Xiaomi’s Intent on Battling OnePlus With the Poco F1 for Rs 20,999

Xiaomi’s sub-brand Poco has launched Poco F1 phone with flagship features and face unlock for Rs 20,999.

Xiaomi has seen OnePlus dominate the premium smartphone segment in India. This has pushed it into coming out with its first-ever sub brand called Poco. This brand is lead by Jai Mani, who was known as "the" product guy at Xiaomi India till date.

However, by launching the Poco F1 for Rs 20,999 with Snapdragon 845, Xiaomi has shown everyone what a flagship-killer device with an attractive price tag looks like. This processor is the same one running on the global variant of the Samsung Galaxy S9+ and even the recently launched Galaxy Note 9. The funny thing is both of these cost well above Rs 50,000.

So, for the Poco F1 to launch for under Rs 30,000 (there are three variants), and still pack a lot of features, Xiaomi is clearly looking to offset the monopoly that OnePlus has created in the market over the past year.

The Poco F1 will be available via Flipkart and Mi.com in the country, and you can choose from 6GB and 8GB RAM options, while the storage goes up to 256GB.

The Poco phone claims to be lightening fast, open apps real quick and even unlock in a jiffy. Sounds familiar, right? The entire positioning of Poco F1 is aimed towards the OnePlus 6, and by the looks of it, we can’t argue about that.

The Poco F1 gets a 6.1-inch FHD+ screen, powered by a Snapdragon 845 processor with 6GB or 8GB RAM, and storage going up to 256GB, which can be further expanded. The company claims both the SIM slots support 4G VoLTE and that’ll come as a relief for millions of 4G users in India.

Even the material design used by the Poco team is reminiscent of what we’ve seen with OnePlus devices over the years. Unlike the Mi A2, which was launched recently, the Poco F1 gets USB Type C for charging, as well as the 3.5mm audio jack.

On the software side, the Poco F1 is running an MiUi version of Android, but with a Poco Launcher running over it. It’s quite possible that Poco will gradually offers its own version of software, enabling it to push out quicker Android updates.

Poco India has said that the Poco F1 will get Android Pie by end of this year. 

It’s good to see that Poco is using polycarbonate materials to design the back body of the Poco F1. Unlike the glass-metal combo used by most phone makers these days, we prefer the former, for its durability more than anything else.

For imaging purpose, you get dual rear cameras 12 and 5 megapixels. The company has made tall claims about the quality on offer, but we’ll be testing the phone to give that judgement.

The phone supports face unlocking, another standard feature these days, and Poco is sure that even in dark conditions, you’ll be able to unlock the phone, just by looking at it. Topping it all, you get a 4000mAh battery that’s most likely going to last for more than a day, but then again we’ll know more about that during our tests.

All in all, what Xiaomi’s sub-brand is offering is one helluva package, that too at a sweet price point. It’s feature-packed and likely to compete with other phones with similar features but priced much higher. For now, it looks like Xiaomi with Poco might be onto something and OnePlus will surely have to keep an eye out for this one.