You could buy two Poco F1 phones for the price of a OnePlus 6T, should you?

OnePlus and Poco (Xiaomi) are busy pushing the boundaries of smartphone pricing, but their plans for this are taking them in diametrically opposite directions.

On the one hand, you have OnePlus 6T , which offers a plethora of features and killer internals, but with prices going up to Rs 45,000, you will start questioning your loyalty to the brand.

On the other hand, you have the Poco F1 , which is light on features but every bit as powerful as the 6T. And with a price tag of Rs 20,000, you’ll wonder why you’d ever need to spend more on a smartphone.

Here’s how they stack up:

Performance: Tie

They’re both running the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 and they’re both offering 6 GB and 8 GB RAM options. The SD845 is the fastest chip you can get if you’re not Apple and 6 GB of RAM is way more than anyone will need on a phone this year.

Both phones perform at par and there’s no discernible difference in the fluidity of the UI and the responsiveness of gaming.

In terms of benchmarks, the OnePlus 6T has a slight edge over the Poco F1, but there seems to be no real-world benefit to that edge. The Poco F1 also tends to run slightly cooler after extended gaming sessions.

Camera: OnePlus 6T

OnePlus has done a commendable job with their cameras and the 6T easily shoots past the Poco F1. The Poco F1 only offers a wide-angle lens on the rear, paired with a depth sensor, while the OnePlus 6T goes all out with a 16 MP and 20 MP dual camera with 1x and 2x zoom.

Images captured on the OnePlus are sharper and far more colourful than the ones on the F1. If it’s a camera you want, the Poco F1 is definitely not the phone for you. But then again, neither is the OnePlus 6T. At Rs 40,000, the 6T is selling in the same price bracket as the Pixel 2 XL, which, as everyone knows, comes with a stunning rear camera system.

Display: Tie

OnePlus does offer a gorgeous, high contrast OLED display, but it’s calibrated that display for oversaturated colours. Oranges look red, it’s that bad. At the same time, there’s also the problem of brightness levels, with saturation falling sharply with a decrease in brightness.

On the other hand, the Poco F1’s IPS LCD has very accurate colours and the same maximum brightness. Its contrast ratio is no match for the 6T’s OLED, but the better colours make up for any shortcomings on that front. The problem with the Poco F1 is that its display has terrible viewing angles. At anything other than head-on, the display is tinted blue and red.

The 6T’s display is larger, 6.41 inches to F1’s 6.18 inches, but it’s not meaningfully larger than the Poco F1’s display.

Features: Tie

Both phones have trade-offs, and in the features department, it’s all about the features you can’t live without, and the compromises you’re willing to make.

The 6T has an OLED display that has better contrast and viewing angles, but it’s oversaturated and has issues at low brightness. It has an eye-catching fingerprint scanner, but that scanner is also slow and unreliable. The tiny notch is a plus, as is support for Dash Charging, which can fully charge your phone in just one hour. Oh, and it’s running Android 9.

The Poco F1, on the other hand, has a more pleasant LCD, but one with poor viewing angles. The fingerprint scanner is on the back but it’s much faster and far more reliable. The F1’s base storage option is only 64 GB, but you can just toss in a memory card and gain an additional 256 GB.

The F1 also has a larger, 4,000 mAh battery and a headphone jack. The downside is that the phone only supports Quick Charge 3.0, which takes twice as long as Dash Charge when juicing up the phone.

The notch on the F1 is larger, but it houses an infra-red face unlock camera, which means it can even work at night. Sadly, the F1 is restricted to Android 8, but an update is on the way.

Design: OnePlus 6T

The OnePlus 6T is easily the more modern looking phone. The notch is small and elegant, the bezels are relatively small, and the overall finish is just better. The glass back is a bonus, in terms of design and feel anyway.

The Poco F1 just looks old-fashioned in comparison. The notch is huge, bezels are huge, the chin is prominent and the display doesn’t merge as smoothly with the body. The plastic body doesn’t help all that much with the feel of the phone either.

Overall, the F1 isn’t ugly, but it’s by no means as elegant as the OnePlus 6T.

OnePlus 6T or Poco F1?

The OnePlus 6T wins this duel, but not by much. It’s a better-designed phone with more features and a much better camera, but its benefits aren’t worth 2x the Poco F1’s price.

The Poco F1 is the perfect phone for users who don’t care about gimmicks or a great camera. For such users, the Rs 17,999 saved is a huge deal.

The problem with the 6T is that while it does win this duel, it’s pricing means that it’s facing off against last year’s flagships and phones like the LG G7 .

If you want our advice, ignore both these phones and just buy the OnePlus 6 . All it’s missing is the 6T’s gimmicky fingerprint reader.

And while you’re still here, here’s a quick video review of the OnePlus 6T: