New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on January 15, 2020) follows:

Fans of POCO by Xiaomi have been uncertain as to whether the impressive Pocophone F1 (known as Poco F1 in India) would ever get a successor. Its been about a year and a half since the first-generation model came to life but no Poco F2 (Pocophone F2) yet.

But the company has been trying to keep the fanbase hopeful of a better future, with the head of Pocophone Global Alvin Tse last month implying that 2020 will be the year something good comes from the company.

poco-f2-coming-twitter-1
This tweet was deleted in no time

Matter of fact, Xiaomi has reportedly filed a trademark for the Poco F2 in China, further adding weight to Tse’s statement that something good is being lined up for 2020. This is despite having deleted the tweet (above) later on.

Now, in another related development, a device codenamed Xiaomi POCO X2 has popped on benchmarking platform Geekbench, adding even more weight to the Poco F2 trademark claims from China.

Poco-X2-aka-Poco-F2-benchmark
Poco X2 aka Poco F2 benchmark (Source)

Sure, it doesn’t say Poco F2, but nothing else comes to mind when I see the Poco X2 listing on Geekbench. We all know that Geekbench results can be easily faked, but here is something interesting.

Apparently, the Poco X2 aka Poco F2 is codenamed ‘phoenixin’. If you are a keen follower of Xiaomi smartphones and their codenames, you will be quick to tell that this device is headed to the Indian market.

Poco-F2-could-be-a-rebranded-Redmi-K30
Poco F2 could be a rebranded Redmi K30 (Source)

For the uninitiated, here is a quick illustration. The Redmi K20 Pro variant sold in China is codenamed ‘raphael’ while the model sold in India is codenamed ‘raphaelin‘. Yeah, notice the addition of the suffix ‘in‘? That stands for India.

Now, coming back to the Poco X2, the device is codenamed ‘phoenixin’ whereas, in China, the Redmi K30 is codenamed ‘phoenix’. Granted, we are looking at the next-gen Poco device that is coming to India as a rebranded Redmi K30, but once again, Geekbench listings are not to be fully trusted.

Redmi-K30
Redmi K30

Looking at the Geekbench listing, the device has an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset clocked at 1.8GHz, which we presume is the Snapdragon 730G that powers the Redmi K30. This is then paired to 8GB RAM, again, just like the K30, although the latter also has a 6GB RAM variant.

The recorded scores of 547 in single-core tests and 1767 in multi-core tests are also identical to other Geekbench 5.1 scores clocked by the Redmi K30 with the same configuration.

Poco-X2-aka-Poco-F2-Geekbench-scores
Poco X2 aka Poco F2 Geekbench scores (Source)

Interestingly, though, the Redmi K30 (M191G7BI) recently received BIS certification confirming its imminent launch in the Indian market. So, why release a Poco F2 device with the same characteristics as the Redmi K30 in the same market?

Even though Xiaomi is capable of such stunts, something doesn’t sit right with this. Matter of fact, it’s likely the Poco X2 story could be fake, at least according to Sudhanshu on Twitter.

Sudhanshu claims the Poco X2 is, in fact, the Redmi K30 4G, only that some custom ROM developer must have tweaked a few core system elements to read Poco X2 and ran the device through Geekbench to get people excited.

Another fake Geekbench listing related to POCO?‍♂️ The Geekbench score itself is legitimate, but the device tested is the “Redmi K30 4G” and not “POCO X2”. A custom ROM developer might have modified a few system build properties of K30 4G and ran a Geekbench to fool others.
Source

Poco-X2-could-be-a-fake
Poco X2 could be a fake (Source)

But then again, we’ve pointed out before that Geekbench results can be faked, so this doesn’t surprise anyone from this side of the table. Despite the many twists and turns, though, the Poco F2 is something we will likely be talking about for the foreseeable future.

Update (January 23, 2020)

An alleged Poco X2 hands-on image has popped up online teasing the phone as a rebranded Redmi K30 (4G) for India. More details here.

PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.

Hillary Keverenge
2252 Posts

Tech has been my playground for over a decade. While the Android journey began early, it truly took flight with the revolutionary Lollipop update. Since then, it's been a parade of Android devices (with a sprinkle of iOS), culminating in a mostly happy marriage with Google's smart home ecosystem. Expect insightful articles and explorations of the ever-evolving world of Android and Google products coupled with occasional rants on the Nest smart home ecosystem.

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