POCO started its journey with the POCO F1, a flagship killer that took the market with a storm with its top-notch hardware and unbelievable pricing. Although primarily focused on selling affordable flagship and mid-range offerings, the company later expanded into the lower spectrum of the market with its budget-oriented POCO M series and entry-level POCO C series. In its push to gain a more sizeable pie of the budget segment, POCO is gearing up to launch a new 5G-enabled smartphone under the M series called the POCO M3 Pro.

We first learned about the POCO M3 Pro last month through a regulatory listing that confirmed it would be a rebranded version of the Redmi Note 10 5G. Now in an interview with Android Central, POCO’s global head and head of product marketing have officially confirmed the device's existence. The last year’s POCO M3 was an impressive device, and POCO promises the Pro model will be even better. As confirmed by POCO global head Xiabobo Qiu, the POCO M3 Pro will feature a MediaTek Dimensity chipset with 5G connectivity which he claims is 60% faster than the POCO M3's Snapdragon 662 chip.

The phone will also feature a high refresh rate display, faster flash storage, more RAM and will come in three color variants (including the signature yellow colorway). As we said earlier, the phone will just be a rebranded version of the Redmi Note 10 5G, but POCO says it will have a unique design and exclusive software features. POCO global product marketing head Angus Ng also revealed that they're working on adding more special features to the software to further differentiate the UI from MIUI. He didn't give an exact timeframe about the new features but said they would be debuting later this year.

Once the POCO M3 Pro launches, POCO will retire the POCO X3 NFC (known as POCO X3 in India). The POCO M3 Pro will lead the budget battle, while the POCO X3 Pro will cater to performance enthusiasts. POCO hasn't finalized a launch date for the POCO M3 Pro yet, but it's just a matter of time before the company starts teasing the phone on its social media channels.

Update: Leaked render of the POCO M3 Pro shows off the design

A leaked render of the POCO M3 Pro has surfaced online (via @_snoopytech_), giving us our very first look at the design. The render shows off the POCO M3 Pro in a very refreshing design.

Gone is the giant camera module, instead, we're seeing a side-mounted Samsung Galaxy S21-style camera island. A triple camera setup is visible on the back while on the front we see a water-drop notch.