The smartphone market is an amazing place. Even though traditional flagships have gone up in price, it’s crazy how much computing power one can purchase with only a budget of around ₹35000. Phones like the OnePlus 6, the Asus Zenfone 5Z and the Honor 10 showed us that high-end specs weren’t only associated with high-end specs and garnered immense attention from the average smartphone buyer.

To take on these great offerings, Xiaomi launched the first phone under their Poco subbrand, the F1. It is the cheapest phone powered by the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, and at a starting price of just about ₹19999, it seems to be the best offering in the ultimate buyer’s market.

Build And Design

The Poco F1 has a very generic design. It comes with a complete plastic build, and while the polycarbonate back mimics the look of metal well, it falls short compared to other devices in the same price range. It lacks a premium feel, but on the flip side, the plastic back fares better during drops and scratches when compared to a glass back. The polycarbonate back is available in Graphite Black, Steel Blue, and Rosso Red.

If you’re looking for something fancier, the 6/128GB and 8/256GB variants have an “Armoured Edition” for ₹1000 more than the polycarbonate counterparts which offer a Kevlar fabric back which is more durable and offers a more sturdy and premium look and finish.

All variants come with an aluminum frame. The power and volume keys are present on the right side, while the dual-SIM hybrid slot is on the left, with support for 2 nano-SIMS or one nanoSIM and one micro SD Card for expandable storage. It has a speaker on the bottom, which is assisted by the earpiece to replicate a surround sound experience. On the bottom is also a USB-C port, with support for the industry standard Qualcomm Quick-Charge 4+. On the top is the fan-favourite Headphone jack, a dying trend in 2019. For unlocking the phone securely, the F1 features a traditional fingerprint sensor at the back and also includes an IR depth sensor along with the front camera module for secure face scanning and unlocking. It features a pretty big notch up top, which is a topic for debate. It houses the proximity and ambient light sensors, as well as the IR sensors, along with the front camera and the earpiece.

The Display

The Poco F1 features a big 5.99-inch IPS LCD display, with a resolution of 1080 x 2246 pixels. With a pixel density of 416 dpi, it is very sharp, and the pixels are indistinguishable, although the colours aren’t as vibrant as other smartphones with OLED panels. For the price, the device features a great LCD panel, with good viewing angles and an above average maximum brightness which is good enough to use outdoors.

Performance and Specifications

The F1 may be average in terms of its build and display, but one area where it definitely shines is performance. It is packed with the Octa-core Snapdragon 845, paired with the Adrena 630 and the addition of liquid cooling means that the F1 can handle everything thrown at it and more. It comes in 3 memory variants – 6GB/64GB, 6GB/128GB and 8GB/256GB.

On the battery front too,  the Poco F1 shines with its mammoth 4000 mAh battery, which paired with battery optimizations of Android P make for great battery life. With moderate use, it should easily last you a day and a half. The phone is bundled with a 9V/2A charger which outputs at 18W, but it supports charging up to 27W.

The IR sensor and the fingerprint sensor work really well, and the only big omission in terms of sensors seems to be NFC.

Cameras

The Poco F1 sports a dual camera on the back, with AI capabilities. The Primary sensor is a 12MP shooter, and the secondary 5MP sensor helps with depth sensing and portrait shots. The camera has good sharpness, but tends to oversaturate photos. The overall colour reproduction is on the warmer side, but this tends to produce photos which are more pleasing to the eye. Depth sensing and edge detection have been areas which Xiaomi has continuously improved upon via software in each iteration of their previous device, and the Poco F1 is very good in these areas. It seems that Xiaomi has almost mastered portraits on a budget.

The camera quality is average is poor to low lighting conditions. The overexposure sometimes results in botched photos, but details and sharpness are good enough.

The 20MP front camera uses pixel binning to produce photos with great details and colours. The photos are more than adequate for social media but don’t expect to be blown away.

Overall the cameras on the Poco F1 are great for the price and punch above their weight, but aren’t exceptional.

Software

The Poco F1 comes with Android Oreo 8.1, but is upgradeable to MIUI 10 based on Android P. On top of MIUI, it runs a custom Poco launcher which is meant to run more like Stock Android.

MIUI offers a lot of customization, and Poco launcher just packs those features together and provides a more stock aesthetic, attracting fans of both MIUI and stock Android. The UI has some shortcomings like an issue with the notifications which often don’t show up in the status bar, but the software experience, in general, feels quite polished and is feature rich.

Final Thoughts

The Poco F1 is an impressive phone. It checks almost every box that one would expect from a premium mid-range phone, and the compromises that it makes are well justified. At a starting price of ₹19,999, the F1 offers extremely good performance and battery life, good cameras, and display. The build could be better, but the Kevlar versions seem to take care of that issue too.

The F1 is good at a lot of things, but great at a few. It is a good phone, but a great deal. At its current price, it is a great offering while considering phones like the OnePlus 6 and 6T, the Honor 10 and View 20 and the Asus Zenfone 5z. With features like 4K recording at 60FPS and Widevine L1 certification being promised in future software updates, and also the promise of the phone getting Android Q, it seems like a very good offering, especially since it has been getting regular price cuts and has been enlisted additional exchange offers during festivals and online sales.

The Poco F1 is an ideal phone for anyone looking for a reliable performer with great battery life on a budget. It is one of the few cases where being a Jack of all trades, but a master of none play to its advantage.