First look at Xiaomi Pocophone F2 Pro - the long-awaited smartphone that has deceived fans

In 2018, the Pocophone F1 was released - a smartphone with top-end characteristics for 18 thousand rubles. The model won the love of many users, but the company that released it, Xiaomi, was in no hurry to repeat the success. Only this year did we see a successor in the face of the Pocophone F2 Pro. However, the novelty no longer pretends to be a "flagship killer". We share our first impressions of the smartphone.

Design

The previous Pocophone was made of cheap plastic, which contrasted with its iron. In the new model, this has been corrected: the glass and aluminum body immediately makes it clear that you are dealing with a serious device.

The rear window has a matte finish, and it hardly gets dirty. The edges are curved so that the smartphone fits comfortably in the hand, but the dimensions make it not universal. It is better for owners of small palms to pass by, the novelty will also fit into the pocket of tight jeans with difficulty.

Such is the price for a huge screen that takes up almost the entire front panel. At the same time, there are no cutouts and holes for the front camera: it is hidden in the body and slides out if necessary.

Poco F2 Pro: front camera that slides out of the body

The Pocophone F1 had an infrared camera for face recognition, which had to be made for a huge "eyebrow" at the top of the screen. Everything is simpler here: the frontal lens is responsible for face scanning. There is also a fingerprint scanner built into the screen.

In addition to the sliding front camera, there is a 3.5 mm audio jack for headphones on top, as well as an infrared diode for controlling equipment. Both of these elements are less and less common in modern smartphones, so the Pocophone is going against the trend. We are only glad of this.

Screen

Poco F2 Pro received a display of 6, 67 inches with a resolution of 2,400 × 1,080 pixels. The matrix is made using Super AMOLED technology with the organization of Diamond pixels (there are twice as many green diodes as red and blue). Because of this, the clarity of the picture is lower than that of LCD-screens with a similar dot density of 395 PPI.

However, graininess is visible only if you look at the small print at close range. The picture itself is exactly what you expect from AMOLED: bright, juicy, with deep blacks. The good news is that the edges of the screen are not curved. There are no false clicks and color distortion here.

Since the display does not illuminate black pixels, you can turn on the dark theme to save battery power. Reading mode is also available in the settings, which makes the picture warm. We did not forget about the DC Dimming function, which suppresses high-frequency flicker of the backlight, which can cause discomfort for some users.

Sound and vibration

There is only one multimedia speaker, but there is a separate amplifier for it. Perhaps this is the highest quality mono sound found in smartphones. The volume and bass are almost the same as those of models with good stereo speakers, although the new product will lose in terms of volume and clarity.

With the Pocophone F2 Pro, you can take a shower with music, but you shouldn't wet your smartphone: the manufacturer does not claim any moisture protection. The sound in games is also doing well, however, due to the location of the speaker, it is easy to block it in horizontal orientation.

The vibration is also very pleasant and resembles the tactile response in the Xiaomi Mi 10. The smartphone gives out a wide range of feedback - from powerful vibrations to clear and accurate clicks.

Cameras

The Pocophone F2 Pro has four rear cameras. The standard 64-megapixel module is equipped with high-aperture optics with an aperture of f / 1.99. It is complemented by a 13-megapixel "shirik", a 5 megapixel portrait camera and a depth sensor.

In a full review, we will tell you about all aspects of the camera system, but for now, here are a few photos for the standard module and front-end:

Standard camera

Front-camera

Other features

The smartphone runs on Android 10 with a proprietary MIUI 11 shell. Very soon, an interface update to version 12 will arrive, which will be the largest in the history of MIUI. In the meantime, we have a well-known firmware in front of us, which is easy to figure out.

The hardware platform is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset, which is complemented by 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of internal memory. The smartphone can easily cope with any games and tasks, and the performance reserve will be enough for several years to come.

Opening times won't be a problem either. The Pocophone F2 Pro has a 4,700 mAh battery. Considering how long the models on a similar SoC (the same Xiaomi Mi 10) live, the novelty should withstand a day of active use, even preserving some kind of margin. However, we will check this later.

Subtotals

The Pocophone F2 Pro did not become an inexpensive "flagship killer" - we have a real flagship in front of us, and its price is appropriate. 50,000 rubles does not seem like an excessive amount for such a set of characteristics. But we will make the final verdict in a couple of weeks in a full review.