Poco F1 review: Xiaomi redefines flagship with this hard-to-beat smartphone

The Poco F1 shows a flagship smartphone need not be costly; this one cuts corners on design, camera and some other features but still manages to pack enough to be a flagship with a price hard to beat.

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi recently took the plunge in India’s premium mid-range segment, the second-fastest-growing segment in the country, with the debut of a flagship smartphone under the Poco sub-brand.

Xiaomi’s compatriot OnePlus, the only other strong player in the segment with triple-digit year-on-year growth rates in recent times, has been the fastest-growing flagship smartphone brand in India, ahead of the biggies Samsung and Apple.

Priced at Rs 20,999 for the base model, the Poco F1 is the most economical offering in the mid-range flagship segment, much cheaper than the even the Asus Zenfone 5z and OnePlus 6. However, is Poco F1 a complete package with an all-round performance? Let’s find out:

Design and display

Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 5 Pro, launched earlier this year, had an iPhone X-inspired design – a metallic back, vertically aligned rear camera module and a circular fingerprint sensor in the back’s mid-centre. Most of its smartphones since have followed the same design template. Thankfully, the Poco F1 has a fresh new design. It is not chic, given its plastic build, and does not look as premium as glass and metallic designs of current-generation mid-range flagships. The company, though, is also offering a Kevlar back edition in the premium 256GB variant.

The front is covered with a 6.18-inch fullHD+ (2246 x 1080) screen stretched in the 18.7:9 aspect ratio. The screen has a notch on top, accommodating the earpiece, front camera and sensors. While other smartphone makers are working on ways to minimise the notch area, the Poco F1 takes a detour and offers an even bigger one. 

The bigger notch is justified by the addition of an infrared illuminator for a better face-unlock mechanism. This works well in both bright and lowlight conditions. The notch, enabled by default, can be disabled from settings.

As for display quality, it is a bright unit with ample contrast and good saturation levels. 

The screen looks vivid and stays legible even in bright sunny conditions. The screen supports both physical and gesture-based navigations, removing home, back and recent keys from the bottom area and providing more space for content. 

Currently, there is a support for three gestures – swipe up from bottom for home, swipe up from bottom and hold for recent apps, and swipe from left to right and right to left from edges for back and next. These gestures make the phone a lot easier to operate with one hand....Read More

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