since I am at work right now, I’ll just drop two links which will cover the general process of installing “Pixel Experience ROM”. please let me know when you need further details:
http://www.xda-developers.com/flash-generic-system-image-project-treble-device

in regards to kernel tweaking you have to look for a custom kernel which suits to the phone (codename “whyred”) and allows overclocking. for overclocking with the help of the app named “Kernel Aduitor” you will additionally need root access. I am actually looking for a suitable kernel, too! 🙂

I get it. But your last paragraph is just a conjecture. And all I am saying is, that the chip may not be the be all end all, but it is your best shot at future proofing your phone and give you the best bang for your buck.

If you don’t care for that, sure go for another phone, but don’t slate people for suggesting it as it is right now without a doubt, one of the most best value for money phones (Mi A2 lite comes close). It is subjective, and I know you disagree but it is how it is.

In terms of one-handedness, The Redmi 5a is 70.4mm wide, the Redmi 5 is 72.8mm wide. Not really a huge difference, both are on the smaller side of things. The iPhone 6 is 67mm wide with a 4.7″ display.

​

The Pocophone F1 with a 6.18″ display is 75.3mm wide, and the Redmi Note 4 with a 5.5″ display is 76mm wide, and these are what I’d consider a fairly normal size these days. Screen sizes are not a good indicator of how well it fits in the hand. The Mi Max 3 is 87.4mm wide, which is what I would actually consider “big” and a bit hard for most people to use one handed.

Buy poco, 3g is fast enough. /s

Galaxy S3 of budget phones

My bad I was misinformed. The GPU in 625 is a clear step up. CPU configuration is superior in 625 as well.

lol sound like a hater.

Exactly! That’s why you get one with the power to burn now if you want longevity. That’s exactly what I’m saying, and idiots here are downvoting. I think the point is pretty unarguable.

Ok, I just bought a Pocophone. I have the first gen Mi Max at the moment and I’m missing a bit better camera and more RAM. I didn’t want to dish out 500-600 euros or even more.

You make me un poco loco

I hear only som screens get it, Tianma screens i believe.

Have a mental problem? Buy a poco.
Need to spend money? Buy a poco.
What to get married? Save the money and buy a poco,
For everything else ? Poco

…or that.

That’s what I was asking myself and why I kept my A1 for now.

Hmm is there any other screens Poco uses other than Tianma screens?😨

iPhones suck for longevity though. 2 years, 2.5 years max, and battery doesn’t last the full work day, with their new iOS draining battery much faster (apparently this year was the only new iOS version which actually kept the battery life same or better for last year’s phones) Not only that the stutter gets more and more pronounced in year 3. I could not live with iPhone without jailbreaking, but later on the jailbreaking community wasn’t keeping up with the software patches. Apple will make you upgrade every 2 years.

I’m not sure about Xiaomi’s other build qualities though. I got the Mix 2 because I thought it was of comparable build quality to all the flagships. Although I would have bought Poco if it was released 6 months ago. Ceramic or metal or glass back dont matter to me, I put on dbrand skins anyway.

Fortunately LOS will take care of it.

Unheard of support. The original maintainers left and lost interest claiming Pie would never run on it, new ones came in and wouldn’t you know it. I think Pie will be the last release because Pie + opengapps pico fills up /system already so this phone has reached its physical limit, but unless Android 10 stays the same size or gets smaller, it’s the end of the ride. A good end of the ride. Did every update from 4.4.4 through 9.0. Fantastic dev support. Some things in the phone broke or stopped working, but it’s surprisingly usable for its age. I remember when I bought it it was this phone vs. Galaxy S3 neo. The Galaxy had better specs, but no custom rom support whatsoever. All my friends who had to get a phoen then got the S3 neo and… they never saw Lollipop, and all of those phones failed on their own a couple of years back. While I was chilling on official 6.0, another S3 neo was on 4.4.4, the paint from the (low quality) plastic had come off and the battery had already died and been replaced once.

I haven’t changed phone yet for a few reasons.

1) A phone this well supported appears once every 5 years. I wanted to thouroughly enjoy the support until it dies.

2) Don’t really know what to buy. I had buoght a Mi A1, but returned it because I got a defective panel and to be fair I did not notice a VERY significant gap between the two phones. I mean sure it was faster and all, but it was not a definite improvement. For example, the Moto G is plastic but has better speakers, screen and build quality. The A1 looked so washed out put next to the Moto G for some reason. And that is a thing that pushed be to the Poco: after trying both the Mi A1 and the Redmi Note 5, I felt comfortable holding none of them. They felt lighter, more fragile and the kind of metal they had on was a slippery scratch magnet. The A1 felt a little more solid than the Redmi, not not even comparable to the old tanky Moto. Turns out, I would have needed to buy it a PLASTIC case anyway to hold the phone without dropping it. Holding my Moto G was a way different experience. Grippy, solid, no creaking or bending, gets the job done, won’t shatter with a little drop on concrete. Gone is the point of having a metal phone for me.

3) Fast-paced market. Buy something now, something new will be out in 2 weeks. Xiaomi is to blame here.

4) Nothing with promising enough dev support. I was close to buying the Redmi Note 5 after the Mi A1 (which I thought a better device after trying both), but then the 2 month wait happened and the Poco came out, so I’m pretty much settled on the Poco. I’m pretty confident it will reach Moto G – like levels of custom ROM support and, if I take care of it, it will last me at least through my bachelor’s degree.

I want to buy a Poco F1, but I’m afraid of the screen bleeding and if it will get worse over the time :O

No worries man.

Like I’m going to have a smartphone for 5 years..

They’re replacable though. I’ve changed a screen and a battery myself.

That’s the main reason most of us still ask for unlockable bootloader even if we don’t flash the rom. Because we want the option if Xiaomi stops supporting our device.

Amen ! I’m in Canada and I need B4 LTE so the Pocophone is not an option anyway.

it’s my first xiaomi too, I’m just as curious as you, on how long it will last… screen and battery are the components most likely to fail first, but in terms of repairability I think note5 quite easy to replace the screen and battery, there’s plenty of YouTube videos about it.

It’s Indians recommending it sir

Dat ufs storage tho hnnnnng

I don’t know about that. What is LOS?

Disclaimer: I don’t have a Pocophone, nor am I buying it anytime in the near future, so I couldn’t be less interested whether people buy it or not.

But to be honest, Poco is a better option than Redmi 6 or 5; or any Xiaomi phone buyer **with a budget**. Is it just because of the SD845? You’re damn right. You’re basically future-proofing your phone if you buy Poco now even “if you don’t need it.” I know my friends/relatives or even parents/grandparents who never flash roms and tweak their phones in any way shape or form, getting phones with lesser chips that always keep dying well within 3 years of purchasing.

So for that reason alone (more bang for your buck) what’s wrong in saying, “I know your budget is 200 dollars, but with a 100 dollars more you can buy a phone that will last you 5 years, rather than 2.5 years” So you either helped them make a calculated decision, or they ignore your advice and go with another phone. Either way, Poco’s immense popularity means that you will get more recommendations for it even if you didn’t ask, that’s just how things work.

(P.S. To anyone reading this, don’t buy Poco if your country is not supported by its LTE bands)

Both the same devices (manufacturers) with only different chipset, both optimized by the same manufacturer, with same amount of bloatware?

Or totaly different devices?

Basically. Second gen, but it’s just a first gen with a bigger display. Same processor, same RAM, maybe storage is a little slower compared to the first gen. And surprisingly, everything works!

Is there a guide on how to do those things? I have saved your post to do some googling later, but a guide would be perfect.

The redmi 5 is too close to size to the 5 plus. Thankfully they made it smaller with the 6.

If you change your phone every couple years? Nothing too practical. The sense of having these overpowered specs is that they are future proof. Think about it. If performance and battery life are *good enough* when you have just bought it, they will be trash in a few years. Ask me how I know, I learnt this the hard way. If they are way more than what you need now, chances are they’re still going to be more than adequate in 2-3 years time.

There are exceptions of course. If you use Snapchat and Instagram stories quite heavily, or use Google Maps quite a lot (for some reasons that App is heavy), or if you use Facebook and Messenger, an 845 will have an easier time driving that. Especially when it comes to using Snapchat lenses – that’s computer vision stuff that puts a lot of strain on the processor. But if you’re not that kind of user, a 660 will be more than enough for you. But we should forget the processor for a second: it’s great, but the real deals here are the UFS 2.1 storage (ever changed from HDD to SSD? The difference isn’t so drastic here, but it should have given you a good idea how important I/O performance is, even more important than CPU performance) and the 4000mAh battery (that to be fair the Redmi has too).

If you are the kind of person that buys a phone and only changes it when it’s absolutely necessary and it dies (after about 4 years)? You’re going to have a better time after the second year has passed. New apps and android versions will still be handled decently, and even after the fourth year of life on the performance side of things the phone will actually be useful and it will at least keep up with €200 budget phones marketed by then. But you change your phone every like 4 years anyway, so you effectively ended up saving a nice €100.

If you buy somthing with a 636/660, it will definitely start to show its age sooner, as you update your Android version either officially or unofficially, as apps get heavier, as content piles up on your device. If you swap phones frequently and get tired quickly, it would be a waste of money to buy this phone. If you don’t like how it looks, it would also be a waste of time. Maybe it would work super quickly, but if you don’t like how it looks, your experience will suffer from that. But this is subjective.

So to be fair, if you’re the kind of person that swaps their phone quite often (2-3 years), a Redmi would be a better fit for you. You spend a lot less, and you still get a balanced device with tech specs that will be just OK for the next 2-3 years, and you will have some cash left over by not buying the Poco to get another phone in 2 years. If you’re the kind of person that keeps their phones until they die… Do yourself a favour and get a Pocophone, it just makes more sense to fork out the extra if you’re that kind of user. Your phone is something you use for hours everyday and a lag-free experience can influence your quality of life more than you think. Whatever you do, though, avoid Snapdragon 625. Even in 2 years you will start to have a bad time.

And if I have to be super honest? It’s not like there are no alternatives.

* The Nokia 7 plus will give you much better build quality with the classic Nokia durability and a CLEAN version of Android. It’s also the only phone in this price bracket that runs Android Pie. I’m not sure the Poco will even get Pie, and when it will, it will be really late. If you like the polycarbonate back on the Pocophone, the back on this phone has a very similar feel and durability, only slightly more premium.
* The Honor 10 also keeps up with the Poco when on discount (it’s currently 15 euro cheaper on Amazon right now), and it’s the obvious choice if you want to go all-in on design. You still get USB C and headphone jack, though sadly the storage is not expandable, and the software is in need of a major overhaul. It’s also the one that will *feel* the most like a flagship in your hand.
* The upcoming Sony XPeria XA3 is also a step above in many departments. Better design, probably better camera quality, same ports, square corners, no notch.
* Not for everybody but have you considered the used market? An OK-condition 128GB iPhone 7 [can be had for €360](https://www.ebay.it/itm/APPLE-IPHONE-7-128-GB-SILVER-12-MESI-GARANZIA-RICONDIZIONATO-GRADO-AB/153204535701?hash=item23abb3b195:g:egEAAOSwVYtbtN1A), a new boxed one’lus 5t is [under 400](https://www.ebay.it/itm/ONEPLUS-5T-DUAL-SIM-LTE-6GB-64GB-Midnight-Black-Stock-in-EU-Nuovo-con-Scatola/222892607323?hash=item33e56f475b:g:q20AAOSwvshasi7a)
* I haven’t tried it, but if you’re n the US, the Nokia 7.1 does seem like the most sensible option here. Full US LTE bands coverage, great design, clean software, it’s got all the ports.
* Or as I said if you change your phone frequently anyway, you could just get a Redmi Note 5 or Mi A2 and call it a day.

If I wasn’t a geek that needs an unlockable bootloader to extend support past the time when Xiaomi says it’s over, I would honestly get a Nokia 7 plus blindfolded. Disclaimer, I have tried practically all the phones I recommended here barring a couple.

Antutu and bunch of other benchmarks.

If you have a better way to judge the cpu performance, be my guest.

801 nearly runs circles around 625

redmi note 5 global (or pro) is the best bang for your buck hardware-wise which ever have got produced. throw pixel experience at it with custom kernel and you have an continously updated (better than) stock android pie, apply some slight overclocking to close the gap to the Snapdragon 660 (since 636 is the exact same SoC but underclocked) and set the kernel’s cpu governor to ondemand or battersaving and you have got yourself a “Pixel 2 equivalent” for under 150€. purrfect!! 😎👍

I just ordered it, i am angry because it didn’t arrive yet. (Joking of course)

The S5 Fr 2014 has 2gb of RAM and SD801, 1080p AMOLED, which offers SD625 level performance and the phone overall is very usable today. Decent cameras with OIS, okay speed, wireless charging, decent rom scene.

On the other hand, a budget 2014 phone might have 512 Mb RAM and, some 480p screen, potato cameras, that will be wholly unusable today.

That’s the philosophy when buy phone, the need to last at least 4 years and be viable in the 4th year. So I always buy flagships with features for this reason.

It will, but samsung has that touch to transfer thing that needs to be coded. And all other Samsung specific thing that uses NFC.

It’s cheap, but not as cheap as it could be.

Redmi Note 5 Pro says hi. Lol

Only to fanboys

Nokia 7 plus has a 660 SoC. Performance is underwhelming for the type of processor, but they’ve been hard at work fixing it and i need to try the phone again on Pie and report back. Performance on the 7.1 seems solid from the start even though it’s only a 636, and since those two processors share a lot of software it’s a sign of good things to come for the Nokia 7 plus.

The real reason why I don’t buy Nokia, though, is that they don’t let you unlock your bootloader. But again, they’re working on this, so I’ll check back later.

Pocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocolocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocolocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopoco

There’s a loco in there, good luck finding it

yeah I’ve heard the same thing, completely depends on the area I think, in the states I’ve heard the same thing, in some major metro areas on either AT&T or TM people get nothing, and/or some have great 3G speeds…. this phone for the price is crazy, I’m getting 10hrs of SOT!

Not comparing to anything, just stating the fact that being a high end chip helps.

r/woosh

You still don’t need it. Do you seriously think you need the best current SoC to be able to run apps (not games) in the next 5+ years? If you do you’re delusional. Phones older than 5 year old today can run every single app ever made without any problem. We’re talking about phones that have less than 10% of the 845’s antutu score.

I’m in BC on Koodo so same network as Telus, looking at buying an F1.

On frequencycheck.com it looks like the F1 doesn’t support HSPA+ on Telus, have you ever lost LTE? What did it fall back to? Any coverage issues?

I have a feeling the Pocophone is the first worthy successor so far. So eh, let’s see.

Thing is, faster cpu isn’t really a better one, it will not last longer. And for gaming, in 5 years we will have 150 dollar phones that are stronger than pocophone.

Samsung S5, is from 2014, it has 2GB ram, it has SD801. And you have Xiaomi at half the price with 3-4gb RAM and SD625 which are on par with S5.

So you are not future proofing. If you want a stronger phone, go for it, but don’t except that your Poco will last longer than any other Xiaomi phone.

And Android updates, security updates will most probably stop as soon as Poco F2 (or whatever the name) is released.

Agreed, I do have Mi 5 as well, bought it at launch and this phone is still rocking. Only battery is dying, it won’t last full day now really. Ah and I got a bizarre red spot on the screen, it showed up recently. It triggers me a bit but i got used to it.

To sum it up, Mi 5 is a very good phone till this day, the problem is only with battery.

Op please buy a poco you won’t ragret it…. Poco put your worry away… On a serious note I’ll recommended it for anyone who want raw powaa…. With cheap price and won’t care bout glass back / metal design beside no matter what phone brand you used you gonna buy a casing for it anyway…if you aren’t I salute you… You sir are a super rare breed… Tldr buy pocophone

Where did you order it?

> remove NFC

please don’t

Pocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopoco**~~loco~~**pocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopoco**~~loco~~**pocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopocopoco

There’s a loco in there, good luck finding it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LineageOS

Aftermarket system (ROM) that looks more like stock Android but with some additional features/tweaks. Gets rid of the Chinese MIUI software that is notoriously aggressive at killing background apps, having horrible notification handling and now even shows ads inside the system settings. It’s pretty well known that Xiaomi sells their phones so cheaply because they make their money off your information rather than the hardware.

It takes some research to unlock the bootloader, install TWRP custom recovery and flash the new ROM, but once you’ve done it a few times, it’s a piece of cake. Plenty of how-to’s and guides out there.

Like the Poco itself, it’s not for everybody.

It will push the first poco in the poco pipeline, thus allowing you to receive it faster.