The Flagship Killer is Here! The Pocophone F1

The Pocophone F1

Xiaomi recently announced its new phone, the Pocophone. It offers amazing specifications for an amazing price. So here's a run down about what's good and what's bad about this phone!

Firstly Pocophone is a sub-company by Xiaomi that made its first phone, the Pocophone F1.

What's so special about it?

The reason the internet is going crazy about the Pocophone F1 is because of its killer price for its killer specifications! The F1 offers flagship hardware like Snapdragon 845, 8GB RAM, 4000 mAh Battery, and much more for just $300 USD

But how's the phone it self?

The Pocophone has the same hardware as you would expect from a modern high end smartphone. It features a Snapdragon 845, 8GB RAM, 4000 mAh battery life, 6.18 inch screen, Dual 12 MP and 5 MP camera and a single 20 MP front camera. The Pocophone F1 has decent build quality as well. There are 2 versions of it, one is an 'army version' with a Kevlar Back and the other is just a normal version with plastic, which doesn't feel cheap at all. We get that it isn't made up of a fancy material like glass, but that's fine for 2 reasons. Firstly it helped Xiaomi cut down cost and secondly in our opinion it has better grip and durability compared to glass backs.

What's in the box?

In the box you get a charging adapter, a USB-C charging cable the Phone itself and a blackish TPU case. The case included isn't going to help you a ton protecting your phone, but it's a nice add on for a phone this cheap.

Performance

In terms of performance this phone is an absolute beast for its price. You get all the hardware you would normally get in a phone of at least $500 US. This phone as mentioned before is rocking the latest Snapdragon 845 and 6/8 GB RAM, which is really cool for a phone this cheap. We haven't got our hands on the phone yet but checking out some other blogs and hands on videos, the phone performs as good if not better than other flagship phones. One really cool thing that this phone has is liquid cooling. This is a feature you would mostly find in gaming phones which are well over $500 US, and this thing is just $300 US. The liquid cooling really does help when you're doing CPU intensive tasks like gaming or maybe rendering a video. Firstly it helps keep the CPU cool, so the phone doesn't feel hot while gaming. Secondly it probably increases the performance by helping the CPU not throttle and perform better with higher clock speeds. We've seen similar technology in the Note 9 as well.

The Cameras

The Poco F1 has 3 cameras, two at the rear and 1 at the front.The rear cameras aren't the best shooters in the market but for 300 bucks they do an amazing job. Youtuber, Mrwhosetheboss did a video comparing the cameras of the Xiaomi Mi A2, The Poco F1 and the One plus 6. And in our opinion the Poco F1 did an amazing job, especially compared to the Mi A2. However it did lack OIS (Optical Image Stabilization), which the One Plus had but we really can't complain here for the price we are getting here. Luckily the Poco F1 does feature Electronic Stabilization, which is much better then having nothing. Since the Poco F1 has 2 cameras, it has a portrait mode which works really well and some times even better then some phones. The Rear cameras also beat One Plus in low light photography. Coming to the front shooter. The front camera is a whopping 20 MP camera which does a pretty good job in taking pictures. Another thing we saw in the front is an Infra-red scanner. Now Xiaomi added this so it helps unlock your phone with your face in the dark. Though it's a copied idea from Apple, in our opinion it's still a really cool add on for $300 US.

Screen Quality

The Poco-F1 has a 6.18 inch bright IPS LCD display wit Gorilla glass 3. The Screen looks pretty decent and rocks the same 18:9 aspect ratio. The screen is responsive and is what you would expect from a good smartphone in 2018.

Sound Quality

Another department where the Poco F1 stands out is the Sound Quality. It has dual speakers that sound really good. Many flagships even today sometimes don't have dual speakers. They sound pretty decent as well even at high volumes.

Battery

The Poco F1 has a huge 4000 mAh battery that enough to last at least a day of heavy usage. Its one of the biggest you can find in the market. Even the very high end phones don't have such a big battery like the Poco. So with that huge battery it competes with the Note 9 which is 3 times more expensive than the Poco F1. Its really amazing to see how Xiaomi fitted such beastly specs in such a low price. We just hope that things in the Poco F1 don't fail like they did in the Note 7! The Poco F1 also supports fast charging, so it does charge really quickly with the included power-brick.

So the Pocophone is definitely and impressive smartphone, because its killer bang for buck. The phone has amazing specifications for a very low price. Before this One Plus was known for its cheap price and top-notch specs. However we yet have to see if it stays reliable enough and good enough to stand up to its competition in terms of speed as One Plus is known to have a very minimalist software and fast speeds, but Xiaomi on the other hand doesn't have the best reputation for it Mi Ui