It is no surprise that a brand like Xiaomi offers very competitive terminals at very attractive prices, but what was a surprise was the announcement of the POCOPHONE F1. To start, Xiaomi launched a new sub-brand. And, in addition, he did it with a very complete telephone at the price of demolition. A price that in UK, and contrary to what usually happens, turned out to be very tight: £ 300 for 12 GB cost will be £30 more.
Buy now from Amazon.in Amazon.com
Xiaomi Pochophone F1 what I found is a smartphone that includes hardware similar to its flagship, the Xiaomi Mi 8 that I could also try for a month. Although before talking about hardware, I want to review the design.
This POCOPHONE is not the thinnest terminal on the market, nor the best finish, nor does it has the best construction materials but, with this, I do not mean that it is an ugly or poorly manufactured phone. Simply opt for polycarbonate for the rear, instead of aluminum or glass, and it is slightly wider than other phones in this range. Although this does not necessarily have to worry if you are not a lover of premium design.
In these weeks he has left me with a good feeling in my hand, the weight seems correct for his dimensions although perhaps, if you have a small hand, it costs you to handle it well if you do not use both. In addition, being polycarbonate, I found two plus: the first is that largely forget the tracks and, on the other hand, I noticed that the phone overheats less.
Turning to the screen, remember that it has a 6.18”IPS panel with Full HD + resolution and aspect ratio 18.7: 9, and, of course, with the notch. As for the experience during this month of use, personally it seems to me a correct panel that has certain pros and cons on par.
On the one hand, in terms of brightness, color representation, contrast and experience playing content, no fault. I had no problems with the brightness when I was outdoors, the panel has a good color and contrast calibration although, as MIUI has accustomed us, we have options such as the calibration of these parameters by software. Of course, we are not facing the best panel in the market, and that is logical for this price.
I have been able to play, watch series and movies on Netflix and HBO although, here, comes one of my few cons, and that is that applications like Netflix, HBO or Amazon Prime video cannot be played in Full HD. Although it is something I do on time (it is best to watch the series and movies on a larger screen), it is something I consider interesting to highlight.
And, on the other hand, another against that has to do directly with the panel is the notch. Not the presence of this as such, but, being so large, does not show any notification icon. This is something that has bothered me in these weeks because it forced me to constantly lower the notifications to see if I had something pending.
What I would like to highlight in defense of this “eyebrow” is that, despite its size, I have become accustomed to it. The multimedia content consumption applications are optimized for it and at no time has it bothered me, except in the aforementioned issue of having to scroll to see notifications.
A HARDWARE AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL
If something has caught the attention of this phone, in addition to the price, it has been what hides inside. And is that the POCOPHONE F1 includes the latest Qualcomm processor (Snapdragon 845), 6GB of RAM, 64GB and 128GB storage depending on the model and a liquid cooling system for when the phone is at maximum performance. This set certainly reminds us of high-end phones and finding it on a smartphone of this price is not usual.
Personally, I really wanted to know if I would really fulfill what I promised and, after these weeks, I confirm it: it complies. I have tried it with powerful games, such as the ‘Asphlat 8’ and the ‘PUBG’, and the performance has been very good. Some said the phone was getting hot, but I haven’t noticed anything alarming. After playing Asphalt for 1 hour, for example, I barely noticed a slight temperature rise in the back.
A Launcher who, despite running over MIUI, feels more minimalist and “simple” to use
At first I thought this launcher would be identical to the one that MIUI brings by default but it was not. I found a fairly minimalist launcher, nothing bizarre in terms of colors or extreme customizations, which I appreciate. The typical gestures, tone calibration and screen contrast. Something that I am still missing and waiting for is the face recognition system that, according to Xiaomi, will arrive via OTA soon.
4,000 MAH BATTERY THAT GIVES A LOT
Accompanying this good hardware pack I got a 4,000mAh battery, a considerable amount of mAh that makes the phone somewhat wider than I might expect but, on a daily basis, they are grateful.
SACRIFICE DESIGN IN EXCHANGE FOR GREATER AUTONOMY?
Luckily, I try several smartphones a month and I don’t remember one that, for this price range, gave me the experience that Pocophone has given me in terms of autonomy. The average in screen hours? About 7 h. Of course this is something that depends on each user and how they use their phone but, considering that I work with it, the results are more than acceptable.
In addition, fast loading also helps in this section. With about 30 minutes of charging you can reach 50%, needing only 1.5 hours for the full charge. Again, very good note in this section.
More than correct cameras for the range in which you are.
OUTSTANDING CAMERA FRONT AND BACK:
And, it was time to talk about cameras. On some occasions, going outside with a mid-range smartphone can be a challenge to take a good picture, but I can assure you that this is not the case. For this POCOPHONE, the manufacturer has opted for a double rear camera and a single camera in the front and with good light conditions, the photos we can take have a great level of law assignment help UK detail, realism in the colors and a good contrast with great details and different modes are available too.
And, when the light is not so favorable, the quality of the photos goes down and the noise appears. Using the manual mode, yes, we can save the scene a bit.
As for the front camera, the results are similar to those of the main one: when we have good light, it fulfills its function quite well. Here we do not find the problem of the beauty effect and, in addition, have blurring through software.
IN A NUTSHELL:
In short, my experience with the POCOPHONE F1 has been quite good after these weeks of use. A leading hardware with Qualcomm, a camera that gives a more than decent result (except for the beauty mode problem) and an experience in the autonomy section that has been spectacular.
Without a doubt, and for me, this POCOPHONE F1 is one of the best quality/price smartphones that can be bought so far.