The Poco X8 Pro series is launching soon, and anyone interested should check out the HyperOS experience on last year’s model. Having a few bugs here and there is acceptable, but HyperOS for the Poco X series has taken it to an entirely different level — this “Tap again to exit” pop-up would stay here for about 5 minutes, instead of 3 seconds. You can limit charging to 80%, but it would still reach 100% sometimes. Filming an important moment? Sometimes the phone would freeze, and you’d lose your moment.
There is currently no information about a successor to the base Poco X7, only the X8 Pro and a Pro Max. But since most of the issues are related to software, anyone considering the Poco X8 series should definitely check out the unique way HyperOS is special.
When every part of the UI starts breaking
Throughout the first few days, I was discovering bugs in almost every aspect of the UI. HyperOS 1, which the Poco X7 launched with, felt like an early beta version with zero bug fixes. Quite reasonably, I was afraid it might get worse after an update, as they also have to focus on the newer models. So I could never hit “Install”. But I was definitely wrong to think the user experience wouldn’t get worse without an update. There are potential hardware issues as well.
Just like my Poco X3 from 2020, this phone can handle 4K recording — on paper. And this is surprising — the Dimensity 7300 Ultra can handle Genshin Impact at around 40 FPS on medium to high settings, which is how the Poco X7 impressed me with its raw performance in the first few days of testing. So, how does it struggle with 4K 30 FPS recording?
While I was filming the situation, I had to force-reboot it — and I accidentally dropped it. It didn’t cause any physical damage; it just fixed the recording issue somehow.
It wasn’t the restart that fixed the recording issue. It had never worked before that day. Only when I dropped it. Its been over 3 months from that accidental drop without powering off or restarting the phone, and 4K recording has never failed since that drop. Probably the heat dissipation path was affected somehow, and the impact fixed it. Notably, the phone has always been used with a case and has never been dropped before, so the durability aspect of this phone seems poor, too. Or at least the assembly of the internal components.
And the performance issues are not limited to the camera. Unlike the first few weeks, now the phone overheats and struggles in relatively simple games — it’s anything but normal aging. In summary, everything points to poor heat dissipation — a key aspect of a performance-focused phone, regardless of its price.
Now, getting back to what’s more important for X8 series buyers — the software aspect. Every time I got annoyed with the bugs and wanted to update, I checked for issues in the later builds and found new ones. And also, most issues never hit the spotlight. So I couldn’t hit “Update”.
To be fair, the Poco X7 packs an amazing display, looks great, and captures detailed images with good colors. But the uniqueness of HyperOS makes this piece of hardware hard to appreciate.
While the Poco X8 Pro series packs more capable and efficient chips, higher raw performance cannot really ensure a proper software experience — or a fix for… whatever hardware issue the X7 might have. These aspects are also important. Let’s hope the HyperOS 3 builds for the X8 Pro series don’t feel like they’re still in the early beta stage, just like it was the case last year.
