Earlier this month we were introduced to Poco, a new sub-brand from major Android device maker Xiaomi. Now we're meeting Poco's first smartphone.
The Poco F1 is the newest affordable flagship smartphone. Its high-end feature set includes a Snapdragon 845 processor with liquid cooling tech, 6.18-inch 2246x1080 display with 18.7:9 aspect ratio (and notch), and up to 8GB of RAM. Like many other smartphones on the market, the Poco F1 is equipped with a dual rear camera setup that includes a 12MP primary sensor with f/1.9 aperture, 1.4um large pixels, dual pixel autofocus and a secondary 5MP sensor. These cameras offer portrait mode with background blurring, and Poco has included EIS for video capture, too.
Around front, the Poco F1 offers a 20MP camera with AI portrait mode, AI scene detection, and face recognition. There's a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top of the device, a USB-C port on the bottom, and a hybrid SIM slot that supports two SIM cards or one SIM card and a microSD card. Poco has included a rear fingerprint reader and IR face unlock for added security, giving the F1 an infrared light sensor and infrared camera for improved face unlocking. Powering the whole package is a 4000mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 support.
On the software side, the Poco F1 runs Android 8.1 Oreo below Xiaomi's custom MIUI user interface. Poco says that it plans to offer regular patches and updates from Google and that the Poco F1 will receive an update to Android P in the future.
The Poco F1 will launch in India as well as Indonesia, Hong Kong, and France. It'll be available in a few different variants, starting at ₹20,999 ($301 USD) for the model with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of built-in storage. Moving up to the 6GB/128GB model will cost ₹23,999 ($344 USD), while the 8GB/256GB version will cost ₹28,999 ($415 USD). The top-end model is known as the Poco F1 Armoured Edition and comes with 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and a back panel made of Kevlar, and it'll cost ₹29,999 ($430 USD).
The first phone from Xiaomi sub-brand Poco looks like an interesting device. There may have been a couple of corners cut to help keep the price down — a report from The Verge notes that the Poco F1 is missing an oleophobic coating on its screen and that the speaker sounds a bit tinny during calls — but overall this looks like a pretty strong package, especially at a starting price of $300 USD. It's unlikely that we'll see the Poco F1 in the U.S., but in India and other markets where the phone will be sold, this definitely looks like a device to check out.
