Half a year after the launch of the successful F7 series, the Poco brand releases two F8 models. They bring some serious upgrades, some fun designs and, unfortunately, a price hike.
The Poco F8 Ultra is €80/€100 more expensive than the F7 Ultra for the 256GB and 512GB models, respectively. At least that is if you go by MSRP – the early bird price knocks the price down by €180/€200.
This generation of Ultra goes for a larger screen at the cost of resolution – the F8 Ultra has a 6.9” 1200p+ display (120Hz OLED with 12-bit Dolby Vision), up from 6.67” 1440p+ (also 120Hz OLED with 12-bit Dolby Vision). The battery also grows from the smallish 5,300mAh to a solid 6,500mAh. Charging is similar enough at 100W wired and 50W wireless.
Poco F8 Ultra highlights
The Poco F8 Ultra is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 – and it is one of the cheapest phones with this chip. The other major upgrade is a bigger 50MP sensor in the main camera (1/1.31”, up from 1/1.55”), longer 5x/115mm periscope for the 50MP telephoto camera and a higher-resolution 50MP ultra-wide (though with a narrower 102° lens, vs. 32MP 120°).
The Poco F8 Pro got a €50 price hike (MSRP) compared to its predecessor. Once again, the early bird price brings a big €180 discount for the 256GB model and a €200 discount for the 512GB model, making this a… what, a premium mid-range killer? No, that just doesn’t roll off the tongue. But €500 phones should be worried either way.
Poco F8 Pro
The F8 Pro is interesting because in a way it replaces the F7 Ultra – it has the same Snapdragon 8 Elite chip and a similar 6.59” (vs. 6.67”) display. The camera setup looks quite close too, save for the lowly 8MP ultra-wide camera. You might want the old Ultra for its higher resolution display (1440p+ vs. 1156p+), but the new Pro has a bigger battery (6,210mAh vs. 5,300mAh).
Poco F8 Pro and F8 Ultra highlights
We’re curious to see what Poco has in store for the vanilla F8, but that’s not here yet. And the two F8 phones that were announced could claim the title of best value for money phones.
Here are the prices – we’ve listed MSRP and added the effective early bird price in brackets. We have also included the old prices of the F7 phones (of course, their prices have fallen since launch).
| 256GB | 512GB | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poco F7 Pro | $500 | £500 | €600 | $550 | £550 | €650 |
| Poco F7 Ultra | $650 | £650 | €750 | $700 | £700 | €800 |
| Poco F8 Pro | $580 ($530) | – | €650 (€470) | $630 ($580) | £600 (£450) | €700 (€500) |
| Poco F8 Ultra | $730 ($680) | £750 (£550) | €830 (€650) | $800 ($730) | £800 (£600) | €900 (€700) |
Xiaomi Poco F8 Ultra 5G
Xiaomi Poco F8 Pro 5G
Let’s start with the Poco F8 Ultra – at its early bird price, it’s a flagship killer. This is something that we don’t see often these days. Don’t miss our review for an in-depth look at whether all this hardware actually delivers a good user experience (it does, mostly). Can the F8 Ultra be your next phone?
Now the Poco F8 Pro – it sure puts other premium mid-rangers on notice with its sub-€500 price. We are still working on a full review, but we already know what to expect from its chipset and the battery life should be as impressive as it was on the Ultra. With upgraded cameras, this one is a great replacement for the F7 Pro. But is it the right fit for you?
