Need review about Poco brand

I am thinking of getting a Poco M2 pro. I have very little idea about this brand so I was hoping you guys can share some thoughts.
1. How long does Poco provide support for their devices when it comes to Android ROM updates(eg. A10, A11)?
2. How regular are they when it comes to security updates?
3. How is the after support after their end-of-service period?

Finally, given its a Chinese brand and the security concerns would you guys still suggest to get it? If I debloat this device with those additional Mi-based apps will my phone be secure. Would it cause any issues when future updates are released?
How is the ad scene? From all the reviews seen on net, I haven't seen anyone using a launcher other than poco. Can't we use any other launcher apart from Poco?
Does using another launcher re-enables the ads?

The Phone UI places ads in its operating system while using the phone . I have also heard the phone sending Phone location info and other personal data in the name of Improvement program

OS updates are just as any chinese vendor . First 2 years , then forget it

I am comment on one thing . If u buy a poco phone if u flash a custom rom u will be good to go. there are plenty of custom roms and kernels availble to poco phoones and it also has a good developer support. U can debloat ur phone completely , and u will not be getting any ad based issues but increased perfomance , cutomizations

I have POCO F1, really nice phone. It came with Oreo on launch and they they still are given updates. The stock firmware shipped with it was nice too and it didn't have ads compared to Redmi's firmware. Currently using a custom ROM and it just makes a day and night difference. Thats what I like about xiaomi, Unlockable bootloaders and healthy developer community. If software is your priority Samsungs are fine but poor update support (no custom rom support) and not so good hardware (except screen), otherwise buy a Redmi or POCO Phone and flash custom ROM.

shashankb said:

The Phone UI places ads in its operating system while using the phone . I have also heard the phone sending Phone location info and other personal data in the name of Improvement program

OS updates are just as any chinese vendor . First 2 years , then forget it

Click to expand...

But it's poco, so ads should not be there. I have also heard reviewers saying that there are no ads on poco phones. Could you please confirm if ads are present.
If we disable "improvement programme" while setting up the phone, then I think data should not be sent.
By two years update you mean Android system updates(like android 11, android 12) or feature/optimization updates with one major system update. The phone is currently on A10 and it has recently got MIUI12.
@Luifer, I will be debloating MIUI and will run it till it receives support. After that, would go for Custom OS.

I am using POCO M2 Pro 6GB for a month or so and the experience has been good.

1. Updates - POCO F1 which was launched in 2018 is still getting regular updates. When launched it was on Android 8.1 and now its on Android 10 (MIUI 11). Though it'll get MIUI 12 it won't get Android 11. So going by past experience you can be sure of atleast 2 major Android updates, which is pretty much the industry standard.

2. POCO phones have a much better track record of getting security updates every month or so when compared to Redmi/Mi phones.

3. I don't have much experience to comment.

The major downside is the presence of ads, though you can disable some of them by changing the settings. You can disable/remove most apps, but certain apps can't be disabled unless you root the device.
I am using Nova Launcher Prime with it with no issues. Ads won't be reenabled if you use an alternate launcher.

You'll be hard pressed to find phones without any Chinese hardware in it. Backdoors/malware can be and are built into the hardware of most devices. Even a non-Chinese company like Intel builds backdoors in their products. At best you can remove software level ads, telemetry, etc. by using a combination of changing the default settings and using an ad-blocking private DNS resolver. But your best bet to block all such OS-level tracking would be to flash a custom ROM like LineageOS and use a private DNS resolver with it. Fortunately, it already has got some pretty great custom ROMS which you can find in xda-developers.

shashankb said:

The Phone UI places ads in its operating system while using the phone . I have also heard the phone sending Phone location info and other personal data in the name of Improvement program

OS updates are just as any chinese vendor . First 2 years , then forget it

Click to expand...

MIUI on Xiaomi and Redmi devices have ads. Poco doesn't. That was one of the key selling points for the F1. No ads, extremely developer firendly, they've even added the names of all the custom rom and kernel developers of the F1 to the F2 (or X2?) packaging box, timely updates.

Poco now has lots of phones instead of their single F lineup which they promised. Most are rebranded Redmi devices except their flagship. Updates won't be as good as the times where they've only had a single phone to maintain. I don't know if the newer devices have ads, I'll update this if they have started doing that.

Ads can be turned off by the way, just they are many levels deep in settings. They will give two Android Updates (not too late) and 3 MIUI updates, which is their skin and you'll get new features regardless of android version. Honestly MIUI has so much more usability, privacy features way before google even tought of implementing it. And it still has. MIUI was a popular custom rom on XDA before Xiaomi even existed. So it has that going for it.

Security updates won't be regular. If you want it to be regular get a Pixel or OnePlus. Honestly there isn't any real world issues on Android that's fixed through monthly security updates any way.

@horz F1 is a flagship in poco series. With course of time they have introduced sub-categories in poco line up with F1series>Xseries>Mseries>Cseries.
So while they gave priority to F1 series and X series(given their premium segment), I have no idea how M series would do as it's newly launched segment. But I guess nobody would know.
Never liked Samsung, it's name repulses me. I am fine with using their other electronic good, but not phones(personal preference 😛)

Tejas01 said:

But it's poco, so ads should not be there. I have also heard reviewers saying that there are no ads on poco phones. Could you please confirm if ads are present.
If we disable "improvement programme" while setting up the phone, then I think data should not be sent.
By two years update you mean Android system updates(like android 11, android 12) or feature/optimization updates with one major system update. The phone is currently on A10 and it has recently got MIUI12.
@Luifer, I will be debloating MIUI and will run it till it receives support. After that, would go for Custom OS.

Click to expand...

U can debloat and use it till the warranty expires. After that u can flash custom rom easily. Also u will be getting security updates with the new builds of custom roms , as most developer are pretty much lenient towards it. Only thing while using custom rom is sometimes u cannot use ur bank's own mobile app like where the major transactions can be done , no matter whatever workaround we try it simply wont work .

@Luifer But Rooting and custom roms are two different things, right? Banking apps not working on rooted devices is understandable, but not working on custom rom??
This could be a deal breaker as I rely on banking apps for transactions. 🙁
Can anyone else also confirm the same, @horz , @nathan_ad , @Adithya ,@shashankb

Still I won't suggest buying a phone based on just custom roms. Half of the time it'll be unstable, have broken features (vilte, volte, screen cast).

You should buy a phone for what it is out of the box.

Can't say with 100% certainty re M2 Pro as I haven't rooted it yet but on my previous rooted device I was able to pass device verification by using magisk. But I wouldn't recommend this on a mission critical daily driver.

Magisk Hide's won't hold up for long -
Source

Tejas01 said:

@Luifer But Rooting and custom roms are two different things, right? Banking apps not working on rooted devices is understandable, but not working on custom rom??
This could be a deal breaker as I rely on banking apps for transactions. 🙁
Can anyone else also confirm the same, @horz , @nathan_ad , @Adithya ,@shashankb

Click to expand...

Matured Custom roms usually are stable and everything works. you should follow threads on XDA before updating custom roms, people there usually complain if somethings are broken and most of them use banking apps. as for rooting, if you dont need it for apps its not required, not rooting keeps things simple (but you cant take app backups or adblock on host level stuff).

Trust me custom roms are not the way to go. Take it from a flashaholic who used to flash roms daily, switching between android 7 to 11 to find something satisfying. It's a rabbit hole you don't want to go down to.

Check reviews, find real world users of the phones. See if it's performance holds up, camera is especially bad on budget Xiaomi devices without Gcam, that's another deep rabbit hole oh god. There are thousands!

Also check reviews for these phones

Poco M2 - Redmi 9 Prime
Poco M2 Pro - Redmi Note 9 Pro

These are the Xiaomi's Poco rebranded for their M2 line.