Poco F8 Ultra Review: They Put a Subwoofer in a Flagship Phone, and Somehow That’s Not Even the Wildest Part

In Xiaomi land, Poco and Redmi generally focus on making excellent mid-range and budget phones, while parent company Xiaomi focuses on making great flagships. This is the way. But every now and then, Poco and Redmi crank things up a notch and release a genuine flagship. Behold the Poco F8 Ultra, an affordable flagship with a metal frame, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, triple 50MP rear shooter, a 6,500mAh silicon-carbon battery, and 50W wireless charging. Oh, and did I mention it comes with a Bose-branded subwoofer? Madness!

So what’s this phone like? Did Poco cut any corners? Is this a proper flagship? Here’s my review.

Poco F8 Ultra back

Poco F8 Ultra: Hardware and Design

Let’s cut to the chase here: subwoofer aside, the Poco F8 Ultra looks like any generic Chinese handset. And that’s perfectly fine. It combines the iPhone aesthetic (flat screen, slab sides, and rounded corners) with Xiaomi’s familiar “quad-lens” camera pod. There’s a 6.9-inch AMOLED display in front, with a center punch-hole for the 32MP selfie camera. Around the back, you’ll find a trio of 50MP shooters (main, ultrawide, and 5x telephoto), plus a color spectrum sensor, LED flash, and the aforementioned one-inch diameter Bose-branded subwoofer.

Poco F8 Ultra front

The power/lock key and volume rocker live on the right side, and you’ll find a speaker on top. At the bottom, the USB Type-C port is flanked by the other speaker on one side, and the dual nano-SIM tray and primary mic on the other side. There’s nothing but antenna bands on the left side. Overall, the F8 Ultra looks and feels premium. It’s made of glass (front), aluminum (frame), and plastic (back), and rated IP68 for dust and water ingress. This is a solid handset that, besides the standard Black and White colorways, is also available in Denim Blue.

This striking finish looks and feels exactly like – you guessed it – blue jeans. My review unit came in good ol’ black, which is nice enough, but not nearly as exciting.

Poco F8 Ultra: Display

That 6.9-inch AMOLED screen is beautiful. It’s a 1.5k (2608×1200 pixels) 120Hz LTPS panel with and HDR10+ and Dolby Vision support, 2,560Hz PWM dimming, and 3,500 nits peak brightness. Colors pop, blacks are infinite, and the viewing angles are excellent. In other words, I have zero complaints with this display.

Poco F8 Ultra display

Poco F8 Ultra: Cameras

When it comes to the rear shooters, you’re getting a 50MP f/1.7 (1/1.31-inch, 23mm) main camera with dual-pixel PDAF and OIS, a 50MP f/3.0 (1/2.76-inch, 115mm) 5x periscope telephoto with PDAF and OIS, and a 50MP f/2.4 (1/2.88-inch, 18mm) ultrawide. That 102-degree field of view is a little narrow for an ultrawide, but otherwise, these shooters take excellent pictures, with plenty of detail, accurate colors, proper exposure, and solid low-light performance. Dynamic range is decent, though night mode often produces images with blown-out highlights.

Poco F8 Ultra telephoto (~30x)

This can be easily remedied by switching off night mode, but I’d like to see Poco fine-tune the cameras and fix this. Video recording tops off at 8k 30fps on the main camera and 4K 60fps on the telephoto and ultrawide, with up to 1080p 960fps / 720p 1920fps slow motion. The usual camera modes are present, including night portrait, pro, high-res, macro, panorama, slow-motion, time-lapse, etc. If selfies are your thing, you’ll enjoy that 32MP f/2.2 (1/3.44-inch, 21mm) front-facing shooter, which captures lovely photos and video at up to 4k 30fps.

Poco F8 Ultra: Reception and Sound Quality

Call and reception quality were perfectly fine on T-Mobile, AT&T, and Telus’ sub-6GHz 5G networks in San Francisco and Vancouver, Canada. While this handset supports eSIMs, it lacks mmWave 5G (not that this really matters). The F8 Ultra’s trick 2.1 sound system (stereo speakers plus subwoofer) tuned by Bose sounds truly impressive considering the limited internal space available. It’s definitely the best-sounding audio setup I’ve ever heard on a phone: loud, clear, and with a decent amount of actual bass.

Poco F8 Ultra subwoofer and cameras

Poco F8 Ultra: Performance and Battery Life

Under the hood, the F8 Ultra features Qualcomm’s flagship 3nm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip and a choice of 12 or 16GB of RAM and 256 or 512GB of fast UFS 4.1 storage. I’m reviewing the 16/512GB model, and performance is pleasantly quick. Whether I’m running my usual collection of communication, social media, productivity, and entertainment apps, or playing graphically demanding games like Bright Memory: Infinite and GRID Autosport, this phone just doesn’t skip a beat. Basically, there are simply no compromises here.

Poco F8 Ultra buttons

I’ve also been quite impressed with battery life, with the Poco F8 Ultra easily lasting two days of normal use on a full charge. That’s really no surprise, considering it packs a generous 6,500mAh silicon-carbon battery. So, if stamina’s what you’re looking for, this phone’s got you covered. And when it’s time for a refill, you get 100W wired and 50W wireless (Qi-compatible) fast charging, plus 22.5W reverse wireless charging. You’ll need a Xiaomi or PPS 100W wired fast charger or a Xiaomi 50W wireless fast charger to achieve those charging speeds, though, because there’s no charger included in the box.

When it comes to connectivity, the F8 Ultra includes sub-6GHz 5G, LTE, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, NFC, and A-GPS / BeiDou / Galileo / QZSS / NavIC / GLONASS positioning. The under-display ultrasonic fingerprint sensor is fast and reliable, and so is face unlock. Haptics, which use a high-quality linear vibration motor, are great too.

Poco F8 Ultra: Software

On the software front, the Poco F8 Ultra is running Xiaomi’s HyperOS 3.0.8 on top of Android 16. HyperOS is pretty responsive and reasonably intuitive overall, but it’s a little too heavily customized for my tastes. There are much better Android skins coming out of China, like OPPO’s Color OS, for example. My biggest gripe with HyperOS is that it splits notifications (swipe down from top left) and quick settings (swipe down from top right), but lacks an option to restore the classic Android behavior, which combines quick settings and notifications.

Poco F8 Ultra app tray

Obviously, HyperOS mimics iOS’ notification and quick settings (Control Center) behavior, but is it really necessary for Xiaomi to lock users into an Apple-like user experience? Choice matters, especially for something this important. Bloatware is another issue with the F8 Ultra. My review unit came riddled with pre-installed third-party apps, like AliExpress, Amazon Music, LinkedIn, Netflix, and TikTok. On the plus side, Poco is promising four years of OS upgrades and six years of Security updates, which aren’t industry-leading but are reasonable.

Poco F8 Ultra: Verdict

Ultimately, software nitpicks aside, the Poco F8 Ultra delivers superb, flagship-grade hardware at an affordable price point – starting at approximately $729 for the 16GB/256GB model and $799 for the 16GB/512GB version. That’s really quite impressive considering the phone’s high-end specs, rich features, and premium design. So, is the F8 Ultra worth buying? It’s definitely worth considering if you want a well-rounded, affordable flagship, and especially if you live outside of North America. Poco clearly makes great hardware; it just needs to stop chasing Apple and offer more flexible software.

The Poco F8 Ultra starts at approx. ~$729; it is available in the US for $839 from Amazon.

Source: Manufacturer-supplied review sample

What I like: Premium design; Beautiful display; Excellent cameras, and the telephoto is pretty impressive as well; Impressive speakers; Solid performance and battery life; Fast wired and wireless charging

What needs improvement: Missing some US bands; No charger in the box; Software is heavily customized