Xiaomi's flagships generally do not do well outside of their home market of China, but the OEM is strongly intent on changing that. Earlier, we had found evidence of as many as five Xiaomi flagships that were running on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC, Qualcomm's flagship SoC that would dominate the upper end of the Android smartphone releases in 2018. Of these five, four have already been released: Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S (“polaris“), Xiaomi Mi 8 (“dipper“), Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer Edition (“ursa“) and Xiaomi Black Shark gaming phone ("shark"). The only flagship phone left is the upcoming Xiaomi Pocophone F1, which has now received its Bluetooth SIG Certification.

POCOPHONE F1 is one-of-a-kind smartphone that sports a flagship Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 845 processor with liquid cooling system which help boasts extremely fast processing power at a sustained peak performance. It has a 12MP + 5MP dual camera setup with 1.4µm large pixels and dual pixel autofocus on the main sensor. POCO F1 has a 20MP front camera which supports Super Pixel—technology that combines the information of four pixels into one large pixel, which can reduce photo noise, capture more light and enhance photo quality, especially in low-light conditions. Paired with an infrared illuminator and an infrared camera, POCO F1 can be secured using AI face unlock, which works just as well in pitch-dark conditions as it does in bright daylight.

The Bluetooth certification document reveals a key feature of the Pocophone F1 in its design description subheading. The upcoming device will sport a liquid cooling system that should pair well with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC for great performance as well as longer sustainability of this peak performance. Previous leaks had revealed that the device will come in at least two variants of 6GB RAM + 64GB storage and 6GB RAM + 128GB storage, and will sport a 5.99" notched 2160 x 1080 display.

For the camera setup, the Pocophone F1 will come with a dual rear camera setup comprising of a 12MP main sensor with 1.4µm pixels and a dual pixel autofocus system, and a 5MP secondary sensor. The front camera on this flagship will be a 20MP sensor that will also be paired alongside an infrared camera and an infrared illuminator for "AI" face unlock in bright daylight as well as pitch-dark conditions.

The Xiaomi Pocophone F1 is shaping up to be an interesting device that is headed for the European and Indian markets, possibly with a different final name. It is expected to be an affordable flagship, with converted prices hovering around €420 for the base variant and €460 for the 128GB storage variant. We expect to hear more about the final pricing, specifications, availability and the final name when the device comes closer to launch.