This week marks a year since the Poco F3 debuted in Malaysia, meaning that it should be reasonable to expect a new member of the Poco F lineup sometime soon. However, while the original Poco F1 was a game changing smartphone, they’ve since been mostly rebadging and rehashing China-only Redmi devices and it looks like it’ll be the same for the Poco F4.
According to some leaked benchmark scores on Geekbench, the Poco F4, with the codename Xiaomi 22021211RG, will feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 system-on-chip, mated to 8GB of RAM. These benchmarks scores were very much in the same region as other smartphones that are also powered by the Snapdragon 870. Furthermore, the benchmark reveals that the device was running Android 12. Earlier reports seem to corroborate this, with previous FCC certifications for the 22021211RG showing that it runs MIUI 13 out of the box.
It seems as though the Poco F4 will be based on the Redmi K40S that launched in China which launched in China just awhile back, just like how the Poco F3 was basically a rehashed Redmi K40 last year. The Redmi K40S also has the Snapdragon 870 chip paired with up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 256GB of UFS3.1 storage. Up front, there’s a 6.67-inch, FHD+ AMOLED display with up to a 120Hz refresh rate, a 360Hz touch sampling rate and a peak brightness of 1,300nits, with a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for scratch resistance too.
That’s pretty similar to last year’s Poco F3/Redmi K40, but there are some notable upgrades in the camera department. The Redmi K40S has a 48MP main camera that now features optical image stabilisation, something the Redmi K40 and Poco F3 lacked. That gets flanked by an 8MP ultra-wide angle camera and a further 2MP macro lens. On the front meanwhile you’ll find a 20MP camera for selfies.
Keeping the lights on is a 4,500mAh battery with 67W fast charging. In comparison, the Poco F3/Redmi K40 has a 4,520mAh battery with just 33W fast charging. It’ll have support for 5G, WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity too. There doesn’t seem to be a 3.5mm audio jack, though you do get stereo speakers here. You’ll also find a fingerprint sensor on the side of the device.
Overall though, if the Poco F4 does end up being a rebadged version of the Redmi K40S as many suspect, it’ll likely be quite a disappointment for many Poco fans out there. The Poco lineup used to be where many power users on a budget managed to get some of the best mobile performance on the cheap, thanks to some compromises made such as the plastic body and LCD panel on the Poco F1.
There may be a Poco F4 Pro variant however, with the Singaporean regulator IMDA having approved a slightly different Xiaomi 22011211G device, believed to be the Poco F4 Pro. We’ll just have to wait and see what Poco has in store for us.
