Through an unveil event in New Delhi, India, Xiaomi has introduced its new Poco sub-brand by launching the Poco F1 flagship phone. Since it has arrived with a starting price of Rs. 19,999 (~$286), the Poco F1 is the cheapest Snapdragon 845 SoC powered flagship phone available in the market. The specifications and features of the smartphone clearly indicated that it has arrived to take on the other affordable flagship phones such as OnePlus 6 and Honor 10.
Design and Display
One of the most striking features of the Xiaomi Poco F1 is that it features a notched IPS LCD screen of 6.18 inches that offers an impressive screen space. The display offers up to 500-nits brightness and a high contrast ratio of 1500:1. Lastly, the screen is protected by Gorilla Glass.
The notch of the phone features all the necessary components like infrared lens, infrared lighting, proximity sensor, earpiece and front camera which allows the phone to unlock even in dark. The infrared face unlock feature can unlock the phone in just 0.4 seconds. The back panel of the Poco F1 is also equipped with a fingerprint scanner.
The notched display of the Poco F1 produces Full HD+ resolution of 2246 x 1080 pixels along with an aspect ratio of 18.7:9. In order to keep the cost of the phone low, the Poco F1 flagship phone does not feature a glass rear like other flagship phones. The handset features a hard-coated polycarbonate unibody that has been reinforced with internal frame structure.
The three color variants of the smartphone include Graphite Black, Steel Blue and Rosso Red. There is another special variant of the phone called Armored Edition that is made out of Kevlar aramid fiber, a highly durable material that is used for making bulletproof vest.
Performance
The Xiaomi Poco F1 that carries a tagline of “Master of Speed” is powered by Snapdragon 845 and up to 8 GB of LPDDR4X RAM. At the launch event of the smartphone, the company confirmed that it recorded an impressive AnTuTu benchmarking score of 291,302.
Engineers at Xiaomi have placed a copper heat sink above the SoC of the smartphone which helps in dissipating the heat generated by it. It allows the phone to transfer heat at a faster rate of 300 percent. Since it is equipped with “LiquidCool technology”, the handset always delivers sustained peak performance without overheating. The Poco F1 smartphone is packed with 4,000mAh battery that carries support for Quick Charge 3.0. It offers 8 hours of gaming, around 6 hours of FHD video playback, nearly 31 hours of talk time and standby time of 15 days.
Xiaomi Poco F1 includes up to 256 GB (UFS 2.1) of internal storage. For additional storage, it is equipped with a microSD card. A modified version of MIUI runs on the Poco F1. It includes a Poco launcher and Turbocharged engine for fast and fluid performance. Xiaomi has promised that Poco branded phones will be treated with faster updates. It includes lot of customizations such as an app drawer that easily categories apps for easier access and it also carries support for icon packs. The customized MIUI that is based on Android 8.1 Oreo has been optimized to launch popular apps quickly, smoothly run apps in the foreground and offer fluid gesture-based navigation.
Cameras and Connectivity
The 12-megapixel Sony IMX363 sensor (borrow from Xiaomi Mi 8) hat a massive pixel size of 1.4micron coupled with 5-megapixel secondary sensor is present on the backside of the Poco F1. It is equipped with features like Dual Pixel Autofocus, real-time AI photography and dual-LED flash. On the front side is a 20-megapixel selfie camera (again borrowed from Mi 8) which is also powered with AI for capturing enhanced selfie shots.
The Poco F1 is one of the first devices that carries support for 4G+ that combines with different network frequencies for faster connectivity. The other connectivity features available on the Poco F1 include dual VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, USB-C and 3.5mm audio jack. It is also equipped with Dirac HD Sound along with dual Smart PA for amazing audio experience.
Xiaomi Poco F1 Pricing, Variants and Availability
The different variants and pricing of the Xiaomi Poco F1 are:
- 64 GB storage + 6 GB RAM – Rs. 20,990 (~$300)
- 128 GB storage + 6 GB RAM – Rs. 23,999 (~$343)
- 256 GB storage + 8 GB RAM – Rs. 28,999 (~$415)
- Armoured Edition model with 256 GB storage + 8 GB RAM – Rs. 29,999 (~$429)
Through the first-day sale that will take place on Mi.com and Flipkart at 12 PM on Aug. 29, the above variants of the Xiaomi Poco F1 can be availed with an instant discount of Rs. 1,000. The offer is available only for HDFC credit card users. The following screenshots the discounted price of the variants:
Poco F1 buyers can also take advantage of up to Rs. 8000 instant benefits and up to 6TB high speed data through Reliance Jio. Xiaomi is providing a free super cost case along with the handset. Some of the other accessories that will be available for Poco F1 include ultra-slim hard case for Rs. 399 (~$6) and durable and scratch -resistant Armour case for Rs. 799 (~$11). Xiaomi will be also selling replaceable Poco official skins for Rs. 299 (~$5).
Xiaomi will be holding dedicated launch events on Aug. 27 in three global cities such as Jakarta, Hong Kong and Paris. The Chinese firm has also confirmed that it will be bringing the Poco F1 smartphone in 50 global markets.
