POCO F8 Ultra Review Roundup: Budget Flagship or Just Loud Speakers?

Transcript

0:00 Speaker A: Are these Pocophones true flagships? Speaker B: Poco has proper gone to town upgrading that camera tech, massively boosting the battery. Speaker C: Capacity at 680 bucks. Speaker C: This is a true flagship killer. Speaker D: Welcome back to Real Review, where we watch all the reviews so you don't have to. Speaker D: Today we're diving into Poco F8 Ultra. Speaker D: Poco is no longer just undercutting flagships in price, but going head to head with phones costing twice as much. Speaker D: Let's start with what hits you with the moment you pick it up.

0:26 Speaker B: Poco has decided to completely flip the table and and go a bit mental. Speaker B: Slathering that arse in denim. Speaker B: It's certainly a vibe. Speaker B: I can't think of a single other smartphone manufacturer in my 15 years of covering the buggers that's done denim. Speaker E: The blue denim variant is undoubtedly the star of the entire lineup. Speaker E: I'm not even the biggest fan of the color blue personally, but I do like denim and it provides the phone with a very pleasant feel and plenty.

0:52 Speaker A: Of grip when holding it in my hand. Speaker A: The rounded corners make it very comfortable and, and the denim like texture on the back is really grippy, but unlike real denim, this is still water resistant. Speaker A: You can see the water just rolls right off. Speaker D: That unique texture won over most reviewers, but not everyone's a fan of the size. Speaker F: That's the only gripe I have with this off the bat. Speaker F: It's just too big. Speaker F: I personally don't like this is just. Speaker F: Just holding it whilst doing this talking head is like, bruh, I've got small.

1:19 Speaker G: Hands and it kind of feels like waterproof denim, if that makes sense. Speaker G: It's made from nanotech material and it feels nice. Speaker G: I mean it looks cool, especially with that dual tone finish thanks to that metal camera bump. Speaker G: I'm just not sure how I feel about it. Speaker C: Sound by Bose now this phone has three speakers, standard dual speakers and a built in subwoofer. Speaker C: This is crazy.

1:44 Speaker H: These are quite possibly the best speakers I've ever heard on any phone. Speaker H: And that's because on the back you'll find this, which is an actual subwoofer. Speaker H: So. Speaker H: So to get the most out of it, you just go into settings and make sure this is set to dynamic. Speaker A: It's definitely not just for show. Speaker A: It's the bass driver and if you play some music, you can literally feel it pumping out the bass. Speaker A: This is Poco's first 2.1 channel architecture system with a subwoofer. Speaker A: The SE Ultra definitely gives more bass than the typical phone.

2:11 Speaker D: That subwoofer isn't just for marketing. Speaker D: Reviewers consistently call it a game changer for media consumption. Speaker E: One of the loudest and best sounding speaker sets I've probably ever used on a smartphone. Speaker E: The result is basically a 2.1 sound experience on a smartphone with noticeable low frequency response that I always find lacking in almost any other device, not just smartphones. Speaker F: The sound is insane. Speaker F: I never really use the speakers but on this guy I kind of want to.

2:36 Speaker F: It kind of feels like a cheap Bluetooth speaker in the car. Speaker F: When I didn't have Bluetooth connected I had the podcast playing and I didn't connect the Bluetooth because I'm like this sounds fine. Speaker I: Ultra probably has some of the best speakers I've heard in a phone recently. Speaker I: It does sound way richer and better than most phones and it big difference between, as you would have heard, the Pro model right here. Speaker I: So if you love blasting out your music and you love to have good loudspeakers in a phone, this is the.

3:01 Speaker F: Model to go for. Speaker A: Both of these phones use a unique display tech called Poco Hyper RGB which combines the best parts of OLED and lcd. Speaker A: The display is self emitting so you get the perfect deep blacks, but the RGB emitters are lined up into little squares with a full RGB sub pixel structure just like on an lcd. Speaker A: As a result, the text has cleaner edges and looks noticeably sharper. Speaker E: Pogo's first so called Hyper RGB display which is a great AMOLED viewing experience that can top out at 3500nits peak brightness and 120Hz refresh rate.

3:32 Speaker D: That brightness figure puts it among the brightest phones display on the market, crucial for outdoor visibility. Speaker G: Their brightness can drop down to as low as 1nits and their peak brightness levels have increased to 3500nits which now covers a larger display area. Speaker A: The color rendering on these screens is also great. Speaker A: Here you can see the F8 Ultra side by side with the S25 Ultra and the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Speaker A: Beyond that, both the F8 Ultra and Pro have very high quality screens.

3:58 Speaker A: At 1.5K and 120Hz. Speaker H: It can go from 0 to 100% in just 38 minutes, which is nuts considering it takes the S25 Ultra over an hour. Speaker H: Plus it's got a pretty big 6500mAh battery so this puppy should last you about two days. Speaker F: No problem using the phone as a B cam, shooting on 4K, 60 log, using the phone for maps and Uber to move around.

4:24 Speaker F: The battery life had never gone below 40% by end of the day I had no wi fi on this whole Uganda trip. Speaker F: It was all on cellular and when. Speaker D: You do need to charge the 100 watt brick makes quick work of it. Speaker F: 24 Minutes and we're at 79%, 80% pretty much. Speaker F: That's what I'm talking about mate. Speaker F: That's what I'm talking about. Speaker F: Now I'm just gonna pull it out. Speaker F: It just hit 80% just then, so I'm gonna run around with 80% now.

4:51 Speaker E: I was just impressed to wake up and see that there was still at least 25% battery life left. Speaker E: I felt good knowing that once I do that with the either 100 watt wired or 50 watt wireless charging, way more than just one day of usage could be possible. Speaker G: They also both have 100 watt wired charging, which is extremely fast, but only the Ultra benefits from wireless charging and it sits at 50 watts. Speaker A: On AnTuTu. Speaker A: It scored over 3.8 million, which is 28% faster than the S25 Ultra.

5:19 Speaker A: This is running in its performance power mode though. Speaker A: Nevertheless, the new processor is very impressive and it's going to be great for gaming. Speaker E: I've been using the Poco F8 Ultra quite a bit over the last week or so, mainly putting the processing package through a lot of tests to see if some of my current Steam gaming obsessions would actually run on it, but I've been able to enjoy current indie titles like Dave The Diver Dispatch, Hades 1 while revisiting more robust classics like Metal Gear Solid 5.

5:44 Speaker E: It just blows my mind that this experience is something I can do at. Speaker D: All, but raw power is only half the story. Speaker D: Sustained performance matters for serious gamers. Speaker J: Play a lot of Honor of Kings Mobile Legends and a bit of COD Mobile on this device here. Speaker J: It's just ever bit so smooth and it's also more stable. Speaker J: By stable I mean we have a more consistent frame rate and that's the kind of performance you can expect from the Poco F8 Ultra. Speaker G: The Pro actually performed a tad better when playing Genshin Impact on maxed out settings, but it was the opposite when playing withering waves on max settings.

6:15 Speaker G: The new Snapdragon chip inside the Ultra is a little bit more stable in terms of FPS, and it's more consistent when playing for a longer period. Speaker B: Xiaomi has gone and reused the 50 meg light fusion 950 sensor, which it also slapped inside of the Xiaomi 17 flagship. Speaker B: This is a sizable one 1.31-inch sensor, so nice and big to suck up lots of light. Speaker B: The Poco F8 Ultra was born to shoot low light still with true to life colors and practically bugger all noise to speak of.

6:47 Speaker A: The S8 Ultra also has Poco's first periscope telephoto lens. Speaker A: Just like the S25 Ultra, it has 5x optical zoom since it's high resolution. Speaker A: Even at 10x it still looks pretty good. Speaker A: Here's a night portrait taken with both of them and I think the Poco actually looks better here. Speaker A: The portrait mode works well too. Speaker A: It looks natural and the mask seems very clean, even around my hair. Speaker D: Low light and portraits impressed reviewers, but faster moving subjects. Speaker D: That's where opinions diverged.

7:13 Speaker B: The camera tech's pretty good as well, but not as good as many other flagships. Speaker B: Sadly excellent at night. Speaker B: But if you are trying to shoot family pics, kids, pets, that sort of thing, expect a lot of blurry results. Speaker F: And the camera hardware is fine, but it just they just purposely limited the software. Speaker F: This gets very close to the Xiaomi photos, but it's not quite the same and I guess they need to differentiate the Xiaomi somehow, but to know that they could do better, but they don't because you know business, that's a bit annoying.

7:42 Speaker A: These phones run the Xiaomi HyperOS 3 and it's really refined. Speaker A: The animations have great attention to detail behind them, like look at the control center opening, it comes in so smoothly and the Bluetooth toggle even plays a little animation each time. Speaker A: There's also this thing which they're calling the hyperisland. Speaker A: Of course it reminded me of the Dynamic island on iPhones. Speaker A: However, I have to say Poco's Hyper island is very well implemented with these satisfying animations.

8:07 Speaker E: Xiaomi's HyperOS tries in multiple ways to enhance that experience via system optimizations in the background and more forward facing features like AI generated wallpapers, writing transcriptions and translations. Speaker E: All the AI stuff that you'd expect to hear about in releases like this. Speaker D: The AI suite includes Google's Circle to Search and Gemini's integration, but not everyone was sold on the iOS inspired direction,. Speaker G: But there's now Hyper island wrapping around their selfie cameras, hyperconnect for seamless interconnection and Hyper AI, which offers a fleet of AI features including Google goodies like Discover, Circle to search and Gemini.

8:41 Speaker B: HyperOS 3 hasn't really changed up much at all compared with HyperOS 2, except for even more iOS rimmin than usual. Speaker B: Apple tributes include the now obligatory selfie Cam Turd, which pops up at the top of the screen whenever you're streaming music navigating somewhere, etc. Speaker E: HyperOS is perfectly fine as a general UX, although I really wish that Xiaomi and Poco that Hyperos would just let us use full screen gestures and third party launchers together for once.

9:11 Speaker D: So here's where we land. Speaker D: The F8 Ultra isn't trying to be the cheapest phone anymore, it's trying to be the best value. Speaker D: For most reviewers, the speaker system alone justifies the upgrade over the Pro. Speaker D: The battery outlasts flagships costing 300 and more, the display is flagship grade, the camera good enough for most situations, but moving subjects remain a weakness. Speaker D: If you're a media consumer who watches videos, plays games and wants speakers that can replicate the Bluetooth speaker in a pinch, the Ultra is almost certainly worth the extra spend over the Pro.

9:39 Speaker D: If you need top tier photography, especially of kids and pets, you might want to look elsewhere. Speaker C: Between the Poco F8 Pro and the Ultra, bro, you see speakers by Bose, yeah, spend that extra couple of bucks bro, you're going to get wireless charge, you're going to get a bigger battery, you're going to get the denim back, bro. Speaker C: Trust me. Speaker F: Can a budget phone actually impress me on the field when I travel? Speaker F: When I go to film documentaries and things like that? Speaker F: And yes it can.

10:05 Speaker F: It can keep up. Speaker F: Now, it's not the best in any category outside of the chipset, but it does have the best speakers by a long shot. Speaker E: For the package that you get here, Poco is indeed managing to stay stick to their motto of everything you need, nothing you don't. Speaker E: And the result now is a phone that hits all the right marks and is definitely worth your consideration. Speaker D: Thanks very much for watching this ultimate roundup review of the Poco F8 Ultra.

10:31 Speaker D: Please find links for full videos down below and come back for more re reviews where we watch old reviews so you don't have to.