Poco F8 Pro GBAtemp review
Hardware
Product Information:
- Official Store: https://www.po.co/global/event/2025/poco-f8-series-launch-event/
As an avid Apple user, and having just upgraded myself from an iPhone 12 Pro Max to the iPhone 17 Pro Max, I'm always intrigued to see just how the competing OS-based phones compare given their propensity to duplicate Apples features yet offer a more open OS to customise and work with.
With the (global) Xiaomi Poco F8 Pro mirroring a 99% of the features of it's Chinese variant, the Xiaomi Redmi K90, but with a slightly smaller battery capacity (6210 mAh vs 7100 mAh), one has to wonder why the global market gets a reduced battery at all, perhaps it's to cut costs and combat tariffs?
Technical Specifications:
- Colour Options: Titanium Silver, Blue or Black.
- Dimensions: 157.5 x 75.3 x 8 mm
- Display size: 6.59 inches
- Weight: 199 grams
- Materials: Glass front, Aluminum housing
- SIM type: Dual Nano SIM
- Battery: 6210 mAh
- Charging 100W wired, PD3.0, QC3+, 100W PPS and 22.5W reverse wired
- Display: AMOLED, 68B colors, 2560Hz PWM, 120Hz, Dolby Vision, HDR Vivid, HDR10+, 3500 nits (peak)
- Resolution: 1156 x 2510 pixels, 19.5:9 ratio (~419 ppi density)
- OS: Android 16, HyperOS 3
- Chipset: Qualcomm SM8750-AB Snapdragon 8 Elite (3 nm)
- CPU: Octa-core (2x4.32 GHz Oryon V2 Phoenix L + 6x3.53 GHz Oryon V2 Phoenix M)
- GPU: Adreno 830
- Memory: 256GB 12GB RAM / 512GB 12GB RAM UFS
- Camera cluster: 50 MP, f/1.9, 24mm (wide), 1/1.55", 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS, 50 MP, f/2.2, 60mm (telephoto), PDAF, 2.5x optical zoom, 8 MP, f/2.2, 15mm, 120˚ (ultrawide)
- Video Capture: 8K@30fps, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240/960fps, gyro-EIS, HDR10+
- Selfie camera: 20 MP, (wide), 1/2.0", 0.8µm
- Video capture: 1080p@30/60fps
- Speakers: Stereo Speakers tuned by Bose, 24-bit/192kHz Hi-Res & Hi-Res wireless audio
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6/7, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, NFC, IR and USB Type-C, OTG
- Bluetooth: 5.4, A2DP, LE, LHDC 5.0, ASHA
- GPS: GPS (L1+L5), BDS (B1I+B1c+B2a), GALILEO (E1+E5a), QZSS (L1+L5), NavIC, GLONASS
- Sensors: Fingerprint (under display, ultrasonic), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
- Pricing: 12GB+256GB: £549 / 12GB+512GB: £599
First Impressions are Amazing, Sleek and Stylish Throughout
Picking the F8 Pro out the box, I was quite impressed at the weight, just 199 grams, compared to the 233 grams of the iPhone 17 Pro Max. The overall shape is somewhat similar too, with the new camera bump incorporated into the Poco, and not three, but four items in the cluster. Three of those are cameras, and the fourth one is the flash.
The device itself is minimally gorgeous, especially in Titanium Silver, and it comes with a protective film already in place, a silicon case, and a USB-C cable in the box, though there is no charging plug.
The 5.69" AMOLED screen is bright and extremely vibrant, and it incorporates one hole-punch camera on the front and a fingerprint scanner hidden under the screen. The camera is also used as the dynamic island when playing music or if you background certain apps, just like a modern Apple device!
Observing the form of the F8 Pro, the top edge only houses a single speaker grill, the right edge has the volume rocker and the power button, and the bottom edge contains another speaker grill and the dual nano SIM tray. The left side of the device has nothing along the edge, not one button or bump, and I fully respect that.
It's worth noting that having speakers top and bottom means that when in a landscape orientation you have access to full stereo sound, a feature that sounds as basic as they come, but it pays dividends when you watch movies or play games. The projection of the Bose tuned speakers is also incredibly impactful. The Poco F8 Pro has some of the most powerful and loud speakers I have ever witnessed on a smart phone. It's so loud that in general, I barely turned the volume up to 35% before thinking that I was being a nuisance.
As incredible as the sound is, and it is wonderfully warm, crisp and clear, the Ultra version of the Poco F8 comes with a 2.1 stereo set up, with a small sub woofer embedded in that "camera bump". I can only imagine how much better everything would sound with the extra bass boost because Bose have certainly made a great impression on me with the F8 Pro alone.
The camera functions are snappy and intuitive, with pro features producing impressively sharp images thanks to the AI-powered software. The main 50mp cameras can snap anywhere between 0.6x to 5x zoom and then you have an additional 30x digital zoom for extreme close ups. The more zoom you use, the more the AI camera filters kick in to improve any grainy quality the images might have, especially in low light situations, but I preferred to use the optical zoom, with less filtering to capture truer images.
The Xiaomi HyperOS 3.0.2.0 is an extremely versatile OS that allows even the most Apple-centric users to crossover into the world of Android effortlessly. Throughout the initial set up, options to swipe to go back, or pull up to access switcher made the process of adapting to a new system as simple as can be. I would say that I was fluent in using the OS in under 30 minutes, which meant that I could get on with using the device, downloading and testing apps, and pushing its emulation and media playing capabilities to the limits quicker than ever.
Some interesting tidbits to note, this does support E-SIM as I was prompted at the very start of the set up process, it does not have a headphone jack, the memory cannot be expanded by SD cards, and it does support wireless charging, though my latest iPhone charger would not allow it to charge wirelessly, so I could not test this feature.
A Processing Powerhouse, Fast and Sleek
As you can see from the Geekbench results, the F8 Pro is a bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing. The F8 Pro ships with 12 GB's of RAM and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite, powered by the Oryon CPU's 8 cores in two clusters with 2 prime cores @ 4.32 GHz, and 6 performance cores @3.53 GHz.
The results show that even the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra does not stand a chance in either single/multi CPU or even GPU testing, out pacing the South Korean Flagship on all fronts, though this is to be expected given the gen 4 vs gen 5 paradigm shift of the SOC.
The Adreno 830 GPU which is a high-performance integrated graphics processing unit on the Snapdragon 8 Elite also promises boosts of over 40% in comparison to its predecessors, so gaming on this should be a piece of cake, and emulation should prove the F8 Pro to be an extremely capable device!
An Incredible Entertainment All-Rounder
Firing up some music, I was met with incredibly punchy sound that, as I mentioned above, was astoundingly loud and crisp. If you were having a small party, I could see this sitting in the corner of the room and blasting out beats with ease for people to groove to. It's ridiculously loud!
The first gaming thing I was itching to test on the F8 Pro, was Switch emulation. Using the latest Eden emulator's v0.0.4-rc3 released today (Nov 23rd), I obtained the necessary files and booted up Super Mario Odyssey. My previous experience with emulation on Android was very hit and miss when it came to Switch emulation, and that was either due to the Gen 2 Snapdragon tech, or the maturity of the emulators.
Regardless, the experience today was phenomenal. Super Mario Odyssey booted up and ran at an extremely impressive 59 (average) FPS with very few notable dips in handheld mode running at 1x resolution. Though I would recommend playing with a Bluetooth controller, the experience on-the-go, was exceptionally playable, with only minor stutter caused by the pipeline shader caching and generating. I could also have download a pre-compiled shader cache, so this could have been even smoother than it already was.
Booting up ARMSX2, I tested out Burnout Takedown, a classic game of speedy carnage and speedier graphics. Astonishingly, this game runs flawlessly to. Other games like God of War II and Gran Turismo 4 equally performed admirably, which I can only attribute to the maturity of the emulators today paired with the incredible Snapdragon 5 Elite hardware.
Testing some of the more traditional handheld device emulators, I decided to give Vita3K and Azahar a spin. The ability to have both the Sony Vita and the Nintendo 3DS emulated and in the same pocket as rock-solid PS2 and even Nintendo Switch Emulation seemed like a dream to me, so setting these up and testing out my favourite games was a no-brainer.
Starting off with Azahar, the speed of the emulator is incredible, but I did start seeing dips in frame rates once I moved into more complicated 3D games. Pilotwings Resort runs really well overall, with very few dips below 40 FPS, and most of the game play sitting at 38-66 FPS. This feels entirely playable by the way, its just that in areas such as the take off, or landing I experienced a small amount of buffering. I would say that the average FPS count here was around 45, running at native resolution.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is another title that I always test, because its a tricky one to emulate. Firing up the cci I noticed that the frame rate was incredibly high in comparison to other hardware I've tested 3DS emulation on. Sitting in the high 50's, I was impressed but there was definite stutter once new areas and pipelines rendered. Adjusting the CPU limit to 110% accounted for the few frames that it was dipping in the over world, from 59 FPS down to 52 or so, which made the game feel a lot smoother.
Some areas if you get knocked back or take damage, I did notice a few dips as low as 11 FPS for a split second. It's not exactly game breaking, but it's not ideal, I was able to deal with it quite well for a few hours of game play, but I will definitely be looking for updated versions or resort to trying out Turnip drivers in compatible emulators.
Last but not least, I tested Vita3K and Uncharted: Golden Abyss. I wasn't expecting much from this, as last time I tested this on a gen 2 Snapdragon, I was treated to a slideshow unless I played 2D games. To my amazement, it ran really well, it's extremely serviceable.
Running at 29-30 FPS average, the game runs to all intents and purposes; perfectly for as much as I played of it. I cannot say for sure that the entire game works flawlessly, but the opening levels worked to a more than playable state, even with occasional minor graphical glitches here and there.
As a benchmark for other games, I'm extremely tempted to use this phone for more Vita and Nintendo Switch games than anything else!
Testing out VLC media player, I re-watched Predator Killer of Killers, a superb animation that showcases some sublime effects and some brilliant sound engineering. The screen quality is beyond excellent with the 120 Hz AMOLED with FULL-HD+ and HDR displaying some exceptionally crystal clear visuals, and no notable ghosting or trailing, even across the network. Visually vibrant and with a superb depth from black to white, this is an incredible widescreen display for gaming and movies!
The experience of watching a movie in full stereo sound was also exquisite and if you were strapped for a Bluetooth headset, the sound projection from the speakers is powerful enough to enjoy the movie, more than adequately, by yourself or in a huddled group. I could imagine this being absolutely fantastic when traveling or taking on camping trips.
As a daily driver, this phone is perfectly pocketable with its 6.59" screen feeling slightly small to me (being used to the MAX edition iPhones), but it manages to exude a massively understated quality to it. As you would expect, phone calls are crystal clear, the UI is intuitive, and general app usage is fast and sleek regardless of the multitudes of tasks it's performing.
Costing £549 for the 12GB+256GB version and £599 for the 12GB+512GB version, it's a far cry from the £1000 you need to shell out fro the iPhone 17 Pro Max, but it performed well above and beyond my expectations at every task, including photography, emulation, gaming and media playback. In addition to this and to celebrate the launch of the Poco F8 series, Xiaomi are offering additional exclusive offers, with the 256GB version at £349, and the 512GB at £399, saving you money if you purchase between November 26th and December the 9th!
The only downside I found to this review was the amount of bloat the OS comes preinstalled with. Now, upon initial set up you can opt for a lot of these things to be skipped, and I must have skipped around 20+ apps from installing including TikTok and various games and utilities, but even after this, I kept finding notifications from various Xiaomi, Poco and Mi apps asking me to update or add other apps that I had zero interest in. I also noticed that apps like Amazon, Netflix, Spotify, and Facebook are all preinstalled too, without asking you, apps which the average user might enjoy, but I myself do not require on a phone. I like to keep things minimal and less bogged down with unnecessary apps so that I can focus on calls, messaging and most importantly gaming and emulation.
Once you have control of whats installed, and you've removed all the bloat, the experience is far better and less intrusive with all the annoying notifications and popups that comes preinstalled.
Verdict
- Gorgeously sleek form factor
- The Snapdragon 8 Elite SOC is outstandingly performant
- Incredibly loud STEREO speakers
- Amazing for gaming and emulation up to Nintendo Switch
- Bloated to high heaven
- No expandable memory
- Smaller battery than its counterpart
- The Ultra has the subwoofer and 16GB versions.
