Poco F1 – you’ll never know what hit you! [Review]

Poco is Xiaomi’s new sub-brand. Xiaomi Global has many sub-brands to sell different tech and lifestyle products like Mijia, Yi, etc… This new sub-brand, Poco, is to sell affordable premium flagship mobiles. In India, Xiaomi is known for its mid-range mobiles and to break away from this image, a sub-brand strategy is required. Poco has launched F1 as their first mobile in India and it is called PocoFone in other markets. Poco F1 is the cheapest mobile with Snapdragon 845. It rivals with the likes of Oneplus 6, Zenfone 5z and other affordable flagship mobiles in the market. The starting price of the Poco F1 in India is Rs 20999 and this pricing has taken everyone by surprise. We have been testing this mobile for a while and here is what we think about it.

In the Box

• Poco F1 Mobile
• TPU Case
• USB C Cable
• 9V 2A Quick Charger
• SIM Ejector Pin
• User Manuals

Design

You might have already read from multiple sources that this mobile has a polycarbonate plastic body. I prefer mobiles with such choices of build materials, mainly for its durability. Poco F1 uses high-quality polycarbonate and it does not feel cheap by any means. Glass would have made it slippery and less durable. Metal would not have helped with the liquid cooling mechanism for heat dissipation. Also, those materials would have increased the cost of the mobile. Poco F1 gives you a good grip while holding in the hands. It is very compact and can easily slip in pockets or bags.

It does not have the IR blaster like other Xiaomi mobiles. But it has an IR sensor in its large display notch for face unlock. The notch also houses the front camera, proximity sensor, and earpiece. The face unlock on this mobile is insanely fast and accurate. Though it has a fingerprint sensor, I used this mobile without registering a fingerprint for a long time. The fingerprint sensor is fast and accurate as well. There is no front flash for the camera.

Poco F1 has dual speakers. The speaker at the bottom is loud and powerful, reaching not have 104.7 db. The secondary speaker is the earpiece and it is weak, yet it is a good addition. It gives you a seamless experience while gaming or watching a movie. Audio over the 3.5 mm jack is of good quality. I listened to music from all genres with my reference earphones and found the launched from the mobile to be tuned accurately.

Display

Poco F1 has an IPS LCD panel supporting 2246 x 1080 FHD+ resolution. The display is 6.18 inch diagonally and has about 18.7:9 aspect ratio. The bezels are thin on all sides, except the bottom chin. The mobile has small dimensions owing to the full-screen display. The notch on the Poco F1 is disturbingly large, but it can be disabled at will, by hiding it from display settings. The display could have been an AMOLED panel, like other flagships, but the LCD used here is of good quality as well. Readability under direct sunlight is good. Color reproduction is accurate.

Camera

Xiaomi has a very strong imaging team and Poco has borrowed the hardware and software technology from Xiaomi.  It has a dual camera set up at the back. 12 MP primary camera with f/1.9 aperture and the 5 MP depth sensor with f/2.0 aperture. The front camera is a 20 MP sensor with f/2.0 aperture.  The cameras have EIS for video recording and they don’t have OIS. The camera app is MIUI camera app, with AI features for scene recognition, semantic learning for portrait bokeh mode and intelligent beautification mode.  It also has a fully functional pro mode for the advanced users.

The quality of images from the rear camera has a wide dynamic range. The exposure and white balance is spot on. The daylight images have good details and the low light images do not have noise. The shutter speed is fast and the images are sharp. EIS help in getting a stable footage at 1080p, but the mobile is also capable of 4k video shooting. AI scene recognition works flawlessly and the processing is also spot on.  The front camera images are not as sharp as we expected. The high megapixel count could be the reason. You will need to be in a well-lit area for sharp images, else the software processing takes over to give you a smooth shot with all details negated. Considering the price range, this is the best mobile camera when compared to other choices priced under 30k.

Hardware

Poco F1 leaves no stone unturned when it comes to hardware. It has chosen the best of best with no compromise on performance. Snapdragon 845 with Adreno 630 GPU, 6/8 GB LPDDR4 RAM and 64/128 or 256 GB of UFS 2.1 storage, stands out on the spec sheet. I tested out every single dimension and found that the MIUI is best tuned for SD 845 for better performance. The game rendering quality is top-notch with Adreno 630. The RAM used is very fast and efficient for multi-tasking and the storage is very fast. It takes just 42 seconds to transfer a 1.5 GB test file via OTG to internal memory, while Oneplus 6 took 72 seconds. This mobile is insanely fast.

Liquid Cooling

Liquid cooling is not new to mobiles and it has been around for a while. But this is the first time we are seeing this on a mobile under Rs 20k. Liquid cooling technology does not reduce the heating up of the processors, but it helps in effectively dissipate the heat from the processor. It involves a small tube with a special liquid with its head placed on the processor and tail towards the area where it can dissipate the heat. Effectively it does not let the processor throttle its performance.

On the Poco F1, I installed over 15 graphically intense games and played for as long as 1 hour continuously. I never closed the games and they were all running on the background. The gaming performance never changed. The mobile did get warm from 35-degree to a maximum of 45-degree Celcius. Memory management was also clean. Liquid cooling on the Poco F1 is very effective and it makes it a true master of speed.

Software

Poco F1 runs on Android 8.1 with MIUI 9.6 skin on top. It gets all the features of MIUI and additionally, it has a few tricks up its sleeve. The launcher is called Poco Launcher and it gives a stock feel to the mobile. The app icons are on app drawer, unlike app desk on MIUI launcher. Finding the app on the draw is fun as the icons can be grouped by color schemes and also grouped by the type of app on tabs. The icon can be changed with custom icon packs and of course, the entire theme can also be changed with MIUI theme engine. The UI is very fast and the mobile shows no sign of lag. It is aesthetically pleasing and functionally stable.

Battery

Poco F1 has a 4000 mAh battery and yet it is a relatively thin mobile. It can charge from 0 to 60% in less than 45 minutes and it gets fully charged in 90 minutes. It has Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 support and included a QC 3.0 charger in the box. Once fully charged the mobile lasts for over one and half day on moderate usage. It gives a screen on time of over 8 hours on intensive usage. Battery performance on the Poco F1 is impressive.

Poco F1 vs Oneplus 6

When it comes to slaying flagships, Oneplus is the reigning champion. But the Poco F1 is the new killer of flagship killers. Oneplus has been around for a while and this age and experience has helped the Oneplus 6 evolve into a perfect yet affordable flagship device. Poco is just getting started and F1 is inching the gap. Oneplus 6 has a better AMOLED screen and also a sharper camera. F1 also has a good camera, but oneplus 6 has that all around finesse. But again, you pay for what you get and I feel that there is no logical comparison between these two mobiles as they are in a different price segment.

Poco F1 vs Zenfone 5z

Until now, the Zenfone 5z was the cheapest mobile with Snapdragon 845. With a glass body design and a stylish exterior, the 5z looks a lot better than the Poco F1, but not as durable. It also has an LCD display like the F1. Performance is also similar except the liquid cooling advantage on the F1. The camera is where the differences are apparent. The rear camera quality is comparable, but the front camera is superior on the 5z. Also, 5z has OIS and secondary wide-angle camera to its advantage. The camera app is a lot more functional with a bunch of interesting modes, apart from the AI assistance. Battery life is just marginally better on the F1 as the software optimization on the 5z with 3300 mAh battery is good.

Verdict

Poco F1 is the best mobile money can buy you if you are considering any mobile in the range of Rs 15000 to Rs 25000. Frankly, everyone in the mobile industry is scratching their heads and not able to figure out their next move. This is price war at its peak and advantage consumer. When you compare with the competition, it is definitely a better mobile than Xiaomi’s own Mi A2 or Honor Play and Huawei Nova 3i. If you are willing to extend the budget beyond 35k, you must be looking at Asus Zenfone 5z or the Oneplus 6. For Rs 20k, Poco F1 gives you a superior performance and a good camera with great battery life. Poco F1 is a fast mobile. It is the fastest I have seen on an Android to date. Its speed is comparable to the Pixel 2 series mobile. Its lean and mean MIUI gives it a speed advantage over Samsung Galaxy or Note series. This is a flagship device that is affordable for everyone. Poco F1 puts speed in everyone’s pocket. The rest of the competition has to catch up and Poco F1 says “Catch me if you can…”.