In Xiaomi they do not stop still. So much so that they are even willing to compete with themselves. Just a few days ago they surprised us with the presentation of a new brand, POCO, and a new flagship killer for the company, the POCOPHONE F1.
And everything indicates that we are going to hear a lot about this smartphone in the coming months. The analysts are not believing it: a Xiaomi mobile that points to the highest range, with cutting-edge components and an almost ridiculous price for such a beast. Where is the trick?
POCOPHONE F1 in review, a flagship with a polycarbonate case, liquid cooling, 6GB RAM and a good battery
Xiaomi has always made it clear: it prefers a small profit margin and sell a lot, than to have higher profits and a lower market share. This leads it to outperform the offers, not only from its most direct competitors, but from other terminals manufactured by themselves, such as the new one Xiaomi Mi 8.
The key to the POCOPHONE F1, like this in capital letters, is in its plastic casing, which allows you to deliver a lighter phone, leaving room for more battery, and saving a few bucks on glass (or ceramic) backs as well. That they are very pretty, yes, but they are also a magnet for fingerprints.
Design and display
The POCOPHONE F1 is a mobile with a large screen. This translates into a 6.18-inch panel with Full HD + resolution (1080 x 2246p) and a pixel density of 416 ppi.
Nor is the omnipresent notch missing of the iPhone X (which we also see on the Xiaomi Mi 8), in a body with rounded edges and a polycarbonate shell that offers a premium feel free of fingerprints. There is also room for him 3.5mm minijack, and a USB Type-C port.
The F1 has dimensions of 7.5 x 0.8 x 15.5 cm, a more than acceptable weight of 182 grams, and is available in graphite black and steel blue.
Power and performance
The new Xiaomi terminal has hardware for the most demanding palates. On the one hand, we have Qualcomm's most powerful processor, the Snapdragon 845 Octa Core at 2.8GHz, GPU Adreno 630 at 710 MHz, 6GB of LPDDR4x RAM, 128GB of internal space (also available version “Light”Of 64GB) expandable up to 256GB via SD. As an operating system we find Android 8.1 Oreo with the customization layer "MIUI for POCO”(A variant of Xiaomi's classic MIUI optimized for POCOPHONE line phones).
Although undoubtedly the great novelty is the inclusion of liquid cooling technology, something that will help the terminal to heat up less during demanding tasks such as video games, heavy apps or multitasking.
This is what the "MIUI for POCO" interface looks like.For performance purposes, the POCOPHONE F1 offers a result of 265,152 points in the Antutu benchmarking tool. A stratospheric figure for a mobile of 300 euros.
Camera and battery
When it comes to the camera, the F1 has opted for a triplet: 2 cameras on the rear + one for selfies. In the back area we find a double lens of 12MP + 5MP (Sony IMX363) with f / 1.9 aperture for low light environments, 1.4 μm pixels and dual pixel autofocus for the main lens. The secondary 5MP lens has an aperture of f / 2.1 and a 1.12 µm pixel. All equipped with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to identify objects and improve captures.
The front camera does not fall short either, with a 20MP AI lens for portrait mode and timer. In short, a camera that hovers a little below that of the Xiaomi Mi 8, but with features that many would already like.
The battery for its part has received a substantial improvement in relation to the Mi 8. This time, we go to the 4000mAh with fast charge via USB Type-C (Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0). An autonomy that is undoubtedly presented as one of its strengths, since there are not many top of the range that reach this figure, thus managing to stand out notably in this regard.
Price and availability
The Xiaomi POCOPHONE F1 is now available and can be purchased for prices ranging between € 260-270 € on sites like Amazon, GearBest or AliExpress.
See price in Amazon | GearBest | AliExpress
And what do the experts think of this POCOPHONE F1 by Xiaomi?
The reception from the specialized press has been quite warm and generally positive, with some discordant voices. Highlighting all of them the performance and the price over the materials and design of the terminal.
- The Verge: "If you can get past the phone look, and you're just looking for speed and performance, the POCOPHONE F1 has a lot to offer."
- Android Authority: “Clearly, Xiaomi wants to take on the OnePlus 6 and Honor 10, but aside from similar performance at a much lower price, it doesn't offer strong reasons to go for the POCOPHONE F1, which lacks the refinement of its more mature competitors. . "
- Android Central: “The phone itself is excellent, offering value for money that is unmatched in this category. The design won't win any prizes, but it's great to wear on a day-to-day basis. Battery life is excellent, as is performance. "
- Engadget: "The cost reduction does not imply low quality in this case, since the polycarbonate of the POCOPHONE F1 transmits very good sensations in terms of resistance, it does not slip and does not get full of fingerprints."
In short, we are facing a terminal that comes to stir the waters and make more than one nervous. We have the cheapest mobile on the market with the best CPU + RAM combo and the truth is that it will not be easy to fault it if what we are looking for is pure performance.
To cut costs, cheaper materials are used in the case than glass -such as polycarbonate in this case-, a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection that, surely they had plenty in the Xiaomi warehouse, and thus save a few dollars (remember that now we are going for the Gorilla Glass 6), and some speakers that do not stand out especially.
With this and removing other things such as NFC, Xiaomi has managed to deliver a smartphone that, in what is important, meets the mark. To give us an idea, at Kimovil they give it a value for money of 9.9. A mobile that promises to appear in all the pools this year. What do you think?
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