Poco F2 Pro review - Cutting the right corners - Android - Canadian apps and news

Poco F2 Pro review - Cutting the right corners - Android

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Can the Poco F2 Pro match its predecessor's success? Find out in our review!

The Pocophone F1 was a smartphone that truly focused on value for money. It included the important features and excluded the unimportant ones. We liked it because of its fantastic optimization of features, specs, and value.

Fast forward almost two years, the Poco brand has had more than just a name change. This time around, the latest device is looking and feeling very different. Can Xiaomi’s Poco F2 Pro match the hype and value of its predecessor?

Find out in Android Authority’s Poco F2 Pro review.

About our Poco F2 Pro review: I wrote this Poco F2 Pro review after spending nine days with the device as my primary phone. Xiaomi provided Android Authority with the review unit, which was running MIUI 11 atop Android 10, software build 11.0.6.0.

Poco F2 Pro review: Here’s the deal

Credit: Ryan-Thomas Shaw / Android Authority

Xiaomi’s Poco brand sells budget-friendly smartphones. The company put its name on the map after its pilot device launch — the Pocophone F1. The F1 was released at a crucial time when many of the top devices were starting to breach the four-figure mark in terms of cost. The F1 came in and woke up the market and showed consumers that you didn’t need to spend big bucks to get big specs.

The F2 Pro carries this idea forward. It’s a smartphone that costs half that of a true flagship, and yet it offers flagship specs. Can it deliver in the speed department given its top-to-bottom redesign?

Design

Credit: Ryan-Thomas Shaw / Android Authority

163.3 x 75.4 x 8.9mm
219g
Glass and metal build

In-display fingerprint scanner
Pop-up selfie camera
USB-C port, headphone port

If you’re wondering if you’ve seen this design before, it’s because you have. The Redmi K30 Pro and the Poco F2 Pro share the same chassis. On both front and back, we’re treated to Gorilla Glass 5 with metal framing the device. This is a huge change from the predominantly polycarbonate construction of the original F1. The F2 Pro feels like a more premium phone in the hand than its predecessor, helping it fit into a smartphone market that skews toward the high end.

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Up front there’s an uninterrupted display. The bezels surrounding said display are fairly thin, adding to the Poco F2 Pro’s good looks. The selfie camera is housed in a pop-up mechanism, which also houses the notification LED — a welcomed feature, as many smartphones lack it. The pop-up camera seems smooth and fairly quick to jump out of its slot. There’s also an IR blaster and headphone port on the top. The left side is bare, but on the right there is a volume rocker and a red power button. The buttons feel relatively clicky and tactile. I didn’t experience any creaks or rattles during my time with the device, either. On the bottom, there’s a USB-C port running at USB 2.0, a dual SIM tray, a mono speaker, and a microphone.

The quad-camera circle is positioned around back close to the top edge. It looks rather like the circular module of last year’s OnePlus 7T. The flash sits just below it, and the Poco logo is right at the bottom.