POCO was one of the leading brands of the last edition of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where it presented the new POCO X4 Pro 5G and POCO M4 Pro, but it also provided interesting ideas for the future: MIUI could be subjected to a cure slimming so as not to burden too much on the cheapest smartphones.
The problem with the latest POCO
If POCO M4 Pro 4G is a smartphone with the very little appeal, thanks to the presence on the market for months of the POCO M4 Pro 5G model (which costs even less), POCO X4 Pro 5G on paper is quite interesting, with its excellent AMOLED display 120Hz FHD + with 1,200nits peak brightness, Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 SoC, 5G connectivity, 108MP main camera and up to 256GB of internal storage.
It is anything but exciting and this is especially due to performance not up to par with a less contained and convincing price than usual. To curb this smartphone is also a questionable software experience, with MIUI 13 still based on Android 11 and an interface that is overall rich in functions but also decidedly heavy and poorly optimized.
Promises to the community and ambitious projects
Therefore, the statements made by POCO Global – in the people of general manager Kevin Qiu and Angus Kai Ho Ng, head of product marketing and spokesperson – fall to XDA colleagues just in the spotlight of MWC 2022. The two executives talked about the future of the POCO brand, but also of MIUI and what can be expected in the near future.
Throughout the interview, POCO Global executives emphasized the brand’s commitment to its community of enthusiasts several times, including those who love modding, who will be pleased to hear of the promise to continue to allow unlocking the bootloader on the entire lineup of smartphones of the Chinese house.
Furthermore, colleagues were told that, although at the moment the focus of POCO is aimed at mid-range smartphones, far more ambitious projects for the future cannot be excluded, such as a folding smartphone and an “ultra”.
Of course, these speeches do not amount to promises and do not give us any precise indication on POCO’s plans or on the timing of their eventual implementation, but they represent an opening – so exciting – towards a future of folding smartphones within everyone’s reach.
Software support and a lightened MIUI
As for the topic of software support and the possibility of catching up with the Google and Samsung models, the brand has left the decision (ie responsibility) to the MIUI development team, not being able to offer longer support than Xiaomi. In particular, Angus reported that POCO is considering offering longer support for some models and the main suspects would be those of the F and X series.
If extended support depends above all on Xiaomi’s willingness to guarantee it to its models, the executives of POCO Global have provided another very interesting starting point: evaluations are underway to offer a modified and lighter version of MIUI for the cheaper models, which they would benefit greatly in terms of performance.
In particular, to the interviewer’s observation that several users prefer cleaner and lighter interfaces to MIUI, Kevin replied that ” some customers buy low-end models for an essential function ” and Angus added, “the way you talked about a simpler or cleaner system is exactly what we’re considering for low-end, entry-level devices. That would take some load off the processor ».
Angus himself confirmed that exclusive features could be introduced for the POCOs, pointing out how the POCO Launcher was introduced just to try something new and how the team is working to improve it since the launch of version 2.0 in 2020.
At the moment it is superfluous to make predictions on this hypothetical lightened MIUI, given that it constitutes a mere possibility – and it could remain so – and that the cuts could touch some of the bloatware currently present in abundance or even more advanced functions to be reserved for the most powerful models.
In any case, Kevin has stated in no uncertain terms that 2022 will be POCO’s best year so far, so we just have to wait and hope for a change of pace, as the start has not been encouraging.