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Earlier this year, I was a bit concerned about the status of the affordable flagship smartphone, especially at the price of less than RM2,000. If even Xiaomi didn’t have a Mi 10 under RM2,000, what hope did we have?
Fortunately, now that we enter the last quarter of the year, we have two incredible devices that seem to fit the bill. It’s the Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro and the Poco F2 Pro. But basically at the same price of RM1,999, which one do you get?
Let’s see if I can help you find out.
At a glance, both phones look very similar and that’s not a bad thing because they both offer incredible value for money. However, they are not identical. In fact, there are a few key specs that could tip one or the other in your favor. Let’s start with acting.
Performance
Both the Mi 10T Pro and Poco F2 Pro are powered by Qualcomm’s flagship processor, the Snapdragon 865. And that’s great. However, the memory configuration here is different. In the Poco F2 Pro, you get 6GB of RAM with 128GB of internal storage, while the Mi 10T Pro gives you 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage.
Of course, there’s also a Poco F2 Pro with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, but that’s a premium RM300. So the memory advantage here definitely belongs to the Mi 10T Pro, especially since none of these support expandable memory.
However, if you ask me about the pure performance, I couldn’t tell a difference in my time with phones. They both worked all very well and I had no problem with lag or anything like that, even when playing games. The heat management here seems adequate too. In an air-conditioned room, both phones got a little warm to the touch after a gaming session, but neither of them suffered from thermal throttling. Genshin Impact here, for example, performed very well even at maximum settings.
So, in addition to storage settings, I would say that in practical situations both devices match evenly, so you won’t go wrong either.
With that said, don’t think these phones will give you an identical experience when you use them. And that’s because of the first big difference between phones:
The screen
When it comes to size, the smartphones have the same 6.67 ”screen with very thin bezels. And I like that, I think it’s big, but not difficult for my hands to handle. But they are very different screens because one is AMOLED, while the other is LCD.
The Poco F2 Pro takes the vibrant and contrasting AMOLED field with a crisp Full HD + panel that looks pretty good. It also has good viewing angles for an AMOLED panel and is HDR10 + compatible.
The high contrast makes it great for videos and movies, and even great for general browsing. You’ll also get the most out of the dark modes, which is great. It’s a really nice screen. But the biggest problem I have is that it only has a 60Hz refresh rate. And the refresh rate is not a problem on the Mi 10T Pro.
You see, the Mi 10T Pro, while it lives on the LCD side of the spectrum, does come with a staggering 144Hz refresh rate. This is faster than almost all but a small handful of high-end devices.
This means that pretty much everything you do on this phone feels smoother. The animations are buttery, swiping is fluid, and when you use it next to the Poco F2 Pro, the F2 Pro’s screen suddenly seems to stutter, when it definitely isn’t.
Xiaomi also developed an AdaptiveSync technology that will help the screen adapt its refresh rate to what is displayed on the screen. This technically improves the viewing experience and also does wonders for battery life when you’re watching movies or shows that are normally displayed at 24 fps.
However, while Xiaomi says that they have gone to great lengths to make sure the screen is very color accurate, I must say that the lack of contrast doesn’t help when it comes to things like movies. Also, the Mi 10T Pro has a bit of hazing around its punch-hole selfie camera that may be distracting for some.
But of course, the display is only part of the equation. You should also consider the speakers.
The speakers
Looking at the spec sheet, it seems that this should be very straightforward. The Poco F2 Pro has a single speaker, while the Mi 10T Pro has stereo speakers. But, listening to them, it gets a bit more complicated.
The Mi 10T Pro has a pretty solid pair of stereo speakers. It’s not as good as the MI 10 Pro or an iPhone 11 Pro Max, but it definitely packs a punch.
It has a nice full sound and a pretty good balance between left and right. This makes it excellent for music and especially for games. However, the right speaker is in a position that your hand can block very easily if you hold it while gaming, so you have to be careful with that. That said, I would have liked a little more in the media. The voices are not as different as I would like and that can make it difficult to hear people speak in videos.
The Poco F2 Pro’s single speaker doesn’t have this problem.
It seems to me that they have tuned it specifically to clarify the voices. It also gets very loud, sometimes even louder than the MI 10T Pro’s stereo speakers. In some cases, this is better because if you’re in the shower and listening to a podcast or show, all you really want to hear is what say the other people.
On top of that, the Poco F2 Pro also comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack, which is a legacy port that many people have missed. The Mi 10T Pro does not have this. So depending on the type of content, the single speaker on the Poco F2 Pro might be better for you. But, I think overall, it would still give the Mi 10T Pro’s stereo setup the upper hand.
Now let’s move on to the final big difference, the cameras
The cameras
On paper, it appears that the Mi 10T Pro and Poco F2 Pro have very different systems. The Poco F2 Pro has a quad camera system with a 64MP main camera. On the other hand, the Mi 10T Pro has a triple camera setup with a 108MP main camera.
But, if you really look at the individual cameras, you will notice that two of the F2 Pro’s cameras are a depth camera and a macro each, while the Mi 10T Pro also has a macro camera.
Of course this may vary for you, but to me the macro and depth cameras are absolutely useless. To me they are only there to make the cameras look good on paper, but for the most part it will only use the main sensor and the 13MP ultra-wide camera on these phones.
And I have to say that despite the different sensors they both produce very similar images in both daylight and low light. Color processing differs a bit between devices, but overall the image quality is good enough. I don’t think it’s at the top of the food chain, but it’s good enough for the price.
However, I would like to point out that there is a big difference between the camera of the Poco F2 Pro and that of the Mi 10T Pro, and it is the selfies. The Mi 10T Pro uses a punch-hole design, which is common in most modern smartphones, while the Poco F2 Pro. Well … it has a pop-up camera with RGB lights.
I guess it’s personal preference, but I definitely prefer the perforated design. Anyway, let’s round out this video with the build and battery.
Construction and battery
Both phones have very similar versions. They have Gorilla Glass 5 on the front and back of the phone, with what feels like a nice sandwiched metal frame.
Sure, the seams could be a bit more flush, but considering the price, I think the build is good enough. The biggest difference here is the fact that the Mi 10T Pro uses a faster and more accurate side-mount fingerprint scanner, while the Poco F2 Pro uses an in-display optical scanner that feels a bit slower and less reliable.
Now I prefer the scanner position of the Poco F2 Pro, but I like the accuracy of the Mi 10T Pro better.
Both phones also have very large batteries. The Mi 10T Pro has the advantage here because it has a 5,000 mAh cell with 33 W fast charging via USB-C, while the Poco F2 Pro only has a 4,700 mAh battery with 30W fast charge support.
With that said, both devices should easily give you at least a full day of battery life if you’re an average or heavy user, so I’m not complaining here. Maybe the only thing I’d like is some wireless charging, but I’m not going to miss out on its exclusion here either.
The verdict
So now that we’ve discussed the differences and similarities, which device should you choose? Well, I think, as a general rule, you won’t go wrong either. But, if you still can’t make up your mind, here is my recommendation.
If you’re really into movies, you’ll probably like the Poco F2 Pro’s high-contrast AMOLED display better. It’s great for general use too, and if you’ve never used a fast refresh rate phone before, you won’t miss out here.
But for me, I would go for the Mi 10T Pro. I like the smoothness of the screen much better, and yes, it is not as good for movies as an AMOLED panel, but it is still a pretty good LCD panel for my eyes. Plus, I also think it’s a bit better value because you get 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and the important thing here is the non-expandable storage.
But that’s what I think. What do you think of these two phones? Which one would you choose? Let me know in the comments below.
Photograph of Zachary Yoong with the Sony A7 III.
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