Poco's latest brings Iron Man-level endurance
An 8,500mAh battery in a chassis the size of an iPhone
I am not a big Marvel guy. When I hear “Iron Man” my mind first goes to triathlons in Hawaii or Kurt Angle versus Brock Lesnar.
But Poco’s newest phones somehow manage to cover both angles. One of them has unprecedented endurance, and the other literally has Tony Stark’s badge on it.
Let’s start with the latter.
The Poco X8 Pro is a global version of the China-only Redmi Turbo 5. It starts at €400 in Europe for a model with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, or €550 for this ostentatious Iron Man edition that comes with higher specs.
Iron Man ornamentation aside, this is a nicely designed phone with an aluminium frame and a glass back panel. It’s 8.2mm thick and weighs 204g, so it’s thinner and lighter than the smaller 6.3” iPhone 17 Pro despite having a much bigger screen and battery.
I might not be the target audience for this device, but honestly I think it looks pretty cool for what it is. It’s reasonably subtle for a phone with a holographic mech suit on the back panel. Poco even integrated the camera flash into an embossed design that evokes the arc reactor on Iron Man’s chest. And hey, you also get a SIM ejector tool with the Marvel logo on it.
The standout specs are the screen and the battery, which aren’t bad places to start for any phone. That screen is a great-looking 6.59” 2756 x 1268 120Hz OLED panel, and the battery is 6,500mAh — same as the bargain Poco M8 Pro from earlier in the year. It can be charged at up to 100W with a compatible cable, and it also provides reverse wired charging at 27W.
Elsewhere, the phone uses a MediaTek Dimensity 8500 Ultra chip with up to 512GB of storage and 12GB of RAM, which is the configuration for the Iron Man variant. The camera system is something of an afterthought, pairing a 50-megapixel 1/1.95” main sensor with an 8-megapixel 1/4” ultrawide. You do, however, get RGB ring lights around each lens that can be used for things like countdown timers and battery charging status.
I think this is a pretty neat phone if you’re into the design. But the Max version is more interesting to me, mostly for one (very) big reason.
The X8 Pro Max is quite similar to the smaller X8 Pro. It’s also 8.2mm thick, it has a bigger but broadly equivalent 6.83” 2772 x 1280 120Hz OLED display and memory still tops out at 512GB of storage and 12GB of RAM. The camera system is identical.
The processor is a class above, though — Poco gave the Max a new chip called the Mediatek Dimensity 9500s, which is a cut-down version of the current flagship 9500 and performs roughly between that and last year’s 9400 silicon. It’s a very solid chip for a device at this price point, which starts at €429.
But the real achievement here is that Poco has somehow managed to cram an 8,500mAh battery into a normal-sized phone. Seriously, I dug my iPhone 16 Pro Max out of my drawer to compare, and these two phones have nearly identical dimensions — yet the iPhone’s battery is just 4,685mAh.
Obviously Apple is not known for pushing boundaries in this regard, but this is a huge battery even by Chinese Android phone standards. Oppo’s fantastic Find X9 Pro, a phone I was simply unable to kill in a day — and which incidentally uses the high-end Dimensity 9500 chip — achieved its heretofore unparalleled endurance on a 7,500mAh battery.
With the proprietary 100W charger, you can expect the X8 Pro Max to get to around 35% in 15 minutes, 65% in half an hour, and full in a little over 50 minutes. Those aren’t ultra-fast speeds compared to some Chinese competitors, but this is an 8,500mAh battery we’re talking about, and you’re still getting far faster speeds than many phones with smaller capacities.
Now, I will be honest and say I haven’t yet tested the X8 Pro Max to the edge of its capabilities. There have frankly been far too many phones in my inbox this month. But I do think this might be my next camping phone — hold me to that.
(I’ll just need to bring an actual camera along for the trip.)
While Poco has recently been making moves in more premium directions and pledging to increase its focus on cameras, the X8 Pro phones feel like they were designed in the classic tradition of the brand.
Both of these phones have great screens, solid specs and huge batteries. And the cameras? Well, they certainly are capable of taking photographs.
But I think the X8 Pro Max in particular looks like a really good deal. If battery life is your priority, this is likely to beat anything else out there by some distance while keeping within relatively svelte dimensions. You’re also getting a great screen and a very capable chip for a more than reasonable price.