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

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.

Despite imperfections, Poco F1 can beat OnePlus and Asus on their own turf

Poco, a sub-brand of Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi, seems to be redefining the mid-range flagship segment with the launch of the Poco F1. The smartphone offers top-of-the-line innards at a starting price of a budget mid-range device, challenging the dominance of OnePlus in its own game, and almost killing the budding new names in mid-range flagship segment, such as Asus.

A smartphone is more than just the sum of its components. This is true of every smartphone, be it one from OnePlus or Samsung, Apple, Asus or Xiaomi. Like a camera, which is more than just the megapixels, a lot more than just a processor defines a smartphone. A powerful processor, coupled with an optimised operating system, proper RAM management, healthy battery, capable camera units with software-based image enhancements algorithms, etc, are a few things that complete a smartphone.