KUALA LUMPUR, May 13 — The Pocophone F1, launched back back in 2018, was an iconic smartphone in many rights. A flagship-class Snapdragon 845 and generous helpings of memory — all in a cost-effective plastic casing — made for a device that arguably disrupted the mid-range smartphone market at the time. In fact, we’ve seen manufacturers releasing more and more powerful budget phones in recent times — which is why fans of the Pocophone brand (Poco in India) have been waiting for a successor to the F1.
Of course, we’ve already seen the Poco X2, although that is powered by the mid-range Snapdragon 730G. Now, the Poco F2 Pro has finally been announced, and it looks very much like a rebadged Redmi K30 Pro as expected. Here’s what you need to know.
Price and availability
There are four colour options available: Neon Blue, Phantom White, Electric Purple, and Cyber Grey. Meanwhile, two memory configurations are available, 6GB of RAM + 128GB of storage and 8GB of RAM + 256GB — pricing starts at EUR499 (~RM2,344).
The Poco F2 Pro is now available on Gearbest and Ali Express in selected markets, with the device expected to hit virtual shelves on Lazada, Shopee, and other e-commerce platforms soon. As for Malaysian availability, no official details have been revealed just yet. However, we do expect to see the device hit the local market soon, with a Sirim listing corroborating this.
Poco F2 Pro — 6GB RAM, 128GB storage — EUR499 (~RM2,344)
Poco F2 Pro — 8GB RAM, 256GB storage — EUR599 (~RM2,814)
Specs
As mentioned, the Poco F2 Pro is basically a rebadged version of the Redmi K30 Pro that was launched earlier in China. This means that the F2 Pro runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor, which is mated with up to 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM. Meanwhile, up to 256GB of UFS3.1 storage is available as well, which is in line with Poco’s focus on performance.
The display is a 6.67″ Full HD+ AMOLED screen with a 92.7 screen-to-body ratio — however, you’re only getting a standard 60Hz refresh rate for the screen, unlike the Poco X2 (and Redmi K30). Still, the F2 Pro’s display supports HDR10+, has a max brightness of 1200 nits, and also has a contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1.
Additionally, the Poco F2 Pro uses a pop-up camera mechanism that houses a 20MP shooter for selfies, while you also get an in-display fingerprint scanner. Sustaining the device is a sizeable 4,700mAh battery that can be charged at 30W via USB-C. This, according to Poco, will give you a full charge in just 63 minutes.
The company also placed a lot of emphasis upon the cooling technology of the Poco F2 Pro — ”powerfully cool”, as they call it. LiquidCool Technology builds upon the F1’s cooling tech, and contributes to better performance. This is supposedly done with a design that better dissipates the heat, which Poco says will stand gamers in good stead for long gaming sessions.
Photography-wise, the Poco F2 pro has a quad-camera rear setup that sits within a camera bump (not dissimilar to the Huawei Mate 30 series). This consists of a 64MP main camera with a large 1/1.7″ Sony IMX686 sensor, a 13MP ultra-wide angle shooter, a 5MP “telemacro” camera, and a 2MP depth sensor. Video shooting capabilities support 8K videos in 24 fps or 30 fps, or 4K videos at 6 0fps.
Unfortunately, it looks like stereo speakers are missing here. You do get a 3.5mm headphone jack, as well as an IR blaster — which is always nice to see. WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.1, and NFC are also supported. As expected, we’ll see the new device come with Android 10 out of the box, along with the Poco Launcher 2.0.
And of course, the Poco F2 Pro is the first device from the brand (Poco, not parent company Xiaomi/Redmi) to have 5G support.
What do you think about the new Poco F2 Pro? Is it a worthy successor to the Poco F1? Let us know in the comments section below. To find out more, click here. — SoyaCincau
