Introduction
While many still might not instantly associate Poco with a proper flagship offering, the company’s F series has been delivering impressive flagship and “flagship-killer” devices ever since the original Poco F1 back in 2018. Better still, there often seems to be a “GT”, “Pro”, or, more recently, “Ultra” model in the F lineup that pushes the envelope even further. And that’s exactly where we find the Poco F9 Ultra we have for review today.
The Poco Ultra models aren’t exactly what you would call cheap in absolute terms. Sure, with constantly ballooning smartphone prices, we have to accept the reality we live in. Whether we like it or not, and regardless of whether we decide to blame it on the current memory chip situation, another psychological barrier has now been crossed – “budget flagships” or “flagship killers” like this here Ultra have officially ventured beyond the €1,000 mark.
Sure, there will be promos and kickbacks and likely early-bird specials, but even so, last year’s Poco F8 Ultra launched at €829 for the 12GB/256GB model. So, the price hike is real.
Xiaomi Poco F9 Ultra specs at a glance:
- Body: 163.5×78.0x8.mm, 235g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass 7i), aluminum frame, glass-fiber reinforced plastic back; IP68 dust tight and water-resistant (submersible up to 1.5m for 30 min).
- Display: 6.90″ AMOLED, 68B colors, 185Hz, Dolby Vision, HDR Vivid, HDR10+, BT.2020, 10,000 nits (peak), 1200x2608px resolution, 19.56:9 aspect ratio, 416ppi.
- Chipset: Qualcomm SM8850-AC Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (3 nm).
- Memory: 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 16GB RAM, 1TB 16GB RAM; UFS 4.1.
- OS/Software: Android 16, up to 4 major OS updates, HyperOS 3.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 200 MP, f/1.7, 24mm, 0.5µm, PDAF, OIS; Telephoto: 50 MP, f/3.0, 120mm, 1/2.75″, 0.64µm, PDAF, OIS, 5x optical zoom; Ultra wide angle: 50 MP, f/2.4, 18mm, 102-degree, 1/2.88″, 0.61µm.
- Front camera: 32 MP, f/2.2, 21mm (wide), 1/3.44″, 0.64µm.
- Video capture: Rear camera: 8K@30fps, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240/960/1920fps, gyro-EIS, HDR10+; Front camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60fps.
- Battery: 8050mAh; 100W wired, PD3.0, QC3+, 100W PPS, 50W wireless, 27W reverse wired, 22.5W reverse wireless.
- Connectivity: 5G; eSIM; Wi-Fi 7; BT 6.0, LHDC 5.0, ASHA, MIHC, Auracast; NFC; Infrared port.
- Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, ultrasonic); stereo speakers (with Dolby Atmos).
The Poco F9 Ultra is not only an excellent flagship device, based on the still top-dog Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, with very few other spec compromises; it even goes a step further by actually introducing interesting new and added-value features to the mix.
We will be sure to go into more detail on every point here, but just to name a few highlights: The large 6.9-inch display is insanely bright and also very fast with a 185Hz refresh rate and a dedicated display chip that can do both frame interpolation and dynamic resolution, as well as decreased motion blur. And, according to Poco, the F9 Ultra actually marks the global debut of the M11 generation OLED panel.
Then there is the ongoing BOSE partnership. Not only does the F9 Ultra deliver dual symmetrical stereo speakers, but there is actually a separate subwoofer on the back side, making for a rather unique 2.1 speaker setup. That’s definitely not something you see every day. Well, to be fair, last year’s Poco F8 Ultra already had essentially the same feature, but it is still unique in the broader industry sense.
And the goodies don’t stop there either. The F9 Ultra is powered by a huge 8,050 mAh battery – the biggest capacity on a Poco F series so far. Poco packed a frankly insane capacity into a relatively small volume with the help of relatively high 16% silicon-carbon content. And as a cherry on top, the Poco F9 Ultra can do a whopping 100W of wired charging, 55W wireless charging and fast wired and wireless reverse charging.
We are clearly excited to dig our teeth into the F9 Ultra, but first, the unboxing.
Unboxing
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again – there are much better ways to make a statement, other than a flashy box. Thankfully, the industry has mostly moved away from that trend of old, with very rare exceptions, and Poco was never one to overspend on cardboard.
The box is your standard two-piece affair. The bottom half and most of the insides are actually done in Poco’s signature yellow. There are some matching accents on the top black piece, which makes for a nice dual-tone look. Everything is sturdy enough to protect the phone during transit.
There is no charger in the box, definitely not in our European unit. Those days are officially gone. Poco does still include a USB Type-A to Type-C charging cable. It is one of the company’s non-standard orange-tipped ones with an extra pin, presumably meant to be used with something like the Xiaomi 100W HyperCharge charger.
Also in the box is a nice, thick, hard, transparent case for the F9 Ultra. Not a bad added value these days.