Xiaomi spin-off Poco returns with the 120Hz X2 for $225

From The Verge: Xiaomi spin-off brand Poco has launched its second phone, the Poco X2. It’s another attempt from the company to produce a high-performance, low-cost phone for the extremely competitive Indian market.

Back in the summer of 2018, Xiaomi launched a new brand called Poco with the aim of providing flagship-level specs at the lowest possible price. The India-first Poco F1 wasn’t the prettiest phone in the world, but it turned heads by including a Snapdragon 845 for under $300 — then the brand largely went dark. Poco now markets its phones independently from Xiaomi, and the X2 is the first product since that operational change.

That said, it’s basically identical to a Xiaomi phone that was recently announced for China, the Redmi K30. Which makes sense — the excellent Redmi K20 Pro (or Mi 9T Pro in Europe) was widely viewed as a spiritual successor to the Poco F1, even though its somewhat higher price disappointed some Indian consumers. The K30 and the X2, though, don’t have bleeding-edge specs across the board.

The X2 has a Snapdragon 730G processor, a 6.67-inch 20:9 1080p LCD screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, and a 4,500mAh battery with 27W fast charging. The phone charges over USB-C, includes a headphone jack, and has a fingerprint sensor integrated into the power button.

It’s the first phone in India to feature Sony’s new 64-megapixel IMX686 sensor, the successor to the 48-megapixel IMX586 that dominated the phone landscape in 2019, and that part is backed by an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera, a 2-megapixel macro module, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. There’s also a 20-megapixel selfie camera with a 2-megapixel depth sensor housed in a hole-punch display cutout.

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