Xiaomi isn't a name most phone fans in the UK will be overly familiar with. Despite being one of the top smartphone makers in Asia, Xiaomi (pronounced 'shh-ow-mee') are only now making their debut upon these Britannic shores. And what a bloody debut! We check out the surprisingly affordable Xiaomi Pocophone F1.
First up, the price. The best we could find for the Xiaomi Pocophone F1 was with G2A, currently weighing in at just £224. Compare that with the recently reviewed Honor 10 Lite at about £170 and you'd think both phones fell into the budget category. Well the F1 certainly doesn't.
Despite being only £50 on average more expensive than the Honor, the Xiaomi model is essentially twice the phone, boasting specs and internals to rival flagship handsets from Samsung and Apple. But... the price!?!
First of all, the processor is the powerful Snagdragon 845 - something you tend not to find inside phones of this price. There is also 6GB of RAM (compared to the Honor's 3GB) and a choice of either 64 of 128 GB storage. It features a dual SIM, with the ability to use the tray to expand the storage with a MicroSD card, a headphone jack (yay!) and is juiced via the far more efficient USB-C port.
All sounds pretty good so far. So what's the catch? Well, Xiaomi have clearly saved some $$$ by using a mostly plastic body. Although it keeps the device light, and is clearly robust, it does feel odd holding something made from plastic in 2019, when glass and metal are all the rage. Still, once you're used to it you really won't care; not after firing up the Xiaomi Pocophone F1.
Android 8.1 runs slick and fast on that 6.1 inch Full HD screen. Inside you have an impressively large 4000 mAh battery - again, simply something you tend not to get on phones of this price. It kept the device burning away all day long, even with fairly heavy use.
And cameras... yeah, cameras. The Xiaomi Pocophone F1 boasts three; a mighty 20MP shooter on the front, to capture your glorious face in selfies, and a combo of 12MP and 5MP on the rear, working together to suck up as much light as possible. The photos it took were high in detail, low in noise, and looked great. But this thing only costs a tad more than £200! It doesn't make sense...
So, the Xiaomi Pocophone F1 is a strangely phenomenal device. Using the Honor example once gain, it costs as mush as the budget phones that Hauwei put out under the Honor brand, but performs as good as the handsets the company releases as their flagship Mate series. Xiaomi have made a great intro into the British market, and if they keep this up they'll soon be stealing the affordable phone market from the likes of OnePlus.
It's affordable, powerful, good looking, and versatile. By God, buy the damn thing!
Available from www.g2a.com