What £169 actually buys you in 2025
The Poco M8 is Xiaomi's answer to a genuine question: what's the minimum you need to spend to get a functional 5G phone with enough storage to stop worrying? At £169 for 256GB, the answer is apparently not much. The MediaTek Dimensity chip it runs on is competent rather than quick, the screen is large and perfectly readable, and 5G connectivity means it won't feel dated in two years when 4G networks start getting thinner coverage.
This replaces, realistically, a mid-cycle upgrade from a three or four-year-old handset. If you're still on a 2021 phone with 64GB and cracked patience, the jump will feel meaningful.
The bits they don't put in the press release
Here's where it gets honest. Poco phones have historically shipped with MIUI skins that carry a lot of bloatware, and software update commitments from Xiaomi's sub-brands are patchy at best. You might get two Android versions. You might get one and a half. For a phone you're planning to keep three years, that matters.
The camera is the other soft spot. Budget phones in this segment have improved enormously, but the Poco M8 won't trouble a Pixel 7a. Low-light shots are fine for WhatsApp. Fine is doing a lot of work in that sentence.
Who should actually buy this
A teenager who needs a first smartphone. A parent who wants a backup device. Someone replacing a broken phone without wanting to spend proper money right now. For those cases, £169 with 256GB and 5G is a reasonable proposition.
If you're buying this as your main daily driver and you care about longevity or cameras, stretch to £250 and look at the Motorola edge range instead. The Poco M8 knows what it is. The question is whether that matches what you need.
