Poco F8 Ultra Review: They Put a Subwoofer in a Flagship Phone, and Somehow That’s Not the Wildest Part

In the world of Xiaomi, Poco and Redmi usually focus on making excellent mid-range and budget phones, while parent company Xiaomi focuses on making great flagships. This is the way. But every now and then, Poco and Redmi take things up a notch and release a real flagship. Check out the Poco F8 Ultra, an affordable flagship with a metal frame, a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, a 50MP triple rear shooter, a 6,500mAh silicon-carbon battery, and 50W wireless charging. Oh, and did I mention it comes with a Bose-branded subwoofer? Crazy!

So how is this phone? Has Poco cut corners? Is this the right flag? Here is my review.

Poco F8 Ultra back

Poco F8 Ultra: Hardware and Design

Let’s cut to the chase here: subwoofer aside, the Poco F8 Ultra looks like any typical Chinese handset. And that’s perfectly fine. It combines the aesthetics of the iPhone (flat screen, slab sides, and rounded corners) with the typical Xiaomi “quad-lens” camera pod. There’s a 6.9-inch AMOLED display on the front, with a center hole for a 32MP selfie camera. On the back, you’ll find three 50MP shooters (primary, ultrawide, and 5x telephoto), as well as a color spectrum sensor, LED flash, and the aforementioned one-inch Bose-branded subwoofer.

Poco F8 Ultra in front

The power/keys and volume rocker live on the right, and you’ll find the speaker at the top. At the bottom, the USB Type-C port is flanked by another speaker on one side, and the dual nano-SIM tray and the main microphone on the other side. There is nothing but antenna bands on the left side. Overall, the F8 Ultra looks and feels premium. It is made of glass (front), aluminum (frame), and plastic (back), and is rated IP68 for dust and water ingress. This is a solid handset, apart from the usual Black and White color, it is also available in Denim Blue.

This cute finish looks and feels exactly like – you guessed it – blue jeans. My review unit came in a nice black, which is nice enough, but not the most exciting.

Poco F8 Ultra: Dplay

That 6.9-inch AMOLED screen is beautiful. 1.5k (2608×1200 pixels) 120Hz LTPS panel with HDR10+ and Dolby Vision support, 2,560Hz PWM dimming, and 3,500 nits peak brightness. Colors are bright, black is limitless, and viewing angles are excellent. In other words, I have no complaints about this display.

Poco F8 Ultra display

Poco F8 Ultra: Cameras

When it comes to rear shooters, you get a 50MP f/1.7 (1/1.31-inch, 23mm) camera with dual-pixel PDAF and OIS, a 50MP f/3.0 (1/2.76-inch, 115mm) 5x periscope telephoto camera with PDAF and 20MP and OIS. (1/2.88-inch, 18mm) diameter. That 102-degree field of view is a bit narrow for an ultrawide, but otherwise, these cameras capture excellent images, with plenty of detail, accurate colors, decent exposure, and solid low-light performance. Dynamic range is decent, though night mode tends to produce photos with some pretty blown-out images.

Poco F8 Ultra telephoto (~30x)

This can easily be fixed by turning off night mode, but I would like to see Poco fine tune the cameras and fix this. Video recording is up to 8k 30fps on the main camera and 4K 60fps on telephoto and ultrawide, with slow motion up to 1080p 960fps / 720p 1920fps. Standard camera modes are available, including night portrait, pro, high-res, macro, panorama, slow-motion, time-lapse, etc. If selfies are your thing, you’ll appreciate that 32MP f/2.2 (1/3.44-inch, 21mm) front-facing shooter, which captures great photos and video up to 30k.

Poco F8 Ultra: Reception and Sound Quality

Call quality and reception were good on T-Mobile, AT&T, and Telus’ sub-6GHz 5G networks in San Francisco and Vancouver, Canada. While this handset supports eSIMs, it doesn’t have mmWave 5G (not that this really matters). The F8 Ultra’s trick 2.1 sound system (stereo speakers and subwoofer) tuned by Bose sounds really impressive considering the limited interior space available. It’s definitely the best sounding audio setup I’ve ever heard on a phone: loud, clear, and just the right amount of real bass.

Poco F8 Ultra subwoofer and cameras

Poco F8 Ultra: Performance and Battery Life

Under the hood, the F8 Ultra features Qualcomm’s flagship 3nm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip with a choice of 12 or 16GB of RAM and 256 or 512GB of fast UFS 4.1 storage. I am reviewing the 16/512GB model, and the performance is very fast. Whether I’m using my usual collection of communication, social media, productivity, and entertainment apps, or playing graphics-intensive games like Flash Memory: Never Ending again GRID Autosportthis phone just doesn’t skip a beat. Basically, there is no compromise here.

Poco F8 Ultra buttons

I was also impressed with the battery life, with the Poco F8 Ultra easily lasting two days of regular use on a full charge. That’s not really surprising, considering it packs a 6,500mAh silicon-carbon battery. So, if durability is what you’re looking for, this phone has you covered. And when it’s time to fill up, you get 100W wireless charging and 50W wireless charging (Qi-compatible), as well as 22.5W reverse wireless charging. You’ll need a Xiaomi or PPS 100W fast charger or a Xiaomi 50W wireless fast charger to reach those charging speeds, though, because no charger is included in the box.

When it comes to connectivity, the F8 Ultra includes sub-6GHz 5G, LTE, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, NFC, and A-GPS / BeiDou / Galileo / QZSS / NavIC / GLONASS position. The ultrasonic fingerprint sensor under the display is fast and reliable, as is face unlock. Haptics, which use a high-quality vibration engine, are also good.

Poco F8 Ultra: The software

On the software front, the Poco F8 Ultra runs Xiaomi’s HyperOS 3.0.8 on top of Android 16. HyperOS is responsive and reasonably intuitive overall, but it’s too customizable to suit my tastes. There are some excellent Android skins coming out of China, like OPPO’s Color OS, for example. My biggest gripe with HyperOS is that it separates notifications (swipe down from the top left) and quick settings (swipe down from the top right), but it doesn’t have an option to restore the old Android behavior, which combines quick settings and notifications.

Poco F8 Ultra app tray

Obviously, HyperOS mimics the behavior of iOS notifications and quick settings (Control Center), but is it really necessary for Xiaomi to lock users into an Apple-like user experience? Choice is important, especially for something this important. Bloatware is another problem with the F8 Ultra. My review unit came loaded with third-party apps pre-installed, such as AliExpress, Amazon Music, LinkedIn, Netflix, and TikTok. On the other hand, Poco promises four years of OS development and six years of Security updates, which are not industry leading but reasonable.

Poco F8 Ultra: The decision

Ultimately, software nitpicks aside, the Poco F8 Ultra delivers high-end, flagship-grade hardware at an affordable price point – starting at around $729 for the 16GB/256GB model and $799 for the 16GB/512GB version. That’s really impressive considering the phone’s high-end features, rich features, and premium design. So, is the F8 Ultra worth buying? It’s definitely worth considering if you’re looking for a well-rounded, affordable flag, and especially if you live outside of North America. Poco clearly makes good hardware; it just needs to stop chasing Apple and provide flexible software.

Poco F8 Ultra starts at approx. ~$729; available in the US for $839 from Amazon.

Source: A review sample provided by the manufacturer

What I like: Premium design; Good display; The cameras are great, and the telephoto is amazing too; Impressive speakers; Strong performance and battery life; Fast wired charging and wireless charging

What needs to be improved: Some US bands are absent; There is no charger in the box; The software is highly customizable