical format and integrates an on-chip 4-cell color filter array and hardware re-mosaic, which provides 48MP Bayer output in real-time. By default, the main camera outputs 12MP photos (4000 x 2992). You have to go to the Pro mode if you want to shoot 48MP photos (8000 x 6000). As for videos, the main camera does not shoot 4K videos. It is limited to 1080p at 30 fps videos instead.

Onboard the POCO M3 Pro there's a 2MP SK Hynix Hi-259H macro camera. It has a 1/5" sensor with 1.75 μm pixel size and a 3-element lens with an f/2.4 aperture. It shoots photos with a resolution of up to 1600 x 1200 pixels. Unfortunately, it does not support autofocus and you have to be very precise in choosing the distance from the object when shooting in Macro mode. This mode can be accessed from Photos shooting mode when you click on the hamburger menu icon in the top right corner. Macro shooting is available for video, too. Finally, there's the 2MP GalaxyCore GC02M1B mono unit for depth-sensing which aids the main camera in shooting portraits. It uses a 1/5" sensor with 1.75 μm pixel size, a 3-element lens, and an f/2.4 aperture.

Primary camera

Front camera, photo samples

The front-facing camera of the POCO M3 Pro uses an 8MP OmniVision OV8856 sensor paired with an f/2.0 lens. The camera takes photos with a resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels and shoots 1080p videos at 30 fps. The 8MP OV8856 sensor is used by the front cameras of the following smartphones we have reviewed: Ulefone Armor 3, Zopo Speed 8, ZTE Axon 7, Asus ZenFone 3 ZE552KL, LeEco Coolpad Cool1 dual, Oukitel U13, Blackview BV7000 Pro, Ulefone T1, Ulefone Armor 2, Cubot X18, Leagoo KIICAA MIX, Doogee Mix 2, Oukitel K8000, Vernee X, Ulefone Power 3, Doogee BL12000 Pro, Doogee S50, UMIDIGI A3.

Camera app

The Camera app has a familiar layout with a circular shutter button at the bottom's center, a shortcut to the list of photos and videos to its left, and the camera switch to its right. The various shooting modes are listed above the shutter button. "Photo" is the default one. The others include Portrait, Video, Pro, and More. The latter contains Night, 48MP, Short video, Panorama, Slow motion, TimeLapse. The top of the screen contains the flash and HDR options, AI on/off and Beautification on/off buttons, and a hamburger icon for more options - photo aspect ratio, timer, show grid lines, macro, movie frame, time shift, timed burst, and camera settings. These additional options change depending on the shooting mode that's active at the moment. When you're shooting videos, you can choose the resolution and fps from the corresponding option on the top of the screen. The Pro mode allows you to adjust the white balance, shutter speed, exposure, ISO, focus metering, add filters, shoot in 48MP, etc. The Portrait mode lets you adjust the degree of background blur and add beautifying effects. The camera settings for photos allow you to switch on/off the watermark, set the picture quality, turn on the focus & shoot function, etc. The camera settings for videos contain a toggle for EIS, video encoder choice, and other general settings. The interface for the front camera is almost entirely identical to the one for the rear cameras. Whenever you choose a shooting mode that's not supported by the front shooters (the Pro mode, for example), the device simply switches to the rear cameras.