Poco F1 to Be Available to Buy Offline in India via Mi Home Stores Starting October 13

Poco F1, launched as an online-exclusive smartphone, is all set to go on sale in India via offline stores. The Xiaomi sub-brand has announced that the Poco F1 will go on sale via Xiaomi's Mi Home stores across India starting from Saturday (October 13). Following this, the smartphone will also be available via Xiaomi's offline partner stores from next Wednesday (October 17). Previously, the handset was only available via Flipkart and Mi.com. Ahead of the Diwali festive season, Poco said that it wants to tap into the brand Poco's popularity among the Indians. Canalys in its report Smartphone Analysis, October 2018 report on the Indian market said that in Q2 2018, 36 percent of Xiaomi's shipments in India were via offline channels.

Announced back in August, the Poco F1 comes in three configurations - 6GB RAM/ 64GB storage, 6GB RAM/ 128GB storage, and 8GB RAM/ 256GB storage. It is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845 SoC, which powers flagships like OnePlus 6, Samsung Galaxy Note 9, among others. Notably, the company said that the Poco F1 will be available at an "aggressive pricing" offline, close to the smartphone's online prices with "slight variations" keeping in mind the retail operational costs.

Xiaomi Poco F1 Review

Manmohan Chandolu, General Manager, Poco India said in a statement, "This is a truly defining moment for us as we witness the growth of our brand, and seek to explore newer horizons in the vast offline segment of our market. Following the launch of Poco F1, we received commendable response from our customers towards the Master of Speed. We look forward to reaching out to the wider section of the Indian consumers who are majorly offline based, and can now easily access our devices while enjoying the power of incredible speed matched with the ultimate performance at an irresistible price."

In terms of online prices, the Xiaomi Poco F1 costs Rs. 20,999 for the 6GB RAM/ 64GB inbuilt storage variant, while the 6GB RAM/ 128GB inbuilt storage model is priced at Rs. 23,999, and the 8GB RAM/ 256GB inbuilt storage model is available at Rs. 28,999. The Armoured Edition of the Poco F1 with 'real Kevlar' comes with a price tag of Rs. 29,999. Colour options include Graphite Black, Rosso Red, and Steel Blue.

To recall some of the specifications, the dual-SIM (Nano) Poco F1 runs MIUI 9 on top of Android 8.1 Oreo out-of-the-box, and sports a 6.18-inch full-HD+ display with an 18.7:9 aspect ratio. The handset is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC. It comes with 6GB/ 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM options and 64GB/ 128GB/ 256GB of inbuilt storage options. The inbuilt storage is expandable via microSD card (up to another 256GB).

In terms of optics, Xiaomi's Poco F1 bears a dual rear camera setup with a 12-megapixel primary sensor, with f/1.9 aperture, and a 5-megapixel secondary sensor, with f/2.0 aperture. The phone also sports a single 20-megapixel front camera with AI-based face recognition and portrait mode. There is a 4,000mAh battery under the hood, with support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0.

Xiaomi Poco F1 looks great value for the price, but is there a catch? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.