Last Updated on October 23, 2022 by pg@petergamma.org
here are my pros and cons of the Mi A2 and the Pocophone.
Pros Mi A2:
- lays better in the hand because phone is slightly smaller
- display seems to be a little bit better than on the Pocophone
- supported by the UBports Installer
- 4GB or 6GB of RAM, 32GB/64GB/128GB of ROM
- easy to open, 2 screws close to the USB port, case is not glued
- replacement parts available on ebay
- got a used Mi A2 with 6GB of RAM and 128GB ROM that is in a pretty good shape for 85 Euro on Ebay. I was very lucky. Good used ones are available for around 100 Euro and upwards as of now.
- Unlock process more straight forward over fastboot and ADB. No regristration is necessary.
Cons Mi A2:
- no Micro SD card Slot
- no headphone jack, USB-C to headphone jack adapter comes with the phone
- Snapdragon 660 is ok
Pros Pocophone F1:
- Micro SD card slot(shared with second SIM slot), headphone jack
- Pocophone is still a fast phone with the Snapdragon 845
- 6GB or 8GB RAM, 64GB or 128GB or 256GB ROM
- easy to open, 2 screws close to the USB port, case is not glued
- replacement parts available on ebay
- very good support for alot of custom ROMs (crdroid was my favorite so far)
Cons Pocophone F1:
- display is not bad but the one on the Mi A2 seems to be slightly better
- Phone is a little bit bigger
- Unlock process is much more complicated because you need to use the Mi Unlock Tool to do it. For that you need a Mi account, a SIM-card and an email adress. In the past it worked best with an Gmail account. There were problems with other mail providers! When you ‘apply’ for the unlock you have to wait 3 days to actually unlock the phone.
- price for a used phone seems to be higher for a used pocophone. Once I was lucky I got one in a nearly perfect shape for 100 Euro. But prices for used pocophones vary between 120 and 200 Euro. The 8GB RAM / 256GB ROM version is much more seldom and also more expensive.
BTW, I wasn’t succesful installing UB Touch with UBports Installer on my Mi A2. The installation was stuck on the point where you boot into the UB Touch Recovery and the UBports Installer should be copying the UB Touch image file to the phone. I waited 2 hours and nothing happened.
Maybe I should install it manually using TWRP like I saw it in a video.
https://forums.ubports.com/topic/5219/best-recent-phone-hardware-for-install/21
Peter Gamma 19.4.2021 2:00