Today we’re seeing the return of the flagship killer – although this isn’t OnePlus we’re talking about, but rather then new POCO F2 Pro. It’s the successor to the wildly popular Pocophone F1 – one of Xiaomi’s sub-brands. The new F2 Pro features the new flagship Snapdragon 865, a new IMX686 64MP main camera sensor, 6.67” AMOLED screen and a massive 4700mAh battery, all topped up with a 3.5mm headphone jack. What’s also unusual about the phone is that it features a mechanical pop-up front camera, which allows it to have a true full screen experience without any notches or cut-outs.

POCO F2 Pro
  F2 Pro
SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 
1x Cortex-A77 @ 2.84GHz
3x Cortex-A77 @ 2.42GHz
4x Cortex-A55 @ 1.80GHz

Adreno 640 @ 587MHz
GPU Adreno 620
DRAM 6 GB LPDDR4X
8 GB LPDDR5
Storage 128 / 256 GB UFS 3.1
Display 6.67" AMOLED
2400 x 1080 (20:9)

180Hz Touch Sampling
Size Height 163.3 mm
Width 75.4 mm
Depth 8.9 mm
Weight 218 grams
Battery Capacity 4700 mAh (Typical)

30W Charging
Wireless Charging -
Rear Cameras
Main 64MP 0.8µm 1/1.72" IMX686
(2x2 binning to 1.6µm 16MP)


f/1.89
26mm eq.
Wide 13MP 1.12µm
Super-wide angle

f/2.4
123° FoV
Extra 5MP 1.12µm Telephoto Macro
f2.2
50mm eq.

2MP Depth
Front Camera Mechanical Pop-up 20MP 1/3.4" 0.8µm
I/O USB 2.0 Type-C
3.5mm headphone jack
Fingerprint reader
Wireless (local) Wi-Fi 6
Bluetooth 5.1
Cellular GSM, CDMA, HSPA, 4G/LTE, 5G
Splash, Water, Dust Resistance -
Dual-SIM nano-SIM
Launch OS Android 10
Launch Price 6GB + 128GB: $499 / 499€
8GB + 256GB: 599€

POCO brands itself as a performance-oriented vendor, and with the Snapdragon 865 it certainly trades blows with the best Android phones out there on the market. It’s interesting to see here that we’re going to see the same device with two different memory technologies; the 6GB variant of the phone will feature LPDDR4X, while the 8GB version will feature LPDDR5. Both variant come with corresponding 128 or 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage.

During the launch event, the company also focused on the thermal dissipation solutions of the POCO F2 Pro, claiming that the inclusion of a huge vapour chamber as well as very large graphene and graphene thermal layers would vastly outperform other contenders in the market such as the Galaxy S20 and the OnePlus 8 Pro. Here the F2 Pro claims to offer better peak and sustained performance, all whilst reducing frame minimums.

The F2 Pro comes with a 6.67” AMOLED screen at 2400 x 1080 resolution – this is likely the single biggest upgrade over the Poco F1 as it signifies the move away from LCD. The screen itself is claimed to reach up to 800 nits in high brightness mode. The one feature that seems to be lacking on the F2 Pro is the lack of higher refresh rates, with this being a 60Hz panel. Touch sampling at least is listed at a higher 180Hz for better input responsiveness.

The front of the device is characterised by its symmetrical bezels with no notch or display cut-out. This is enabled by a 20MP front camera that is housed in a mechanical pop-up camera module. It’s an interesting choice, but I got the feeling that most 2020 flagships have actually dropped this intermediary solution. Nevertheless, I’ve seen a lot of people be fan of it – although I don’t quite like the compromises such as the heavier weight (the Poco F2 Pro is 218g) and the lack of water resistance.

In the quite heavy 218g weight we find a large 4700mAh battery, which together with the efficient SoC and conservative screen configuration will undoubtedly result in extremely good battery life.

On the rear, we find a quad-camera setup. As the main shooter, we find the new Sony IMX686 64MP sensor – a new 1/1.72” sensor with 0.8µm pixels that bin 2x2 pixels to regular 16MP 1.6µm equivalent shots. What’s special here is that the phone is capable of 8K video recording, which I think is unique in this price range.

We’re lacking any mention of OIS on the side of the main camera, which might be a sign that the phone actually doesn’t have the feature. It’s an important compromise for the camera system if this is confirmed to be missing.

As a secondary camera there’s a 13MP 1.12µm ultra-wide-angle sensor with an optics capable of 123° field of view, as well as two extra modules – a 5MP telephoto macro and a 2MP depth sensor.

The 5MP telephoto macro is said to be special in its capabilities, alongside being able to serve as a 50mm equivalent telephoto, it can focus down to 2cm distance with some extremely high reproduction factor, resulting in extremely high macro magnification, more-so than any other phone on the market right now.

POCO also made fun of the competition, claiming it includes some features that some other vendors have forgotten about, including NFC, an IR blaster, and most importantly a headphone jack.

The biggest selling point of the POCO F2 Pro naturally is its price, and here the phone come at some real flagship killer figures at 499€ for the 6+128GB variant, and 599€ for the 8+256GB phones. I wouldn’t worry too much about the LPDDR4X on the former variant; the pricing here is extremely competitive in the face of say a regular OnePlus 8 which falls in at 699€. What you give up on is seemingly weight of the phone, a higher refresh rate screen, and OIS.

Availability starts today at various online stores, with expanded availability in the next few weeks and months.

 

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  • Maxpower2727 - Thursday, May 14, 2020 - link

    By pretty much all accounts, the SE has pretty middling battery life. I'm really not clear why you think this phone will be worse.
  • ads295 - Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - link

    I would be tempted to buy one myself but how are the camera on these things? I'd rather get a Sony or Samsung modranger over this one because I've owned Xiaomi and their camera picture quality isn't too good. At this price point I think everyone wants a decent camera.
  • s.yu - Thursday, May 14, 2020 - link

    It seems that you don't care enough to use Gcam, because Xiaomi models generally get supported Gcam versions fairly quickly, whereas the hardware seems to have pretty high potential, especially the Zoom model that's not available overseas but at least the UWA from this model seems better than any counterpart in a Sony or Samsung midranger, and the main is generally on par with the flagships.
  • Koenig168 - Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - link

    CPU alone does not a flagship make. The camera is one of the most important features and OIS is a must for a flagship killer.
  • watzupken - Thursday, May 14, 2020 - link

    OIS I feel is important if you have photography in mind as the priority, but may not be a show stopper for many I suspect. In the first gen Pocophone, I recall there is no OIS as well and it sold really well. I've one myself, and for the price I paid, I've not nothing much to complain.

    Instead I feel the top end SOC and RAM is certainly more useful and great to have, considering all other phone manufacturers are charging substantially more. For people on a budget, it should still allow them to have a capable phone for work and gaming, instead of those mid range SOC.
  • fazalmajid - Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - link

    The Poco F1 was a great value, and ran LineageOS. The F2 doesn’t (yet), and a non-degoogled phone is not acceptable to me under any circumstances.
  • s.yu - Thursday, May 14, 2020 - link

    Then why not buy the Chinese version on eBay instead? It's degoogled but "baidued" and "tencented" instead.
  • SteveX107 - Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - link

    I'm a bit disappointed by the smartphones price trend this year, and especially by this brand. I hoped they would release a device priced below 400€, just like the previous F1 . I know prices will lower pretty soon, but it won't reach a decent price anyway (at least for me) .
  • s.yu - Thursday, May 14, 2020 - link

    It's a far improved device compared to F1, more so than GS11 is to GS10.
  • jaju123 - Thursday, May 28, 2020 - link

    I bought it for £398 which is close to 440 euro or so. Can be had quite cheaply if you look.

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