Xiaomi POCO F2 Pro launched: More than just a flagship killer

The Pocophone F1 was an extremely important smartphone for Xiaomi in 2018. The price-performance killer was a real flagship for just under $300 and thus drew the attention of many people to Xiaomi for the first time. A successor was denied for a long time, but now everything suddenly went faster than expected. The POCO F2 Pro was introduced and is, as expected, identical in construction to the Xiaomi Redmi K30 Pro. Everyone can probably agree on the POCO F2 Pro!

• POCO F2 Pro
  • at GearBest for $499.99

Technical data of the POCO F2

POCO takes over Redmi K30 series

There were already first leaks at the beginning of 2019, but they more or less proved to be true in the Xiaomi Mi 9T and Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro (Redmi K20 (Pro). For us, the 9T was also regarded as a kind of Poco F2, since, like the first generation, it had a jack connector and a larger battery compared to the flagship (Xiaomi Mi 8). And indeed, Pocophone chose the Redmi K series as the model for the new Pocophone. This has already been done with the Pocophone X2, which is based on the Redmi K30.

POCO continues the Pop-Up

The POCO F2 Pro, for example, has a relatively rimless design, with a diagonal of 6.67 inches it is considerably larger than the s. However, we now use an AMOLED display, of course with a Full HD+ resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels in a 20:9 aspect ratio. This results in a pixel density of 394 ppi, an absolute standard value. Poco speaks of a 92.7% screen-to-body ratio. As it is a kind of “budget flagship”, a higher refresh rate is omitted and the Poco F2 is equipped with a 60 Hz panel. Instead, there is at least an increased touch sample rate of 180 Hz and an average brightness of 800 nit. In addition, there is an HDR 10+ certification.

Poco has also installed a 360° light sensor here, which can intelligently and automatically adjust the brightness to the ambient light. Due to the AMOLED panel, the fingerprint sensor is now located here in the display!

The special feature is the pop-up camera, i.e. the front camera that mechanically moves out of the housing when it is needed. As in the Mi 9T Pro, it sits slightly displaced to the left. Up to now, we have hardly heard anything negative about the Mi 9T Pro, even in long-term experiences, about the functionality of the pop-up camera.

As in the case of the Pocophone F1 and the Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro, the cameras are centrally arranged on the back. But this is now a square arrangement in a circle module, similar to the OnePlus 7T. Underneath there is the LED-flash. We also know it this way from the Redmi K30 Pro. In total there are four different Colorways, which one took over from the K30 Pro: Blue (Neon-Blue), Grey/Silver (Cyber-Grey), Purple (Electric Purple) and White (Phantom-White). The back is protected by Gorilla Glass 5, as is the front.

Again with up-to-date hardware?

The POCO F2 Pro gets the latest top-of-the-range hardware despite the lower price. Thus, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Octa-Core processor with 2.84 GHz doesn’t surprise us at all. The current flagship CPU is also found in the Xiaomi Mi 10 or OnePlus 8 Pro and should provide for rapid performance in combination with LPDDR5 memory and UFS 3.1 memory with 777 MB/s write speed. The Poco F1 was already considered the master of speed, the Poco F2 Pro will hopefully follow in the same footsteps. The minimum configuration is 6 GB RAM and 128 GB mass storage.

To be able to guarantee the high performance in the long term, Pocophone uses the LiquidCool technology according to the slogan “Powerfully Cool”. For this purpose, ten heat sensors have been integrated to measure the temperature. To cool the instrument, a graphite layer, graphene and an extra-large vapor chamber (Super VC) are used. The Poco F2 Pro even received the TÜV Rheinland High Gaming Performance certification.

The battery also turns out relatively large with 4,700 mAh. In contrast to the flagship, the Xiaomi Mi 10, it is nevertheless smaller, if only minimal. But since one does without a 90 Hz display here, one can expect an equivalent or even better battery life of a good 2 days overall. The POCO F2 Pro can be quickly charged with 30W.

Now also with quad camera

Since the first Pocophone, a lot has happened in the smartphone market, especially in the field of cameras. Now there are four sensors instead of two. The main camera consists of the Sony IMX686 sensor, which is also found in the Mi Note 10 Lite or Red Magic 5G, for example. We like it very much and it can be processed better by the processor than the 108 MP sensor from the Mi 10, which is also equipped with Night Mode 2.0. This is combined with a 13 megapixel ultra-wide angle camera with a 123° shooting angle as well as a 2 MP depth sensor, which collects additional image information when taking portraits.

With the Redmi K30 Pro, a normal version and a zoom edition have been released, but Xiaomi chooses the normal version as a template. Thus, the fourth sensor is a tele-macro camera with a 5 MP resolution. This should give you twice as good a macro shot, as you can zoom in within the macro sensor. We have never seen it like this before and therefore we were very positively surprised!

On the front, a 20 megapixel camera is used, which of course only comes out when you need it. In addition, slow-motion selfie videos will also be possible, just like on the current iPhone.

Now also with NFC

The POCO F2 Pro works with Bluetooth 5.1 for the first time, and the range of the “Super Bluetooth” is said to be over 400 m – wait and see. NFC, GPS, GLONASS as well as a Dual-SIM slot, USB type-C and a headphone port on the bottom are also included. Especially the integrated NFC has been one of the criticism points of the former Pocophone F1. Surprisingly, even 5G is integrated, which is of course due to the Snapdragon 865. The infrared blaster and the headphone jack are also surprising.

On the POCO F2 and POCO F2 Pro, you work with Android 10, of course, and Xiaomi’s MIUI 11 operating system, which was slightly adapted for the Pocophone with the Poco-Launcher. This was revised and is now called “Poco Launcher 2.0”. It is again equipped with an App-Drawer. As it is a global version, the phone is completely multilingual and appears with all relevant Google services. In addition, the POCO F2 Pro is also equipped with Widevine Level 1 for FullHD video content right from the start.

Evaluation

Even though many people were certainly looking forward to a new Pocophone, the price is now almost twice as expensive as its direct predecessor. A comparison to the quasi-predecessor, the Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro, also shows a price increase. This is partly due to the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor, which is simply more expensive to produce.

But if you compare the Pocophone F2 (Pro) to other current top models, it is still the cheapest Snapdragon 865 smartphone on the market and the Poco F2 Pro offers a better camera and better battery life.

And for this reason alone I am very much taken with the POCO F2 Pro. Apart from the 60 Hz panel, I can’t really criticize anything about the POCO F2 Pro. Can you?