Half a year after the launch of the successful F7 series, the Poco brand released two F8 models. They bring some serious upgrades, some fun designs and unfortunately price hikes.
The POCO F8 Ultra is €80/€100 more expensive than the F7 Ultra for the 256GB and 512GB models respectively. At least that’s if you go by the MSRP – the early bird price drops the price down to around €180/€200.
Poco F8 Ultra
This generation of Ultras goes for a bigger screen at the expense of resolution—the F8 Ultra has a 6.9″ 1200p+ display (120Hz OLED 12-bit Dolby Vision), compared to a 6.67″ 1440p+ (also with 120Hz 12-bit Dolby Vision). The battery also grows from a paltry 5,300mAh to a solid 6,500mAh. Charging is adequate 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’s the cheapest phone with the chip. The other major upgrade is a larger 50MP sensor in the main camera (1/1.31″, up from 1/1.55), a 5x/115mm periscope for the 50MP telephoto camera and a higher-resolution 50MP ultra-wide (albeit with a narrower 102° lens, vs the 32MP 120°).
The POCO F8 Pro received a €50 price hike (MSRP) over its predecessor. Again, the early bird pricing brings a discount of €180 for the 256GB model and €200 for the 512GB model, making it… what, a premium mid-range killer? No, it doesn’t just go off the tongue. But a €500 phone shouldn’t bother 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 also looks pretty close, save for the bottom 8MP ultra-wide camera. You might want the older 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 interested to see what Poco has in store for the vanilla F8, but it’s not here yet. And the two F8 phones that were announced can claim the title of best value for mini phones.
Here are the prices – we’ve listed the MSRP and added the bird’s starting effective price in brackets. We’ve also included the old prices of the F7 phones (of course, their prices have come down since launch).
| 256 GB | 512 GB | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poco F7 Pro | $500 | £500 | €600 | 50 550 | 50 550 | 50 650 |
| Poco F7 Ultra | 50 650 | 50 650 | 50 750 | $700 | £700 | €800 |
| Poco F8 Pro | 80 580 ($530) | – from | 50 650 (€ 470) | $630 (80,580) | £600 (50 450) | €700 (€500) |
| Poco F8 Ultra | $730 (80,680) | 50 750 (50 550) | 30 830 (€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 we don’t see very often these days. Don’t miss our review for an in-depth look at whether all this hardware actually provides a good user experience (it mostly does). Could the F8 Ultra be your next phone?
Now the Poco F8 Pro – it certainly puts other premium mid-rangers on notice with its sub-€500 price tag. We’re still working on a full review, but we already know what to expect from its chipset and battery life should be just as impressive as it was on the Ultra. With upgraded cameras, it’s a great replacement for the F7 Pro. But is it right for you?
