Poco Didn’t Succeed The Launch Of The Poco F1 With The Poco F2

The Poco F1 was a wildly popular phone that, over the course of its existence, even won a cult following. Offering a 5-course meal at the price of a fast-food dish, the Poco F1 went on to sell hundreds of thousands of smartphones. With sensible price cuts, the Poco F1 is still selling in 2020 (although, not for long as production has stopped). But for users looking to buy a true successor to the F1, a flagship phone, the Poco X2 didn’t really make the cut.

But why did Poco do that? Well, who better to ask about it than C Manmohan (General Manager, POCO India)! In a conversation with Mashable India, Manmohan revealed why the Poco X2 made it to the market instead of the expected Poco F2.

The reasoning behind the decision was very simple: it just wasn’t feasible to launch a flagship phone at a “Poco price”. The Poco F1 became what it was because it offered a flagship processor (then), the Snapdragon 845, at an unbelievably low price. They were able to do so by simply focusing on the performance aspect of the phone and not giving the form much attention (function over form). Also, given that Xiaomi had been one of Qualcomm’s biggest customers, Poco was able to acquire the Snapdragon 845 at a good price.

Unfortunately, flagship processors from Qualcomm are now more expensive than ever. The Snapdragon 865 comes bundled with the Snapdragon X50 5G modem. This not only not make the chip suitable for use in India (that doesn’t have 5G networks) but also drastically increases the price.

So the next logical step would’ve been to use either the Snapdragon 855 or the Snapdragon 855+ right? Well, interestingly, the “high price” (the price of these chips is not publicly known) of the Snapdragon 865 has caused the price of the older chips to stay put. The price drop, that is usually expected after the launch of a successive chip, hasn’t happened apparently. Hence, the price of flagship processors is one major reason why Poco decided to not launch the Poco F2, yet.

Wanting to launch a phone in the sub-20k segment, Poco then decided to make use of the Snapdragon 730G processor in a new X series phone, the Poco X2. Although not as powerful as the Snapdragon 845, the 730G still packs some serious gaming chops.

Also, as mentioned above, Poco has stopped manufacturing the Poco F1 as Qualcomm has apparently stopped manufacturing of the Snapdragon 845 SoC. So, if you want to get your hands on Poco F1, do it right away. The stocks will not last for long.―Mashable