During the recent Philippine launch of the POCO F5 Series, I had the chance to talk with Angus Ng, Head of Product Marketing for POCO about the brand’s plans for the local market as well as growing the Filipino POCO Community of fans. “We want to bring the days of having an amazing phone at US$299. At the end of the day, we want to please our users with an affordable price range and give them an incredible experience. POCO stands for performance and value,” said Ng at the sidelines for the launch event. POCO was launched in August 2018 to provide high-performance (flagship levels) smartphones at an affordable price. The brand gained popularity for its flagship-level specifications and competitive pricing. POCO devices run on Xiaomi’s MIUI software (a customized version of Android) and often feature a more streamlined, minimalist user interface compared to the former’s mainline devices. The POCO brand is currently present in ninety-three (93) markets around the globe. According to Ng, the POCO brand enjoys the support of Xiaomi when it comes to research and development. As POCO devices are primarily sold via online channels (eCommerce) rather than physical stores, Ng acknowledges the importance of KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders), who are carefully selected to reflect the brand’s standards, help create awareness, drive product interest, and potentially influence purchasing decisions. It allows the company to leverage the KOLs’ expertise and credibility to communicate the features, benefits, and unique selling points of their smartphones to a wider audience. Asked about what makes POCO different from a multitude of smartphone brands currently available in the Philippine market, Ng was quick to point out their cooling system. POCO smartphones gained popularity with their cooling systems which the brand calls a vapor chamber. This cooling solution — consisting of a flat, sealed chamber containing a small amount of fluid — is used to dissipate heat more efficiently. When the device generates heat, the fluid inside the chamber evaporates, carrying the heat away from the heat source and distributing it across the chamber’s surface. As the heat spreads, the vapor condenses back into liquid form and returns to the heat source through capillary action, completing the cycle. Vapor chambers are commonly used in high-end devices to prevent overheating and maintain optimal performance, and it is such a steal to have this awesome feature in POCO devices that are reasonably priced lower than flagship smartphones. The POCO executive made a promise to bring more awesome devices to their local fan base comprised mostly of mobile gamers. We will give you updates on this as soon as we have the latest from POCO.