Xiaomi POCO F1 REVIEW: The Cheapest Phone on Snapdragon 845

When it became known for the first time that Xiaomi was preparing the next flagship, many people didn’t really believe  this. Some people began to say that Pocophone F1 will become an exclusive model with a flagship hardware for US market, while others – for European market.

Anyway, new brand called Pocophone or just Poco is designed especially for international market. The presentation of a new smartphone named Poco F1 took place in one of the emerging markets – India.

After India, the smartphone will be sold in Europe and Ukraine. Why are we interested in Xiaomi Poco F1? Because it has flagship hardware, while the price is very attractive. The lowest price tag for India is only $300. Can you find another phone with Snapdragon 845, and 6/64 GB for the same money? We don’t think so.

By the way, during the presentation Xiaomi compared its new budget flagship phone with one of the best Android smartphones of this year – OnePlus 6. Moreover, many people have already noticed that design of these devices is very similar.

Anyway, Poco F1 is very interesting smartphone, so you need to know more details about it. Let’s start our review of Xiaomi Poco F1 with design.

Xiaomi Poco F1: Design

Probably, many of you will be surprised by the fact that Xiaomi Poco F1 has a plastic case. It is very unusual for flagship phones, because usually they use metal or glass materials. The Chinese manufacturer decided to use plastic to reduce the price. We think it is a great idea. Moreover, many people don’t care about glass, metal, ceramic or plastic, because they use protective cases.

If you really hate plastic, then there is an expensive version of Xiaomi Poco F1 with Kevlar back panel. It is resistant to scratches and cracks. As you may know, the helmets for the military are made from Kevlar. All versions of Poco F1 have front panels with tempered glass Gorilla Glass.

The main camera and fingerprint scanner are centered at the top edge. Also there is a notch on the front side. There are several color options: black, red and blue. By the way, Poco F1 has 3.5 mm audio jack on the top edge, and it is really good! For example, Xiaomi Mi 8 doesn’t have headphones jack.

Xiaomi Poco F1: Display

The screen of new smartphone is [retty large. It has a diagonal of 6.18 inches with Full HD  resolution. The screen to body area is about 80%. The display is good and offers an excellent brightness of 500 nits, but still it is not flagship for one simple reason – the IPS panel, not AMOLED. The last flagships have OLED / AMOLED panel, and the quality of IPS is very close to it.

There are bezels around the display, but they are very thin. The notch above the display hides different sensors, including infrared light. We’ll talk about this a little later.

Xiaomi Poco F1: Performance

Xiaomi Poco F1 is powered by flagship chipset Snapdragon 845. It is a big surprise to see this processor in $300 phone. Also, it has 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal memory. The performance of new Xiaomi phone is similar to OnePlus 6, which is twice more expensive.

By the way, Xiaomi Poco F1 has a new Poco launcher. It is something average between MIUI 9.5 and stock Android. In short, there is draw menu, gestures control and incredible speed.

Another feature of Poco F1 is copper heat sink tube to prevent the smartphone from overheating. It means that you can play games a lot without throttling or overheating.

The Face Unlock function is the same as in Xiaomi Mi 8. There is no special 3D system to recognize user’s face, and it uses front camera for this. However, there is infrared sensor and infrared light under the notch. They allow to use face unlock even in the dark. It is another advantage over Mi 8 or OnePlus 6.

Xiaomi Poco F1: Camera

If we talk about cameras of Xiaomi Poco F1, they are completly the same as Xiaomi Mi 8 SE (but not Mi 8). There is dual camera on the back with 12 megapixel sensor Sony IMX363 and 5MP sensor S5K5E8 from Samsung.

The smartphone is able to make excellent photos during the day, good photos in low light conditions, portrait images with blur background and quickly adjust to certain shooting conditions due to artificial intelligence.

The front camera is like on all the latest devices from Xiaomi. It offers 20 megapixel sensor from Samsung (the same is in Mi 8).

Xiaomi Poco F1: Battery

The battery is also good here. It has a capacity of 4000mAh with fast charging technology Quick Charge 3.0. The battery life should be enough for full day, or even longer with moderate use.

Xiaomi Poco F1: Software

We should talk about software a little more, because it is one of the main features of Xiaomi Poco F1. First of all, new phone has app drawer. As you remember, Xioami phones on MIUI doesn’t have it, and all apps are on the main screens.

Also, you can place the apps in folders and sort app icons by colors. The company promises the regular updated from Google. By the end of the year it will be updated to Android 9.0 Pie.

By the way, Poco launcher can be installed on other smartphones from August 29. It will be available on Google Play Store.

Xiaomi Poco F1: Sound

The stereo speakers on Xiaomi flagship phones have not been news for a long time, but many buyers of Poco F1 will be grateful for the quality stereo sound. As usual, the speaker in stereo mode works in conjunction with earpiece.

Xiaomi Poco F1: Specifications

• Colors: black, red, blue;
• Body: metal frame, plastic (Kevlar in special version) and Gorilla Glass;
• Display: IPS matrix, 6.18 inches, 2246×1080 pixels, 403 ppi, display format 18.7: 9, contrast ratio 1500: 1, brightness 500 nits, 84% NTSC, usable area 82%;
• Processor: 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 with a core frequency of Kryo 385 to 2.8 GHz, 10 nm LPP, 64-bit;
• Video accelerator: Adreno 630, frequency 650 MHz;
• RAM: 6 or 8 GB LPDDR4X, two-channel with 1866 MHz;
• Internal storage: 64/128/256 GB UFS 2.1 + memory cards;
• Memory cards: not supported;
• Work in 4G LTE Cat networks. 18 with download speeds up to 1.2 Gbit / s;
• SIM: nano-SIM + nano-SIM (hybrid slot), Dual SIM Dual Standby (DSDS);
• Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, USB Type-C 2.0, 3.5 mm mini-jack;
• Navigation: two-position GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou;
• Main camera: 12MP Sony IMX363 (focal distance 26mm) + 5MP Samsung, aperture f / 1.9 + f / 2.0, the size of the matrix is ​​1 / 2.55 “, the pixel size is 1.4 microns + 1.12 microns, auto-focus + Dual Pixel, LED flash, stabilization on 4 axes, video recording in 4K;
• Front camera: 20 MP from Samsung, f / 2.0, pixel size 1.8 μm;
• Fingerprint reader (rear) and face recognition;
• Sound: stereo speakers, AAC / aptX / aptX-HD / LDAC for wireless headphones;
• Battery: 4000 mAh, Li-Ion, non-removable, fast charging QC 3.0+;
• OS: Android 8.1 Oreo + MIUI 9.6 for Poco – upgrade to Android 9 Pie;
• Dimensions: 75.5 x 155.7 x 8.9 mm;
• Weight: 187 grams;
• Price: from $300.

Xiaomi Poco F1: Price

The real goal of Xiaomi is to conquer markets with unrealistic low price. Xiaomi Poco F1 smartphone is a great example of how the Chinese company achieves its goal, but it’s too early for us to rejoice. First, the device lacks NFC, which can be critical for some people. Secondly, the smartphone has a plastic case. Also Xiaomi F1 has good cameras, but not the best ones. The real flagship phones provide much better cameras.

Finally, the device is presented for the Indian market and the prices are fair for this country so far. Perhaps, Poco F1 will be more expensive on other markets. If Poco F1 will cost more on $50, then do you really need it? We want to recall that Xiaomi Mi 8 is about $100 more expensive than new Poco phone. Hope, Xiaomi Poco F1 will cost no more that $320 on other markets.

The official price of Xiaomi Poco F1 for India:

• 6/64GB version – from $300;
• 6/128GB version – from $350;
• 8/256GB version – from $420;
• 8/256GB (Kevlar) – from $430.

The sales of new smartphone are scheduled for August 29, but only in India.

Xiaomi Poco F1: Competitors

In fact, Xiaomi Poco F1 has no competitors for its price. You cannot find something better for only $300. Even the cheapest version of Xiaomi Mi 8 officially costs $421.

Nevertheless, Xiaomi was focusing on competition with OnePlus 6. Yes, Poco F1 has very similar design to the competitor and the same hardware. However, OnePlus 6 is much more expensive, about $170 – $200 for basic configuration. But these phones have absolutely different cameras, body materials and displays. We can say that Xiaomi Poco F1 is a new flagship killer. Do you agree?

Xiaomi Poco F1 Video review

Xiaomi Poco F1 vs Mi 8 Video comparison

Source: mi