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POCO F1 Initial Impressions: Is it really ‘Master of Speed’ under Rs 30,000?

Poco is a new smartphone sub-brand from Xiaomi dedicated for performance smartphones with super affordable pricing. Poco F1 comes with the industry’s best SoC available right now- Qualcomm Snapdragon 845. Xiaomi also added a liquid cooling system to the smartphone to save it from overheating while gaming.

Poco F1 smartphone comes in three variants and the pricing starts from Rs 20,999 which makes it the most affordable smartphone with Snapdragon 845 chipset. The smartphone pricing goes all the way up to Rs 29,999 for the 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. Here are our initial impressions of the Poco F1 8GB RAM and 256GB storage Armored Edition with premium Kevlar back panel.

Build and Design

The first Poco smartphone looks gorgeous with its Kevlar back panel and it feels premium too. The grip on the smartphone is better than any glass back or metal back smartphones. The smartphone is also sturdy because of its metal frame, the polycarbonate back panel also makes the smartphone lightweight than metal or glass back smartphones.

Poco F1

The Poco F1 has a notch display on the front with a visible chin at the bottom which keeps it out of the “bezel-less” category smartphone. The smartphone comes with a fingerprint sensor on the back with the dual camera module and dual LED flash. The top side has the 3.5 mm audio port, the SIM tray slot is on the left and right side has the volume rocker and power button.

Poco F1

The dual speaker grill is provided on the bottom side with the USB Type C port for charging and data sync. The smartphone overall feels sturdy, if you are a fan of metal or glass back panel, you won’t regret buying the Armored version of the Poco F1.

Display

The Poco F1 comes with a 6.18 inches display which has a notch on the top side holding the front-facing camera and the IR sensor for face scanning. The display is an IPS panel which comes with a resolution of 2246 x 1080p with an 18.7:9 aspect ratio.

Poco F1

The display on Poco F1 performed really great with its wide color gamut and high contrast ratio. We found this display to be better than some other smartphone with the similar price range. The outdoor visibility of this display is also amazing. The viewing angles are not the best on this display which could be a let down for this smartphone.

Camera

Poco F1

Coming to the camera performance, the camera is not the best thing about this smartphone. The smartphone features a dual camera set up on the back including the 12MP + 5MP sensor. The front facing camera is a 20MP sensor which comes with f/2.0 aperture size. The smartphone comes with an AI feature which detects the scenes and enhances the picture accordingly.

The smartphone performed well with the rear camera, the bokeh effect comes out good too, no off edging here. The smartphone lacks any type of stabilization for a camera which increases the need for keeping the camera steady while taking pictures or recording videos. The camera samples are attached

Performance

The Poco F1 is a great smartphone when it comes to gaming because it sported the best hardware you can ever find on a smartphone right now. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor is paired with 8 GB of RAM which is the highest you can find too. The smartphone comes with a high speed 256GB interns storage which almost denies the need of external storage but Poco F1 still comes with a microSD card expansion slot.

When it comes to performance, one question which comes to everyone’s mind is; how is the gaming experience. So, let’s get to the gaming first, the smartphone runs every game smoothly on this smartphone except for the Fortnite (the device is not supported yet.) The smartphone does heat up quickly when gaming but it cools down quickly because of the liquid cooling tech it uses.

If you believe in numbers and proofs then here are the Antutu Benchmark scores, the GFX Bench and 3D Mark refused to work on this smartphone. The score is lower than the typical AnTuTu benchmark score of the OnePlus 6 with 6GB RAM. For in-depth comparisons of Poco F1 and OnePlus 6, follow our social media pages so you will be notified when we do that here.

More Features

The smartphone features a face unlock feature with an IR sensor which is more secure than the front-facing camera dependent face lock. The smartphone can also be unlocked in dark with the same speed as in bright daylight. The fingerprint sensor is also provided for extra security.

The smartphone comes with a huge 4000 mAh battery which comes with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3 support for fast charging. The battery performance is also great, you can play games and watch videos without any battery drain problem for long hours. The temperature sure rises up when you are playing games on this smartphone but it comes down quickly.

Conclusion

The Poco F1 is a great smartphone at this price range and Xiaomi did a great job making a smartphone with perfect features at such price. The Poco F1 smartphone is suitable for everyone whether you need gaming, looks or camera unless you are a fan of the glass body. The smartphone provides value for every single penny you will spend on it.

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Abhishek Bhatnagar

Abhishek Bhatnagar, a known technology blogger & YouTuber from India. A Software Engineer by qualification, now he works as the editor-In-Chief, Webmaster, & Managing Director at Gadgets To Use. He runs a number of other technology websites as well.