Xiaomi’s budget sub-brand POCO has announced two new products today: the POCO C81 Pro smartphone and POCO Pad C1 tablet in Malaysia, both targeting ultra-budget segments (and they share most of the hardware with another of Xiaomi’s sub-brand, REDMI). Notably, both devices are the first in their respective lineups to come with Xiaomi HyperOS 3, based on Android 15.
POCO C81 Pro
The POCO C81 Pro is largely based on the REDMI A7 Pro, with a 6.9-inch 120Hz IPS display rated for 800 nits of HBM brightness, a 6,000mAh battery, same Unisoc T7250 chipset (which is a very entry-level chip based on 12nm process), 4GB LPDDR4X memory and UFS 2.2 storage in three options. As far as we can tell, there’s only a single feature difference between these two smartphones: the POCO features NFC support while REDMI does not. Touch ‘n Go NFC card users, rejoice.
POCO Pad C1
POCO also introduced the POCO Pad C1 tablet, which is effectively a rebadged REDMI Pad 2 9.7 tablet that happens to be sold in Malaysia as well. The only difference between the two models comes down to storage configurations, where the POCO is offered with 6GB LPDDR4X RAM option, as opposed to 4GB only in the REDMI equivalent.
That side, you’re looking at the exact same hardware: 9.7-inch 2K (2048 x 1280) display with 120Hz refresh rate and peak brightness of 600 nits, 7,600mAh battery with 18W fast charging, Snapdragon 6s 4G Gen 2 chipset, single 8MP rear camera and 5MP front camera, Wi-Fi 5 support, and UFS 2.2 storage (in 64GB or 128GB options). You do also get new color options in Blue and Grey, as opposed to REDMI’s Silver and Graphite Gray options.
Pricing
The POCO C81 Pro is available in three storage variants comprising 4+64GB, 4+128GB and 4+256GB configurations, starting from RM399; the POCO Pad C1 is offered in Grey and Blue color options with 4+64GB and 6+128GB variants, costing RM599 and RM799 respectively. Both devices are now available via mi.com and Xiaomi’s official stores on Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop.
Pokdepinion: I’ve seen badge engineering in cars before, but phones? You don’t see that usually.