9 things you should know about Xiaomi’s new sub-brand POCO

Xiaomi has unveiled our new sub-brand POCO with the mission to deliver performance that matters. Prior to the unveil, we had a chat with Alvin Tse and Jai Mani, key members of the POCO team and spokespeople for the brand. They shared an inside look into their journey on POCO. Let’s dive deeper:

1.When did you decide to start this new brand? What is your ambition?

As a small outfit within Xiaomi, POCO has the freedom to start from scratch, zeroing in on the product choices that matter. For the first product, we got back to basics and focus entirely on speed. Not just peak performance speed, but actual, real world speed.

2.Why do you call your brand POCO? What does it mean?

POCO stands for “a little”—we believe in starting small but dreaming big. POCO sets out to deliver technologies that truly matter. This is why POCO has built a smartphone that delivers unbelievable performance, which we believe will resonate with tech enthusiasts and develop a strong following amongst them.

3.Why not just launch the POCO F1 as a new Xiaomi flagship. Why create a new brand?

POCO F1 has a different positioning from Xiaomi’s Mi devices. While Xiaomi’s Mi series consists of all-rounded flagship smartphones that set industry standards, POCO zeroes in on perfecting one aspect that truly matters, providing a user experience that is set to get tech enthusiasts super excited, while maintaining an extreme bang for the buck proposition.

At the same time, we are entirely open about being part of Xiaomi. You can even see on the device that it’s POCO by Xiaomi.

4.I saw on your product that POCO by Xiaomi. What does it mean?

It means that we are sharing Xiaomi’s supply chain and service infrastructure with us while we oversee the sales, marketing and product development.

With some of those sub-brands from other smartphone vendors, a slightly tweaked product can be given a name change and appear in both the parent and sub-brands’ lineups. With POCO F1, this phone is completely different and not available in the Xiaomi lineup.

But we do get resources and support from Xiaomi. We share their supply chain and service infrastructure which includes logistics, after-sales, customer support and quality testing.

5.The smartphone market has already been very saturated. Why have you decided to launch this brand now? Who are your target consumers?

POCO understands the core elements of a great smartphone experience and focuses on providing exactly that. We think this is what users want, instead of abundant features that aren’t crucial and in fact add to costs. So POCO delivers a fluid, speedy and flagship experience at an irresistible price tag. Our devices offer the ultimate performance with no frills.

6.Why should people buy POCO instead of other already well-known products?

POCO F1 speaks for itself as soon as you look at its specs. You can draw a parallel to a Superbike — it’s all about sustained raw performance. We weren’t satisfied with just Snapdragon 845 as we want the phone to run very fast all day long so we added LiquidCool technology to achieve that. Face Unlock is all good but we also wanted it to unlock securely under low light conditions so we added IR. Our rear dual camera setup with 1.4um on primary camera comes with Dual pixel autofocus that further gives superfast autofocusing in any condition. And we insisted on giving this powerful engine a 4000mAh such that it could last a full day despite running at such high speed. You can see that we have pretty much not held back on anything that could add to its performance. And in addition, the price to spec ratio is jaw dropping!

7.Is the focus of your brand on speed?

I wouldn’t say so – the focus for us is on delivering a phone that goes back to basics and in the case of POCO F1 it’s all about speed. The focus of our devices is to get tech enthusiasts really excited while delivering an extreme bang for the buck proposition.



8.When will you launch your second product? Any specific plan you can share?

We have some exciting ideas but it’s too early to share at this stage. Give us time, we just launched POCO F1!

9.Do you think you can replicate the success of Xiaomi?

It’s not our intention to replicate the success of Xiaomi. We are focused on our own mission, delivering technologies that truly matter.