Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro Smartphone Review
Finally, it is here. The long-awaited Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro Smartphone has arrived in Europe. An ultimate flagship killer at a reasonable price.
But let’s just look at what’s behind the brand. Poco is a smaller brand from Xiaomi, targeted mostly for the European market. Poco F2 Pro is the successor of the Pocophone F1, released in 2018. Back then it was a popular choice among those who aspired flagship specifications at a reasonably lower price.
Poco F2 Pro is also known as Redmi K30 Pro, which is actually the Chinese version of the same smartphone. But why different names?
Rebranding is a frequent practice among Chinese phone manufacturers, Different brand names are more accepted in different regions of the world.
Pocophone debuted in the western part of the world as an affordable great quality brand with high-end flagship features. No wonder that Poco F2 Pro is a more salable choice of name for the Western market.
Add the best and latest snapdragon chipset, with some great quality camera, combine some great materials, a lasting battery, and an innovative and unique design. And maintain it under a $500 price tag. That is the Poco F2 Pro formula, but let’s see in detail what it really means.
Desing
Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro Smartphone as I mentioned before has a unique design. The edge to edge display is without any notch or hole punch, the selfie camera is hidden under the body. It is a motor-driven pop-up camera that we saw in the Xiaomi Mi 9T or the Redmi K20 pro, the Asian version.
The body when you hold it in your hand feels robust, probably because it’s heavier than the other flagships on the market. Maybe the battery or the motorized camera that adds to the weight of the Poco F2 Pro.
The front and the back panel is made out of Gorilla Glass 5. It is pretty slippery, so the protective case will be of great use.
The aluminum frame which encircles the body feels premium as it should a flagship be.
On the back, the four-camera fits like an X in the circular frame that holds this setup. This is a design element that will make the phone easily recognizable.
On the bottom, you have a USB C port, the speaker, and the SIM tray, that enhouses only 2 SIM cards, no place for an SD card.
The sides are clean and slim, only the red power button pops in, giving a slight design element to the Poco F2 Pro.
On the top, you will find miraculously a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack. Nowadays you won’t see this on flagship models, even though many people do like the classic headphone jack structure.
The pop-up camera fits nicely enclosed in the body of the phone. When activated comes out with a smooth mechanism. The LED lights on the side can be personalized to your preferences. You don’t have to worry about the construction, it already proved the reliability in the Xiaomi Mi 9T.
In this manner, you got a bezel-less smartphone with no notches, only a big screen on the front, but what kind of screen.
Display
With the Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro Smartphone, you got a 6.67 inch Super AMOLED Display, with 2400 x 1080 pixel resolution, and a 20:9 ratio.
This panel is a superior upgrade then the previous Pocophone F1 had.
The colors are bright, being a Super AMOLED, you won’t have any brightness issues even in direct sunlight. In the maximum auto mode, you got over 800 nits, this value is undoubtedly a flagship one.
This display supports HDR10+ that can be a blast when watching your favorite streaming video provider.
The only downside of the display is that the refresh rate is at 60 HZ. Higher-end flagship models have much more than that, even some mid-range phones have 90 HZ refresh rate panels.
You can also set up your favorite color modes, there is also a color saturation mode for more vivid coloring. photos look more alive.
Camera
Speaking about photography the four-camera system of the Poco F2 Pro does not lag behind the competition. It meets almost all the needs.
The main camera is a 64 MP lens with a little bit tight aperture of f/1.9, although it has 1/1.72 inches and a pixel value of 0.8µm.
The second one is a telephoto, macro lens with 5 MP and f/2.2 aperture value. It has 50mm focal length which enhances the autofocus so you can do 2X zoom shots or macro photos, with amazing results.
The third unit in the row is an ultra-wide 13 MP sensor, for the wider shots It has a 123˚ degree viewing angle, and an f/2.4 aperture value.
The last one is the little depth sensor, a 2MP unit that helps with focusing on portrait modes.
In picture quality, the main sensor takes really good shots. Details are good, colors are natural, a little saturated, but not too much with excellent sharpness. Only a little bit of noise I discovered in lower light.
During the night the main camera does wonders, only if you use the Night mode. Without this mode, the noise is much more visible and an overall mellowness is present.
The Ultra-wide camera performs very well, especially you can notice that the sides of the pictures are less curved than usual.
The telephoto lens with 2x zoom gives quite a bit of detail, but noise in this mode is more visible.
The macro mode is exceptional. One of the best implementations, thanks to the wide focal length and autofocus.
Selfies are solid enough, with natural skin colors and plenty of details.
The motorized 20 MP unit has an f/2.2 aperture value and a 1.12µm pixel rate.
Videos are available in 8K at 24/30 frames per second, in 4K at 30/60fps, in 1080p at 30/60/120/240fps, and in 1080p at 960fps. The gyro- Electronic Image Stabilisation is exceptional.
Performance and Battery
Poco F2 Pro has the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset with eight processors and an Adreno 650 GPU unit. Paired with 6 or 8 GB of RAM this Poco is a big wow. It has an ultimate flagship performance, games at the highest graphics run smoothly.
Poco F2 Pro runs on Android 10 with Xiaomi’s own MIUI 11 launcher. It also supports 5G connectivity.
At various benchmark tests, the Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro performed well, overtaking even Samsung S20 and Apple iPhone SE 2020.
You can choose this phone with 128 GB storage and 256 GB of storage. Unfortunately, the storage space cannot be expanded.
Poco F2 Pro inherits a powerful 4700 mAh battery with 30W fast charging. The wireless charging option is a minus on this model.
Verdict
To wrap up this review, Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro is unquestionably a great value for the price it is offered. Other flagshippers could be in embarrassment because Poco managed to put together another phone that would compete with them at a much lower price.
With the Poco F2 Pro package, you get the latest chipset, fast performance, good quality photos, excellent screen, huge battery life, and a great design.
On the cons side can be the lack of high-refresh-rate screen, the shortage of a real telephoto lens, no expandable storage, and no wireless charging. I think these lackings are not a big deal overall.
If you want a real flagship killer for around $500 you can already purchase on Banggod, AliExpress, or Giztop.
