Xiaomi's new sub-brand in India named the Pocophone, held its first global smartphone launch in Delhi on Wednesday. It won't be an exaggeration to say that the Poco F1, as the new smartphone is called, took the Indian smartphone market by storm with its embedded firepower and even more importantly, the price point at which it offers it. A simple look at the specs of the Poco F1 is enough to see that the device will prove to be a tough competitor to the OnePlus 6, which was to date globally being hailed as one of the best smartphones launched this year.
Now in case you are wondering what makes the Poco F1 such a potent smartphone, consider the fact that it is the most pocket-friendly device to come with Qualcomm's flagship processor, the Snapdragon 845, which powers most of the high-end smartphones available in the market. And that's not all, as the Xiaomi sub-brand seems to have left no stone unturned to match the prowess of the said high-end smartphones, be it the battery, features or even the camera. On top of all this, the most 'market-disruptive' fact comes in the form of Poco F1's price, starting at Rs 20,999 for the base variant.
Naturally, with such high-end specifications and the repeated company claims of it being the best, the Poco F1 is bound to be compared to the best of smartphones out there, one of which is the recent OnePlus flagship, the OnePlus 6. We have used the top-end variants of both the smartphones, i.e. the OnePlus 6 Avengers Edition and the Poco F1 Armoured edition and here we try to answer how both the devices fair against each other.
Design
It won't be easy to differentiate between the Poco F1 and the OnePlus 6 on the first look, considering the ridiculously similar design language that both of the smartphones carry. Minor variations can be seen in the size of the notch (with OnePlus 6 having a slimmer one), the placement of hard keys and the components and the thickness of the bezel, with the OnePlus again having a slimmer bezel area.
The striking difference though, is the glass back on the OnePlus 6 that the Poco F1 has skipped, apparently for the fact that people tend to use covers for their smartphones rendering a glass-back useless as per the company. Be that as it may, for those who use their smartphones without a cover, the OnePlus 6 definitely has a more premium appeal.
OnePlus 6 also carries a better dimensional value, being a good 1.1mm thinner and even 10 grams lighter.
Display
Now an expected feature on both the company flagships in comparison here is that they follow the trending minimal-bezel design with a notch at the top which can also be turned off through the settings for those who are not a big fan of it. As for the display, the OnePlus 6 features a 6.28-inch full HD+ display, with an aspect ratio of 19:9 and a 2280 x 1080 pixels resolution. While this seems impressive, the Poco F1 proves to be equally striking with a 6.18-inch display offering an 18.7:9 aspect ratio and a 2246 x 1080 pixels resolution. Not much to differ there, it seems!
Performance
This is a segment where it is really, and we mean 'really' tough to beat the OnePlus 6 for any smartphone. As we have all known the company to produce 'flagship killer' smartphones since the beginning, the OnePlus 6 has come a long way from that and has created a league of its own in the mid-range segment that is hard for even flagships like the Galaxy S9 and the iPhone X to ignore. With the launch of the Poco F1, Pocophone looks to be trying to put the OnePlus 6 to the same fate.
Coming to the firepower, both the smartphones are powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor clocked at 2.8 GHz and an Adreno 630 GPU. Poco F1, however, claims to have a differentiating factor here in the form of a 'Liquid Cooling' technology used in the smartphone that claims to retain peak performance after prolonged usage. We will be putting this to test soon though to see if the claims are true. Watch this space for the results.
As for the memory offerings, available variants of both the smartphones offer a 6GB RAM as the base memory that pans out to an 8GB RAM in the top variant. In terms of storage, the smartphones are available in a 64GB. 128GB and a 256GB storage option.
Operating System
While OnePlus sticks to its OxygenOS, based on Android Oreo for the OnePlus 6, the Poco F1 runs a modified version of Xiaomi's MIUI that brings slight operational changes like the shifting of the app search bar to the bottom for easy access. As for the Android P update, the Poco F1 will be getting it anytime in the Q4 of 2018, while the OnePlus 6 also seems on its way to bring the new Android OS to its users, with its Beta program already in place.
Camera
I'm sure we were all waiting for this comparison and yes, the devices are just as competitive as you thought. Just as a brief for the comparison, the OnePlus 6 comes with a dual-camera module as its primary camera with one sensor of 16-megapixel and a supported camera module of 20-megapixel. At the front, it houses a 16-megapixel Sony IMX 371 sensor for selfies.
The Poco F1, on the other hand, houses a 12-megapixel + 5-megapixel dual camera setup at the back with AI enhancements and Dual Pixel Autofocus. There is a 20-megapixel selfie shooter at the front with AI Beautify.
Now the camera comparison would be tricky without trying out both the smartphones completely but as for the features offered by their camera modules, OnePlus 6 takes the lead in this segment (consider it as a teaser for the in-depth camera comparison).
Battery
Pocophone stressed this time and again at the launch of the Poco F1 as to how it listened to the demand of the users for a bigger battery backup and hence, the device is backed by a mammoth 4000 mAh battery that is practically nowhere to be seen in this segment. The battery also dwarves the OnePlus 6's 3300 mAh battery by a huge margin and will definitely act as a huge plus for its users.
OnePlus, on the contrary, tackles the battery backup issue with its lightning-fast charging technology, the Dash charging, which is still hailed as the fastest in the smartphone industry.
Price
The Poco F1 takes the game here hands down. While the OnePlus 6 was globally acclaimed for offering such high specifications at a price almost half of the flagships of Samsung and Apple, Poco F1 seems to have beaten OnePlus at its own game. The smartphone starts retailing at a price of Rs 20,999 for the 6GB RAM, 64GB storage variant. The equivalent variant of the OnePlus 6 retails at Rs 34,999. Now that's a huge margin for many of those deciding which one to buy and can also be the deciding reason to ignore the other differences.
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