Despite price hikes, Poco F9 series launches with the lowest flagship-tier prices in Singapore (so far)

We’ve come a long way since the days of the Pocophone F1. The Xiaomi sub-brand is still going strong, with the launch of the Poco F9 Pro and F9 Ultra, the brand’s 2026 flagship phones.

Compared with the previous Poco F8 series, the new F9 phones show iterative improvements this year. The design stayed similar, bringing back a large camera island and Bose stereo speakers.

So what’s new with Poco F9 Ultra and Poco F9 Pro?

The main camera lens received its long overdue upgrade. Poco swapped the main camera from a 50MP sensor to a 200MP sensor on both models.

The 200MP sensor also supports 16-in-1 pixel binning for improved light capture across each 2μm-sized pixel. It also has an f/1.68 aperture and comes with OIS.

The F9 Pro also sees a chipset upgrade from the F8 Pro in the form of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 V Series chipset. Despite the ‘V Series’ moniker, this version actually has one fewer Adreno GPU core than the standard Gen 5.

The display also got upgraded with Poco HyperRGB AMOLED panels and heightened luminous efficiency (20% more). This means that the F9 phones have brighter displays than their predecessors – typical brightness on both phones sits at 850 nits, and goes up to 2,200 nits (High Brightness Mode).

For gamers, the phones also now feature 185Hz refresh rate, much higher than the industry-standard 120Hz for flagship phones.

However, it comes with a caveat. The 185Hz compatibility currently works only on 24 mobile games. Notable entries include:

• Brawl Stars
• Blood Strike
• CrossFire: Legends
• Hearthstone
• Subway Surfers
• Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (up to 165Hz)
• Call of Duty: Mobile (up to 165Hz)

Generally, games have hard-capped frame rates set by their developers, so we expect the list to grow.

The boost to 185Hz can be accessed from the Poco F9 series’ WildBoost suite of game enhancements. The WildBoost engine also adds colour enhancement, 4,800Hz instant touch sampling (an increase from 2,560Hz before).

Then, there’s clearer directional audio for FPS games, courtesy of sound tuning by Bose, which marks the second year of partnership between Poco and Bose.

The battery also sees an outsized boost. The F9 Pro’s 6,330mAh seems modest increase, but the Poco F9 Ultra gets a big jump with a 8,050mAh cell. Both have silicon-carbon blends.

To keep up with their sizes, both F9 variants support 100W wired and 50W wireless charging.

What’s stayed the same?

Because the previous Poco F8 Ultra was one of the first Android phones to use the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 mobile platform, the Poco F9 Ultra uses the same chipset, as Qualcomm has yet to launch its next-generation flagship piece.

Both the F9 Pro and Ultra have an extra VisionBoost D8 chipset for graphics enhancements. Some perks were carried over from the F8 Ultra, including Game HDR and AI Super Resolution (for select titles like Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail).

Other hardware features, including IP68 water and dust resistance, an ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor and NFC, stayed. The dual-SIM configuration options are the same as the F8 phones: 2 nano-SIMs or 2 eSIMs, with the option of 1 nano-SIM and 1 eSIM.

What else is different between the F9 Pro and F9 Ultra?

Apart from the chipset and battery differences we’ve previously mentioned, the F9 Ultra touts an ultrawide camera that’s higher in resolution than its Pro sibling – a 50MP ultrawide sensor compared to the 8MP one in the F9 Pro.

The telephoto sensor on the F9 phones also differs slightly. The Poco F9 Pro features a floating telephoto lens with a 60mm equivalent focal length (assuming a standard 23mm main camera, that’s approximately 3x optical zoom).

For the Poco F9 Ultra, it has a persicope telephoto lens that’s capable of 5x optical zoom, (120mm equivalent focal length). Both are 50MP and have OIS packed in for stability.

The F9 Pro also sports a smaller display compared to the Ultra at 6.59-inch (F9 Ultra is 6.9-inch). Despite that, pixel density is nearly the same on both (419 PPI on the Pro, 416 PPI on the Ultra).

It’s worth noting that Poco F9 Pro does not have the dedicated Bose-tuned subwoofer seen on the Poco F9 Ultra.

Availability and Pricing

Poco F9 Ultra

Poco F9 Pro

Despite an industry-wide price hike affecting all manner of memory chips, the Poco F9 series remains among the most affordable Android phones with a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 variant on the market, and still maintains sub-S$1,000 pricing for a 512GB Poco F9 Pro.

For comparison, the 256GB Pro is now S$200 more than the preceding F8 series equivalent. This generation also introduces a 1TB Ultra variant. While more expensive than what Poco fans are used to, it’s still S$100 below the 512GB verison of Xiaomi 17 Ultra. While the series is technically more affordable than other alternatives, it’s less of a flagship killer now, given how narrow the pricing gap is.

The F9 Pro is available in White, Aurora Green and Black, while the F9 Ultra is available in Black and Dark Cherry.

Early bird promotional prices are available only until 17 September 2026.

To sweeten the deal, each purchase of a Poco F9 Ultra between its launch and 17 September 2026 will include a free pair of Redmi Buds 8 Pro, 3 months of YouTube Premium, and 3 months of Google AI Pro.

Those who purchase the older Poco F8 Ultra in that same promotional period will get the 3 free months of YouTube Premium and Google AI Pro, and a free pair of Redmi Buds 8 (non-Pro variant).

All phones also come with a 2-year quality assurance promise and one free screen replacement within six months of purchase. Buying via mi.com nets an additional 20% off Xiaomi Care Extended Warranty Service. All offers are only available while stocks last.