I definitely felt enraged when Xiaomi first announce the Mi 6. Xiaomi followed right into Apple’s footsteps. What a lot of Android OEMs are forgetting with the launch of their devices has to be the fact that MicroSD cards, 3.5mm headphone jacks and removable batteries do matter. Since the Samsung Galaxy S6, it seems like everything has been stripped since. Sure, smartphones are more powerful than ever, but are they as practical as their predecessors were? I’d doubt you’d say yes.
Sure, Samsung definitely wants to keep holding onto the MicroSD card slot and the 3.5mm jack. But do we really need a lot of the gimmicks manufacturers often boast about? I mean, how often do you use that secondary lens you got in your smartphone?
With the launch of the POCO brand under Xiaomi’s surveillance, it seems like Xiaomi has allowed an extra team from to branch themselves from Xiaomi.
Leaks have been suggesting that the POCOPHONE from Xiaomi is a beast internally. Aside from that it seems like Xiaomi’s giving the headphone jack and the IR blaster a comeback. Something that helps me hold onto my Xiaomi Mi 5 from 2016. This device, according to leaks, is supposed to pack the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC, a 4000mAh battery as well as a notch packing a single 20MP shooter.
Other specs include 6GB RAM as well as a 64GB internal ROM to store all of your data on. However, it’s 2018, it’s likely that the POCOPHONE F1 could come in multiple storage options.
Now, how practical are notches?, you may ask. While this topic is widely debated, I personally wouldn’t mind it if Xiaomi intends to pack a same complex array of sensors like the Mi 8 that help with the whole face unlocking trend.
Sure, nothing is official yet and nothing has been teased on the new brand’s front. However, that doesn’t mean that the POCOPHONE would be the ultimate practical flagship of the year.
Based on the leak above, it lacks a MicroSD card reader, features a notch (that could be debated) and may or may not feature water resistance. Given how the brand wants to subsidize itself within Xiaomi’s branding, it seems like they’re thinking way beyond this phone at this point.
In my opinion, my third sense simply suggests me that Xiaomi doesn’t want to flood its smartphone base with an endles array of devices. With the POCOPHONE, they would be able to target the high-end and possibly land a few rockets in the mid-range market, similar to what Huawei has been doing for the past few years.