Introduction
The 'flagship killer' smartphone concept has been around for years now, popularized by the OnePlus One. In the meantime, however, proper flagships have consistently crept up in pricing, with 2020 seeing new peaks in prices. So where are all the flagship killers, you ask?
Well, here's one. The Poco F2 Pro is precisely such a device, even though it's not truly unique, as a rebranded Redmi K30 Pro. But who cares about the naming shenanigans if it delivers upon the promise of the flagship killer, right?
Let's see what that promise is, shall we? Flagship killers say you're getting everything expected from a top-of-the-line handset at a fraction of the price. Traditionally, this has meant excellent performance (on par with the 'big boys' who are more expensive), good battery life, a good screen, you know - all the basics. Camera performance has always been a point of contention, though, either because companies who also make proper flagships want those to not feel like a ripoff or because good camera quality is expensive in itself.
We don't know which of those is the real truth, but either way - no flagship killer to date has excelled in the camera department or been able to match the more expensive devices it claims to compete with. Then there's also the much lower price that flagship killers come at.
We've been using the Poco F2 Pro for an extended time as our one and only smartphone, and so we've seen what it's capable of and where it falls flat on its flat-screened face (or rather, if it does). So if you'd join us over the next few pages, we'll tell you all about it and how much of a flagship killer it actually is, in real life, in day to day use. Buckle up, and let's get this thing moving.
Design, build, handling
Like every flagship device out there, the Poco F2 Pro has a glass sandwich construction, so it gets a point here for sure. Materials are on par with much more expensive phones, and build quality is on par. Slipperiness is what you'd expect as well, given the glass on the back. This isn't the worst case we've seen, though.
It's been a very long time since any handset has had any build quality issues, not even in this price range. Everything's great from this point of view. The red hue makes the power button instantly recognizable, but it does feel like it stands out a bit too much on our review unit's otherwise subdued colorway.
Size-wise, the entire smartphone industry has been infested by the "bigger is better" mentality for years now (even constant holdout Apple had to give in eventually). Add to that the expanded internal space necessary for all the 5G shenanigans (including Qualcomm's separate X55 modem that's not on-chip in the Snapdragon 865), and you probably see where this is going.
The Poco F2 Pro is large, and unashamedly so, but it's not significantly bigger than any mainstream flagship device this year.
What hurts more, though, is the weight. You can never not feel the 219g in day to day use.
The weight makes sure you are always aware of this phone's presence while you are carrying it. Some people prone to losing or forgetting their gadgets might actually enjoy this as it makes such a scenario much less likely - you'll instantly know that it's not on you. Others could wax lyrical about how more weight makes the handset feel more premium, whatever that means - but in this reviewer's opinion, around 200g for this size is more than enough to give you that, and everything over is just... a bit much.
While the display is flat, the back glass does curve into the frame, making handling easier than it would have been otherwise, considering the 8.9mm thickness, which is also rather substantial.
The pop-up selfie camera has eliminated the need for unsightly hole-punch cutouts in the display panel. It's been a while since this reviewer's used a handset with no notch or punch-hole, and it's one of those things that are small but much appreciated.
The screen is uninterrupted, and the small bezels on three sides make things that much more... immersive if you will. The chin is thicker than the other bezels, but not to the degree that it really stands out very much.
The pop-up selfie camera has some LED lights, with effects that you can customize - these light up in different ways when the camera comes up or goes down, and there are sounds too.
Additionally, you can use a ring on the pop-up part to act as a notification LED, which is a creative use of those LEDs. Notification LEDs are a dying feature, so it's interesting to have this option here.
LED light settings
Speaker, vibration motor, case
The single speaker is downward-facing, and this is unfortunate, but, subjectively, it's probably the loudest single down-facing speaker this reviewer has ever heard. It also doesn't distort very easily at the highest volume, making media consumption on the phone better than you may assume from the lack of a second speaker.
We still would have preferred a stereo setup, though, but this is quite obviously one of the things that was cut to meet the price point of the Poco F2 Pro.
Sound quality-wise, it's a decent speaker, but nowhere near the best of the best this year. It will do just fine for most people most times, though, if you are careful not to inadvertently muffle it with your hand (which is, of course, very easy to do).
The vibration motor is another thing that's been compromised in service of reaching the price, we'd wager. It's definitely not the worst we've ever encountered, but it's worlds apart from the best ones out there - funnily enough, Xiaomi also makes a phone with one of those - the Mi 10 Pro. Coincidentally, it also has the best sounding stereo speakers on a mainstream handset, in our subjective opinion. The price difference between these two is nothing to scoff at, so keep that in mind.
Because it wants to be friendly to 'enthusiasts,' the Poco F2 Pro also has a headphone jack. Our opinion on this is simple: we literally had to check if it's there by picking the phone up just now and looking for it. It's 2020, and we can't remember the last time we used a wired pair of headphones.
There are none in the box, by the way, which is another flagship killer staple - just ship the basics. Still, Xiaomi also packs a clear case, which is pretty good and has extra corner coverage.
Then again, because of the pop-up selfie camera, the case doesn't cover anything up on the top side, other than the corners. We're not complaining. This isn't your 'cheapest jelly case' type of thing. It's made from more rigid plastic and feels like it could take a beating.
Design-wise, the Poco F2 Pro is really unremarkable. The entirety of it is just... safe, with a centered round-shaped camera island and a ring around it that goes into the LED flash. It's not ugly or bad looking, but it's not "wow" material either. Clearly, the idea here was to make everything look... functional, not necessarily overly aesthetic, and that does definitely work.
That is until you take a selfie. The pop-up cam has been done many times already, but it still is satisfying to watch it appear, seemingly out of nowhere, to take care of your selfie needs.
Display
The size is adequate for a mainstream top dog nowadays, the resolution isn't the highest it could be, but most people probably won't notice, the panel is an AMOLED, which right now feels more premium for most people, so... what's missing? A high refresh rate. Sure, one could argue that someone coming from a previous phone with a 60 Hz panel wouldn't notice anything 'wrong' here, and that's true, but this is perhaps the Poco F2 Pro's most significant omission.
The mobile world has moved incredibly fast in the past few months when it comes to high refresh rate screens, and even phones that are much cheaper than the Poco F2 Pro have it. Heck, the Poco X3 has a 120 Hz refresh rate while costing around half as much. Yes, it's an LCD screen, but at that price point, that's the norm. At the Poco F2 Pro's price point, AMOLEDs are much more prevalent. We assume that Xiaomi had to choose between this 60 Hz AMOLED and a higher refresh rate LCD, and we all know how that choice went. Perhaps the phone's release's timing had something to do with it too, but the point is even 90 Hz would have made this device feel more future proof than it is.
And this is not just a number on a spec sheet. Higher refresh rates make the whole experience of using a phone smoother. There's a pronounced difference in smoothness between the Poco F2 Pro and the Mi 10 Pro, and they both have AMOLED panels with a similar resolution and the same chipset at the helm. More on this in the Performance section.
Display features
Aside from this glaring omission, the screen used on the Poco F2 Pro is excellent. It's not as bright as some panels from proper, bonkers expensive flagships, but it gets close enough that you won't ever be left wanting for more.
Its color accuracy is decent, although the Auto color preset by default favors bluish whites. You can fix this by going with Standard. We just changed the color to Warm in Settings and called it a day - because the Auto preset is also supposed to vary the color temperature based on the ambient lighting around you. That feature we weren't actually able to 'see' in action - perhaps it just works in an incredibly subtle manner.
Display settings
Our only small niggle is that the screen is a bit too bright when using it in a really dark room, even at the lowest brightness setting. The blue light filter works well, with a yellowish tinge and not orange-ish (if this matters to anyone). The auto-brightness defaults were mostly very good for us, with only minor tweaks necessary from time to time.
With MIUI 12, the Poco F2 Pro probably employs the most customizable Always On Displays on any device. You can also enjoy how that works with the new Super Wallpapers, showing a few scenes from either Earth or Mars, with progressions of these when you go from the AOD to the lock screen to the home screen.
Always On Display
The fingerprint sensor is in the display and is of the optical variety as you'd expect, and in our experience, it was flawless when our fingers weren't wet or even slightly moist. That's a common issue with optical sensors, though. This one is so accurate that it probably matches capacitive ones, but the unlocking speed could be improved. There's a specific sequence of haptic feedback happening while you press it, which feels unnecessarily long and could be optimized.
Biometrics
You can use face unlock if you want to, but we're not sure why you would - because you need to wait for the selfie cam to pop-up every single time, it's a much slower unlocking process than using your fingerprint, and it's also less secure.
MIUI 12 for Poco
The Poco F2 Pro runs MIUI 12 based on Android 10. We're going to summarize what MIUI 12 is all about here, but if you are interested in a deeper dive, check out the Software section of our Mi 10 Pro long-term review. For all intents and purposes, the OS is exactly the same between these two devices, so we don't want to repeat everything we've already mentioned.
Settings
While MIUI 12 isn't a massive departure from MIUI 11, it is a significant evolutionary step aesthetically. It also marks a great improvement in the user experience. We love the new gentle vibration 'nudges' that you encounter throughout the UI, providing feedback for your interaction with the software. This is far from perfect still, especially on the Poco F2 Pro, with its less than outstanding vibration motor.
Haptic feedback level customization
The implementation could probably be improved further in MIUI 13, but even at this stage, no other Android skin goes this far in giving your phone interactions a tactile, physical feel.
Going back to aesthetics, overall, MIUI 12 just looks cleaner and fresher than its predecessor, with richer animations and more use of white space.
MIUI 12
Compared to MIUI 11, the newer MIUI 12 changes enough to make things appear more modern, but not so much that you'd stress about having to re-learn things. That's the best balance for a software update in our book.
Launcher
Because this is a Poco phone, it ships with "MIUI 12 for Poco", which basically means that the Poco Launcher is built-in, just like it has been on all Poco devices since the Pocophone F1. The Poco Launcher has an app drawer and a bunch of neat customization options without going overboard. It's probably flexible enough for 99% of people while not getting bloated with too many different settings.
We like it a lot, and we have, in the past, resorted to using it when faced with a Xiaomi device that didn't have an app drawer from the get-go. We don't feel like the Poco Launcher is missing any essential features, and so it's easy to recommend even for people who don't have Xiaomi devices and want to try a different launcher. It's fast and bug-free, too.
Poco Launcher
One last thing to mention about the Poco Launcher version that ships on the Poco F2 Pro - the App Vault is gone, and instead, you can opt-in to see the Google Feed to the left of your leftmost home screen. This is a massive win in our book, but you may obviously disagree if the App Vault was something you used a lot.
Dark mode, gestures, Recent apps
MIUI 12 has a dark theme, of course, and this time the entirety of the UI is darkened when you turn it on. You can also schedule it and even force it on apps that don't have one of their own. The biggest offender here has to be Facebook. The forced Dark theme courtesy of MIUI 12 worked really well. Your mileage may vary with other apps, of course, but it helps that this feature is entirely optional.
Dark mode
As we keep saying, Xiaomi's gesture navigation system is among the best out there, and that's true on the Poco F2 Pro as well. There are no needless complications. Going back requires a swipe from the side in the lower two-thirds of the screen. Swiping higher than that triggers an app's drawer if it has one. You can also get rid of the useless 'pill' at the bottom, unlike on 'stock Android' phones.
MIUI 12 didn't bring about any change in the Recent apps menu's logic, so it's still a vertically scrolling two-column list of app screenshots in a world where every other company is doing this horizontally. We've used so many Xiaomi devices recently that we've gotten used to this particularity of its skin, but we can't say we've ever been able to fully grasp what the point of it is.
Recent Apps
Bugs
Although the status bar isn't interrupted by any unsightly hole-punch on the Poco F2 Pro, you can't see more than three notification icons at a time. If you have more than three notifications, you get three icons and then a dot to their right to signify that there's more stuff waiting for you in the notification panel.
"Show notification icons" doesn't suggest there is a limit
While we're talking weird behavior in MIUI 12 on the Poco F2 Pro, let's also mention text size. In MIUI 12 on the Poco F2 Pro, the difference in size between the S and the L text sizes is the biggest we've ever seen in one such increment.
It's so big that we're almost sure there should have been an M size in between these, but for whatever reason, it's not there. For this reviewer, the choice was either to go with S where everything was too small or go with L and make everything too large. You may disagree, of course, and that's fine, but the point here is that such huge jumps between sizes shouldn't be a thing.
The jump in text size from S to L
We're not sure if this is software related or not, but we'll mention it here - Bluetooth on the Poco F2 Pro is frustrating. Don't get us wrong, it's consistent, but not in a good way. Nine times out of ten, this phone does not automatically reconnect to a Bluetooth audio accessory. So what you need to do, almost every time, is go into the Bluetooth menu in Settings and manually tap on whichever accessory you want to reconnect to.
This shouldn't happen. Not just that, but this doesn't happen, at all, on the Mi 10 Pro. Since these have the same chipset, our assumption is that software is somehow to blame - maybe there's some overly aggressive battery protection feature on the Poco F2 Pro or something. We don't know, but it's been a very long time since we had to deal with something as frustrating as this. Of course, if you don't have a bunch of Bluetooth speakers and headphones around and don't use them all the time, you won't even notice. But we did.
Finally, not a bug per se, just a current limitation to keep in mind. While the Poco F2 Pro has dual-SIM support, if you want to use 5G, you'll have to disable one of the SIMs.
5G requires deactivating a SIM card
Right now, you get either 5G or dual-SIM functionality, not both at the same time.
Updates
Xiaomi is definitely not the fastest out there with updates for its smartphones. And we are referring to both the monthly security patches and the significant Android version upgrades. When it comes to the latter, there's a case to be made that most user-facing changes actually ship in new iterations of MIUI, and those aren't tied to the underlying Android base. So you can have MIUI 12 on top of Android 11, or Android 10, or even Android 9, and 99% of it will look and feel the same. Some people may take this at face value. Others still might prefer faster Android updates even so.
But we're talking security updates. Xiaomi really has no excuse for being one of the worst at issuing them. Its patches are rare and anything but monthly, even for its thousand-euro flagship Mi 10 Pro. The Poco F2 Pro is no exception, of course. At the moment, our review unit is still stuck on the July 1, 2020 security patch level. That's just unacceptable in October, and it was just as unacceptable in September.
Current software
Many of Xiaomi's competitors right now are much better at pushing security fixes to their phones, and the company really needs to improve here. As for an update to Android 11 for the Poco F2 Pro, we're almost sure that will happen, but can't tell you when. It could take a month or two. It could take even more. There's never a consistent pattern in such updates for Xiaomi, so there isn't really a way for us to infer when it will drop.
Performance, smoothness
As you'd expect from the Snapdragon 865 chipset inside, the Poco F2 Pro is very fast. It doesn't balk no matter what you throw at it and gives you a speedy user experience. This is all fine and dandy, but smoothness is disappointing.
Clearly, one reason for that is the 60 Hz display, as high refresh rate screens automatically make for smoother interactions with a phone, even at 'just' 90 Hz. But this was, we assume, one of those things that had to be cut for the Poco F2 Pro to occupy the flagship killer price tier and not go beyond. It's still something we sorely missed after having used a bunch of smartphones with high refresh rate screens earlier in the year, and the user experience would have greatly benefited from such an addition.
Alas, it is what it is. There also seems to be less software optimization in MIUI 12 for the Poco F2 Pro than for other Xiaomi devices like the Mi 10 Pro. While the two are pretty much on par, speed-wise (as they should be given the identical chipset in use), they are quite different when it comes to smoothness.
Don't get us wrong, the Poco F2 Pro is still going to perform better and feel smoother than any device out there with an inferior chipset, or even one with last year's top of the line SoC. But compared with other Snapdragon 865 handsets, it's one step behind in smoothness. Of course, you can choose to live with that in light of the price, and that's wholly understandable.
If you're switching to this phone from another one with any non-flagship 2020 chipset (or literally any SoC from years prior), you are very unlikely to be disappointed. But if you've had a lot of top of the line devices with the Snapdragon 865 pass through your hands, the Poco F2 Pro just doesn't seem to punch above its weight (read: price) here. This is one of the small niggles we've had with it, but we can forgive it considering how cheap it's become since launch.
Battery life
On the other hand, battery life has been nothing short of outstanding. The 4,700 mAh cell inside doesn't seem like much in this day and age, but trust us when we say you really shouldn't judge a book (read: longevity) by its cover (read: the sheer capacity). The Poco F2 Pro is definitely a two-day phone for most people with light to moderate usage scenarios, and even for our rather heavy use, it sometimes lasted us two days before we had to charge it.
The screen-on times are insane. We easily got around 7 hours in one day, with 30-40% left to spare. That's one of the best numbers we've ever seen in a long-term review, so this is one area where this device is not only not going to ever disappoint you, but it may just nicely surprise you.
Battery life
As always, our use case involves around 12-17 hours off the charger in a day, with most of that spent on Wi-Fi, about an hour or so on 5G, Bluetooth always on and connected to a smartwatch, about an hour or so of music streaming via Bluetooth, location always on (Wi-Fi and Bluetooth scanning too), and about half an hour of GPS navigation through Google Maps or Waze.
Camera
We've already talked about smoothness being one of those corners that have been cut in service of the price point, and the camera array is another one. Even simply based on the Poco F2 Pro's spec sheet alone, you can tell - there's no OIS on any snapper, and there's no proper telephoto cam. The macro shooter at least has autofocus, and it produces good results, but since this is a niche use case, we decided not to (pardon the pun) focus on it in this review.
It definitely is one of the better macro cams out there. Still, macro cams as a rule on smartphones seem to be an invention of marketing rather than anything else. Otherwise, if this was such a fantastic thing, you'd see macro cams on flagships. But you don't, because you can easily achieve much better macro shots from an ultrawide snapper with autofocus, as has been proven countless times before. Or even, for some phones, just straight-up 'macro' shooting with the main cam.
That aside, the Poco F2 Pro has a 64 MP primary camera that has become a staple at even much lower price points, so don't expect the world of it. Similarly, there is an ultrawide, which we welcome, but it lacks autofocus, and its specs aren't impressive. So basically, the main cam is the one that you're going to end up using most of the time.
With all that said, the images it produces in daylight conditions with plenty of ambient light are definitely good, with adequate sharpness, high amounts of detail, and pleasant (if slightly oversaturated) colors. Still, the added 'pop' is okay in our book.
If you peek well enough, you will inevitably notice noise in certain parts, while dynamic range is decent, but definitely not record-breaking or anywhere close to that. The less ambient lighting you have, the more noise creeps in.
Daytime samples from the primary camera
The ultrawide shooter is very wide and mostly nails a similar look to that of the primary camera. The dynamic range here is even narrower, though, while softness is a given in most lighting conditions. Edge distortion correction is among the best we've ever seen.
Daytime samples from the ultrawide
As we mentioned before, there's no telephoto cam. Still, there is a 2x toggle in the viewfinder, which crops from the primary sensor. The pictures are almost always usable, if not on par, quality-wise, with the 1x shots. Sharpness is there, and again tons of detail. And yet there's also more noise than at 1x. Overall, though, while we would have definitely liked to see a dedicated telephoto snapper, this will do for those moments when you just have to zoom in.
Daytime 2x samples
At night, with the primary sensor, you get soft-ish looking photos with plenty of noise but good dynamic range, good color rendition, and a contrasty look.
Nighttime samples from the primary camera
If you can, when shooting at night, use Night Mode. This isn't always the case for all phones anymore, but for the Poco F2 Pro, Night Mode just improves nighttime photography from all points of view. And you don't even have to wait a lot for the capture - probably because of the lack of OIS, exposures aren't overly long. It's just a matter of holding the phone still for a couple of seconds or so, and we recommend it over Auto mode. You get more detail, even more sharpness, restored highlights (quite apparent in light sources), and even some extra shadow detail.
Night Mode samples
Using the ultrawide at night is usually an exercise in frustration, so we would avoid it if at all possible. What you typically get is a noisy, smudgy mess with lacking detail levels. Unfortunately, there's no Night Mode for this cam, either.
Nighttime ultrawide samples
We also shot at 2x during the night, and unsurprisingly (since these are just crops from the primary sensor), the pictures come out with the same issues as those captured at 1x but somewhat amplified.
Night Mode would've significantly helped here, but it's only available for 1x shots. Still, if you absolutely need to zoom at night, you can do it, and the results are decent and usable generally, if not anywhere near outstanding.
Nighttime 2x samples
Selfies offer plenty of detail, accurate skin tones, and a ton of oversharpening. We wouldn't call these world-class in quality, but they are usually quite okay.
Daytime selfies, portrait mode off/on
At night, the usual caveats apply - try not to capture yourself in almost pitch dark conditions, make sure there's at least some ambient light around, and the results will be acceptable, if noisy.
Nighttime selfies, portrait mode off/on
One note on selfies - the UI for Xiaomi's various beautifying effects is incredibly confusing, so we hope these samples have been taken with all of those turned off. We can't really be sure of the way the slider works for each effect. We'd very much prefer it if manufacturers just had a direct toggle that would completely turn beautifying effects off.
Overall, the Poco F2 Pro's camera performance is good, but this is clearly one area in which, in all seriousness, it can't touch the real flagship smartphones.
Unless one of your main points for a phone is its camera, you may not even notice. And if you do value camera performance above all else, you're probably not looking at the Poco F2 Pro anyway.
Conclusion
Flagship killers have come a long way since the days of the OnePlus One. They've gotten better at everything. They now have a much smaller list of compromises compared to 'true' flagships. They're also more expensive than they used to be. Top of the line models have indeed become insanely expensive in recent years, but flagship killer pricing hasn't stood still either, with increases across the board.
With this in mind, the Poco F2 Pro's introductory price of €500 was in line with expectations for 2020, especially considering how expensive the Snapdragon 865 is said to be. However, these days you can buy it for under €400 and that's a whole other price category.
Price-wise, it now competes head-on with the likes of the OnePlus Nord, which don't even have a proper flagship chipset. On the other hand, it doesn't have a high refresh rate screen, so the tradeoff might be worth it.
For this price, the Poco F2 Pro is a steal. But it does have a list of shortcomings you have to live with. The list is much shorter than we expected it to be going into this review, but they're still there. We already mentioned the 60 Hz display, and then there's also the camera system, which is okay but not spectacular (and lacks OIS). Finally, this phone is not as smooth as any other Snapdragon 865 device this reviewer has tested, not to mention Huawei's Kirin 990 stuff. If you want smoothness above all else, Xiaomi incidentally makes a device like that - the Mi 10 Pro. But the price delta is still somewhat shocking. The same goes for any other device that beats the Poco F2 Pro in this regard.
So it's almost like when it comes to camera performance and smoothness, there is a direct correlation with price. Not always, not for every model, but generally speaking. That's definitely something to keep in mind, but also, don't forget that the Poco F2 Pro will blow any similarly priced mid-ranger out of the water in performance.
As always, then, it's all up to what your priorities are. We've enjoyed our time with the Poco F2 Pro and have been excited to see how far flagship killers have come in 2020. These were never aiming to be perfect or a great fit for anyone. They've always been about packing as much power as possible, with a few compromises, for the smallest possible price. And the Poco F2 Pro stays true to that.
Because of the 'flagship killer' mantra, we've been tempted to compare the handset to true flagships and see where it matches them and where it falls short, but that's probably unfair because of the price difference.
The Poco F2 Pro is an outstanding performer all-round, but its main issue is that it feels... just like it was made to hit a price point. There's no 'soul,' no bells, no whistles, nothing that stands out. This also works the other way - nothing stands out in a bad way, either. You're getting exactly what the spec sheet implies you're getting-nothing more, nothing less. And for under €400, that may be precisely what a lot of people need.
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