Poco F6 arrives with SD 8s Gen 3 chip, Poco F6 Pro follows with an SD 8 Gen 2
The Poco F5 and F5 Pro are two fan-favorite mid-rangers from last year and it is easy to see why â they punch above their weight in terms of performance and display quality. They had some drawbacks, of course, but the value for money they offered was outstanding.
Now Xiaomi is unveiling the F6 duo that improves on some of the areas where their F5 predecessors were lacking.
Poco F6
The Xiaomi Poco F6 is equipped with a flagship-grade chipset â the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. The new chipset is fabbed on a 4nm TSMC process and features the latest Cortex-X4 and Adreno 725 for an all-round higher performance compared to the 7+ Gen 2 chip of the F5.
The base memory configuration is still 8/256GB, but this year Xiaomi offers more more storage with the optional upgrade to 12/512GB (this is LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage).
The F5 display had brilliant colors and itâs not that the 1080p+ resolution was bad, but the F6 brings a 1.5K display (so should be in the 1200p+ range). Itâs a 6.67â OLED panel with 120Hz refresh rate, 100% DCI-P3 and Dolby Vision. It does up to 1,200 nits in high brightness mode, bu the peak brightness is 2,400 nits. The display uses 1,920Hz high-frequency PWM dimming.
Ruggedness is another area where the F5 was good, not great. The Poco F6 is an improvement on that with an IP64 rating (up from IP53) and Gorilla Glass Victus (up from GG5).
One area that didnât get much love is the camera. The main module uses a Sony IMX882, a 50MP sensor with 0.7µm pixels (the same pixel size as the 64MP sensor of the previous model). OIS is still on board, though. The 8MP camera is pretty much the same as last year. The selfie camera did get a small upgrade to a 20MP sensor (up from 16MP).
Like last year, the F6 brings stereo speakers, but unfortunately there is no 3.5mm headphone jack this time around. Other connectivity features include NFC (region dependent) and an IR blaster.
Finally, the F5 had a pretty solid battery with 5,000mAh capacity and 67W charging, the F6 sweetens the pot with a faster charging rate of 90W (still wired only).
Poco F6 Pro
The Poco F6 Pro is a more premium model and has several key advantages over its vanilla sibling. For starters, it uses the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. Even though itâs a generation older than the 8s, it has the better GPU and higher clock speeds keep its CPU competitive. As for the F5 Pro, that had the older 8+ Gen 1 chipset, so this is a proper generational improvement.
The memory configurations are 12/256GB and 12/512GB and now there is a 16GB/1TB option too (although that is reserved for select markets). This is LPDD5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage again.
Another upgrade over the F6 is the sharper 6.67 1440p+ display with a higher peak brightness of 4,000 nits (high brightness mode is still 1,200 nits) and a faster 3,840Hz PWM dimming. This is a 12-bit OLED panel, by the way.
Xiaomi rethought the battery configuration this year. The F6 Pro has a 5,000mAh battery with 120W fast charging (both Pocos come with the right charger in the box). It gets a full charge in just 19 minutes, but wireless charging has been cut â for comparison, the F5 Pro had a 5,160mAh battery with 67W wired and 30W wireless charging.
The camera is a decent upgrade over last yearâs model, but this isnât a camera phone. The main module features a 50MP sensor with larger 1.0µm sensors (up from 64MP 0.7µm) and has a brighter f/1.6 aperture (vs. f/1.8) with OIS on board. The ultra wide is still a basic 8MP unit and there is no tele module, the selfie camera has a 16MP sensor.
Strangely, Xiaomi doesnât mention about anything about the screen glass or the dust and water protection of the phone (the F5 Pro had IP53).
The Poco F6 is available starting today with the base model (8/256GB) priced at $380, while the memory upgraded version (12/512GB) is $430. That said, early bird buyers will actually get these models at $340 and $380, respectively. The F6 will be available from multiple retailers and carriers (and Xiaomi itself, of course). In the UK, Xiaomi's online store has the prices at £400 (discounted to £340 at the moment) for 8/256GB memory and £450 (down to £370) for the 12/512GB one. In Germany the two versions are â¬450 (down to â¬390) and â¬500 (down to â¬420). It's also available on Amazon Germany.
The Poco F6 Pro is also launching today priced at $500 for the 12/256GB model, $550 for 12/512GB and $630 for 16GB/1TB. However, the first sales will be at $50 less that those prices. In Germany, the 12/256GB Pro is â¬500 on Amazon and the 12/512GB one is â¬550.
In India, Flipkart will start selling the Poco F6 on May 29. The regular prices are â¹30,000 for the 8/256GB model, â¹32,000 for the 12/256GB one and â¹34,000 for the top 12/512GB version. However, the first sale prices will be â¹4,000 lower than that. And the cherry on top is an extended 1+1 year warranty. The Pro model is not coming to India.
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