Xiaomi’s long-rumored Pocophone F1 has been officially unveiled in India. This now adds a new competitor to the ever-growing smartphone market as well as bolsters Xiaomi’s lineup by providing even better value for money smartphones. And that can be seen inside the phone’s hardware.
The Xiaomi Pocophone F1 will go on sale with a price tag starting from INR. 20,999 in India with the powerful Snapdragon 845 chipset. That’s a real deal for users looking to dive into flagships without emptying their pocket.
The phone has a huge 6.18-inch LCD display that results in a Full HD+ resolution with 18.7:9 aspect ratio. Although the F1 still follows the notch route, Xiaomi has cramped in the infrared sensor for face unlock. The front’s also protected with an unknown version of Gorilla Glass.
Alongside the front, the back is equally impressive as well. The polycarbonate back of the Pocophone F1 has been complemented with dual 12MP + 5MP (f/1.9) Sony IMX363 sensors. This is something that resembles Xiaomi’s own Mi 8 SE, at least on paper.
Selfies are taken care by a 20MP f/20 lens. The selfie camera is paired with an infrared sensor — for scanning your face — and a dedicated lens that reads the light reflecting from the face.
Internally, as known, the phone’s powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset. This makes the F1 one of the cheapest phone to come with this flagship grade chipset. The octa-core chipset is clocked at 2.8GHz and has either 6GB or 8GB of RAM. Storage wise, the phone is available in three variant, including the 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB. What’s interesting is that the phone follows a common trend of implementing a liquid-cooling technology which should rather cool it down even more.
The Xiaomi Pocophone F1 boots on Android 8.0 Oreo on top of MIUI 9.6. However, the UI is quite different from what we are used to seeing from a Xiaomi phone. Dubbed as MIUI for Poco, the UI is similar to Nova Launcher but with some customizations. The phone is also expected to receive the Android 9.0 Pie update within just three months.
Impressively, enough the phone comes with stereo speakers: one at the bottom and the other as the earpiece. And powering all these things is a gigantic 4,000mAh battery.
The Pocophone F1 has three color variants, including the Steel Blue, Graphite Black, and Rosso Red. There’s also another unique Armored Edition of the phone that has Kevlar made back offering better scratch resistance and grip.
The powerful specs of the phone are equally subsidized with mouth-watering price tags. The 6/64GB variant starts at INR. 20,999 (NRs. 33,000 approx), the 6/128GB is priced at INR. 23,999 (NRs. 38,000 approx), and the 8/256GB will cost you INR. 28,999 (NRs. 46,000 approx). The Armored Edition, though, will be available in 8/256GB configuration only. It will set you back INR. 29,999 (NRs. 47,000 approx).
Availability of the phone outside India is yet to be unveiled. However, the company has promised to reveal it soon on August 27.
