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It’s been a long time coming, but we are finally on the verge of seeing what could be the first, truly competitive rival to the OnePlus 6. The phone will be called the Poco F1 and is the first phone from Xiaomi’s new Pocophone brand. From what we know of the phone, we’re expecting to see a Snapdragon 845-powered beast that features liquid cooling, 6-8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. We’re also expecting to see dual cameras on the rear and a 20 MP selfie camera. More importantly, it’s the price that we’re more concerned about: It’s expected to be the cheapest Snapdragon 845-powered phone yet.
Pocophone Poco F1 launch highlights: OnePlus is doomed, prices start at Rs 20,999
Ahead of the launch, here is all you need to know about Xiaomi’s sub-brand’s new smartphone.
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The event is done, but the real fun is just getting started
Xiaomi’s just turned the market on its head. Who’s going to buy any other phone?
Anyway, thanks for joining us on this incredible launch.
Do tune in to our Twitter feed for more updates from the launch event. Nimish Sawant is at the event and should soon be entertaining us with his insightful first impressions of the device.
We need a moment to digest this
When’s it available?
Poco F1 will go on sale online on Flipkart and Mi.com at 12 PM on 29 August
Cases galore
Introductory price: Rs 19,999
The base model will sell for a rock-bottom Rs 19,999. It’s quite literally the cheapest Snapdragon 845-powered phone in the world!
Killer prices
6 GB + 64 GB: Rs 20,999
6 GB + 128 GB: Rs 23,999
8 GB + 256 GB: Rs 28,999
Poco F1 Armoured Edition: 8 GB + 256 GB for 29,999
OnePlus is doomed
OnePlus 6: 6+64 for Rs 34,999
Poco F1? 6 GB + 64 GB for Rs 20,999
Made in India
Every Pocophone will be made in India
The price, where’s the price?
Xiaomi is boring us with a lecture on their after-sales support.
Price, price, price, price, price, price!
All the specs
Pocophone F1: Specifications
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845
LiquidCool Technology
4,000 mAh battery
8 GB + 256 GB option
12 MP + 5 MP rear camera
20 MP selfie camera
Infrared face unlock
MIUI designed for POCO
“Fast and fluid”
Faster updates
The phone ships with Android 8.1, but Android 9 Pie will arrive later this year. The phone also supports Project Treble for faster updates.
App swiping is 21% faster in the new MIUI
Better resource allocation
Faster for foreground apps
A feature called dynamic resource allocation improves the performance of background apps, which Xiaomi claims is really good for gaming.
Network bandwidth to the foreground app is also prioritised.
Faster app launch
MIUI optimisations mean that apps will launch much faster. Up to 28% faster in some cases.
It beats Oxygen OS (OnePlus 6) in Xiaomi’s benchmarks.
Group icons by colour
Group apps automatically
Poco Launcher beta
The launcher will be available in beta next week on the Google Play Store
A custom MIUI for Poco F1
The phone will feature a custom version of MIUI. There’s now an app drawer via the Poco Launcher, which also features a bottom-mounted search box.
Apps can be automatically grouped into categories. You can even group apps by colour (this is actually really cool).
Low light selfies do look stunning
20 MP front camera
The camera is the same as the one on the Mi 8. It also features pixel-binning to improve low-light performance.
10-scene AI-based detection is included.
Daylight HDR
Any photo with a dog is cute, right?
Image samples
AI camera
We used Xiaomi’s camera team to fine-tune the AI camera on the Poco F1. This gave us a huge head start in development, says Mani.
Another look at the camera sensor
Shots fired
Mani claims that the OnePlus 6 really struggles in low light, that the Poco F1 does a far better job at this.
Poco F1: Rear camera
Cameras: 12 MP + 5 MP on the rear
The rear camera is a 12 MP Sony IMX363 sensor paired with a 5 MP Samsung sensor.
You also get dual-pixel AF and 12 mn focus points
Here are all the colour variants
Poco F1 Armoured Edition
Yes, it’s armoured. The phone will apparently be covered in Kevlar aramid fibre,
This is not a glass phone, Kevlar is cooler than glass, says Mani.
Three Colours
The phone will be available in Rosso Red, Steel Blue, Graphite Black
Amazing audio
The phone features Dirac HD audio, which tunes audio for better output. The earpiece doubles as a speaker,
Face Unlock works in less than 0.4 sec
6.1-inch display, IR face unlock
The phone features a 6.1-inch display with a brightness of 500 nits and a contrast ratio of 1,500:1, claims Xiaomi.
The notch supports face unlock via an infrared camera. The notch also houses a 20 MP camera.
Design: Do people really want glass**?**
When we asked people if they put a case on their phone, most people said yes.
The case doesn’t make sense. Why put a glass back on a phone that’s going to be in a case?
That’s why the phone is made of a single piece of plastic (polycarbonate, says Mani). The plastic body is supported by a metal frame.
Poco F1 vs iPhone X: Gaming
A quick summary:
