The POCO F series was famous for trying to offer the most powerful processor possible for a relatively low price. Performance has long been one of the mainstays of this series, and other things often remained in the background. However, with each generation, POCO pays more and more attention not only to power, but also to the screen, cameras, battery and other parts of the phone used every day. This time, I got my hands on the POCO F9 Ultra - the largest and most ambitious model in this series.

At first glance, there is no shortage of impressive numbers here. The 6.9-inch AMOLED display can operate at a frequency of up to 185 Hz, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is hidden inside, and the battery capacity reaches as much as 8050 mAh. Added to this are 100 W charging, 50 W wireless charging, and a 2.1 sound system with a separate subwoofer. And while all this looks very attractive for such a price, I still want to see how it all feels when using the phone every day.

Unpacking

The package, as I expected, is not surprising. POCO includes everything you need to get started, and even a little more. You can see the entire unboxing process in this video:

First impressions

Wow - this is the iPhone 18 Pro Max! This is the first thought that came to my mind, and I'm not the only one. Indeed, the design is clearly borrowed from Apple. However, unlike Apple, the camera module is used to its full potential, and here comes a striking detail - the speaker. This is not the first manufacturer to try to improve the sound quality of phones, and the F8 Ultra was praised in this area, so it will be interesting to see if it's really worth it.

The color of the model we got is burgundy. Yes, it only further enhances the impression of a copy. Nevertheless, the F9 Ultra looks solid. It is certainly not the lightest, but knowing what capacity the battery is hidden here, it is completely justified. The body is aluminum, and the back is made of glass fiber reinforced polymer (plastic). Overall - 0 complaints. Without knowing, I could not say that this is not some kind of flagship.

Screen

The 6.9-inch, 1.5K resolution AMOLED display with a 185 Hz refresh rate is not only impressive on paper. It is bright, smooth, colors look vibrant, and contrast is not overstated. And although the manufacturer's website loudly shouts about 10,000 nits of brightness, you should not be fooled here. Such brightness is achieved only when using 1% of the screen, in certain areas, when watching HDR content.

Nevertheless, when looking at independent tests (e.g. gsmarena), the results are really good. For example, 4333 nits were achieved on 10% of the screen area, which is significantly higher than the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL's 3129 nits. In reality, the screen is really bright and remains clearly visible on a sunny day. During the month of use, the brightness was lacking only once - while watching a series, when the bright sun was shining directly on the screen.

Benchmark and games

The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is one of the most powerful Android mobile processors, so I didn't expect poor results here. In everyday use, the F9 Ultra never lags - navigating between multiple apps is smooth, and all tasks are completed without any hassle. However, it's most interesting to see what the synthetic tests show and how the phone behaves under longer loads.

Geekbench 7 scores are as follows: CPU - 3087 Single-Core, 9235 Multi-Core, and GPU - 17503. For example, the iPhone 17 Pro Max scores 3017, 8956, and 43307, respectively, while the OnePlus 15 scores 2370, 9404, and 18937. Both iPhone and OnePlus data are randomly selected from the official Geekbench website. However, GPU tests use different operations and APIs, so it is not entirely fair to directly compare these results. As a result, I would rather rely on the 3DMark Steel Nomad Light test to evaluate graphics performance, in which the POCO F9 Ultra scored 2761 points, the iPhone 17 Pro Max - 2487, and the OnePlus 15 - 2665.

I was also curious whether the processor performance would decrease due to overheating after a longer load. The average result achieved in the 15-minute CPU throttling test was 66% - a noticeable drop in performance, although I never felt it in everyday use. The phone's processor heated up to 95°C during the test, but the case itself did not heat up to the point that it would be uncomfortable to hold in your hands.

It was even more interesting when playing games. Even after an hour of playing various games, I didn't notice any major changes - the games didn't crash, nor did the phone get so hot that it was uncomfortable to hold. More details about the gaming results and temperatures can be found in the video below.

Sound

When I first heard music, I thought it was the best-sounding phone I've ever heard. There are not only two symmetrical stereo speakers, but also a separate subwoofer on the back, so the system is designed as 2.1. To top it all off, Bose's sound tuning also contributes. And while you shouldn't expect a real subwoofer effect from such a small body, the sound actually becomes richer and more enjoyable when listening to music.

For context, let's evaluate the volume level by clicking from 0 to 15, where 15 is the loudest. The sound saturation starts to disappear at 12 and the high frequencies become strongly pronounced - this is a typical sound when listening to any phone at maximum volume. When holding the F9 Ultra in your hands and watching videos or playing games, the advantages of the speakers are less noticeable. And while the entire sound system is not some kind of miracle, it is more than enough to occasionally listen to music from the phone itself.

Battery

In my opinion, the strongest part of this POCO F9 Ultra is not the processor, cameras or anything else, but the battery. In fact, with no phone with 3% battery remaining, I have not started a game and played for a good 20 minutes. In my full discharge test, the phone's battery lasted for as long as 30 hours. 28 minutes. From this time, you should exclude 9 am. when the phone was only in standby mode. Of the remaining time, I spent 49% playing games, 40% watching YouTube, and the rest was spent on social networks and other undemanding apps.

As with battery life, charging speed is also important. From 0% with the original charger, I reached 50% charge in 26 minutes, after 41 minutes it was already 75%, and 100% was reached in 57 minutes. Considering that there is an 8050 mAh battery, such a result is simply impressive. Even a completely discharged phone is ready for a whole day (or even several) in less than an hour.

Cameras

„The camera setup looks solid on paper - a 200MP main camera, a 50MP ultra-wide-angle camera, and a 50MP 5x periscope telephoto lens with optical stabilization. The truth is that higher megapixels don't necessarily mean better quality. Compared to the F8 Ultra, the F9 Ultra's main camera sensor is slightly smaller. Although I haven't tested the F8 Ultra, in practice, such things work like this - the larger the sensor, the better quality photos are obtained in the dark, and the more megapixels, the easier it is to zoom in and crop the photo. Which is better? I'll leave it to you to decide.

The main camera produces detailed photos. The colors are pleasant, not oversaturated, and the dynamic range is really good. The 5x telephoto lens is not bad, but the photos did not cause much admiration - perhaps there is a lack of detail, and the dynamic range seems too neutral. The wide-angle camera is probably the weakest of the three. Due to the fact that this camera does not have autofocus, it is only suitable for landscapes and landscapes.

The situation with video is better. The rear cameras can shoot 4K at 60 frames per second, and the main one also adds 8K at 30 frames per second. There is also no shortage of manual control options, such as manual focus, white balance, the ability to use LOG and load your own LUT. Stabilization is also good, but what I liked most was how smoothly the phone switches from one camera to another during filming - there are no sudden jumps or freezes, and the color balance remains the same.

The recently released iPhone 18 Pro costs more than twice as much. But are its cameras twice as good? Try this short blind test and choose your favorite:

Verdict

Frankly speaking, I didn't have any major complaints about the F9 Ultra. After almost a month of use, what I remembered most was not the tremendous processor performance, but how well the phone combines all the important everyday things. The 6.9-inch screen is bright and smooth, the 2.1 sound system pleasantly surprised me, and the 8050 mAh battery lasts a long time and charges quite quickly. Although the cameras are not the phone's strongest point, the main camera is easy to take really nice shots. 

However, you should consider the size of the phone before buying. The large screen is great for watching videos or playing games, but it's harder to control the phone with one hand, and the 235-gram weight is definitely noticeable in your pocket. And while the POCO F9 Ultra behaves like a true flagship in many areas, its price has also moved closer to flagship territory. If you're considering other options, it's worth taking a look at OnePlus phones - their OxygenOS system often receives positive reviews. And even the previous-generation F8 Ultra is still a very powerful phone that can be purchased at a more attractive price.