Introduction
The POCO brand had a very promising start in the form of the POCO F1. This device managed to awe value chasers by providing flagship-like performance at a small fraction of that price. Despite the popularity of the POCO F1, POCO went missing from the smartphone space for more than a year. But the brand is now back, with devices like the POCO X2 in India that builds on the same value formula as the POCO F1. But still, users have been clamoring for a direct successor to the F1, and POCO is finally launching the same in the form of the POCO F2 Pro. The POCO F2 Pro is a rebrand of the Xiaomi Redmi K30 Pro that was also unveiled in China. A rebrand in this space is not a bad thing, because all that really changes is the name on the phone — the base hardware remains the same, which is a good thing because the Redmi K30 Pro has some very good specifications on paper. The POCO F2 Pro comes with specifications like the Snapdragon 865 chipset, 5G support, LiquidCool Technology, pop-up camera, and 64MP quad cameras.
Price and availability
The POCO F2 Pro will be available in four color variants: Neon Blue, Phantom Blue, Electric Purple, and Cyber Gray. The base variant starts at €499, while the top variant starts at €599. Keep in mind that the base variant gets LPDDR4X, while the top variant bumps these up to LPDDR5. You can purchase the POCO F2 Pro starting today from Gearbest and AliExpress. In the near future, you can also purchase it from several other partners, including Amazon and POCO.net.
Design and display
If you know the design of the Redmi K30 Pro then you’re done. This new Poco F2 Pro is the same handset. Its body is covered in glass and metal, it has a rear camera in a circular format and the front is made up of the screen and some thin bezels. The front camera is located in a pop-up mechanism hidden in the upper frame. It is a design quite similar to the one presented by the Redmi K20 Pro or Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro last year. So it does not have a curved screen and includes the fingerprint sensor under the screen. It is a simple design, but very interesting for most users. It offers what thousands of users ask for the screen without notch or holes and flat panel.
The smartphone has a 6.67-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with 1200 nits peak brightness, 50000000: 1 ultra contrast ratio, and HDR10+ support. The screen supports the 180Hz touch sampling rate to ensure smooth gaming. The display is also TUV Rheinland certified for eye care and is also protected by a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 5 at the front and back. The display also comes with the latest generation of an under-display fingerprint sensor.
Front and rear cameras
For photography, the F2 Pro sports a quad-camera setup at the back. The setup consists of a 64MP Sony IMX686 primary sensor with OIS, a 5MP (50mm equivalent) telephoto lens with 3cm to 7cm autofocus macro, a 13MP 123-degree ultra-wide-angle lens, and a 2MP depth sensor. Poco says this combination will deliver “detailed close-ups with unparalleled bokeh.” The phone also supports 8K video shooting and super slo-mo videos. On the front, the handset sports 20MP selfie shooter with 120fps slow-motion video support in a pop-up mechanism that retracts automatically when it detects fall. This selfie camera can record Full HD videos at 30fps. The phone has many camera features such as Exposure compensation, ISO control, High Dynamic Range mode (HDR), Digital Zoom, Auto Flash, Face detection, and Touch to focus.
Performance, battery, and software
The POCO F2 Pro is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset which brings onboard support for SA/NSA dual-mode 5G connectivity. The processor is paired with 6GB of LPDDR4X RAM on the standard variant and 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM on the higher variant. The device has up to 256GB UFS 3.1 storage. Aside from the top-end processor that lives inside phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S20 and the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro, the Poco F2 Pro features what the brand is calling its LiquidCool Technology 2.0. We saw this sophisticated cooling technology on the original Pocophone F1.
The new version 2.0 is said to feature a 3435mm² vapor chamber and multi-layer graphite and graphene to provide up to 14°C CPU core temperature reduction. The Poco F2 Pro is also a 5G smartphone, and there is support for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1. Software-wise, the smartphone will run Android 10 OS skinned with MIUI 11 layer. The phone also packs the much-acclaimed POCO Launcher 2.0 based on Android 10. This brings features such as Dark Mode, a cool App Drawer, and more. Further, the POCO F2 Pro has an in-display fingerprint scanner, IP53 water-resistant rating, Infrared sensor, 3.5mm audio jack, Hi-Res audio, and connectivity options such as Dual 4G VoLTE, GPS (L1 + L5), NFC, IR Blaster, and USB Type-C. The battery is a nice chunky 4,700 mAh but it's the fast charging technology that is aiming to take on the top players on the market here. Poco says the 30W fast charge can fuel the device to 64 percent in just 30 minutes and charge to 100 percent in 63 minutes. You get a compatible 33W charger in the box. There is no reverse wireless charging though.