POCO C51 Review- A Good Budget Option with Stock Android

Poco has launched its latest smartphone, the Poco C51 in India. It is an entry-level smartphone that comes with Android Go edition and is offered 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. The phone is priced starting at Rs 8,499 for the base variant. We have been using this device for the last week and here is our Poco C51 Review.

Related Reading: Redmi Note 12 Pro+ Review- The SuperNote!

Poco C51 review:

Design and Build:

In terms of design, the Poco C51 is a fairly good-looking smartphone for the segment. It has a good in-hand feel and also has a sturdy look. The front panel has a water drop notch and a large display. The display bezels are on the higher side, but considering the price segment it is not bad by any means. The right side houses the power and volume rocker keys, while the left side has the SIM tray, which houses two SIM cards and one SD card. The top section has the speaker unit. The back panel looks like a leather finish, even though it is made of polycarbonate material. It does give a good look and feel to the device. The rear dual camera setup looks well arranged and you also get a fingerprint sensor below it. The device has a very good in-hand feel for a budget phone.

The build quality of the device is also good considering the price segment it is being offered. There is also panda glass protection for the display.

Display:

The display on the Poco C51 is a 720p HD+ resolution display which is kind of standard in this segment. The display colors are quite good and the touch response is very impressive. The viewing angles are ok, and so are the brightness levels. Even though it is an HD+ display, overall display quality is good for the segment is it being offered. Watching movies also gives a decent experience from the display.

Software:

Poco has gone with stock Android on Poco C51 and it comes with Android 13 Go Edition. Poco has added a bit of customization we generally see in MIUI which includes themes and a few personalizations. But the UI more or less looks like stock Android. The notification center and toggles are also similar to the ones on stock Android. The phone does not have any third-party apps installed other than Xiaomi’s music app. So you get a very clean and stock Android experience. There is nothing mentioned about future updates, since it is an entry-level smartphone, there won’t be much expectation on this front.

Performance:

The Poco C51 is powered by an Helio G36 Quad-core processor and is coupled with 4GB of RAM. The performance of the device is quite good for day-to-day tasks like calls, browsing, social media, basic apps, and more. This is actually the work intended for a phone in this segment and for that price the phone performs well. The addition of the Android Go edition helps in better response time and overall as a secondary phone or an entry-level phone, it works well.

You get a fingerprint scanner at the back, which is once again quite responsive. The phone offers dual SIM cards with 4G LTE and VoLTE support. The call quality of the device is good and we never had issues with calls. The top-firing speaker performance is decent for the segment. Since it comes with only 64GB of eMMC storage, you might run out of storage soon and hence it to recommended to buy an SD card in case you handle a lot of files or install more apps.

Camera:

Poco C51 comes with an 8MP dual rear camera along with a QVGA camera. There is also a 5MP selfie camera. The phone camera app has portrait mode, photo, and video mode. You can record videos in 1080p resolution which is good. The camera samples taken with the device turned out to be surprisingly good for the segment and there are good colors and decent sharpness levels. It is better to turn on the HDR mode for better results. The 5MP selfie camera also impressed us with the colors and details offered. Overall for the segment, this is quite a good camera offered on Poco C51. Here are some of the camera samples taken with the device.

Battery:

Poco C51 packs a 5000mAh large capacity battery and since it has to power an HD+ display and only a quad-core processor, the performance is very good on the device. You can expect more than 1.5 days of battery life easily. This is quite handy if you are a person who travels a lot and needs good battery life on the phone. On the downside, it comes with only a 10W adaptor which takes a bit of time to charge. Overall, the battery life is stellar on the device. But one of the disappointing aspects is that the phone comes with a micro USB charging port, which is definitely a letdown in 2023.

Verdict: 

So that was the detailed POCO C51 review. Priced at Rs 8,499 for the base 4GB RAM variant, the Poco C51 makes up for a secondary device or a good entry-level smartphone for people looking to move from feature phones. With the Android Go edition which offers a good UI experience along with a decent camera and good battery life, there isn’t anything to complain about the C51 other than the micro-USB charging port. If you are looking for an entry-level smartphone, which does not compromise on the experience, C51 should be on your list.