The love story between Xiaomi and the Kenyan smartphone market has been a complicated one. The first market penetration attempt was back in 2016 when the company partnered with a few offline distributors to sell the Xiaomi Note 2 and Redmi 2 Pro.
After a little while, the brand seemed to disappear altogether from the Kenyan space until a few months ago when Jumia started pushing Xiaomi smartphones. The other day, the company took the floor to officially announce their presence locally with the launch of the Xiaomi Redmi 6A.
So far, Xiaomi has been focusing on budget smartphones, thus we have not seen the company launch any flagships locally yet but that’s understandable seeing that the Kenyan smartphone market is driven by budget offerings.
During the launch of the Redmi 6A, Xiaomi mentioned that they would be bringing their sub-brand, Pocophone onto the market. The first device under this brand, the Pocophone F1 was announced a few days ago and the device packs flagship specs without the flagship price tag.
A quick run through the specifications of the Pocophone F1:
- 6.18″ Display with a notch
- MIUI 9.6 (POCO customization) based on Android 8.1 Oreo
- Snapdragon 845 processor
- 6GB RAM and 64GB internal storage
- Dual 12MP + 5MP main camera
- 20MP selfie shooter
- 4000mAh battery with USB-C Fast Charging
With such impressive specifications, it’s amazing how Xiaomi is pricing the Pocophone F1 at 300 Euros, thus we should see it hit the local market at between Kes.35,000 and Kes.40,000, which honestly, is a deal.
Markets that already have the device in-store claim that the camera is actually really good, which has been seen to be Kenyans most valued feature on a phone. We can’t wait to actually have the Pocophone F1 in hand, the only problem might be that name, be ready for the memes and ridicule.
UPDATE: Pocophone F1 is coming in September!
