Poco C81 and C81x were both launched today. Their specs vary slightly, but they fall in the same entry-level category. Each one has a big battery and serviceable camera quality. A massive display is used on the front for both Poco C81 and C81x, and there’s decent software support. Here’s everything you need to know.
Xiaomi Poco C81
The basic C81 has a 6.9” IPS LCD. 800 nits is the max HBM brightness you’ll see on this device. There’s a notch on the display, which is home to an 8MP selfie snapper. It’s only an HD+ panel, by the way. Visuals won’t look sharp, but the phone makes up for it with a high 120Hz refresh rate.
There’s only one functional camera on the back. And it has a 13MP resolution on the Poco C81. The lenses are fashioned into a vertical camera plateau. And that dual accent design for the backplate screams Poco. By the way, the chassis doesn’t fully resist water. It has an IP52 rating.
Poco C81 does have WetTouch support, so spilling liquid on the screen won’t interfere with the capacitive touch. There’s a Type-C port and a 3.5mm audio jack on the bottom with a fingerprint reader on the side. We hear Poco C81 kicks things off with Android 16 Hyper OS 3. And the company has promised four years of OS and six years of security to the handset.
The battery size is a lot bigger on the Poco C81. It has a 6300mAh cell. It will last more than a day on normal use. The charging is quite sluggish, though, at only a 15W input. 4GB/64GB is the base memory trim served by the Poco C81, and its official MSRP is $115 (~PKR 32,000).
Xiaomi Poco C81x
This is obviously a cheaper phone, but it knocks back quite a few features. And the price disparity isn’t high enough to justify the cuts. We are talking about a $10 difference here. The battery on Poco C81x is reduced to 5200mAh. The charging speed is kept limited to 15W.
The screen is a 6.88” IPS display at only HD+ resolution. The brightness goes down to 650nits. 120Hz is the screen’s refresh rate. And there’s the same notch with an 8MP selfie shooter at the front. The rear main camera is 13MP; only the design has changed on the Poco C81x.
By the way, the RAM on this model is only 3GB. That could be the reason why Poco C81x is downgraded to an older Android 15. Now, the C81 and C81x do have the same Unisoc T7250 engine, but the x model will only push 2 years of OS updates and 4 years of security patches.
The fingerprint is on the side. Just a basic waterproof rating is provided here. SD card support is added, since the Poco C81x only comes with 64GB built-in storage. And there’s a single speaker at the bottom. As we said, there’s only a 10$ price difference here. Poco C81x’s MSRP is $105 (~PKR 29,000) for the 3/64GB trim.
