Poco is back! The Poco F2 Pro is official, and set to come to the UK this summer

It’s been ages since Xiaomi first launched the budget Poco F1, with Qualcomm’s (then) flagship chipset and a bunch of top-end features for not a lot of money.

While lacking NFC, which ultimately cost it sales, it went on to become a bit of a classic; purchased by the tech savvy buyer who knew they were getting an awful lot of bang for the buck.

Indeed, it had such a loyal following that Xiaomi is now effectively running Poco as a standalone business.

Although not setting the world alight in the camera imaging department, the unofficial porting of Google’s GCam software allowed owners to get some incredible results from an otherwise middle-of-the-road camera (while subsequent software updates improved the native camera app considerably too).

This time around, the Poco F2 Pro continues to bring a flagship (liquid-cooled Snapdragon 865) chipset to the table, including 5G, but it now gets NFC support for mobile payments – and a far better camera setup.

That means you get four cameras, including a Sony 64-megapixel primary camera, 13-megapixel ultra-wide, 5-megapixel macro, and 2-megapixel depth-sensor. Poco has even included 8K video recording (at 24fps) to accompany the usual 4K video at 30 or 60fps.

There are a bunch of other camera features, like time-lapse, slow motion, a super steady video shooting feature, and night mode.

Available in Electric Purple, Cyber Grey, Phantom White or Neon Blue

Up front is a pop-up 20-megapixel camera, which means there’s nothing to ruin the 6.67-inch AMOLED display (the Poco F1 made do with an LCD, in addition to the chunky 2018 notch). The screen supports HDR10+ with a range of colour scheme settings.

The Poco F2 Pro also comes with a 4,700mAh battery and fast 30W wired charging.

There’s even a 3.5mm headphone jack included for audio fans who still can’t quite accept the move to USB-C or Bluetooth.

Pricing and Availability

Exact pricing for the UK and availability will be announced later, but as a guide the pricing elsewhere is €499 for 6GB/128GB and €599 for 8GB/256GB. That translates to around £441 and £530 respectively.

This does mean that second time around, the Poco flagship isn’t quite as much of a bargain as the original – but it could still become one of the cheapest 5G handsets on sale with Snapdragon 865.