The Poco F1 India launch event has finally started, bringing Xiaomi’s new affordable flagship to the market. The company says Poco is aimed at delivering phones that focus on features that matter and do not burn a hole in the buyers' pockets. The new Poco F1 smartphone will deliver a fast performance, or at least that’s what the social media teasers have been focusing on so far. It will come with Snapdragon 845 chipset with Adrena 630 GPU. A LiquidCool technology to facilitate heat dissipation has been integrated in the handset. Battery life is another highlight of the device - the company claims its 4,000mAh battery will deliver all-day juice; it has QuickCharge 3.0 support for fast-charging. It comes with up to 8GB RAM and up to 256GB built-in storage, with up to 256GB microSD card support in hybrid configuration. The company also said the handset will support faster mobile data download speeds with 4G+ standard.

As for the design, Poco F1 features a heat-coated polycarbonate body; there will also be a Poco F1 Armoured Edition, with a Kevlar back panel. The smartphone has a 6.18-inch full-HD+ display with 500nits brightness and there is a display notch but you can remove it in Settings. The infrared light ensures the Face Unlock feature works well even in the dark. It comes in Steel Blue, Graphite Black and Rosso Red colour options. Coming to the camera, the device gets a 12-megapixel Sony IMX363 + 5-megapixel camera setup on the back with Dual Pixel technology, HDR, and real-time AI photography. On the front is a 20-megapixel camera with HDR.

Poco F1 comes with a special version of MIUI, called MIUI for Poco. There is a dedicated Poco Launcher, centred around app drawer and customisations. The app drawer has the Google search bar at the bottom instead of the top, categorisation of apps by type and colour, hidden app icons, and support for third-party icon packs. Poco Launcher will be available on Github as a beta download for non-Xiaomi phones from August 29. Faster app start-up, better foreground app performance, and improved swiping experience are also part of the Poco experience. It is based on Android 8.1 Oreo, with Android Pie will be shipped in Q4 2018, and security updates will be delivered every month. Unlocking the bootloader will not void the warranty of the Poco F1.

It will be manufactured in India and compete against the OnePlus 6, Asus ZenFone 5Z, and other mid-range flagships in the Indian market. The Poco F1 India launch event is being live streamed, so you can watch the event in real-time. We will be at the event too, so you can just refresh this page every few minutes to get the latest updates from the event.

The Xiaomi Poco F1 price in India is Rs. 20,999 for the variant with 6GB RAM and 64GB internal storage. Its 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage model will cost Rs. 23,999 in India. Lastly, the 8GB RAM and 256GB built-in storage model, priced at Rs. 28,999. As for the Armoured Edition model with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, buyers will have to shell out Rs. 29,999. Purchases made using HDFC Bank credit and debit cards as well as EMIs will get a flat Rs. 1,000 discount in the first sale. Jio customers will get up to 6TB of additional data and cashback worth Rs. 8,000 from Jio. The handset will come with a soft case in the box. The smartphone will be available via Flipkart as well as Mi.com and the first sale will be held on August 29 at 12pm IST.

The Poco F1 will be making its way to Indonesia, France, and Hong Kong on August 27.