The Xiaomi Pocophone F1 posts a very impressive AnTuTu score only next to the Black Shark

The Xiaomi Pocophone F1 is a much anticipated phone from the Chinese Android major. Pocophone is Xiaomi's sub-brand and is expected to offer flagship features at relatively affordable prices. Information about the Pocophone F1 is slowly but steadily trickling to the web — we first saw the handset hit FCC and then saw a run down of major specifications via its Bluetooth SIG certification. Now, we are getting to see the phone feature in benchmarks with AnTuTu being the first of them.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 845-powered Pocophone F1 seems to have aced this test by scoring a whopping 285302 points, placing it ahead of competing flagships such as the OnePlus 6, Asus Zenfone 5Z, and Xiaomi's own Mi 8. So far, we know that the Pocophone F1 comes in 6GB/64GB and 8GB/128GB variants. However, it is not exactly known which variant of the Pocophone F1 was featured in this test. The current leader of the crop is the Xiaomi Black Shark 8GB version with a combined score of 288187. This puts the Pocophone F1 right next to it so in all probability this might have been the 8GB variant. For perspective, the OnePlus 6 8GB has a score of 284830 while the Asus Zenfone 5Z 6GB posted a score 267257.

Benchmark numbers seldom mimic real-world usage but it is always good to know the relative performance of a device with respect to the competition. So what gives the Xiaomi Pocophone F1 and the Black Shark the edge in benchmarks? One of the main reasons is the presence of liquid cooled SoCs. As smartphone SoCs grow increasingly capable and users constantly try to push the phone to its limits, a good cooling system can help offset some of the effects of high temperatures such as throttling — an good example of which can be seen in Xiaomi's own Mi 8. Although the Mi 8 sports the Snapdragon 845, its real-world performance was more inline with a Snapdragon 835 phone thanks to throttling due to inadequate cooling. So far, liquid cooling has been limited to a handful of phones but next year, more devices can be expected to sport liquid cooling mechanisms.

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