We took the all-new POCO F8 Ultra for a spin.
POCO’s latest installment in its F Series of performance-focused phones is the F8, consisting of two variants in total: the F8 Pro and the F8 Ultra. We’ve spent a few weeks with the POCO F8 Ultra, in a bid to figure out if POCO’s new flagship is a worthy upgrade from 2025’s F7 Ultra, which was already a more than capable gaming device for its time. After all, the F8 series arrived just eight months after the F7 series, meaning that its users might not be ready to make the jump just yet.
Ultimately, we’ve found that the F8 Ultra is an incredibly smooth gaming device that offers unmatched bang for your buck, even taking into account its increased price point (starting from US$729) over the F7 Ultra (starting from US$649). However, the device will be a lot more tempting for anyone who hasn’t already bought into the F7 series–seeing as those phones are still pretty great, and now much cheaper by comparison.
What’s new with the POCO F8 Ultra?
The POCO F8 Ultra follows up on last year’s F7 Ultra, offering a flagship mobile gaming experience with powerful specs for its price point. Under the hood, the phone sports Qualcomm’s latest high-end processor, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. This processor succeeds the F7 Ultra’s 8 Elite, which was really a Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 in all but name.
Confusing nomenclature aside, this processor offers a big leap in performance and power efficiency thanks to its Adreno GPU and octa-core CPU. POCO claimed that the F7 Ultra picked up a 2,843,461 score on the software benchmarking tool AnTuTu. With this phone, it claims to have achieved a 3,944,934 AnTuTu score, which is a big leap any way you slice it. That’s not such a big surprise, considering the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor is a pretty meaty upgrade over the previous 8 Elite overall.
The phone also comes with a few software solutions to keep your games looking crisp and smooth, similar to NVIDIA’s AI-focused performance solutions. The VisionBoost D8 chipset allows for enhanced images and boosted performance beyond hardware limitations, via returning features like 120fps frame interpolation, AI-enhanced Super Resolution, and Game HDR.
Some of these features, like the Dual-core visuals option, which boosts framerates on video streaming services like YouTube, are unimpressive in their execution, at best. The effect you get from turning Dual-core visuals on can be likened to toggling on motion-smoothing on TVs, with interpolated frames creating an unflattering soap opera-like effect that ultimately renders the final image difficult to look at, and therefore undesirable.
While gaming, those extra frames can certainly be better appreciated. Video games are getting more demanding year-on-year, and budget smartphones are struggling to keep up. How does the POCO F8 Ultra fare while running modern high-impact games like Genshin Impact and Zenless Zone Zero?
A smooth gaming experience, with a few bells and whistles
We put the POCO F8 Ultra through its paces on a number of video games, with all of the settings maxed out in an effort to figure out how long the phone’s battery would last, how quickly it would heat up, and what level of performance it would support on modern-day games. For the most part, we stuck with Genshin Impact and Zenless Zone Zero during our review period, though we also tried sandbox games like Heartopia and Roblox for good measure.
While the F7 Ultra now struggles to run Zenless Zone Zero’s combat scenarios at maximum settings, which is honestly more an optimisation issue rather than an ageing hardware issue, the F8 Ultra delivers staggeringly smooth performance comparatively.
When using Super Resolution and Game Turbo, gameplay is buttery smooth and crystal-clear, even in games like Genshin Impact, which boast larger open-world environments. I had a hard time finding a frame dip while taking this phone through its paces, so it appears that POCO’s gaming features–namely Super Resolution and Game Turbo’s optimisation options–finally work perfectly well in tandem with the powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor.
Sadly, I can’t say the same for Game HDR, which didn’t appear to have much of an effect on the games I tested during this review. The Game Turbo window once again comes with handy effects like visual effects and recording tools, though it hasn’t seen much of an upgrade over its previous iteration in the F7 Ultra. Some of its features come across as frivolous as best, but when you’re playing games like Zenless Zone Zero where mobile performance is an issue, it helps to have every avenue to better run the game open before you.
As for the display, you’re looking at a 6.9-inch 2608x1200 screen with an up to 120Hz refresh rate, 416 PPI pixel density, a peak brightness of 3500 nits, and an up to 480Hz instant touch sampling rate, which can also be bumped up to 2560Hz using Game Turbo. It’s ever so slightly larger than the F7 Ultra at a lower resolution (3200×1440). Still, it’s a beautiful screen and I had no complaints watching videos, playing video games, or just scrolling through social media with it; it’s bright and clear.
What’s interesting is that this phone comes with a dedicated Bose subwoofer, housed next to its protruded camera island. This can be a problem if you’re resting your phone flat on its back, as it does end up sitting at a wonky little incline; admittedly, this is easily solvable by simply putting on a phone case. As for the subwoofer, it’s not going to deliver the kind of rich and vivid audio you might be expecting from an actual speaker, but it’s miles better than the F7 Ultra. It’s clearer, louder, and deeper–perfect for gaming at home.
Just don’t turn it up while you’re on the train, however tempting that might sound. Coming from someone who takes public transport all the time, I simply can’t condone that kind of behaviour.
The POCO F8 Ultra's battery and device cooling
Now, all these performance capabilities won’t do you much good if the battery flatlines while you’re in the zone. The POCO F8 Ultra features a 6500mAh battery, which marks a much-needed step up from the F7 Ultra’s 5,300mAh battery. Suffice it to say that you won’t have to spare a thought about charging the phone when it’s left idle. Even during long gaming sessions, you’ll be able to squeeze up to five or six hours of playtime before plugging it in.
You might even be able to get a little more out of a single battery charge if you don’t run all of your games at max settings, like I did. However, it won’t be comfortable, as the phone runs rather hot. This won’t come as a surprise to anyone who has tried out a phone with the latest Qualcomm chips, as their bump in power does come with a lot of literal heat under the hood.
The POCO F8 Ultra comes with something the manufacturer describes as “LiquidCool Technology,” which is a fancy name for a dual-channel, dual-layer cooling system that is meant to keep both the SoC (System on a Chip) and camera module cool. I genuinely can’t imagine how the phone would be without the inclusion of this cooling system, as it got much too hot for comfort after long gaming sessions.
Overheating the phone was a concern of mine during testing, though I did not notice any impact on its gaming performance when it was running hot. A case is definitely necessary to alleviate this issue, but your mileage may vary. If you're more prone to gaming in short bursts, this might not be a problem for you at all.
Verdict
The POCO F8 Ultra delivers a marked increase in gaming performance across the board, delivering buttery-smooth gameplay on most modern and graphically-intensive video games. In a year packed with new ambitious mobile games on the market, like Arknights: Endfield and Pokémon Champions, it’s likely that we’re going to see older phones struggle to keep up. In that regard, the F8 Ultra is a great purchase for anyone looking to pick up the hot new thing without having to worry too much about performance.
However, this phone might not offer that much of a jump over the F7 Ultra, considering its recency and overall price point. Yes, this phone performs better–but it also has cooling issues, and your F7 Ultra likely still performs decently across most titles. Either way, POCO’s F series continues to deliver bang for your buck.
The Poco F8 Ultra is now available for purchase, priced at US$729 for the 12GB/256GB variant. A 16GB/512GB variant is also available for US$799. We received a review unit for this article.
