Xiaomi’s sub-brand POCO launched the POCO F1 smartphone in India back in August 2018 running MIUI 9.6 Global Stable on top of Android 8.1 (Oreo) and later updated it to Android 9.0 in December 2018. The device runs MIUI 11 based on Android 9.0 as of now.
POCO F1 is confirmed to get Android 1o update, the company has not shared any timeline for Android 10 rollout but POCO F1 has one of the most active developer community and as a result, we already have Android 10 based custom ROMs for the device. Earlier, we tried Android 10 based Pixel Experience and Android 10 based OxygenOS port on our POCO F1. A couple of weeks ago we tried Havoc OS 3.0 on POCO F1 and here is our post that may help you in deciding whether you should flash it on your unit.
Performance and Benchmarks:
POCO F1 packs Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 which is a beast when it comes to performance, it obtained a score of 326081 on Antutu 8. It scored 2377 points in single-core test and 7705 points in multi-core test in Geekbench 4. In Geekbench 5 test, it managed to get a 512 points in single-core test and 1665 points in multi-core test. PUBG runs on HDR graphics by default, we found the game okay smooth during our usage. I found Twitter app freezing a few times during my usgae, it was the only app freezing and crashing so it is not a major issue.
Software, UI, and Apps:
Havoc OS is AOSP based and it offers a blot-free experience similar to stock Android. You will find only a few apps pre-installed, most of which can be disabled.
Out of 64 GB internal storage, 8 GB is occupied by the system and users get around 56 GB of free storage. This ROM is based on the latest Android 10 and has December Android security patch. Havoc OS offers various customizations, be it status bar, power menu, or quick settings tiles, check out the following screenshots.
Fingerprint Sensor:
The fingerprint works flawlessly on this ROM as you would expect, users can add up to five different fingerprints to unlock the phone. The fingerprint animation is slow due to which the phone unlocking experience is slower as compared to stock MIUI Global ROM but during our usage, we found it accurate and reliable.
Camera:
The inbuilt camera app is very basic, but you can install GCam apk mods to get the better results along with portrait and night mode. A working GCam 7 version can be downloaded from here, for more ported GCam mods users can visit Google Camera Port Updates telegram channel.
Battery Life:
I found the battery life on the Havoc OS on par with the MIUI ROM, it can easily last for a day with heavy usage. On moderate usage, it can last for 2 days as well. Havoc OS offer adaptive battery that Google introduced with Android 9 last year. Additionally, users can also restrict background activities for the selected apps as per their preference.
There is a battery saver mode that restricts background activities, visual effects and other high-power consuming features to save some power and should help when the phone is low on charge. The phone also shows charging information including the device temperature and current on the lock screen.
Pros
- Fluid day to day performance
- Customizations
- Bloat-free UI
- Good battery life
- Banking apps work without any issue after flashing Magisk
Cons
- Face unlock isn’t available
- Lacks OTA updates
Requirements:
- POCO F1 with an unlocked bootloader – To Unlock the bootloader of your device, apply here.
- TWRP for POCO F1 – Click here to download.
- Havoc-OS – Download the latest ROM ZIP file from here.
- Magisk – Click here to download.
- GApps – Click here to download.
- ADB software (For Windows) / Android zip file (For Mac)
If you are on a Mac you need to
- Extract the Android zip and place the folder on your Desktop.
- Open Terminal
- Type cd Desktop/Android
- Enter ./ADB-Install-Mac.sh
Follow the procedure mentioned below to flash the ROM on the device,
- Switch off the phone and boot it into Fastboot mode by long pressing Power and Volume down buttons simultaneously.
- Connect your phone to PC by a USB cable, open command prompt on your PC and navigate to the folder where you have downloaded TWRP Recovery.
- Type ‘fastboot devices’ in command prompt and check if the device is detected by the system.
- If the system detects the phone, type ‘fastboot flash recovery twrp_filename.img’ and hit enter, the process will be completed in seconds.
- Now long-press the Volume up and Power Button to boot the phone in recovery mode.
- It will ask to allow modifications, Slide towards the right to allow Modifications.
- Select ‘Wipe’, click on ‘Format Data’ and type ‘Yes’. Go to ‘Advanced Wipe’, select ‘Dalvik / ART Cache’, ‘System’. ‘Data’, ‘Cache’ and then swipe towards the right to Wipe.
- Go back and click on ‘Install’, navigate to the location where you have stored ROM zip, and Magisk (optional), it’s better to keep these zip files on SD Card or USB OTG drives. Select the ROM file and Magisk zip and then swipe towards the right to flash.
- Click on ‘Reboot’ and then ‘System’, within 5-10 minutes device will boot with Havoc-OS.
Credits: We would like to acknowledge the efforts of Anushek Prasal and Viktor Hermann towards developing Havoc-OS for POCO F1, Dees_Troy for the development of TWRP Recovery for POCO F1, maartenfonville and nezorflame for the development of OpenGApps, Abhi for the development of GCam and all developers who contribute to the development of Magisk and Magisk Modules.
Warning Disclaimer: Bootloader unlocking and flashing ROM may void the warranty of Xiaomi devices, FoneArena is not responsible for any damage or loss caused to your device.