The Xiaomi Pocophone F1 (Xiaomi Poco F1 in India) is a smartphone developed by Xiaomi Inc, announced on 22 August 2018 in New Delhi, India.[2] It is part of Xiaomi's line of mid-range devices. The device is available globally in limited numbers, except for India where it enjoys wide availability.[3][4][5] The Pocophone was often considered to be a flagship model of the Redmi line, although officially marketed as a separate and distinct model. It was superseded by the Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro and Redmi Note 8 Pro in 2019.
Specifications
Hardware
The Pocophone F1 runs on a Snapdragon 845 (10 nm) processor with an Adreno 630 to handle graphics. It features a 6.18" IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen screen with an aspect ratio of 18.7:9 and a resolution of 1080 x 2246 pixels. The display also has a wide notch at the top. There is also the Gorilla Glass protection but exact version was not confirmed.[6]
Camera
Backside of Pocophone
The Pocophone F1 has dual rear cameras based on Sony's EXMOR RS (stacked CMOS) IMX363 1/2.55" sensor with 12 MP, f/1.9 aperture and 1.4 µm pixel size. It has dual pixel Phase Detection Auto Focus (PDAF). The secondary camera acts as a depth sensor with 5 MP, aperture f/2.0 and pixel size of 1.12 µm and a dual-LED flash. The camera has HDR and panorama options. Video can be made in 2160p@60fps, 1080p@60fps (gyro-EIS), or 1080p@960fps mode. The camera has a manual mode as well; users can adjust white balance (presets and light temperature), set a shutter speed (1/1000s to 32s) and ISO (100-3200). There is also a manual focus with focus peaking. A software update in January 2019 added 960fpsslo-mo video recording and night mode.[7]
At the front, the device features a 20 MP selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture and 0.9 µm pixel size, which has HDR software and analytic capabilities coupled with 2μm large pixel (4-in-1 Super Pixel) technology. Selfie software includes AI Beautify 4.0 and precise bokeh effects. Video can be recorded at 1080p@30fps. There is also an infrared light sensor and infrared camera for facial recognition.[8]
Both the rear and front camera offer AI photography, detecting up to 206 different scenes across 25 categories on the rear cameras. The Pocophone F1 also featured India specific scenes AI optimizations.[9]
Pictures can be taken in JPEG or RAW format (RAW in DNG format is available on ″Open Camera″ application). Pictures do have a watermark when taken on this phone.
Memory
The Pocophone F1 comes with internal storage options of 256GB/8GB RAM (China version) or 64/128 GB with 6 GB RAM; both have expandable memory through a microSD card up to 256 GB which uses up the second SIM slot.
The Pocophone F1 has a 4000 mAh Li-Po battery.[5] The battery is 18W ″Quick Charge™ 3.0″ type developed by Qualcomm[10] where charging (USB Type-C port) is vastly superior to standard USB. It has 94 h of endurance as tested by GSMarena.[8]
Sales
Since it was announced in August 2018, it instantly became Xiaomi's bestseller with 700,000 units sold until 6 December 2018. It was the top rated smartphone of Q3 2018 in India.[11]
Issues
Early copies of the phone had screen bleeding issues. Some users of the international version of the phone reported issues related to an oversensitive screen.[12]
Reception
The Pocophone F1 received very positive reviews. It is commonly mentioned as a flagship smartphone at a bargain price.[4] Among the pros are a good camera and a strong battery.[5]
The Pocophone F1 was the runner-up of MKBHD's blind smartphone camera test in 2018.[13] It also received a score of 91 from DxOMark, placing it in between the iPhone 8 and the Google Pixel.[14]
