Xiaomi’s spinoff brand POCO is back with a new Ultra phone that packs the best sounding speaker I’ve heard in a phone in years. This is thanks to a new speaker system developed in collaboration with audio giant Bose. This system includes symmetrical speaker grilles at top and bottom of the phone, and also a mini woofer that produces noticeable bass.
The speakers are able to produce audio certified Hi-Res and, of course, Dolby Atmos. Elsewhere, the phone is powered by the newest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, and features a new 5X Periscope zoom lens that can produce some excellent 120mm portraits, as seen below.
The phone also packs a large 6500 mAh battery that can be charged at 100W, and one variant has this back material made to look and feel like denim. I find the material comfortable to hold and gives the phone a unique texture. The front side features a 6.9-inch OLED display with refresh rate up to 120Hz.
For all intents and purposes, this is a flagship phone, and with that comes a higher price than usual for POCO. The F8 Ultra will retail in Europe starting at around the equivalent of $729, although there is an early bird deal that knocks about $100 off. But as usual, I am sure this phone will be priced a bit lower in Asia regions like Hong Kong and Thailand, where I am guessing will retail at around the $600 range. Even at $729, the specs justify the price, but people do associate POCO with high value, low cost phones, so there will need to be some selling on POCO’s part. There is a lower tier POCO F8 Pro that starts at around $579 in Europe (which means in Asia will be around $450 or so), but it loses the woofer and runs on a slightly older chip, so I think most should go for the Ultra.
