The Poco F6, boasting the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 3 SoC, has made waves in India for its powerful performance. But that’s not all; this device is packed with AI features that promise to elevate your user experience. While our initial review showcased these features, their implementation left us with questions. Now, after extensive testing, we’re diving deep into what works, what needs work, and the potential these AI features hold for the Poco F6’s future.
AI-Powered Image Editing: The Good and The Not-So-Good
The Poco F6 doesn’t just take impressive photos; it equips you with the tools to enhance them with AI. These features, however, offer varying levels of success.
AI Eraser Pro: Erasing Imperfections, One Pixel at a Time
The AI Eraser Pro is a powerful tool for removing unwanted elements from your photos. From pesky objects to distracting people, this feature attempts to blend seamlessly with the surroundings. While it can effectively erase certain elements, the generative fill often falters, creating strange anomalies, especially when removing complex objects. It’s like a magical eraser that needs a few practice runs to achieve the desired effect.
"The Eraser tool, while it does work well, needs some extra tries to get things right… sometimes, things do get weird and instead of removing the object, the feature can replace it with something else."
Using the AI Eraser Pro requires an active internet connection, so be prepared to rely on a stable network for the perfect erase.
AI Image Expansion: Stretching Your Imagination
The AI Image Expansion feature lets you expand the borders of your photos by generating additional content. While the concept is intriguing, its execution is inconsistent. While it can add plausible content to images, the AI fill often falls short, resulting in unrealistic or jarring elements. The feature works without requiring an internet connection, making it convenient for those moments when you want to stretch your artistic vision.
"We used this tool on a couple of images and found it to be alright… The AI fill is flawed. At times, the fill also had nothing to do with the image."
AI Bokeh and AI Clear Sky: Enhancing Your Artistic Vision
The AI Bokeh feature adds a beautiful blur to your photos, enhancing that professional, depth-of-field effect. You can choose between different bokeh styles to tailor it to your preference. AI Clear Sky, without any explicit mention by Poco, takes your cloudy photos and turns them into brilliant, sun-drenched scenes. While the results can be impressive, these features rely on the AI’s understanding of the scene, which occasionally leads to unnatural or inconsistent results.
"While Poco did not really speak about this feature, the AI Clear Sky can turn your gloomy photos into something bright… Both of these features are available in the Edit Photo option."
AI Gesture Control: Navigating with a Wave of Your Hand
The Poco F6 embraces a futuristic approach with its AI Gesture Control, allowing you to manipulate your phone with intuitive hand movements. However, this technology is still in its nascent stages. Currently, AI Gesture Control is limited to the built-in Music app and Netflix, making its functionality quite restricted. The gestures, including volume adjustment, playback control, and call management, require precise movements and a specific distance from the phone, making the learning curve steep.
"You can use your Poco F6 with gestures thanks to AI Gesture control, but it’s not all rosy… We tried it out, and it takes some getting used to… All of these options worked, but not well."
Poco has promised expansion to more apps soon, sparking hope that the functionality and reliability of this exciting feature will improve in future updates.
AI Features Working Behind the Scenes: Elevating the Everyday Experience
The Poco F6 employs a variety of AI features that operate behind the scenes, enhancing your experience in subtle ways.
AI Noise Cancellation: Clearer Conversations, Louder Music
The AI Noise Cancellation feature takes center stage when it comes to enhancing audio. By analyzing and reducing background noise, it delivers clearer phone calls, more immersive video conferences, and a richer listening experience for music and audio recordings.
AI Network and Connectivity: Seamless Connections
AI Network and Connectivity ensures you stay connected by constantly monitoring your network connections. It automatically switches to the best available SIM card when a connection weakens, ensuring minimal interruptions.
Wildboost 3.0: Unleashing Gaming Power
Wildboost 3.0 in conjunction with the Game Mode tool optimizes the phone’s performance for gaming. By allocating resources efficiently, it ensures smooth and responsive gameplay.
AI Image Engine and AI Subtitles: Visual and Auditory Enhancements
The AI Image Engine boasts Super-resolution which automatically enhances the quality of videos by upscaling their resolution. The AI HDR enhancement adds a layer of detail to your videos, creating a more impressive visual experience. The AI Subtitles feature attempts to automatically add subtitles to your videos, although its effectiveness varies depending on the quality and format of the video.
"Finally, there’s an AI Image Engine… and AI subtitles… The former offers Super-resolution, which can auto-enhance videos by upscaling the quality, and AI HDR enhancement that is said to deliver more details in videos. Meanwhile, AI subtitles claim to auto-add subtitles to all kinds of videos on your phone."
Conclusion: A Glimpse of the Future, But With Room for Improvement
The Poco F6’s AI-powered features demonstrate how technology is poised to transform our mobile experiences. While some functionalities are already impressive, many still require further development. This device serves as a stepping stone towards a future where AI seamlessly enhances our lives.
With continuous updates and refinements, these AI features have the potential to become indispensable tools, enriching our interactions with the phone and the world around us. Only time will tell how well these features mature and realize their full potential. But one thing is certain: the future of mobile technology is fueled by AI, and the Poco F6 offers a compelling glimpse into that future.
