Meet POCO F2 Pro - 2020's flagship killer?

Two months after it arrived in the Philippines, we finally got our hands on the POCO F2 Pro. 

Meet the POCO F2 Pro

Its predecessor POCOPHONE F1 easily became the talk of the town in 2018 for its flagship-like features given its affordable price tag. Fast forward to 2020, POCO F2 Pro arrives with game-changing features but with a slightly higher price.

Does POCO F2 Pro's higher price equal to better performance? 

Read on to find out!

Meet POCO F2 Pro 

The device arrives in a dark gray box with a yellow print of the text "POCO F2 Pro" and a lighter gray text at the bottom saying "5G" and "5G connectivity will vary based on local operator capabilities." 

Minimalist packaging

Inside, you'll find the device, a clear case, USB-C to USB-A cord, 30W wall charger, and paper manuals. It does not have any earphones included, though.

What's inside?

POCO F2 Pro comes in four color variants of Neon Blue, Phantom White, Electric Purple, Cyber Grey. The back design features its quad camera with a halo-like around it. Its camera flash is placed just beneath the rear cameras. POCO F2 Pro's cameras remind me of the Huawei Mate 30's rear cameras. The "POCO" branding sits on the bottom part of the device's back design.

Clad in glass and metal shell!

The device arrives in a glass and metal shell with a nice but also slippery grip so I recommend putting on the case right away if you are clumsy like me. I have to note that it is not a fingerprint smudge magnet. 

POCO F2 Pro is made out of a glass and metal materials

Its secondary microphone, popping selfie camera, and 3.5mm headphone jack port are placed on top of the device. Meanwhile, the dual SIM slot tray, USB-C port, primary microphone, and single grille speaker are on the bottom.

Top

Bottom

Left

Right

The power button is placed just below the volume rockers on the right side of the device. There's nothing on the left side, though.

POCO F2 Pro has a premium finish and feels for its price. It's a little heavy when picked up, probably because of its huge battery inside.

In front, POCO F2 Pro features a 6.67-inch 3D curved Gorilla Glass 5 protected AMOLED screen with a 60Hz refresh rate, 180Hz touch sampling rate, HDR10+, FHD+ 2400 x 1080 resolution at 395 ppi.

I can't miss noting that it has no notch so you'd be enjoying the screen without interruptions.

6.67-inch 3D curved Gorilla Glass 5 protected AMOLED screen

It has nice viewing angles and the screen is very bright. POCO F2 Pro uses an AMOLED panel and that made the colors look vibrant.

However, the screen only comes with a 60Hz refresh rate which, for me, is a downside considering most modern higher-tier phones today have at least 90Hz. But overall, POCO F2 Pro's screen delivers well given its price.

POCO F2 Pro benchmarks

POCO F2 Pro runs on the 7nm 2.84GHz Snapdragon 865 octa-core processor, Adreno 650 GPU, up to 8GB LPDDR5 RAM. It has non-expandable 256GB UFS 3.0 memory.

Snapdragon 865 is easily one of the most powerful chips for Android today. Only the newer Snapdragon 865+ is a bit ahead of this chip.

In terms of gaming, POCO F2 Pro delivers great. It easily handles crowd popular games like the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, PUBG Mobile, and alike without any hiccups. 

64MP rear cameras

POCO F2 Pro's tagline says "Powerfully Cool". So to better test its heat management, Xiaomi sent us the review phone along with a gun thermometer that can check the temperature of devices! 

I checked the temperature of the POCO F2 Pro after charging it from 0 to 100 and it got 35.4 degrees Celsius. It almost got the same device temperature after playing casually for two hours—the temperature is at 35.6 degrees Celsius.

In terms of battery life, the device got a total of 17 hours and 29 minutes on the PCMark app. On the other hand, POCO F2 Pro lasts more than a day on actual usage with texting, casual calls, social media browsing, and a little bit of gaming.

POCO F2 Pro Battery test

It's also great that it comes with a 30W fast wall charger. From 0 to 100 percent, it only took me an hour and 5 minutes to charge the POCO F2 Pro!

Of course, it's no secret that the POCO F2 Pro sports quad rear camera setup of 64MP f/1.89 Sony IMX686 + 13MP f/2.4 123-degree ultra-wide-angle + 5MP f/2.2 w/ 3-7cm telemacro + 2MP f/2.4 depth with LED flash.

It has the following camera modes: photo, video, short video, slow-mo, 64MP, portrait, night, macro, panorama, and pro. POCO F2 Pro also has HDR and AI features.

Rear Camera Samples

The POCO F2 Pro can take really good photos be it under daylight, indoor, or night mode. One of the edges of this smartphone is its 64MP quad rear cameras.

On daylight setup, POCO F2 Pro's cameras really did well. The photos are highly-detailed with great color accuracy, contrast, and punch. 

The 10x zoom also performed well! Take a look at these photos below:

Normal daylight shot

Gloomy daylight shot

Daylight wide shot

Normal shot

5x zoom shot

10x zoom shot

POCO F2 Pro's rear cameras are still great in low light areas even if I took photos using point and shoot mode. But of course, photos taken using night mode have better brightness, contrast, and color accuracy. Take a look:

Auto lowlight shot

Lowlight shot in night mode

For the selfie camera, POCO F2 Pro sports a 20MP f/2.2 pop-up camera with screen flash.

POCO F2 Pro's pop-up selfie camera

On daylight, POCO F2 Pro's selfie camera performs well. The selfies taken have nice details and great contrast. However, for me, there are some over-sharpening in some of my selfies. 

Daylight outdoor selfie

Indoor selfies are great as well. I appreciate how POCO F2 Pro's portrait feature can blur backgrounds clearly.

Indoor night selfie

Indoor normal selfie

Indoor portrait selfie

The screen flash can lit selfies with nice brightness. I didn't have any issues while taking a selfie in a completely dark room. Take a look:

Lowlight selfie with screen flash

For videos, it can record with the following resolutions: 8K video recording 24fps/30fps, 4K video recording 30fps/60fps, 1080p video recording, 30fps/60fps, and 720p video recording 30fps.

The rest of the features

POCO F2 Pro connects to WiFi and is 5G-ready. It also has 700MHz 4G LTE, Super Bluetooth chip + Bluetooth 5.1 (AAC, LDAC, LHDC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive), OTG, NFC,  GPS (L1 + L5), A-GPS, GLONASS (E1 + E5a), QZSS, Galileo (L1 + L5), and dual SIM.

Packed with 4,700mAh of battery

It has the following sensors: accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, and magnetic. It is packed with two security features of in-display fingerprint scanner and face unlock. I would like to note that the device's in-display fingerprint scanner is sometimes slow.

We can't miss noting that POCO F2 Pro has 1216 linear speakers and Hi-Res audio with Dolby Atmos. The device can fill up a medium-sized room with nice sound quality.

The Hi-Res audio is for wired headphones and it delivers a sound that is clean and generally fantastic for a smartphone.

POCO F2 Pro Specs

Display: 6.67-inch 3D curved Gorilla Glass 5 protected AMOLED screen w/ 60Hz refresh rate, 180Hz touch sampling rate, HDR10+, FHD+ 2400 x 1080 resolution at 395 ppi

CPU: 2.84GHz 7nm Snapdragon 865 octa-core processor

GPU: Adreno 650

RAM: 6GB LPDDR4X/8GB LPDDR5

ROM: 128GB/256GB UFS 3.0

Back Camera: 64MP f/1.89 Sony IMX686 + 13MP f/2.4 123-degree ultra-wide-angle + 5MP f/2.2 w/ 3-7cm telemacro + 2MP f/2.4 depth + LED flash

Selfie Camera: 20MP f/2.2

Battery: 4,700mAh w/ 30W fast charging

OS: Android 10 w/ MIUI 11

Connectivity: WiFi 6, 5G, 700MHz 4G LTE, Super Bluetooth chip + Bluetooth 5.1 (AAC, LDAC, LHDC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive), OTG, NFC,  GPS (L1 + L5), A-GPS, GLONASS (E1 + E5a), QZSS, Galileo (L1 + L5), dual SIM

Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic

Others: In-Display fingerprint sensor, face unlock, IR Blaster, 1216 linear speaker, Hi-Res Audio, Dolby Atmos, X-axis linear vibration motor, LiquidCool Technology 2.0, USB-C, Colors: Neon Blue, Phantom White, Electric Purple, Cyber Grey

Dimensions: 163.3 x 75.4 x 8.9 mm

Weight: 218 g

Price: PHP 26,990 (6GB/128GB), PHP 29,990 (8GB/256GB)

Quick thoughts

POCO F2 Pro is still worth to be tagged as a "flagship killer" for PHP 26,990.

Why? You can get true flagship-level performance with the above-mentioned specs and features, a huge battery with 30W fast charge, and 64MP quad cameras for half the price of modern high-end smartphones from mainstream brands.

I can't also miss reiterating how it stays cool despite charging and gaming. Also, all of its positive traits outweigh our few nitpicks.

It is that good for the price.

Do you agree with us?