India's contribution to the global smartphone industry is significant and it is without a doubt that companies are focusing more than ever to establish a strong foothold in the country. While some brands such as OnePlus, Xiaomi, Honor, and others have made a name for themselves in a short period of time, India is always seeing new brands make their way.
Following the success of OnePlus in the premium smartphone category, Xiaomi is standing up to its home country rival by launching a new sub-brand with the sole focus to challenge the likes of OnePlus 6 and others. Poco by Xiaomi is a new brand that will soon make its debut in India, according to the company's India lead product manager Jai Mani's tweet.
Mani's tweet also clarified Poco brand name will be exclusive to India and the same brand will be referred to as Pocophone globally. As the new project takes off, Mani explained what makes Poco a brand to watch out for this year.
"POCO is all about making a powerful smartphone with the technologies that truly matter. Recently it feels like the pace of innovation in the smartphone industry has slowed down, while prices are creeping up with flagship smartphones now past the $1000 mark. We set out to build something to buck this trend. For the first product, we got back to basics and focus entirely on speed. Not just peak performance speed, but actual real world, speed," Mani wrote.
While the strategy sounds a lot similar to what OnePlus has employed and succeeded in. But having vigorous competition will only benefit end consumers. Xiaomi's resources backing Poco will certainly be an advantage for this new brand, something OnePlus lacked when it started out a few years ago.
Xiaomi's announcement about Poco brand is exciting, but not entirely surprising. A smartphone by the codename "beryllium" surfaced online and later it was established that it is the first smartphone under the Poco brand. Xiaomi Pocophone F1, as it is to be called at launch, will have flagship features and be priced competitively, according to rumours.
A recent Bluetooth certification for the Pocophone F1 revealed key features, including a Full HD+ notched display, Snapdragon 845 chipset, 6GB RAM and 64GB/128GB storage. The optics are expected to be impressive as well, complete with a 12MP + 5MP dual camera set up at the back and a 20MP front-facing snapper with Super Pixel technology.
The Pocophone F1 is to come with a 4,000mAh battery and have all standard connectivity features such as 4G VoLTE, dual SIM card support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and more. The smartphone is said to offer two colour options, Blue and Grey, and pricing for the base model could be €420 and €460 for the high-end variant.
It remains to be seen how Poco could displace OnePlus from the leadership, but it will be interesting to see two of the most disruptive brands take a swing at each other. Stay tuned for updates.
