There’s a new phone in town. While that’s nothing unusual, this one is causing more than just a ripple of excitement because it’s Xiaomi’s OnePlus-killer.

Xiaomi has been having a stellar time in India, giving Samsung a run for their money and becoming the most dominant player in the value-for-money smartphone market. From being a difficult-to-pronounce Chinese word, Xiaomi has become a household name in a startlingly short time.

Now the Chinese tech company wants to compete on another front — the not-so-budget category ruled over by OnePlus’ flagship killer phone. Xiaomi has just launched a brand new sub-brand, quite separate from the Mi and Redmi lines and right from the sound of its tagline — Master of Speed — it’s going after OnePlus, which this year is also touting speed with its ‘The Speed You Need’ catchphrase.

The new sub-brand, called Poco in India and Pocophone elsewhere, comes from a totally different team within Xiaomi though it is not a separate spin-off company. While giving the team ease of access to components and technologies, the new Poco project also lets the team think out of the box. Here’s what Xiaomi’s lead product manager, Jai Mani, said about Poco, which he has been working on for a while now: “Recently it feels like the pace of innovation has slowed while prices are creeping up with flagship smartphones now past the $1,000 mark. We set out to buck this trend. For the first product, we get back to basics and focus entirely on speed. Not just peak performance speed but actual real-world speed.”

And so ‘Poco by Xiaomi’ has gone in for the Snapdragon 845 processor in partnership with Qualcomm. At the moment, you can’t get faster than that as it’s the processor being used by all the top-of-the-line smartphones including the OnePlus 6 and even the recently launched Galaxy Note 9. This has been paired with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB storage for one Poco variant, 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage for another and 6 GB RAM and 64 GB storage for a third. The storage is UFS 2.1, ensuring more speed.

It’s interesting that Xiaomi should at all need a separate brand rather than just another series of devices like the Mi and Redmi lines, but the idea, Xiaomi tells us, is to be able to do new things without having to be restricted by what is already expected from the other established products. With the Poco project, Xiaomi can do whatever it likes with new smartphones in this line without necessarily disturbing the others.

Having used the Poco F1 for a few days now, my initial impressions are not necessarily of a phone that’s radically different from all others but one of a snappy and very usable device for a reasonable price, given what other companies charge. Instead of the now ubiquitous glass, Xiaomi has opted to go polycarbonate for the back of the phone, though it looks for all the world like metal. This choice is because it’s more practical and easier to work with and of course one is less likely to smash it to pieces if dropped. It comes in two shades of black, one with Kevlar for those who want extra toughness, and a red and rather nice blue.

The Poco, despite being a device with a 5.99-inch screen, doesn’t feel uncomfortably large and is even quite easy to grip and hold. A back cover is included in the box, but most people will be able to get away with doing without a case.

The Poco F1 is also not that heavy despite a 4,000 mAh battery with a liquid cooling system on the inside. There’s much else that will please Indian customers — hybrid Dual-SIM slots, a headphone jack, face unlock and a 12 MP and 5 MP dual camera set-up similar to the OnePlus 6. The front camera is 20 MP. The screen is an 1080p LCD with a notch as broad as the one on the iPhone.

Poco, for those who are curious, is small or little in Spanish.

Xiaomi’s Jai Mani says it signifies starting small and dreaming big. The phone will be available on Flipkart from August 29 at ₹20,999, ₹22,999 and ₹28,999.

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