Xiaomi Poco F9 Pro Review: Strong Performance and Battery Life, Weaker Camera and Speakers at $699

Xiaomi Poco F9 Pro review, Digi Mart USA News: Notebookcheck has published a review of the Xiaomi Poco F9 Pro, a budget-oriented smartphone that uses a scaled-down Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 V Series chip and a 6,330 mAh battery. The review praises the phone’s system performance, its bright AMOLED display with accurate colour reproduction, and its long battery life.

The reviewer highlights a fast ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, reliable location tracking and a premium-feeling matte fiberglass-reinforced plastic back. The device is listed with an RRP of $699 for the 12/256 GB model and $769 for the 12/512 GB model, and the review notes that it is already heavily discounted at retailers such as Amazon.

Compared with the more expensive Poco F9 Ultra, the review identifies clear compromises. Graphics performance is significantly lower, battery life is shorter, and the speakers are weaker, with the F9 Pro having one fewer speaker.

The reviewer also notes that the chip’s Adreno 840 GPU has two slices instead of three, leading to roughly one-third lower performance, according to the review.

Camera results are mixed. The main camera captures detailed daylight images, but the review measured an average DeltaE colour deviation of 16.86 on a ColorChecker test, and performance drops noticeably in low light.

The front camera applies strong post-processing that can make faces appear unnatural. The phone can record video at Ultra HD and 60 fps on the main camera.

Other points raised in the review include the device’s tendency to get quite hot under load, with some surface areas exceeding 50 degrees, a USB 2.0 port that does not support video output, and Wi-Fi 7 support that excludes the 6 GHz band. The phone is IP68 rated and is set to receive four years of version updates and two years of security patches.

The review’s display measurements found a peak of 1,200 cd/m² for a full-screen white image and a PWM-like flicker at 120 Hz in the worst case, which the reviewer says could cause eyestrain for some users after extended use. Notebookcheck describes the phone as more appealing at lower street prices than at its list price, particularly for users who prioritise everyday performance and can accept camera and feature trade-offs.