Pocophone F1

[ShawnC13]

Anyone have this phone or know someone who does.  I am interested in it https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/xiaomi-pocophone-f1

[srlawren]

@stonechucker nice! I like those ticwatches.  I'm on my second Wear OS device.  First a 1st gen Huawei Watch (or Huatch as it's commonly referred to LOL) and since last summer a 3rd gen Fossil Q Explorist, in black on black on black.  I don't know how I ever lived without one.  I wear them whenever I'm out of the house, as a discrete way to get my notifications.  Wear app on the phone is set to auto-mute the phone when I'm wearing the watch, and then I get a discrete buzz on my wrist instead.  Big fan of smartwatches, though, to be fair, I was always "a watch guy" before that so I'm used to wearing one anyway.  Neither of my devices can do NFC on my wrist either, but I'm okay with that.

[stonechucker]

@srlawren, I wanted the NFC actually on my wrist, but I couldn't justify paying 6 arms and 3 legs for the top of the line smartwatches that had 'all' the features.

Over the Christmas break (I got 2 weeks off), I decided to purchase a Ticwatch S - It has the built-in GPS, the pulse reader (on demand, not a live monitor) and allows me to track my steps when I forget my phone at home when taking the dog for a walk.

Sometimes I miss tracking my steps while walking her, sometimes twice a day, as I don't grab my phone always.  Now, this watch does it for me.

[srlawren]

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@stonechucker wrote:

And what is a not useful feature in your mind @MoreYummy? 

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@stonechucker ask 12 people and you'll get 12 different answers.  😉

For me, NFC is something I could live without, but would definitely prefer to have it.  A lot of people complain that OnePlus phones don't have wireless charging and it's a dealbreaker to them, when personally I could not care less and love the dash/warp charging they provide instead.  That said, I would like to see an official ingress certification rather than just saying they are kinda water resistant, LOL.  Everyon's got their own list of gotta have/nice to have/might be cool/couldn't care less features, I suppose.  

[MoreYummy]

If you cant live without one features and can not use something else, then its important.  

Not everyone will keep the same habit all the time over something else.  Its anyone's choice, either convenience or not.  

[stonechucker]

And what is a not useful feature in your mind @MoreYummy?  NFC payments are fantastic for me, and I use them for the smaller purchase items like a coffee or a fast food meal, as it's easier to use my default payment card on my phone, rather than pulling out my wallet and finding either the cash or the actual 'tap' card.

NFC is huge for me - certainly not an feature I'd call not useful.

[MoreYummy]

Its a good value if you dont mind missing a few "not useful" feature.  Overall very good phone, very fast.

[srlawren]

Once you get used to using Google Pay, it's hard to want to give it up.  But the F1 offers a tremendous amount of value.

Honestly, if you don't care about LTE speed data, the global version is still a heck of a steal.  

I'm still waiting on the OP7 to replace my 5T, but I recognize that they are no longer considered "budget" brand anymore.  However, I still love the Oxygen OS experience, and make use of the alert slider regularly, etc.  The OP's just work for me, they suit me well, and still don't carry a Samsung/Apple-tax.

[will13am]

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@ShawnC13 wrote:

@computergeek541, the parent company is Xiaomi and they are a pretty big phone company.  No there isn't waterproofing on the phone and I have yet needed that as a feature for me.  As well NFC I don't use.  You mentioned the screen resolution and this is what I read from it. "There’s an extended 6.18-inch Full HD+ screen that dominates the front of the F1, sporting a 2246 x 1080 resolution. That renders it sharper than even not-so-affordable devices, such as Apple’s newly announced $749 iPhone XR"

@will13am, they say there is a global version

Network

Technology	GSM / HSPA / LTE
2G bands	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - SIM 1 & SIM 2
3G bands	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
4G bands	LTE band 1(2100), 3(1800), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 20(800), 38(2600), 40(2300), 41(2500)

but yeah looking at future as well.  Still very happy with the Essential but I am thinking Xiaomi will be my next brand although the Nokia 9 has my attention as well.

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Global version means band 4 and band 2 LTE is available.  A lot of sites mix global rom (includes English language) and global version which includes band 4 LTE.  The only compatible band is band 7 which is not a popular band in this country. 

I totally do not understand why Xiaomi excludes NFC in their phones.  I don't do mobile payments and so it is not a deal breaker for me.  But lack of NFC is a major issue for many.

[ShawnC13]

@computergeek541, the parent company is Xiaomi and they are a pretty big phone company.  No there isn't waterproofing on the phone and I have yet needed that as a feature for me.  As well NFC I don't use.  You mentioned the screen resolution and this is what I read from it. "There’s an extended 6.18-inch Full HD+ screen that dominates the front of the F1, sporting a 2246 x 1080 resolution. That renders it sharper than even not-so-affordable devices, such as Apple’s newly announced $749 iPhone XR"

@will13am, they say there is a global version

Network

Technology	GSM / HSPA / LTE
2G bands	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - SIM 1 & SIM 2
3G bands	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
4G bands	LTE band 1(2100), 3(1800), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 20(800), 38(2600), 40(2300), 41(2500)

but yeah looking at future as well.  Still very happy with the Essential but I am thinking Xiaomi will be my next brand although the Nokia 9 has my attention as well.

[will13am]

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@computergeek541 wrote:

Personally, I've never heard of this company before and don't know anyone who has either.  I would say that at least spec-wise, it's great for the price, as long as the software that goes along with it doesn't slow things down.  From the screenshots, it looked pretty much stock Android, at least based on on the app drawer that strongly resembles Google Now Launcher.

When the reviewer mentions a sub-$300 pricepoint, I'm going to assume that's American dollars - so somewhere slightly above $400 Canadian if it's at a price of $299 (USD).

I think it's a little suprising that they've skipped the NFC on this model, especially since similar high mid-level models from Motorola (ex. G6 Plus) and Samsung (A series) do have this feature.  I do notice that they've also decided against a higher resolution screen, but that's pretty much in-line with other devies in this price range.  I'm not sure if I missed this detail, but I don't recall seeing any mention of water-proofing for this model.

What they have given us is, at least in my opinion, is faster processor, more RAM, and storage space than we'd normally get for this price.

 You need to think past Apple and Shamsung my friend.  I mentioned Xiaomi many times in this forum, but not this model.  This company did an IPO last year, they are #5 in cell phone manufacturing worldwide and they are coming to North America.  They are the best for value at the moment.

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[will13am]

No global model, poor north America LTE compatibility, no thanks.  Wait for F2 or F1 version 2.  

[computergeek541]

Personally, I've never heard of this company before and don't know anyone who has either.  I would say that at least spec-wise, it's great for the price, as long as the software that goes along with it doesn't slow things down.  From the screenshots, it looked pretty much stock Android, at least based on on the app drawer that strongly resembles Google Now Launcher.

When the reviewer mentions a sub-$300 pricepoint, I'm going to assume that's American dollars - so somewhere slightly above $400 Canadian if it's at a price of $299 (USD).

I think it's a little suprising that they've skipped the NFC on this model, especially since similar high mid-level models from Motorola (ex. G6 Plus) and Samsung (A series) do have this feature.  I do notice that they've also decided against a higher resolution screen, but that's pretty much in-line with other devies in this price range.  I'm not sure if I missed this detail, but I don't recall seeing any mention of water-proofing for this model.

What they have given us is, at least in my opinion, is faster processor, more RAM, and storage space than we'd normally get for this price.