The POCO F1 will turn 4 years old this summer, and theres still people that use this device, and even then, it’s still popular in the second hand market. but is it worth buying in 2022? Let’s find out.
The POCO F1 in 2022
Hardware
The POCO F1 was released in August of 2018, with the Snapdragon 845, 6 or 8 gigabytes of RAM, and 64, 128 or 256 gigabytes of storage, and liquid cooling. These specs are obviously flagship level, due to the POCO F1’s status as a “flagship killer”, it released for around 350$, and passed its price range competitors very easily. For its second hand price, this phone has amazing specs. You can find a second hand POCO F1 for around 170 to 200 dollars, and it’ll pass devices like the Redmi Note 8 Pro (which you can find for around 200$ too) very easily.
Performance
The POCO F1, with its Snapdragon 845 featuring a Kryo 385 Silver CPU and Adreno 630 GPU, 6 or 8 gigs of RAM, and liquid cooling, is a beast when it comes to performance. Geekbench 5 testing gives results of 425 points in single-core testing and around 1720 in multi-core. PUBG on the Smooth/Extreme graphics setting will give you, as the name implies, a smooth 60FPS experience, though in HDR/Extreme, you will need the liquid cooling to kick in for a stable 60FPS or the game might bounce between the 45 to 50 FPS range. Genshin Impact gives similar results, and Call of Duty: Mobile also runs at a smooth 60FPS, so it’s safe to say that the POCO F1 will not disappoint you when it comes to performance.
Camera
The POCO F1 shares the same sensor that Google has been using since 2018 for its Pixel phones (until the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro), the IMX363. The POCO F1 also features a second camera for Bokeh and depth. The IMX363 isn’t amazing, and photos taken with the stock MIUI camera will prove that. Though you can install one of the many Google Camera ports for the device using GCamLoader, linked here. With the GCam ports, the camera takes very good photos. Here’s a few photo samples taken with the POCO F1:
The POCO F1 has reached the end of its life, so it will not be receiving any more platform updates or MIUI updates, so if you’re looking for a device to use Android 17 on, it isn’t for you. The stock MIUI experience is good, lacking any major lag or stutter, but being on Android 10 and MIUI 12 (which are slowly reaching their end-of-life state) isn’t the most fun experience. However, this device has a very active development community which builds custom ROMs and kernels for the device.
Now, about those custom ROMs.
The POCO F1, referred to as “beryllium” internally by Xiaomi, and by developers, is very solid when it comes to software. There are many custom ROMs that you can install, ranging from ROMs such as LineageOS, ArrowOS or Pixel Experience, to Paranoid Android. This devices availability for its price to performance ratio, has made it a favourite among developers. You can check the development for this device in the POCO F1 Updates Telegram channel, linked here.
Conclusion
The POCO F1, for around 200$ is pretty good when it comes to a price to performance situation. The camera takes decent photos in bright environments, has nice depth, and can do 4K video recordings, but isn’t great in low light as are most Xiaomi phones. The specs are excellent for the price, and the software, depending on if you’re not scared to flash a custom ROM on your device, is amazing. So, if you’re want a near-flagship experience, are not scared of flashing custom ROMs, and are on a budget, the POCO F1 is a excellent. We recommend this device and hold it at a high regard.
