Poco F8 Ultra review – GSMArena.com tests | Infinium-tech

Introduction

The second-generation Poco F-Series Ultra continues to move up the lineup by increasing camera capabilities and adding some small improvements – on top of the usual annual chipset upgrades and such. So now how big a force can the new Poco F8 Ultra be considered? Let’s try to answer this.

But first, it’s always important to point out which China-specific Redmi the new Poco actually is. The model isn’t hard to identify – a striking feature on the back reveals that it’s the Redmi K90 Pro Max. Xiaomi has worked with American speaker experts at Bose to bring a 2.1 speaker system to Redmi, and the same system now comes to the Poco F8 Ultra. The rest is mostly the same, with just a few, mostly cosmetic differences here or there. This isn’t really a bad thing – if anything, we should be happy that a handset of this caliber somehow becomes available globally.

Xiaomi Poco F8 Ultra • Xiaomi Redmi K90 Pro Max

The F8 Ultra’s ascent toward proper flagship territory is marked, first and foremost, by its camera system. The main camera is being equipped with a larger sensor (now 1/1.3″), the telephoto has been given extra reach (the optical zoom is now at 5x), and the ultrawide has also got more pixels. The ultrawide still lacks autofocus and the selfie camera isn’t exactly exciting, but steps are being taken in the right direction.

Of course, there’s been an inevitable chipset update and the Poco F8 Ultra is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 – fitting given the phone’s Ultra moniker and its supreme status among Pocos.

In the year of normalizing larger batteries, Poco’s 6,500mAh powerpack looks quite good, if not as good as Redmi’s 1000+mAh larger battery. 100W charging doesn’t sound half bad either.

The display has become a little larger, at 6.9 inches diagonally, and perhaps even a little brighter. On the other hand, some pixels were lost along the way (it’s a 1200p panel vs. the 1440p resolution of the older model), but we don’t think we’ll lose them.

An interesting denim-like choice of finish on the back is a welcome breath of personality, though some might still prefer to focus on the camera island’s iPhone resemblance regardless of color and texture. Meanwhile, frequent travelers will appreciate the addition of eSIM capability – it was missing in the previous model.

Xiaomi Poco F8 Ultra specifications at a glance:

• Body: 163.3×77.8×7.9 mm, 218 g; Glass front, aluminum frame; IP68 dust resistant and water resistant (submersible up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes).
• Display: 6.90″ AMOLED, 68B color, 120Hz, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, 3500 nits (peak), 1200x2608px resolution, 19.56:9 aspect ratio, 416ppi.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SM8850-AC Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (3 nm): Octa-core (2×4.6 GHz Oryon V3 Phoenix L + 6×3.62 GHz Oryon V3 Phoenix M); Adreno 840.
• Memory: 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 16GB RAM; UFS 4.1.
• OS/Software: Android 16, HyperOS 3.
• rear camera: wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.7, 23mm, 1/1.31″, 1.2µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS; telephoto: 50 MP, f/3.0, 115 mm, 1/2.76″, 0.64µm, PDAF (30 cm – ∞), OIS, 5x optical zoom; ultra wide angle: 50 MP, f/2.4, 18mm, 102˚, 1/2.88″, 0.61µm.
• Front Camera: 32 MP, f/2.2, 21mm (wide), 1/3.4″, 0.61µm.
• video capture: rear camera: 8K@30fps, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240/960fps, 720p@1920fps, Gyro-EIS, HDR10+; front camera:4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60fps.
• Battery: 6500mAh; 100W Wired, PD3.0, QC3+, 100W PPS, 50W Wireless, 22.5W Reverse Wireless.
• Connectivity: 5G; Wi-Fi 7; BT 5.4, LHDC 5.0, ASHA, MIHC; NFC; Infrared port.
• various: Fingerprint reader (under the display, ultrasonic); Stereo speakers (with Dolby Atmos).

Poco F8 Ultra Unboxing

The Poco F8 Ultra comes in a box with a style typical for the brand, black cardboard with yellow splashes. However, it is a half-height box, indicating the absence of a charger inside – at least in our jungles.

There’s still a USB-A-to-C cable included to get you started, as well as a graphite-colored TPU case – perhaps not as good-looking as the phone itself, but better than nothing when it comes to protection.