Xiaomi's Pocophone F1 has already made waves in the smartphone industry for being incredibly affordable; a ~$300 phone with a Snapdragon 845 processor is virtually unheard of. Budget phones are inherently going to have some tradeoffs, and a less-obvious one has been discovered: lack of support for Widevine L1 DRM.

Android supports a wide range of DRM modules, including ClearKey, Widevine, Microsoft Playready, and others. Widevine is by far the most popular method, and there are multiple levels; L1 means a device has full Widevine support, while L3 means only partial compatibility. Several apps on the Play Store, like DRM Info, can determine what DRM methods work on your device.

AndroidPure has posted a screenshot of the DRM Info app running on the Pocophone F1, which reveals only Widevine L3 is supported. That means apps that require full L1 either won't work or will have limited functionality. For example, Netflix won't stream in HD without Widevine L1.

The OnePlus 5 and 5T originally had the same problem, and the 'fix' required owners to send back their phones to receive replacements with updated firmware. We've reached out to Xiaomi for comment, and we will update this post if we get a response.

Source: AndroidPure