Xiaomi announces new flagship smartphone at an unbelievable price

There are also stereo speakers and headphone jack on board, which is more than can be said for many more expensive phones in 2018. While this new brand is called as POCO in India, it will be called as POCOPHONE in the worldwide markets.

Xiaomi today held the global unveiling of their new sub-brand – POCO – with its first smartphone, the POCO F1.

The Poco F1 has been launched in India at a starting price of Rs 20,999 for the base 6GB RAM and 64GB storage version. This is for the base 6GB RAM and 64GB storage variant. The 6/128GB version goes to Rs. 23,999 ($343) and the 8/256GB version is Rs. 28,999 ($415) with the Armoured Edition costing an extra Rs. 1,000. The top-end model comes with sturdier Kevlar, but overall looks is a bit underwhelming.

Moving onto the design, this is the area where Poco F1 disappoints. OnePlus 6, on the other hand, aims to mimic the flagship phones with glass back panel. It comes with a 6.18-inch LCD display with Full HD+ resolution and 18:9 aspect ratio. Apart from that, OEMs such as OnePlus, Huawei, and Sony are working on bringing the software updates to some of their high-end phones as well. Which also includes slight tweaking in the MIUI launcher. POCO F1 get a 4000mAh cell, which is said to sustain 8-hours of continuous gaming. After running benchmarks 6 times with an ambient temperature of 35 degree celsius, the F1 still manages to score 277,350 on Antutu versus 273,993 for the OnePlus 6.

The two phones also have a “function-over-fashion” charm to them. Talking about the processor, the device packs top-notch Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor as seen on other flagship smartphones. OnePlus 6 has same chipset clocked at the same speed and graphics. XDA Developers spotted the phone on the US FCC site and let everybody know about the “mysterious device by Xiaomi featuring a Snapdragon 845 SoC with 8GB RAM”. And we haven’t tested the Pocophone F1 yet.

As far as camera is concerned, the Xiaomi Poco F1 offers a selfie camera of 20-megapixel sensor with beautification feature. That being true, it hasn’t managed to crack the premium Rs 30,000 plus price bracket. It also enables a semblance of splash resistance which can take care of minor spills or the odd rainy day.

You can buy this device from 29th of this month in India.

The Poco F1 will start at just INR20,999 (around $300) and boasts a quite remarkable spec sheet for the money. Performance wise, both the devices are equally matched.