Xiaomi-owned Pocophone has kicked off an advertising blitz on Twitter through its POCO India account, aimed squarely at rival company OnePlus and the brand new OnePlus 6T. Each of the ads in the campaign focuses on a kind of comparison between the former company’s Poco F1 and the newer Android device, running through one of several metrics individually and highlighting where the Poco F1 looks better. The chuckle-worthy tidbits of trolling are brought together under the slogan “do the math” and culminate in a final comparison of pricing which shows, in Indian Rupees, that the Poco F1 is approximately $230 less expensive. Of course, the ads begin on a couple of points of commonality between the two flagship-grade handsets. That’s the fact that both ship with a respectable minimum of 6GB RAM and each features the latest Snapdragon 845 SoC under the hood.
Things escalate fairly quickly soon after, with Pocophone next comparing what is arguably a point of contention for OnePlus users – namely the removal of the headphone jack. From there the company posts up numbers that detail the battery capacity of the two handsets, with the Poco F1 showing 300mAh higher figures than the 3,700mAh power supply for the OnePlus 6T. That’s topped off by the sharing of a gif which simply shows the prices of the two devices being entered into a minimalist representation of a calculator, roughly $512 for the OnePlus 6T and $283 for the Poco F1.
Background: Pocophone’s advertising here isn’t completely off the mark but there are other factors that have been left out in the comparison. As comments on the campaign have pointed out, for starters, the Pocophone Poco F1 and OnePlus 6T feature vastly different user interfaces. The former uses Xiaomi’s take on Android, MIUI, while the latter gives users a refreshed version of OxygenOS. That’s a point that’s relatively subjective but the differences don’t end there. While the Poco F1 launched back in August, the OnePlus 6T announcement is less than a week old. What’s more, although the latter of the two handsets features a metal frame with Gorilla Glass 6 coating the front and back panels, the Poco F1 is a Gorilla Glass 3 display embedded in a plastic framework.
For the screens themselves, Pocophone utilized a more budget-friendly 2,246 x 1,080 LCD touchscreen and OnePlus went with an AMOLED display that’s around .3-inches larger with a 2,340 x 1,080 resolution. Another area that may raise contention among discerning customers is the larger display notch found on the Poco F1. By contrast, OnePlus has reduced its notch to fit everything in a very small “droplet” shaped cutout at the center of the OnePlus 6T panel. While notches are all but expected on modern flagship devices and even many mid-range or budget Android smartphones, that’s not necessarily something users want.
Impact: None of that is to say that Pocophone is really out of line with its ads or that its Poco F1 isn’t a very capable and extremely high-value flagship killer. It is, in fact, more than deserving of those titles. However, buying a smartphone is an investment and what makes a great Android device for one consumer may not align well with what other buyers are looking for. As a result of that subjectivity, there’s no guarantee the ads will keep anybody from buying the OnePlus 6T. That’s especially true in regions such as the US, where more affordable devices like the Pocophone Poco F1 aren’t officially meant to function but the OnePlus 6T represents a real bargain and will be available through at least one carrier. Bearing that in mind, the addition of the tagline “Never settle for OverPriced” should at least make the continuing rivalry between the two handset makers more entertaining.
Never Settle for OverPriced. Unlock the #MasterOfSpeed. You decide. #DoTheMathpic.twitter.com/KvCIDyXXSq
— POCO India #POCOM3 (@IndiaPOCO) October 30, 2018