Last year, Xiaomi really put the cat amongst the pigeons with a new sub-brand called Pocophone. The idea was simple: the fastest performance possible without breaking the bank, and the company’s first phone – the Pocophone F1 – certainly met that brief, packing in a Snapdragon 845 processor at a wallet-pleasing sub-£300 price point.
“It’s an easy buy for anyone who places performance, longevity and quality ahead of the aesthetics of conventional flagship phones – and even then, it’s far from an ugly duckling,” wrote Alex in our four-and-a-half-star review.
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But 2019 is almost finished, and there hasn’t been a peep from Xiaomi about a second coming for the Pocophone. And when Poco head of product Jai Mani left in July, few would have said the phone’s future looked rosy.
But apparently we were just being paranoid. GSMArena spotted Alvin Tse, the head of Pocophone Global tweeting the following words: “You will hear more from POCO in 2020 ♥️”
The tweet was quickly deleted, meaning the cat has probably been let out the bag a little earlier than Xiaomi wanted, but it’s hard to see any ambiguity there. So look out for a follow-up handset next year.
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What would we like to see in a Pocophone F2? To be honest, it barely put a foot wrong, and while it would be nice to see thinner bezels, a non-plastic build and built-in NFC we’re generally more than happy with the sacrifices the company made to come in at under £300.
So more of the same would be good – albeit with processor and RAM to match the other 2020 flagships. Watch this space.
What would you like to see in a Pocophone F2 smartphone? Let us know your thoughts on Twitter: @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
