Is the Poco C51 the Best Budget Smartphone for You? An In-Depth Review
The Poco C51 is a new budget smartphone launched by Poco in mid-2023, priced at around Rs. 8,000. In this detailed review, we'll evaluate if it's worth buying over competitors like the Lava Yuva 2 Pro and Moto E13.
Table of Contents
- Poco C51 Price and Availability
- Design and Build Quality
- Display Quality
- Software and Performance
- Everyday Performance
- Gaming Performance
- Benchmark Scores
- Battery Life and Charging
- Cameras
- Rear Camera Performance
- Daylight Photos
- Low Light Photos
- Video Recording
- Front Camera Performance
- Rear Camera Performance
- Verdict: Should You Buy the Poco C51?
- Frequently Asked Questions
Poco C51 Price and Availability in India
The Poco C51 comes in a single 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variant, priced at Rs. 7,999. It's available in Power Black and Royal Blue color options.
We have the Royal Blue version for this review.
Sturdy Design and Build Quality
The Poco C51 has better build quality and design than most other phones in its price segment. It sports a polycarbonate back panel with a grainy texture that provides good grip. Despite weighing 192g, the phone doesn't feel too heavy.
The back panel houses a small, barely protruding camera module with an LED flash. At the front, there is a waterdrop notch for the selfie camera and thick display bezels all around. Volume and power buttons sit on the right edge.
A rear-mounted circular fingerprint scanner, Micro-USB port, headphone jack, and single bottom-firing speaker complete the design. The left side of the frame holds the SIM slot with dedicated microSD card support.
Display: Bright but Lacking Vibrance
The Poco C51 features a 6.52-inch LCD panel with HD+ resolution and 60Hz standard refresh rate. With a peak brightness of 400 nits, visibility under sunlight is decent.
However, colors appear slightly dull and there's no option to tweak color profiles. Moreover, the 720p resolution means content isn't very sharp on the display.
Clean Software, Underwhelming Performance
The Poco C51 runs stock Android 13 Go Edition, offering a squeaky clean, ad-free interface. During our testing period, we received the March 2023 security patch.
Powering the phone is a MediaTek Helio G36 chipset. Despite the lightweight Go Edition OS, everyday performance is far from smooth with consistent lag across the interface and in apps.
Even simple actions like launching apps can take uncomfortably long. Multitasking performance is also below par due to the underpowered processor.
For gaming, lighter titles like Clash of Clans and Candy Crush Saga are playable but intensive games struggle. Call of Duty ran at the lowest graphics but still had long load times and occasional lag.
In benchmarks, the C51 scored:
- 101,771 in AnTuTu
- 5.7fps in GFXBench Car Chase
- 29fps in GFXBench T-Rex
So while casual gaming is possible, heavy games are out of the question.
Excellent Battery Life, Painfully Slow Charging
The Poco C51 houses a chunky 5,000mAh battery. Thanks to the power-efficient Helio G36 chip, you can easily get 2 days of usage per charge with light to moderate use.
In our HD video loop battery drain test, the phone lasted an excellent 15 hours 13 minutes.
However, charging speed is a major downside. The phone ships with just a 10W charger which takes nearly 3 hours for a full recharge. In 30 minutes, we could charge the battery only up to 21%.
So you have to compromise between stellar battery runtimes and extremely slow charging.
Cameras: Mediocre Performance Especially in Low Light
For photography, the Poco C51 utilizes a dual rear camera setup:
- 8MP main sensor
- 0.3MP depth sensor
Under good lighting conditions, the main 8MP camera captures decent looking images with accurate colors, but they often appear dull and lack vibrance. HDR is also hit-or-miss with overexposure issues.
Portrait shots exhibit negligible background blur in some instances, while in others the blur seems overly artificial. This irregular performance shows the depth sensor doesn't really improve image quality.
In low light scenarios, the small sensor size takes its toll. Photos turn out blurry, grainy, and lacking in detail. The 5MP selfie shooter also disappoints after dusk. But it can capture some social media worthy self-portraits in daylight.
For videos, quality maxes out at 1080p 30fps for both front and rear cameras. Footage exhibits below average detail and dynamic range in all conditions. Special modes like timelapse and short video are also present.
So if camera performance is a priority, look elsewhere in this segment.
Verdict: Should You Buy the Poco C51 in 2023?
The Poco C51 makes a case for itself with excellent battery life, bright display, and durable build - things that really matter for budget phone buyers.
However, its sluggish everyday performance, slow charging, and mediocre cameras even by the standards of this price bracket prevent us from giving it an unconditional recommendation.
Rivals like the Moto E13 offer much snappier performance thanks to the Unisoc T606 chipset. It also packs superior low light cameras and a USB Type-C port for faster data transfers and charging. But battery life is weaker at just 4230mAh.
So if you want better performance and cameras, choose the Moto E13. But if 2-3 day battery life is critical for you, the Poco C51 won't disappoint.
Frequently Asked Questions about the Poco C51
Q. Does the Poco C51 support fast charging?
A. No, the phone only supports 10W charging which takes nearly 3 hours for a full charge. This is quite slow.
Q. Can PUBG or other heavy games run on the Poco C51?
A. You can install and run PUBG on the Poco C51 but performance will be very laggy and graphics will be set to the lowest preset. The weak Helio G36 SoC simply cannot handle intensive gaming.
Q. How many cameras does the Poco C51 have?
A. The Poco C51 features a dual rear camera setup (8MP main + 0.3MP depth) and a single 5MP front camera. So a total of 3 cameras.
Q. Does the Poco C51 have an AMOLED display?
A. No, the Poco C51 comes with an LCD panel instead of AMOLED. So you miss out on features like an always-on display.
Q. What processor powers the Poco C51?
A. The Poco C51 utilizes a MediaTek Helio G36 processor which is entry-level and offers modest performance.
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