POCO F2 Pro coming next week, next-gen cooling teased

Xiaomi's newest sub-brand POCO surprised the mobile world when it launched the POCO F1 or Pocophone F1 that almost undercut OnePlus with its blend of premium features and ridiculously low price. It didn't happen without cutting corners, of course, but it garnered enough fans and sales to warrant a successor. The POCO X2, however, may have rubbed some of those fans in the wrong way and the POCO F2 Pro might debut next week amid similar cautious optimism.

It's not that the POCO X2 was terrible, it just wasn't what new POCO fans expected to come after the POCO F1. While the latter was a truly unique phone that blended some high-end specs with admittedly cheap materials, the POCO X2 was unabashedly a mid-range Redmi K30 with different branding.

There have been rumors and hints that the POCO F2 Pro that the company has now confirmed would follow suit, using not just the exact same specs but also the exact same design as the Redmi K30 Pro. While POCO's head in India denied such a connection, phone makers have proven to be quite proficient in splitting hairs over very subtle differences in design.

That's not to say that the POCO F2 Pro will be a downer in terms of specs if it indeed takes after the Redmi K30 Pro. The latter boasts of a Snapdragon 865 with 6 or 8 GB of RAM and a 6.67-inch screen. There is also a pop-up front-facing camera, a first for POCO and a design trend that has become rarer these days.

POCO is curiously focusing its teasers on what it claims is a next-gen cooling system for phones. There has been no shortage of tricks and gimmicks on that front and it will definitely be interesting if the POCO F2 Pro has anything substantial to offer. The phone will be launched in an online event on May 12 at 8 pm GMT+8 (8 am EDT).