Poco F8 Ultra review

Design, build quality, handling

There's not a whole lot of continuity from the F7 Ultra to the F8 Ultra in terms of design, but the brand had to adapt to trends and who's a bigger trendsetter than Apple? Ah, but that's only partially true - you could also argue that the Poco F8 Ultra/Redmi K90 Pro Max are following the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max's lead, and that one can trace its roots to the Xiaomi 11 Ultra, which came way before the iPhone 17 Pro Max. See? The Poco F8 Ultra is more Xiaomi than it is iPhone.

And all that is just talking about the camera island, when the F8 Ultra is actually pretty unique in what's below the camera bump - it's denim! Well, not actual denim fabric, but Xiaomi's 'third-generation nano-tech material' (a type of plastic, broadly speaking), but the illusion is there. The back looks the part, and feels soft and grippy, while also being immune to fingerprints.

The Poco F8 Ultra is also available in a black colorway without the whole denim treatment. Its back is made of glass-fiber reinforced plastic, and we can tell just by looking at a photo of it that it's going to be smooth and slippery. A yellow option would have been nice - after all, it's the brand's signature color, but they're sitting it out for this generation.

The Redmi K90 Pro Max also has a white variant with the same material, plus a more exclusive Lamborghini-themed edition (the car company) - not the Poco though.

Over on the front, the phone is using what they call Poco Shield Glass for protection - it's not Gorilla Glass, but it's got to be good enough as is. There is a factory-applied plastic protector on top just in case.

There's an underdisplay fingerprint reader of the ultrasonic variety and it's your best bet for biometric authentication on the F8 Ultra. It's placed in a spot where your thumb falls naturally and it's fast and reliable. Works nicely with the pre-applied protector too, though your mileage may vary if you start sticking aftermarket sheets.

The frame is aluminum, with a satin finish. It's nicely flat for the most part, but with just the right tiny fillets towards the front and back so that it doesn't feel scratchy in your palm.

The phone is IP68-rated for dust and water protection too, so it should survive down to 1.5m underwater for as long as 30mins, though you'd be wise not to test that as liquid damage is not covered under warranty (as usual, really). There's no mention of IP69, so high-temperature water jets are entirely off the menu.

Sort of a major development with this model is the inclusion of eSIM capability. On our review unit, we get two nano SIM slots in the tray and the option to replace SIM 2 with eSIM in settings - two out of the three can be active at the same time. There might be a version of the Poco with two eSIM 'slots', but ours isn't that. Either way, one eSIM should be good enough for most travellers - an area where the F7 Ultra wasn't up to scratch.