Poco F9 Ultra: A Phone Like No Other
It can take imagination to make a phone stand out these days, thanks in part to everything feeling largely the same. Outside of foldables or random models with extra cameras that pop out of the side or back, most phones are largely the same concept: a big screen backed by a big battery, a 5G modem, and several cameras. You know the deal.
If you’re looking to stand out, or at least have something no other phone gets, the choices are basically phones that fold or possibly dumb phones. A new phone from Poco could give you something different, though, as one of Xiaomi’s sub-brands offers something you might expect from a sub-brand: a sub. Or more specifically a subwoofer.
It’s definitely not something we had on our bingo cards this year, and we’re not even entirely sure of the use, but the Poco F9 Ultra will come with a built-in subwoofer, something we’re not sure any phone has ever arrived with or even needed to date.
Poco’s reason for including this bass-making driver isn’t just to make history with the world’s first mobile subwoofer, but rather to give gamers a little more oomph, because they’re the focus of this phone. The mobile includes two stereo speakers alongside that subwoofer for a compact equivalent of a 2.1 stereo system, but made for movie watching and gaming, and tuned by Bose. It will also feature a “game audio” mode to increase the loudness once again, handy if you’re at home and playing a game, rather than sharing it on a train (seriously, don’t do that; use some headphones instead).
Atop that sound system is a 6.9 inch 185Hz AMOLED screen offering up to 4500 nits of peak brightness, but going up to 10,000 for HDR, and working with an engine Poco calls the “WildBoost” to make games a little faster on the screen. The frame rates can hit up to 185 frames per second and will include a dedicated chipset to handle visuals, apparently boosting mobile games.
Granted, these are Android games as opposed to that of Switch or Steam, but if you know someone gaming on the likes of PUBG Mobile or Call of Duty to go, it might be exactly what they’re after.
Inside the F9 Ultra is this year’s flagship processor of choice, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, similar to what’s in both Leica Leitzphone and the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, making it fast enough for now, and likely the next few years. There are also three rear cameras, covering a 200 megapixel wide camera, 50 megapixel ultra-wide, and 50 megapixel 5X telephoto, plus a massive 8050mAh battery, essentially suggesting a lot of gameplay or up to two days of regular battery life.
Only one variant will be released of the Poco F9 Ultra in Australia, a 512GB model with 16GB RAM, but it will be found in both cherry and black, and priced at 99 locally, landing locally from next week.
