POCO has announced the new POCO F9 Series — and the prices are jaw-dropping. And, no, we don’t mean that in a good way. We mean they’re jaw-droppingly high, squarely in the territory of what other premium flagships in 2026 cost these days.
Globally, we’re looking at retail prices that shatter the budget-friendly illusion historically attached to the Xiaomi sub-brand. While the base Pro starts at a relatively restrained $699, the top-tier Ultra models soar well over the $1,000 mark.
- POCO F9 Ultra
- 12GB/256GB: $799
- 16GB/512GB: $949
- 16GB/1TB: $1,199
- POCO F9 Pro
- 12GB/256GB: $699
- 12GB/512GB: $769
PH pricing and early-bird promos
Looking at the local market, the sticker shock is real. In the Philippines, the POCO F9 Ultra retails at ₱55,999 for the base 12GB/256GB model. It goes up to ₱59,999 and a staggering ₱89,999 if you opt for the 16GB/512GB and 16GB/1TB configurations, respectively.
The POCO F9 Pro, on the other hand, starts at a steep ₱49,999 for the 12GB/256GB variant, while the 12GB/512GB version is priced at ₱54,999.
To soften the blow, POCO will run early-bird promos for both smartphones until Sept. 16. The base F9 Ultra gets a price cut down to ₱45,999, while the higher-tier variants get significant discounts, bringing the 16GB/512GB down to ₱48,999 and the maxed-out 16GB/1TB variant to ₱79,999. During this same preorder window, the base F9 Pro drops to ₱33,999, and you can buy the 12GB/512GB F9 Pro for ₱35,999.
For those curious about the aesthetics, the POCO F9 Ultra is available in Dark Cherry and Black, whereas the POCO F9 Pro arrives in White, Black, and Aurora Green.
Blame the current memory crisis
To be fair, these unprecedented — but largely expected — price hikes are out of Xiaomi’s control. The global surge in memory costs has pushed the smartphone industry into an era of rising manufacturing expenses. With the exception of few companies like Apple, nearly everyone has adjusted the retail price of their smartphones to reflect the sky-high costs of memory and storage components.
So, what exactly are you getting for the money? Quite a lot, actually. The POCO F9 Ultra is a monstrous device, powered by Qualcomm’s 3nm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor. It features a 6.9-inch 185Hz ultra-bright AMOLED display and a generous 8,050mAh battery capable of 100-watt wired and 50-watt wireless charging. Its camera array boasts a 200-megapixel main shooter with OIS, a 50-megapixel periscope telephoto with a 120mm equivalent focal length, and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide.
POCO F9 Ultra
The POCO F9 Pro, meanwhile, runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 V Series chipset — a slightly toned down version of the SoC found in the Ultra model — and sports a slightly more compact 6.59-inch 185Hz display. It retains the same rapid charging speeds for its still-hefty 6,330mAh cell and keeps the 200-megapixel primary camera, but swaps the secondary lenses for a 50-megapixel floating telephoto and an 8-megapixel ultra-wide. Both devices offer IP68 dust and water resistance, along with Bose-tuned audio.
POCO F9 Pro
The end of POCO as a value brand?
Ultimately, we might be looking at the beginning of the end for POCO as a value brand. At these prices, should we still consider POCO a budget champion? No, we’re really curious what you think. If you’re interested in the POCO F9 Ultra and POCO F9 Pro — which we believe are just pretty iterative upgrades outside of those bigger batteries, 200-megapixel main cameras, and faster displays — we suggest you purchase them during the preorder window.
Otherwise, skip this generation and look elsewhere. Although, you’re probably looking at a higher cost historically, whichever way you look, if you’re shopping for a flagship in 2026.
And that’s the rub here. This memory crisis has affected everyone. Xiaomi’s POCO isn’t immune to it, nor does this launch show the company’s willingness to lower its margins to maintain the same aggressive pricing it has used for the POCO brand in recent years. That said, if these are the prices we could expect from POCO moving forward, what then should we expect for premium phone brands? We don’t think anyone’s excited to find out at this point.
POCO F9 Ultra specs
- 6.9-inch AMOLED display, POCO HyperRGB (2,608 x 1,200) resolution, 185Hz refresh rate, up to 10,000 nits peak brightness, Corning Gorilla Glass 7i
- 3nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 5G processor
- Adreno 840 GPU
- 12GB/16GB LPDDR5X RAM
- 256GB/512GB/1TB UFS 4.1 internal storage
- 200-megapixel main with OIS, 50-megapixel periscope telephoto with OIS, 50-megapixel ultra-wide rear cameras
- 32-megapixel front camera
- Ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor
- 8,050mAh battery with 100-watt wired, 50-watt wireless fast charging
- Xiaomi HyperOS 3 based on Android 16
- IP68 dust and water resistance
- Color options: Dark Cherry, Black
POCO F9 Pro specs
- 6.59-inch AMOLED display, POCO HyperRGB (2,510 x 1,156) resolution, 185Hz refresh rate, up to 10,000 nits peak brightness, Corning Gorilla Glass 7i
- 3nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 V Series 5G processor
- Adreno 840 GPU
- 12GB LPDDR5X RAM
- 256GB/512GB UFS 4.1 internal storage
- 200-megapixel main with OIS, 50-megapixel floating telephoto with OIS, 8-megapixel ultra-wide rear cameras
- 32-megapixel front camera
- Ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor
- 6,330mAh battery with 100-watt wired, 50-watt wireless fast charging
- Xiaomi HyperOS 3 based on Android 16
- IP68 dust and water resistance
- Color options: White, Black, Aurora Green
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