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Watch out Realme, the Poco M3 Pro 5G goes on sale in India next week
Dimensity 700 SoC, a 90Hz display, and a 5,000mAh battery
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The entry-level Poco M3 was the first phone to be released with Poco as an independent subbrand, but let's not be kidding. The company still works closely with Xiaomi, sharing both hardware and software design. That's also the case for the latest Poco phone the company has just launched today, the Poco M3 Pro 5G. It's made up of the same internal hardware as the Redmi Note 10 5G, the phone Xiaomi launched in Europe earlier this year. On the outside, a few things have changed, though, with Poco taking a lot of inspiration from the Samsung Galaxy S21.
Leaked Poco X3 Pro renders show off a familiar look
Little more than a tweaked Poco X3 NFC, or so it seems
Rumors of a follow-up of the 2018 surprise budget hit Pocophone F1 have been circulating for a while and it was even teased multiple times. After Poco recently posted a teaser on Twitter with some hidden hints inside, renders of the upcoming Poco X3 Pro have now been leaked.
The original Xiaomi-developed Pocophone was a surprise hit when it launched in 2018, offering almost everything you would expect from a flagship phone at a ~$300 price point (though it didn't really work in the United States). More phones have been released under the Poco brand since then, but there hasn't been a direct sequel to the original F1. Rumors about a possible Poco F2 have been circulating for a while, and now Xiaomi has confirmed it's on the way.
Poco attempts a $100 gaming phone as price wars with Realme continue
That's an introductory price, by the way
Xiaomi spin-off Poco has been intensely engaged with Oppo spin-off Realme in a budget smartphone pricing war in India. Its latest salvo comes in the form of a Rs. 10,000 device called the Poco C3 featuring formidable core specs to enable quality gaming at a new price tier. There are, though, a few trade-offs to have made this product possible.
Xiaomi’s spin-off brand Poco made a splash with its first phone by bringing a Snapdragon 845 chip to the $300 price bracket, reminding many of OnePlus’s early days. A year and a half after the Poco F1 was unveiled, the company is finally coming out with a follow-up called the Poco X2, initially only for the Indian market. The handset is basically a relabeled Redmi K30, which was announced in China alongside the $284 K30 5G in December 2019.
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Last month, a tweet by Poco's global head Alvin Tse led to speculation that the Pocophone F2 might launch sometime in 2020. Now, we have concrete evidence that the device is on its way, thanks to a recently discovered trademark application.
Xiaomi is starting to look like a car manufacturer with how many sub-brands it has: Redmi, Poco, Mito, CC, Black Shark, the list goes on. Only one phone was ever released under the Poco name, the wildly-successful Poco F1, which was developed by Xiaomi. Poco is now being spun off as Xiaomi's new sub-brand, with a (somewhat) independent team.
Like most Chinese manufacturers, Xiaomi's Android phones come with heavy UI customizations and many pre-installed apps featuring advertisements no one asked for — in fact, this release model is part of the reason why Xiaomi is routinely able to undercut its competition in price. However, the company might be too thirsty about collecting personal data to show individualized ads, as its Quick apps application has been blocked by Google Play Protect because of potential tracking issues.
Chinese Android phone makers have it rough when it comes to bringing on software updates to their customers. There's a totally different expectation as to how long these devices get supported there and the issue gets compounded when taking into account the proprietary UIs and services for each OEM's spin on the OS. In Xiaomi's case, it has taken up the challenge of bringing at least 13 devices up to Android Q over the next year.
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$1,000 flagship phones are an unfortunate reality in today's market, but there are plenty of options out there with most of the performance at a fraction of the price. One of the newest entrants to this game has been Xiaomi's Pocophone F1, which offers flagship-level specs at just $300. In case the low, low price wasn't incentive enough to pick one up, the Poco team will be adding a bunch of features and fixes in the coming weeks.
Popular custom ROM maker Paranoid Android came back from the dead in 2017 and has just announced its long-awaited first Android 9 Pie beta builds, with initial availability for a handful of Xiaomi devices. PA is also changing the way it develops its ROM to include Generic System Images (GSI) which should allow support for a greater number of devices.
The Xiaomi-made Pocophone F1 has been one of the hottest releases of 2018, as long as you live in a region where the phone exists. However, it came with Android Oreo. As you know, Pie is the new hotness, and now the Pocophone is getting its update. No OTA on your end yet? No problem—there's a download option.
Xiaomi is celebrating a strange milestone today. According to a tweet by the company's global VP, Xiaomi has 700,000 users, which presumably means the company has seen about as many sales. It's an odd milestone to be celebrating — 700K in "over three months" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue — but it's a good indicator of the company's success in its Pocophone experiment, especially when compared to OnePlus.
Xiaomi is a huge smartphone maker in many parts of the world, but not in the US. When the company announced its Pocophone sub-brand, there was some hope it could come to American shores. That doesn't appear to be the case, at least not officially. You can already purchase the Pocophone F1 from several US eBay sellers, but there are a few things to know before you do.
Earlier in the month, we reported on rumors that Xiaomi was preparing to launch a subbrand offering flagship specs at affordable prices in an overt attempt to compete with OnePlus. Pocophone's first device is now official after an event in New Delhi, India, streamed live on YouTube.
We've been hearing a bunch of rumors the past few days about a new sub-brand from Xiaomi, and a series of leaks have spilled pretty much all there is to know about the upcoming Pocophone F1. Now, the Chinese company's SVP Wang Xiang has tweeted to offer support to his colleagues working on the new project, who themselves have released a statement outlining their intentions.
Every month or so, an update to ARCore rolls out to add the augmented reality framework to a whole new set of phones, tablets... and now Chromebooks? Yes, the first Chrome OS device has been found among the list of profiles included in the ARCore APK, and that is the recently released Acer Chromebook Tab 10. Also joining the list are the codenames associated with the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, blueline and crosshatch, which are due out this Fall.