POCO has upgraded another line of bang-for-the-buck flagship smartphones, the POCO F9 series. Like the previous generations, it is led by the POCO F9 Ultra, currently the best smartphone POCO ever made.
Since its inception, the POCO F series has become known for offering a killer set of hardware at an incredibly competitive price. But with the F9 Ultra now carrying a starting SRP of Php55,999 (Php45,999 introductory offer), is that still the case?
Packing a powerful processor, a big battery, ultra-fast charging, pixel-dense cameras, a 2.1-channel speaker, and more, we’ll find out if the POCO F9 Ultra has what it takes to keep its title as the king of flagship-killers despite its massive price hike.
POCO F9 Ultra Specs
- Android 16, HyperOS 3
- Dual SIM, Dual Standby, eSIM support
- 6.9-inch FHD+ AMOLED display, 2608 x 1200 pixel resolution, ~416ppi
- 185Hz adaptive refresh rate, 480Hz touch sampling, 4800Hz instant touch sampling
- 2200-nit High Brightness Mode, 4500-nit HDR
- 10-bit color, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, Corning Gorilla Glass 7i
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 octa-core processor
- VisionBoost D8 display chipset
- Adreno 840 GPU
- 12GB/16GB RAM
- 256GB/512GB/1TB internal storage, non-expandable
- 32-megapixel front camera
- 200-megapixel (f/1.7, PDAF, OIS) + 50-megapixel (5x periscope, f/3.05, PDAF, OIS) + 50-megapixel (ultra-wide) rear cameras, LED flash
- 2.1-channel Bose speakers, Dolby Atmos
- IP68/IP69 dust and water resistant
- Ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, Face unlock
- HSPA+, 4G LTE, 5G
- WiFi 7, WiFi hotspot
- Bluetooth 6.0
- Dual-band GPS, GLONASS, QZSS, NavIC, BDS
- NFC, IR blaster
- Dimensions: 157.5 x 75.3 x 8.6mm
- Weight: 218g
- Colors: Dark Cherry, Black
- 8,050mAh battery, 100W, 50W wireless, 27W reverse wired, 22.5W reverse wireless charging
Design and Build Quality
The POCO F9 Ultra’s design looks almost identical to the POCO F8 Ultra. We still have a wide, iPhone 17 Pro-like camera island on the back, housing four lenses in a 4×4 layout.
One key difference is that the lenses now sit flush and completely flat against the camera island.
It weighs relatively the same at 218g, which does feel quite heavy. But its dimensions have been reduced for improved portability. It’s now shorter at 157.5mm (from 163.33mm) and narrower at 75.3mm (from 77.82mm).
The F9 Ultra still has a flat, metallic frame that feels ergonomic to hold and comparable to those on other premium, more expensive phones we’ve used.
It has a matte rear panel that resists fingerprint marks and smudges. There are two colors available. Ours is the Dark Cherry, which has a distinct but unassuming look. A more subtle Black colorway is also available.
The frame feels solid and well-made, and should easily last for years. The device is also IP68-rated for dust and water resistance, while the front is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 7i.
It comes with a hard plastic clear case that does a good job of protecting the screen and rear cameras. Xiaomi also pre-applied a screen protector for extra protection.
Overall, we give the design and build quality a good score. It looks clean and unique while feeling durable.
Taking a tour, we have a 6.9-inch flat AMOLED screen on the front with a punch-hole for the 32-megapixel selfie camera. The bezels are also very thin, measuring just 1.5mm on the top and sides and 1.68mm at the bottom.
The left side is empty, while the right houses the flat volume controls and lock/power switch. The physical buttons are tactile and clicky.
On top, we only have the speaker grills.
The bottom houses the SIM tray for two nano SIMs placed back-to-back. It’s next to the microphone, USB-C port, and main loudspeaker. There are also two antenna strips on each of the four sides of the device.
On the back, we have the 200-megapixel main camera next to the 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera, which appears to have a second microphone inside its bezel. Below them are the 50-megapixel periscope and another lens for the LED flash, with two other light sensors within its bezels.
There’s also a Dynamic Light that accentuates the Bose woofer. It only has a single color: White on our Dark Cherry model and Orange on the Black.
Display and Audio
The POCO F9 Ultra has a large 6.9-inch 1.5K AMOLED display with a 2608 x 1200 pixel resolution, ~416ppi, 19.56 x 9 aspect ratio, up to 185Hz refresh rate, 480Hz touch sampling rate, up to 4800Hz instant touch sampling, DC dimming, 2200-nit high brightness mode, and up to 10,000-nits in select scenarios.
It also boasts 10-bit + 2-bit color and support for Dolby Vision and HDR10+. Xiaomi added an adaptive color temperature that automatically adjusts based on your surroundings, along with an advanced eye-care system and TUV Rheinland certification.
If you want to use the dedicated VisionBoost D8 chip to enhance frames and HDR in videos, you have to enable it in the settings.
The display is as great as you’d expect. It’s contrasty and colorful for streaming shows, while emitting more than enough brightness for outdoor use.
Then there’s the 2.1-channel speaker. Apart from the standard 1115D symmetrical drivers at the top and bottom, there’s a dedicated 1620 subwoofer on the back, supposedly made in partnership with Bose.
This makes for an incredible audio experience. The stereo separation is audible, the volume is loud, and the treble is crisp and clear. Thanks to the dedicated subwoofer, the bass is present and thumping, resulting in a full, beefy sound. It makes watching videos and listening to music a really enjoyable experience.
Hardware and Performance
The POCO F9 Ultra is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor — easily one of the most powerful mobile chipsets on the market today. It’s paired with an Adreno 840 GPU, with our review unit sporting 16GB of RAM LPDDR5X and 512GB of UFS internal storage. It is cooled by POCO’s 3D IceLoop cooling system.
POCO F9 Ultra Benchmark Scores
Day-to-day performance is among the fastest and smoothest you can experience on a modern smartphone. That’s the benefit of having the best mobile chipset Qualcomm currently makes.
However, our 3DMark stress test reveals that it does run hot under heavy and extended load. It did get a little warm when we were gaming, but it wasn’t hot enough to cause alarm or us noticing throttling issues.
That said, the POCO F9 Ultra also handles gaming really well. Genshin Impact was very smooth under High preset with 60 frames.
PUBG Mobile had no problems under Ultra HDR graphics with Ultra frames. Call of Duty Mobile ran under Very High graphics at a whopping 144Hz frames, while Farlight84 ran at HD graphics with 120 frames.
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang was incredible under the highest available settings, as was Asphalt Legends Unite.
It goes without saying that we’re very satisfied with the performance of the POCO F9 Ultra. Thermal management was also handled very well.
| Game | Graphics Settings |
| Genshin Impact | • Render Resolution: High • Visual Effects: High • SFX Quality: High • Frame Rate: 60 |
| PUBG Mobile | • Graphics Quality: Ultra HDR • Frame Rate: Ultra |
| Call of Duty: Mobile | • Graphics Quality: Very High • Frame Rate: 144Hz |
| Farlight84 | • Graphics Quality: HD • Frame Rate: 120 |
| Mobile Legends: Bang Bang | • Resolution: HD • Map Quality: Ultra • Frame Rate: Ultra (165fps) |
| Asphalt Legends Unite | • Visual Quality: High Quality • Frame Rate: 120 |
Software and User Interface
The POCO F9 Ultra ships with Android 16-based HyperOS 3.1. It will receive 4 years of software updates and security patches.
It has a clean and straightforward interface. The control center is neat, while the app drawer is well organized. Swiping up to open the app drawer first shows app suggestions and even chat groups the software thinks you’d want to access quickly.
Of course, there are a bunch of AI features here. The AI Writing assistant is easily accessible in any text field, allowing you to quickly write something like a social media caption.
AI Speech Recognition is also here, as well as AI Translate Conversation for face-to-face interactions, AI Interpreter for calls, AI Search, and AI Subtitles.
Many AI features can be found in the Gallery. There’s AI Expand, AI Eraser, Sky correction, AI Bokeh, and AI Cutout.
There’s also a Game Turbo window that you can access while inside any game. It lets you switch between performance modes, including Wild Boost. You can also toggle the voice changer, screen recording, gyro boost, and more.
You can configure the LED light on the back in the settings. It only lights up and dances to music or audio playing on your chosen apps. You can adjust the brightness, but not the color.
There’s also a built-in heart-rate scanner that uses the LED flash and rear camera.
The ultrasonic fingerprint scanner worked quickly and accurately, as did the facial recognition.
Cameras
The POCO F9 Ultra features a 200-megapixel ISOCELL HP5 1/1.56-inch sensor with a bright f/1.7 aperture and optical image stabilization (OIS). It’s joined by a 50-megapixel ISOCELL JN5 1/2.75-inch sensor with a 5x periscope zoom, a 50-megapixel ultra-wide lens, and a 32-megapixel selfie-snapper.
It also has a dedicated Pro mode, full 200MP mode, Portrait Mode, Document Scanner, Live Cinematography with filters, dual-video, long exposure, and Panorama.
The camera shoots at 12.5 megapixels by default using pixel-binning. Beautify is available on all cameras if you’re into that.
For video recording, it can shoot up to 8K@30fps. It also has a ShootSteady function, Teleprompter mode, Night Mode, HEVC (Efficiency) and H.264 formats, motion tracking focus, HDR10+, and auto frame rate.
It also has extensive audio recording options for videos. There’s Smart Noise Reduction, 3D sound, Live in-ear monitor for wired earphones, and Source tracking. You can also record slow-mo at 720p/1080p at 120fps/240fps/480fps/960fps/1920fps.
You even get professional tools like Focus Peaking and Exposure verification.
Daylight shots from the 200-megapixel main camera look pleasant, but they’re far from the best we’ve seen. They have the level of detail you’d expect from a sharp sensor, along with good contrast.
Colors are decent, although vibrant tones tend to look exaggerated while others appear pale. We also noticed a slight yellowish tone in almost all photos, which could be due to inconsistent white balance.
Low-light shots held up very well, with nice exposure, surprisingly better colors, and impressively sharp details.
The sharp sensor of the main camera also enables lossless 2x zoom, which works well for portraits. Details hold up very well despite the digital zoom, while low-light performance continues to impress.
We then have the 50-megapixel periscope zoom, which has a native focal length of 120mm. However, the device would usually decide to shoot at 120mm using the main camera, especially in challenging shooting scenarios.
When it does use the actual telephoto sensor, you get photos with plenty of detail, great dynamic range, and nice colors, although the white balance could be better.
The 50-megapixel ultra-wide is not great, but usable. Details are decent, colors are consistent with the other cameras, and the barrel distortion is forgivable.
Even with Beautify disabled, selfies from the 32-megapixel front-facing camera appear soft. It also struggles noticeably in low light, while skin tones are pretty inconsistent.
While we appreciate Xiaomi going the extra mile with the camera hardware on this gaming phone, photography is clearly not its strongest suit. It’s usable, but far from being the best we’ve seen.
Battery and Charging
A highlight of the POCO F9 Ultra is its large 8,050mAh battery, with 16% silicon-carbon content and 809WH/L density. That’s paired with ultra-fast 100W wired charging, fast 50W wireless charging, and even 27W reverse wired and 22.5W reverse wireless charging.
The battery didn’t top its category in our tests, despite having one of the biggest batteries. Still, we got impressive battery scores, especially for a powerful flagship smartphone.
It lasted for 22 hours and 51 minutes in PCMark’s Battery Test. In our 1080p YouTube Video Loop Test, it lasted for 20 hours and 18 minutes before dropping to 0% from a 100% charge.
Sadly, our review unit lacks a charging adapter, but official retail units may come with one. We’ll update this article once we get confirmation about it.
Wired charging speeds were impressive, too, especially for a battery this large. A full charge took just about an hour. See the full test below:
- 15mins: 0-32%
- 30mins: 56%
- 45mins: 79%
- 1hr: 100%
Verdict
The POCO F9 Ultra is a flagship that doesn’t feel like it made many compromises to hit its price point. From its powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor and gorgeous 6.9-inch AMOLED display to its massive 8,050mAh battery, 100W wired charging, and impressive 2.1-channel speakers, there’s a lot to like here.
Performance is easily one of its biggest strengths. The F9 Ultra handles demanding games with ease, while its thermal management keeps things under control. The display and audio experience also make it an excellent device for gaming and media consumption.
The cameras, however, are where the F9 Ultra falls a bit short. The 200-megapixel main camera is capable of taking good photos, particularly in low-light, but inconsistent colors and white balance, along with underwhelming ultra-wide and selfie cameras, prevent it from competing with the best camera phones in its class.
Still, the F9 Ultra delivers where it matters most. It’s fast, feature-packed, durable, and has the kind of hardware that would normally cost significantly more. If you’re looking for a performance-focused flagship that offers tremendous value, the POCO F9 Ultra is an easy recommendation.
The POCO F9 Ultra proves that you don’t have to spend flagship money to get a flagship experience.
POCO F9 Ultra pricing and availability
The POCO F9 Ultra is available in 12GB/256GB, 16GB/512GB, and 16GB/1TB in the Philippines. They have an SRP of Php55,999, Php59,999, and Php89,999, respectively. It is available for pre-order until September 16 and is available in tons of online stores and retailers.
Pros
- Excellent overall performance
- Gorgeous, ultra-fast display
- Impressive 2.1-channel speaker system with dedicated subwoofer
- Massive 8,050mAh battery
- Fast 100W wired and 50W wireless charging
- Solid, premium-feeling build
- Plenty of useful AI and gaming features
Cons
- Massive price hike
- Camera processing could be better
- Underwhelming ultra-wide and selfie cameras
- LED Dynamic Light has limited customization