Higher end on a tighter budget: Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro review

Almost 2 years since the release of the first Pocophone, that oft praised smartphone has finally gotten a successor in the Poco F2 Pro, made available in Malaysia since early June 2020. It looks pretty similar to the Redmi  K30 Pro, but with some attractive additions. Does the Poco F2 Pro live up to the standards set by its predecessor? Let’s find out.

Definite specs upgrade

The Poco F2 Pro comes equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 and 5G, 6GB RAM (LPDDR4X + UFS 3.1) with onboard 128 / 256 GB memory. It uses MIUI 11 based off Android 10. To keep all that cool is Liquidcool technology 2.0 so that hardware’s not gonna get fried when you start going off on your games with this multiple-layer liquid cooling. On AnTuTu, the phone pulls in 573 432 points.

A pretty large display

The screen is now bigger, dropping a notch on this sharp OLED panel. Curved on its edges, the 6.67-inch Corning Gorilla Glass 5 AMOLED touch screen boasts a 92.7% screen to body ratio, a drastic change from the polycarbonate-dominated build of the original F1. The Poco F2 Pro can support up to 2400 x 10180 FHD+ and 20:9 aspect ratio, contrast ratio of 5 000 000:1 (typ) and NTSC 98% colour range (typ). Needless to say, it’s going to be quite nice to watch videos on this.

It also has a 60Hz refresh rate and sample rate of 180Hz for HDR10+ support. It’s gotten the TÜV Rheinland certification, too. The fingerprint sensor is in-display. The side houses the volume buttons, with a red power button for that extra stand-out. You can find a 3.5mm earphone jack, USB Type-C charging port and nano SIM slot on this phone.

Pop-up camera go

The rear cameras on the Poco F2 Pro are neatly arranged, housing a main 64MP Sony IMX 686 sensor with 13MP ultrawide (123 degree) + 5MP telemicro lends and 2MP depth sensor. The micro shots can capture just about every corner, while the ultra wide-angle mode has in-built corrections to lessen distortions in this mode. From zoomed out to micro, there’s not much you can find fault with the camera on a phone arguably not having it as its main selling point.

Pop-up cameras may not be so common anymore, but the Poco F2 Pro is keeping it here. It’s a 20MP shooter, capable of 120FPS slow motion. The pop-up camera also has its own lighting and sound effects that spills over to the display. The colour and sound effects can be changed, but there’s only 5 colours and 6 sounds to pick from. Using the HEIF format, there’s some real space saving right there so capture to your heart’s content.

The video capture side lets you record 8K video with up to 24/30 FPS, and up to 960 FPS for slo-mo. There’s a few interesting modes to play around like Vlog Mode for your Tik Toks with some transition effects you can play around with, or Cinematic Mode with black bars and 21:9 ratio for the “movie” feel, and ShootSteadyVideo for stable shots, though it zooms in a little.

Play longer

The Poco F2 Pro packs a 4700mAh battery, boasting up to 13 hours of life for whatever games you play, and up to 6 hours on 1080P recording. You’re unlikely to notice the time passing by when you’re gaming without those pesky notifications. If you need to juice back up, 30W quick charge is available, and from our tests, it can charge up to 100% in roughly an hour!

Speakers are fine

The Poco F2 Pro comes with 1216 super-linear speaker and dual smart PA high volume boost, but only at the lower right of the phone. When you’re gaming, your hands will often be covering the speakers, so you might want a headset if you really want to listen to the sound. It would’ve been better to have 2 speakers instead for clearer sound or be placed on the front to avoid this, but it is what it is.

Brief specs

Verdict

As you might have gathered, the Poco F2 Pro has its own weaknesses and advantages. It’s got more colour options that include Phantom White, Cyber Grey, Neon Blue and Electric Purple. The Gorilla Glass is great, but since it’s double sided, the phone can feel a little slippery and it’s easy to leave fingerprints. It’s light at a mere 219g and with Liquidcool 2.0, it’s comfortable to hold when you want to game. The notchless screen means there’s nary any blocking on your screen for a nice, clean view to enjoy the HD panel.

The Poco F2 Pro comes in 6GB RAM + 128GB ROM at RM2,199 while the 8GB RAM + 526GB ROM goes for RM2,599.

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