Poco X2: Premier features, aggressively priced

19th April 2020
Poco X2: Premier features, aggressively priced

Serious photographers and gamers will find this phone ‘grab-worthy’!
Anand Parthasarathy
April 19 2020: Poco, Xiaomi’s ‘other’ brand which brings  premier features at a more affordable price point has done it again. Its first offering in 2020,   trickles down  an extremely respectable set of specifications to a  the mid-price  band of  smart phones in India  -- and it proudly displays a ‘Made in India’ label,  as well.  I have put off reviewing this handset, because almost immediately after it was launched, the country went into a lockdown that  closed online sales from the main seller, Flipkart.  But with some visibility of  resumed commercial activity in a week or two, it looked like a good time to alert readers to  the great deal that the new Poco X2 constitutes. So here goes:
Poco has innovated by putting the fingerprint sensor where it  should go – logically and conveniently – on the side bezel,  and integral with the power button.  The front or selfie camera – a 20 MP + 2 MP combo sits inside the screen while the quad rear cameras ( 64 MP main + 8 MP 120 degree wide+ 2 MP macro+ 2 MP depth scanner) is dead centre. It can shoot  video at 4K as well as slo-mo.
In the RAW
With this very decent combo of lenses, Poco has  added one feature that professional photographers will really appreciate: the ability to shoot in the uncompressed RAW format.. something one finds mostly in DSLRs. Compressed formats like jpeg sacrifice some quality for   file size and  many serious clickers don’t care to do their best work unless they can shoot in RAW.
I am no gaming expert, but I understand theQualcomm 730G snapdragon chip under the hood  coupled with the  full HD screen with HDR and a fast 120 Hz refresh rate will provide the edge when it comes to those insanely fast shooter games.|
The Poco X2   can take dual nano SIMS ( with a useful VoLTE feature) or one sim and a micro SD card  and comes in three  variants: 8GB RAM + 256 GB storage; 6GB+ 128 GB and  6 GB+64 GB. The prices quoted on the Flipkart site where you are taken  from the Poco portal are Rs 20,999, Rs 17,999 and Rs 16,999 respectively.  If you are a demanding photographer or a serious gamer  ( or both) these asking  rates coupled with these specs  make for a Godfather-like ‘offer you can’t refuse’.