Realme 6 Pro Vs POCO X2: Who is the new king of Rs. 20,000 segment?

The sub 20k segment in smartphones in India is a very sweet spot for companies. There has always been a fight in this segment for who becomes the new king. Recently, Realme launched its Realme 6 Pro in this segment with some impressive features like 90Hz display, new Snapdragon 720G chipset, 64MP quad-camera, dual punch-hole front cameras, and a big battery with fast charging.

A few days back, POCO India also made its comeback after a long time with its POCO X2. The phone came with an aggressive pricing and amazing features like 120Hz screen, Snapdragon 730G processor, 64MP Sony sensor, dual punch-hole front cameras, and a 4,500mAh battery with fast charging support.

To recall, Realme X2 starts at Rs. 16,999 while POCO X2 comes at a starting price of Rs. 15,999. So, now these two, having some common features and starting at a similar price compete with each other in the sub 20k segment. Let’s find out who can be the new king!

Design & Build Quality: Glass Back, Punch-hole

Both the phones come with glass backs and at the front, they have dual punch-hole screens. However, there are a few differences between them in terms of looks and build quality.

The Realme 6 Pro sports a Gorilla Glass 5 protected back, but it comes inside a plastic frame. The back panel has a new lightning type effect and it comes in two colors including blue and orange.

The POCO X2 also has Gorilla Glass 5 protected back panel and it is packed inside an aluminum frame, which makes it sturdier. POCO X2’s back doesn’t show any gradient effect and comes in three colors including Atlantis Blue, Matrix Purple, and Phoenix Red.

The front panels of these phones have dual punch-holes for the selfie cameras. The Realme has the cutouts on the left side while POCO has it on the right side. The size of the cut-outs is almost the same. In terms of bezels and bottom chin, POCO X2 offers more screen space.

The Realme 6 Pro is 8.9 mm thick and its weight is 202 g, while POCO is 8.8 mm thick and has 208 g weight. POCO X2 is taller and slimmer than Realme 6 Pro, so it doesn’t feel heavy and you can easily use it with one hand.

Both phones have a splash-resistant body. These also have a side-mounted fingerprint sensor embedded in the power button.

Display: 90Hz Vs 120Hz

The Realme 6 Pro features a 6.6-inch Full HD+(2400 × 1080 pixels) LCD panel with a 90Hz refresh rate and 120Hz touch sampling rate. The screen is also protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5.

The POCO X2, on the other hand, sports a 6.67-inch FHD+ (2400 x 1080 pixels) LCD panel with the 120Hz refresh rate. Interestingly, it is the first phone at this price that comes with a 120Hz screen. It also supports HDR 10 and is protected by Gorilla Glass 5.

Hardware: SD 720G Vs SD 730G

The Realme 6 Pro is powered by the latest Snapdragon 720G SoC and is the first phone to come with this chipset. While POCO X2 is powered by the Snapdragon 730G chip. Both processors are based on the 8nm manufacturing process and have a similar Adreno 618 GPU.

The difference between these two chipsets is in terms of their CPUs. The 720G has 2×2.3 GHz Kryo 465 Gold cores and 6×1.8 GHz Kryo 465 Silver cores. While 730G has 2×2.2 GHz Kryo 470 Gold cores & 6×1.8 GHz Kryo 470 Silver cores. The Kryo 470 CPU is more powerful than Kryo 465. You can see the difference in the AnTuTu scores below.

Performance-wise, you will not feel much difference between these chips. However, the real difference you will feel while gaming. The 730G is made for gaming and it does deliver the performance. We played PUBG on both the phones and the experience on POCO X2 was a bit smoother. There are reasons for it, more refresh rate, better gaming chip and it also has liquid cooling, so there were no signs of heating as well.

Software and UI: Realme UI Vs MIUI

Software-wise, the Realme 6 Pro runs on Realme UI based on Android 10. This new Realme UI is better than previous ColorOS and offers a much cleaner interface. It comes with new customizable icons, screen recorder, dark mode, etc. However, you will get bloatware apps filled in UI. You can uninstall them though.

The POCO X2 runs on MIUI 11 based on Android 10. It is MIUI for POCO, the customized version that comes with the POCO Launcher, which is not there in regular MIUI. If we talk about some of its other features, it comes with a system-wide dark theme, a more modern layout with new colors, and some changes to Xiaomi’s apps. The best change is that there are no ads now.

Cameras: Samsung Vs Sony Sensor

The quad rear camera setup on the Realme 6 Pro has a 64MP Samsung GW1 sensor, an 8MP 119° ultra-wide-angle lens, a 12MP telephoto lens for up to 20x zoom and a 2MP 4cm macro sensor.

The POCO X2 also sports four rear camera setup that has a 64MP sensor, an 8MP wide-angle lens, a 2MP macro lens, and a 2MP depth sensor. However, unlike the Samsung GW1 sensor on Realme 6 Pro, POCO X2 uses Sony IMX686 sensor. It is the first phone in India with this sensor.

The POCO X2’s Sony IMX 686 sensor really does a great job. It captured good details, a good dynamic range, and natural colors, especially in daylight photos. The Realme 6 Pro’s pictures have fewer details and the colors are also somewhat faded.

You can check the camera samples in different modes below.

Normal Mode

64MP Mode

Portrait Mode

Wide-Angle

The dual front camera on Realme 6 Pro has a 16MP main camera with f/2.1 aperture and an 8MP 105° ultra-wide sensor with f/2.2 aperture. The POCO X2 has a 20MP main front camera and a 2MP depth camera.

Realme’s front camera clicks nice selfies, and you can see that in the samples below. POCO X2’s front camera also clicks good pictures in all conditions and its’s portrait mode works particularly well, thanks to the dedicated 2MP lens.

Indoor Selfie

Outdoor Selfie

If we talk about video recording, both the phones can record 4K videos at 30fps. POCO X2 also comes with 960fps slow-motion video recording as well.

Battery: Bigger is Better

Realme 6 Pro is powered by a 4300mAh battery which is enough to offer a full day of normal usage. The battery can be charged quickly with the 30W bundled fast charger that offers up to 68% charge in 30 minutes and 100% charge in just an hour.

POCO X2, on the other hand, comes with a bigger 4500mAh battery under the hood. With this capacity, the phone easily gets you through more than a day’s use. It also has fast charging support and there’s a 27W fast charger bundled in the box that takes just over an hour to fully charge the device.

Wrapping Up

As you can see, these two phones fare closely against each other in each segment. However, POCO X2 offers some better features, that too at a lesser price. In POCO X2, you get more refresh rate on screen, better camera sensor, more powerful chipset, and a bigger battery. While Realme 6 Pro also offers good specs at this price like 90Hz display, new chipset, and good cameras. But then again, at a lesser price and with better features, POCO X2 can be a new king of Rs. 20,000 segment.