Xiaomi’s pricey Poco F9 Ultra becomes the flagship it set out to kill You Should Know

Xiaomi has announced its new performance-focused mid-range smartphone series, the Poco F9.

The Poco F9 Ultra and the Poco F9 Pro are here, offering speedy performance and top-class audio at some eyebrow-raising prices.

Last year’s Poco F8 Ultra saw the Xiaomi sub-brand taking a bold step towards genuine flagship status, leaving us quietly impressed even as we tensed at the collision course it seemed to be on with itself.

The Poco F8 Pro, meanwhile, was a solid mid-ranger with a more grown-up design and excellent performance – but with the usual software reservations we always tend to have with these Xiaomi sub-brands.

This year’s Poco F9 Ultra and Poco F9 Pro seem to continue along that same path, with essentially the same mature design. They’re pretty much in line with the iPhone 17/Pixel 11 school of flat edges and rounded corners.

Also returning this year is the Bose-boosted 2.1 sound, which gave last year’s models a serious amount of punch courtesy of a dedicated subwoofer. They offered the best sound from any smartphones in 2025, and that’s unlikely to change this time around. But is it enough?

Poco F9 Ultra

The Poco F9 Ultra is the larger of the two, as you’d expect, with dimensions of 163.49 x 77.94 x 8.74mm and a weight of 235g.

Much of that heft seems to come from its huge 8050mAh battery, while charging extends to 100W wired and 50W wireless. 27W wired and 22.5W wireless reverse charging are also supported.

It comes with a flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, 12 or 16GB of RAM, and 256GB/512GB/1TB of storage – flagship specs through and through.

It’s fronted by a 6.9-inch AMOLED display with a unique 185Hz refresh rate. Poco phones have always been big on gaming performance, and this certainly seems to be true with the Ultra. It also features a fancy ultrasonic fingerprint sensor.

Poco phones have always been relatively weak on the camera front, but the Poco F9 Ultra looks to improve matters with a new 200Mp main camera. There’s also a 50Mp periscope telephoto and a 50Mp ultra-wide, as well as a 32Mp front camera.

It’s all screaming ‘flagship’ to me, which probably explains why Xiaomi has slapped on an £899 starting price for the 12GB/256GB variant of its new Ultra model. Those prices rise to £999 for 16GB/512GB and £1,119 for 16GB/1TB.

That starting price is £150 more than last year’s Poco F8 Ultra, and £100 more than the Xiaomi 17T. The Xiaomi 17 RRP starts from £999. Xiaomi seems to be competing with itself here, as well as a whole bunch of flagship rivals.

Poco F9 Pro

The Poco F9 Pro is smaller than its Ultra brother, with a 157.49 x 75.25 x 8.79mm and 206g body, as well as a 6.59-inch AMOLED display. You still get the elevated 185Hz refresh rate on the latter, though.

Xiaomi is still giving you a pretty large battery too, at 6330mAh. Charging support once again extends to 100W wired and 50W wireless, and both 27W wired and 22.5W wireless reverse charging are in there too.

There’s the same Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor onboard, with 12GB of RAM and either 256 or 512GB of storage.

The camera system includes the same 200Mp main sensor and 50Mp telephoto, but with a lesser 8Mp ultra-wide. There’s another 32Mp camera around front.

The Poco F9 Pro starts from £799 for 12GB and 256GB, moving up to £849 for 12GB and 512GB. That starting price is £250 more than the Poco F8 Pro. Yikes.

In short, the Poco sub-brand seems to have gone rogue, and is now taking on Xiaomi’s own phones when it comes to price and performance. It’s an interesting move; I’ll give it that.