A while back, Xiaomi unveiled its Redmi K90 series phones, a pair of powerful Android devices which come with Snapdragon flagship chips, as well as more premium designs and displays. One big caveat with the Redmi K90 phones is that they’re exclusive for Chinese markets, unlike most other devices under the Redmi brand which are available even here in the UK. That all changes though with the launch of the POCO F8 series, which somewhat brings the K90 phones to more markets, albeit with some changes.
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You see, while the POCO F8 series phones come with the same overall design and chipsets, there are some slight differences when compared to their Redmi brethren, such as their smaller battery capacities, for example. With that in mind, here’s what you can expect with the new POCO F8 Pro and POCO F8 Ultra—let’s take a look!
In terms of performance, the new POCO F8 phones are powered by the same chipsets as the K90 series devices. The more powerful F8 Ultra (which we’ve reviewed above) features Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which is used in several other flagship Android phones as well. Meanwhile, the POCO F8 Pro runs on the Snapdragon 8 Elite, which is a slightly older processor that launched last year. It’s still plenty powerful though, and you shouldn’t have any issues with performance whichever device you decide to go for.
One key feature for the POCO F8 phones is the integration of Bose-powered audio, which can be seen with the dedicated speaker on the rear panel of the F8 Ultra. The POCO F8 Pro however doesn’t come with the same hardware, and instead settles for a dual-speaker setup on the top and bottom of its frame, albeit with a small Bose logo on the camera island up top. You’re getting a 6500mAh cell inside the Ultra and a smaller 6210mAh battery on the Pro with support for 100W charging, provided that you’re using a compatible charger and cable.
As for their displays, the two phones have different screen sizes. The POCO F8 Ultra is the larger of the two with its 6.9-inch AMOLED display, while there’s a slightly-smaller 6.59-inch screen on the F8 Pro. Both displays are impressive though, with high refresh rates at 120Hz and brightness which can exceed 3,000 nits at their peak. These displays serve as your main portal to Android 16, which in this case is layered with Xiaomi’s HyperOS 3 skin. HyperOS 3 comes with a ton of rich customization options and features, although there are also a lot of pre-loaded apps and software, most of which you can thankfully uninstall.
Other differences are apparent when it comes to their respective camera setups. The POCO F8 Ultra features a triple 50MP array which consists of main, ultrawide, and telephoto cameras, paired with a 32MP front camera. In contrast, the Pro model compromises slightly on hardware, stepping down to an 8MP ultrawide lens and a 20MP selfie shooter while retaining the 50MP main and telephoto sensors.
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At the moment, the POCO F8 Pro remains reasonably affordable at £399 for the 12GB/256GB RAM and storage variant, going up to £449 for the 12GB/512GB model. The F8 Ultra is a bit more expensive at £549 for the 12GB/256GB model, and £599 for the 16GB/512GB model.
