Analysis and opinion about Xiaomi POCO F2 Pro: design, screen, performance, battery, camera, multimedia, sound, competitors, and price.
With the launch of the Pocophone F1 in 2018, Xiaomi shook up the telephony market since, for the first time, a smartphone with the most powerful Qualcomm processor at that time went on sale for just over 350 dollars.
Obviously, not everything is power in a smartphone and the Pocophone F1 had limitations in other aspects such as its construction (it was plastic) or the image quality of its cameras, but even with everything at that time it was a highly recommended purchase for its price.
After two years of waiting, Xiaomi has recently announced the POCO F2 Pro, which has seen its price increase significantly compared to the Pocophone F1 since some components, such as the Snapdragon processor, have risen in price significantly.
The POCO F2 Pro comes with powerful specs. It has a 6.7 ″ Super AMOLED screen, Snapdragon 865 processor, 6/8 GB of RAM, 128/256 GB of storage, 64MP (wide angle) + 5MP (telephoto) + 13MP (ultra wide angle) + 2MP ( depth), 20MP pop-up front camera and 4,700 mAh battery
The POCO F2 Pro is on sale for $ 589 (6GB / 128GB) and $ 683 (8GB / 256GB) at Mi.com, although you can find it at a more affordable price on Amazon.
Xiaomi POCO F2 Pro Review
The POCO F2 Pro has a modern design, with a large screen surrounded by narrow and symmetrical frames. Xiaomi has opted for a pop-up camera mechanism, so the screen is free of notches and the device offers a high screen-to-body ratio, around 87%.
The rear glass is curved on the sides and does not have any pattern or texture, but is completely smooth. The phone is available in four colors – gray, blue, white, and purple – and, as is usual with glass finishes, fingerprints are quite marked on its surface.
The circular camera module is located in the center and protrudes slightly from the surface of the phone. The POCO F2 Pro has a fairly high thickness of 8.9 mm. and a considerable weight of 219 grams, although in its favor we must say that this can be justified by having a fairly generous battery.
Xiaomi uses Gorilla Glass 5 glass on the front and back but has sadly left the device devoid of protection against water – and understandable omission gave the pop-up camera mechanism and the price range.
Xiaomi has integrated a fingerprint reader under the screen that unlocks the phone quickly and, in general, quite reliable. The reading area is wide, so it is not necessary that you hit the finger exactly on the drawing of the footprint. It also incorporates 2D facial recognition but its use is not very practical since it is necessary for the camera to go out for the recognition to begin.
The POCO F2 Pro features a 6.7 ″ AMOLED panel with Full HD + resolution, which translates into a high pixel density of 395 dpi. You might miss a Quad HD + resolution, but the screen is sharp enough in my opinion.
The display has a maximum brightness of around 804 nits if it is in automatic mode under strong light such as the sun. This is an impressive value, which beats most of the high-end smartphones I’ve tested.
The screen covers a wide color gamut as it reaches 100% of the wide DCI-P3 space, which only high-end smartphones cover. The panel is HDR10 + compatible, and in tests, I have been able to play HDR content from Netflix and YouTube.
Of the three color modes it offers, the original mode offers excellent color fidelity, but most people will prefer the automatic mode that is selected by default as it displays more vivid (though less realistic) colors.
Xiaomi has included the Always Active Screen functionality, so we can permanently see the time/date, the battery level, the fingerprint reading area, and the notifications.
In addition, the screen momentarily turns on or shows an animation when a notification arrives and, at any time, we can double-tap to activate it manually.
The only thing I miss on the screen of the POCO F2 Pro is a high refresh rate although, given the price in which we move, it is understandable that Xiaomi had to cut somewhere.
The Xiaomi POCO F2 Pro has a Snapdragon 865 processor that, today, is the most powerful you can find in a smartphone for sale. Accompanying this chip we find 6 GB LPPDR4x or 8 GB LPDDR5 of RAM and 128/256 GB of UFS 3.1 storage without the option of expanding by micro-SD card.
In tests, the performance of the smartphone has been excellent, as expected given the hardware it incorporates, and the POCO F2 Pro has nothing to envy too much more expensive flagships in terms of power.
In the day-to-day, the POCO F2 Pro moves with total smoothness, and at no time have I suffered any stoppages. 3D games run smoothly in POCO F2 Pro and I’ve measured stable 30 FPS rates in titles like Asphalt 9, reaching an average 60 FPS rate in Dead Effect 2 and Call Of Duty.
The POCO F2 Pro comes with a generous impressive 4,700 mAh battery that, on a day-to-day basis, offers excellent autonomy, above practically all the high-end smartphones I have tested. In the PCMark autonomy test (with the screen calibrated at 200 nits) I have reached 12 hours and 36 minutes.
The phone features 30W fast charging and fully charges in just over an hour, which is a surprisingly short time. In terms of connectivity, it offers WiFi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac / ax in the 2.4 / 5 GHz bands, Bluetooth 5.1, infrared, and NFC but it does not have FM radio.
The POCO F2 Pro is compatible with 5G networks and supports the band below 6 GHz (Sub-6) but not the mmWave band. Luckily, it offers space for a second SIM card, so we can make use of the Dual SIM functionality, although it does not support eSIM.
The POCO F2 Pro comes with four rear cameras that allow taking wide-angle (main camera), ultra-wide-angle, and macro photos, as well as portraits thanks to its depth camera. A telephoto camera is missing, which again is an area that Xiaomi has cut back to keep the price low.
The main camera has a 64 MP sensor and a lens with f / 1.9 aperture without optical stabilization. This camera combines 4 pixels in 1 to produce 16 MP images with less noise, but it is also possible to take 64 MP super-resolution shots (although the increase in size and the loss of HDR does not compensate for the supposed improvement in sharpness).
In good light conditions, the image quality of the main camera is excellent, but when light is scarce, the result is not as good as the limited aperture and the absence of optical stabilization takes their toll and the noise is quite evident.
Xiaomi has included a Night mode that helps to get brighter and sharper photos at night, making it quite an interesting feature if you don’t mind waiting a little longer for the capture to take place.
The 13MP ultra-wide-angle camera brings a different perspective when photographing large objects such as buildings or monuments.
It is a useful camera during the day but the absence of optical stabilization and its limited aperture means that it offers a rather low image quality in night shots.
The macro camera allows us to get close to objects up to very short distances. Its 5MP resolution is somewhat poor but the resulting images look pretty good.
Finally, the POCO F2 Pro allows you to capture photos in Portrait mode aided by the 2MP depth sensor and we can adjust the degree of a blur both during capture and afterward – something that not all smartphones can do.
The result is quite good as the camera is able to distinguish the foreground from the background well. The main drawback is that, by not having a telephoto camera and using the wide-angle camera, it is necessary to get very close to taking close-ups and the face looks somewhat deformed.
The rear camera is capable of recording video in 8K resolution (7680 × 4320) at 24/30 fps, a novelty more thought for the future than for today. It is also possible to record in UHD / 4K (3840 × 2160) at 30 / 60fps, Full HD / 1080p (1920 × 1080) at 30 / 60fps and HD / 720p (1280 × 720) at 30fps, while the front camera can record videos in Full HD formats at 30fps and HD at 30 / 120fps.
In videos, the image quality has been good although the image looks unstable at the most demanding modes ( 8K @ 30fps and 4K @ 60fps ). Similarly, recording at night at 60fps looks very dark. Xiaomi offers a Super Stabilization mode but it is only available at 1080p @ 30fps.
If you are an advanced user, you will be happy to know that Xiaomi offers a Pro mode that allows you to adjust a large number of parameters for taking photos and videos.
As for the front camera, its resolution of 20MP is high and, in general, it offers good image quality. It is possible to take selfies in Portrait mode, with a quite successful result.
The Xiaomi POCO F2 Pro does not stand out for its sound compared to other smartphones since it has a single speaker at the bottom, which presents a limited richness of tones. Luckily, it features a 3.5mm headphone jack, so you don’t have to resort to a Bluetooth headset or a USB Type-C adapter.
Xiaomi incorporates the MIUI 11 for the POCO customization layer based on Android 10, which incorporates some interesting functionalities to control battery consumption, clone applications that do not support multi-account, create a second private space, protect access to apps with passwords, etc…
An interesting aspect is that it incorporates an application drawer, something that we do not usually find in smartphones of Chinese origin. The appearance of the drawer is highly customizable.
In addition, the MIUI 11 layer incorporates some functionalities that we do not usually find in other smartphones such as Quick Responses to notifications without leaving the app, the Game Turbo tool to improve the gaming experience, the functionality of fast sending files wirelessly, etc.
As aspects for improvement, the MIUI Settings section is too complex since sometimes it calls the same thing in different ways depending on where you are and, sometimes, it uses strange names for certain functionalities (such as Play full screen for navigation gestures).
As a curiosity, from time to time, you find some words written in Chinese, as in the Tags section of the smart albums of the Gallery.
Another aspect that doesn’t convince me is that advertising appears in some system applications, either through small banners integrated into the interface of the app itself or, even worse, in the form of large advertisements when the app is opened.
Finally, the Xiaomi POCO F2 Pro is on sale for $ 589 (6GB / 128GB) and $ 683 (8GB / 256GB) at Mi.com, although you can find it at a more affordable price on Amazon.
It is a very tight price for a smartphone of this power and, therefore, it is a recommended purchase, but you must take into account the cuts that Xiaomi has made in some aspects before deciding on it.
Xiaomi POCO F2 Pro Full Specifications
| Platform | Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 865 flagship platform |
| Storage and RAM | 8GB + 256GB LPDDR5 + UFS 3.1 6GB + 128GB LPDDR4X + UFS 3.1 |
| Display | 6.67” AMOLED Full Screen Display |
| Rear Camera | 64MP quad rear camera 64MP main wide sensor Sony IMX686, 1.6μm 4-in-1 Super Pixel, 1/1.7“ sensor size, ƒ/1.89 aperture 13MP ultra wide-angle sensor 123° FoV, ƒ/2.4 aperture 5MP macro sensor 1.12μm pixel size, ƒ/2.2 aperture, AF (3cm-7cm) 2MP depth sensor 1.75μm pixel size, ƒ/2.4 aperture |
| Front Camera | 20MP pop-up front camera |
| Charging and battery | 4700mAh(typ) / 4600mAh(min) Supports 30W fast charge Built-in rechargeable battery USB Type-C reversible connector port |
| Dimensions | Height: 163.3mm Width: 75.4mm Thickness: 8.9mm Weight: 219 g |
| Sensors | Proximity sensor In-screen ambient light sensor Accelerometer Gyroscope Electronic compass Hall effect sensor Linear motor IR blaster Barometer Flicker sensor |
| Operating system | MIUI For POCO |
| Package contents | POCO F2 Pro Power adapter USB Type-C cable Simple protective cover SIM eject tool User guide Warranty card |
All images and specifications credits for “Xiaomi POCO F2 Pro“.
The Best and Worst about Xiaomi POCO F2 Pro
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Xiaomi POCO F2 Pro Price and Competitors
The Xiaomi POCO F2 Pro is on sale for $ 589 (6GB / 128GB) and $ 683 (8GB / 256GB) at Mi.com, although you can find it at a more affordable price on Amazon.
It is a very tight price for a smartphone with this hardware, so it is difficult to find a rival in price if you look only at power.
For a slightly lower price, we have the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 ( $ 553 at Mi.com), which has a 6.5 ″ AMOLED screen with FullHD + resolution, Snapdragon 730G processor, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, 108MP rear camera ( main) + 12MP (2x telephoto) + 8MP (5x telephoto) + 20MP (ultra wide angle) + 2MP (macro), 32MP front camera and 5,260 mAh battery.
If you’re after a smartphone with a Snapdragon 865 chipset but at an adjusted price, another good option is the Realme X50 Pro 5G ( $ 695 at Amazon) that has a 6.4 ″ Super AMOLED screen with Full HD + resolution at 90Hz, Snapdragon 865 processor, 6 / 8 / 12GB RAM, 128 / 256GB storage, 64MP (wide) + 12MP (telephoto) + 8MP (ultra-wide / macro) + 2MP (depth) rear camera, 32MP (wide-angle) front camera + 8MP (ultra-wide-angle) and 4,200 mAh battery,
If you are interested in a smartphone with great camera versatility, for a similar price there is the Huawei P30 Pro ( $ 652 at Amazon) from last year, it has a 40MP main camera ( f / 1.6), a 20MP 5x telephoto camera ( f / 2.2) and a 20MP ultra-wide camera ( f / 2.2). It also incorporates a 6.5 ″ OLED screen, Kirin 980 processor, 6GB / 128GB, and 4,200 mAh battery.
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