Pocophone isn't dead; POCO F2 is coming soon: Report

Late last year, Xiaomi unveiled the Pocophone sub-brand and its first phone, the Poco F1 went on to become the phone with the best specs for the price. Until now, there was no information about a successor but that might just have been confirmed by an Indian executive.

The Poco F1 was one of the best-acclaimed phones of last year, bringing flagship-grade internals to the sub 30K segment of India. With Snapdragon 845, up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, there were only a few phones that could compete with it in the performance department. This was a masterstroke for a processor-centric market such as India.

Expectedly, this had fans waiting for a successor to build upon that legacy and deliver 2019 upgrade with the Poco F2. However, we are well in Q3 and there was still no official word about the Poco F2. Some thought that the Redmi K20 series would be rebranded as the Poco F2 in India, or entirely replace the series but neither of those happened as the Redmi K20 Pro did go on to launch in India with the same name.

Proof of existence?

In a recent interview with 91mobiles, Anuj Sharma, the CMO of Xiaomi India confirmed that the Pocophone series “will not be discontinued” and they are “mulling ways to keep the Redmi and POCO brands distinct from each other in terms of price as well as the value proposition.”

While he did not directly confirm the existence of the Poco F2, it is the only logical conclusion. It also makes sense that Xiaomi is looking to differentiate the Redmi K20 Pro and the Poco F2 as both of them seemingly are flagships that bring high-end internals to the underserved INR 20K-30K segment.

After the Redmi K20 unveiling in India, Xiaomi held a press conference with select members of the media where they talked a little more about this conundrum. The Redmi K20 series aims at bringing a well-rounded flagship experience with a top-end chipset, a premium design, a big battery and triple cameras.

On the other hand, the Poco philosophy involved providing the best gaming experience for the price with more emphasis on performance than the other aspects. This becomes even more clear when you take the Poco F1 into consideration where it had an average design, display and cameras; aspects that are forgivable for the price but reiterating the objective of Pocophone’s existence.

The Poco F1 has also seen multiple price drops over the last couple of months, with the top 256 + 8GB variant now being available at just INR 22,999, a cool drop of INR 6,000. Could this mean Pocophone wants to clear out all the stocks of the F1 before they begin the F2 campaign?

A recent design patent by Xiaomi shows a device that looks eerily similar to the Poco F1 but with trendy upgrades such as a punch-hole display and a triple camera setup. Three designs were submitted, each with a different position for the front camera and could be a part of Pocophone’s prototyping process where they are yet to finalize that detail.

If we were to guess, the Poco F2 will come in the last quarter of 2019 and will bring the latest Snapdragon 855+ chipset for the best performance. Xiaomi has also been pretty vocal about adding the new 64MP Samsung GW1 image sensor on upcoming phones and could also make the cut. These are just speculations and we will have to wait for a bit to clarify these specifications. 

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