Poco’s new phones have new-generation Snapdragon processors

Xiaomi-owned Poco has made a comeback with two new phones that have some notable processor options at low prices. Both the X3 Pro and F3 use new Qualcomm chips that essentially update and remodel flagship-grade processors from years past, making them an interesting price-performance proposition.

The first is the Poco X3 Pro (pictured above and below), which is essentially the same as last year’s Poco X3 NFC but with a new processor. This means that there is still a 6.67-inch 120Hz 1080p LCD, a 5,160mAh battery with 331 fast charging, and a quad-camera setup with a 48-megapixel primary sensor.

What’s new is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 SoC, which has not been announced before. The processor appears to be a newer version of the Snapdragon 855, a major part of Qualcomm found two years ago in phones such as the Galaxy S10 and Pixel 4. It uses the same Kryo 485 core based on ARM’s Cortex-A76 CPU, but clock speeds have been slightly bumped up to 2.96GHz.

Poco describes the 860 as “the leading 4G flagship processor in 2021”, which doesn’t strike me as a region with complete competition. Nevertheless, it will outperform the new mid-range 5G chips like the 765.

The Poco F3, meanwhile, is a high-end device that is one of the first phones to use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 870, which was announced a few months ago. The 870 is a similar idea to the 860, but is based on the one-year-old 865, which was Qualcomm’s highest-end chip in 2020. CPU clock speed is again found to be a minor bump for a maximum of 3.2GHz. The 870 won’t be as fast as the 888, but another way to think about it is that it will be the world’s fastest Android phone chip a few months ago.

The F3 is itself a rebranded version of Xiaomi’s Redmi K40, which was recently released in China. It features a 6.67-inch 120Hz 1080p OLED display, a 4,520mAh battery with 33W fast charging, and a 48-megapixel main sensor, an 8-megapixel triple-camera setup with the same camera, and the same 5-megapixel appears on the Xiaomi Mi 11 “Telemacro” ” met.

Poco is yet to announce the full global release details, but the X3 Pro is priced at € 199 for a model with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage (or € 249 for 8GB / 256GB), while the F3 for € 6GB / 128GB € 299 is € 349 for 8GB / 256GB. They are early bird prices – all models will hit € 50 for the X3 Pro after 1 April and 6 April for the F3. Even after that, however, they look like very good value for their segment. Both phones will go on sale this weekend.