The Pocophone brand is familiar to many smartphone lovers Xiaomi. It is a separate company owned by Xiaomi. Probably the Chinese decided to look at the experience of other Chinese and did the same. We are talking about BBK, which owns subsidiaries Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus, Realme. Four companies in total in terms of market share allowed BBK to take a leading position in the world. The first phone in the Poco lineup was released back in 2018 with the release of the Poco F1. The phone worked at that time on the modern flagship Snapdragon 845 processor and offered a rather attractive appearance, not similar to everything that other Chinese manufacturers had shown us Xiaomi before.
What's so bad about the new Poco?
Even the most popular American tech blogger at one time did not bypass the Poco smartphone. And I know a lot of people from my environment who bought this device for themselves for 20-25 thousand on Aliexpress.
What does Poco offer today? And she offers Redmi K30. Yes, you got it right. The company introduced the Poco X2, which externally and technically completely repeats Redmi K30 except for the logo – here it is “Poco”.
Poco X2
Why is that bad? Firstly, because I have already written that the K30 itself has a number of shortcomings, which for many may become critical. Secondly, Poco is a separate brand. Xiaomi can produce phones for various markets under its own brand, but with a different name, as was the case with Xiaomi CC9, the international version of which is called Mi 9 Lite, but why was it necessary to bring a budget phone under the Poco brand is not entirely clear to me. Until that day, it seemed to me that the Poco brand is an analogue of OnePlus – premium phones with an interesting design at a low price. But now Poco is just a different name Xiaomi.
Many may not be familiar with the specifications. Redmi The K30 / Poco X2 is equipped with a Snapdragon 730G processor, a 6.67-inch IPS display with FHD resolution and 120Hz picture refresh, as well as HDR10 support (by the way, not so long ago I wrote about why the HDR screen is cool), 4500 mAh battery, 64-megapixel camera with slow-mo support at 960 frames per second, 20-megapixel front camera, 6/8 GB of RAM and 64/128 GB of internal memory. Everything sounds cool on paper. Indeed, Sony's IMX686 camera is interesting, and 120Hz is not bad, but let's look at the shortcomings that the owners of this device have encountered.
Firstly, here is an IPS display, for 2020 this is obviously a drawback. IPS-screens have problems with light, and this is clearly visible if you look at the phone's front camera from angles. Moreover, in the case of the K30, there is a display between the two front cameras; the company only makes this area black in software. And in complete darkness, the light between the front cameras is clearly striking.
And if in iPhone 11 we are dealing with a high-quality IPS-matrix, in Poco X2, rather, a budget solution with a flagship feature in the form of 120 Hz picture refresh. Due to the high frequency, users will think that there is a cool screen, but this is not so. In terms of colors, it is significantly inferior to the same Mi 9 Lite with a super AMOLED – display. I propose to discuss the difference in IPS and AMOLED – screens in the Telegram chat.
The Poco X2 has a rather large bottom bezel in my opinion, and it looks irrelevant for 2020. Owners of the Redmi K30 noted that the vibration motor in the Poco X2 is of poor quality, although in truth this is a problem on all phones Xiaomi.
For many, the lack of NFC in the X2 may be a serious disadvantage, while the Redmi K30 has it. Poco X2 is currently only sold in India, but it is likely that the company will introduce it to international markets in the future. Should you consider the Poco X2 seriously? $ 225 for the 6GB RAM and 64GB ROM version? In my opinion, it is expensive, because for 14 thousand rubles in China you can buy Mi 9 Lite with the same memory capacity. And at the same time it will offer already AMOLED – the screen and thinner frames. It's up to you to decide, of course, but in my opinion Xiaomi ruined the Pocophone brand. What do you think? Share your opinion in the comments.
Based on materials from Android Police