REVIEW: POCO F9 Ultra keeps the flagship-killer specs, upgrades camera

MANILA—For years, POCO has been successful in its straightforward pitch to buyers: deliver as much performance for the price. 

With the recently released F9 Ultra, less than a year after the F8 Ultra, POCO has given its flagship phone all the necessary updates expected from a top-of-the-line phone 

At first glance, there’s not much of a difference between the two. 

Both the F8 and F9 Ultra boast a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, 3nm processor, 12/16GB LPDDR5X for RAM, VisionBoost D8 for the graphics chip,  and a 6.9″ AMOLED, 2608×1200 display. 

But a deeper look at the unit would show upgrades that totally make sense. 

First is the camera, which I think would be the biggest selling point for an ordinary Filipino customer looking for his/her money’s worth and not much into other hardware specs.

POCO F9 Ultra jumps to a 200MP camera with /1.68, OIS, and 2μm 16-in-1 pixels, thus prioritizing much higher resolution and finer detail. 

This makes POCO’s newest flagship phone well-suited for travel and even simpler family moments, as its 200MP main camera can capture fine details in landscapes, group photos, and spontaneous moments while giving users plenty of room to crop or reframe shots later without losing much of its quality. 

For the front camera, while it is essentially unchanged coming from the F8 Ultra, the latest unit includes Smart Aperture for group selfies and Live Moment, which can make group and family shots more convenient.

And since video shooting now dominates user behavior, the POCO F9 Ultra’s ability to record up to 8K and 4K at 60fps, with OIS for smoother handheld footage, makes it a practical travel companion.  

This is especially crucial since most social media platforms tend to compress video quality when content is uploaded, so having high-quality footage to begin with helps retain more detail and clarity.

It also means having a device that can keep up with different shooting conditions, from bright daylight and outdoor destinations to dimly lit streets and nighttime scenes.

But perhaps the significant upgrade involves its capacity when it comes to gaming. 

Once again, on paper, the F9 Ultra doesn’t look dramatically different from its predecessor. But while both phones have a 6.9-inch AMOLED panel with a 2608×1200 resolution, the F9 Ultra improves the refresh rate from 120Hz to a blistering 185Hz. 

This means smoother animations and more fluid gameplay, particularly in games that can take advantage of the higher frame rate, like Call of Duty, Genshin, and Mobile Legends. 

The latest unit also supports up to 4,800Hz instant touch sampling in Game Turbo, allowing the screen to respond more quickly to taps and movements, so no more blaming the phone for your gaming misfortunes. 

Also, the F9 Ultra combines the Wildboost Engine with the VisionBoost D8 chip to deliver ultra-smooth 185fps frame interpolation, making fast-moving images appear smoother.

To avoid overheating the unit, the cooling system comes with POCO’s 3D IceLoop cooling system, featuring a 6,300mm² liquid heat pipe area and 17,820mm² of graphite to help move the heat away from the processor during demanding tasks. 

While this didn’t entirely take away the heating during intense gaming, it still falls within the acceptable threshold when I tried it with my nephew.

Nonetheless, the massive 8,050mAh battery, combined with the 100W wired and 50W wireless charging, makes the F9 Ultra capable of sustaining long gaming session without constantly reaching for a charger. I watched my nephew did back-to-back gaming and it was able to handle a minimum of five hours of play while still retaining battery for other activities. 

Beyond gaming, the battery, of course, does not disappoint when it comes to a whole day of doomscrolling through various videos on social media, browsing the web, and other intensive use of mobile data. 

When I used it while traveling around Sydney, the battery barely budged for a whole day use of Google Maps, taking photos and videos, and other touristy activities. 

The trade-off, however, is the size. That massive battery contributes to the phone’s 235-gram weight, making the F9 Ultra a noticeably hefty design. 

For some users, it’s something you will probably feel more when using the phone with one hand or carrying it around for an entire day. For me, it did not really bother me, and I was the type who frequently takes photos and videos, including self-portraits that often require me to set up the phone on a tripod. Sometimes, I even had to do a double-check in my pocket to make sure the unit is still there. 

The 6.9-inch AMOLED display also provides plenty of room for entertainment. The 4,500-nit peak brightness also makes the screen easier to see outdoors. 

Paired with a more advanced 2.1-channel Bose speaker setup that includes a physical dedicated subwoofer, the F9 Ultra can easily double as a portable entertainment device. Whether you’re watching a movie on a long trip or showing family members the photos and videos you took from your travels, the large screen and capable speakers make the experience more enjoyable. 

So, has POCO’s formula changed? 

Generally, no. The F9 Ultra is still very much a POCO phone. It delivers a powerful processor, generous RAM, and specs that would have been reserved for much more expensive phones a few years ago.

But POCO has also expanded its pitch beyond performance. The 200MP camera makes it a more capable companion for travel and simple everyday use. The gaming hardware caters to users who spend hours playing mobile games. The battery gives heavy users the freedom to spend less time having the need for a charger. 

So for me, it isn’t simply a POCO phone with a newer number. It appears that POCO is trying to make its flagship a more complete phone, one that doesn’t require you to choose between gaming, photography, entertainment, and everyday use.