Earlier last month, the GST Council in its 39th meeting increased GST rates for several products including mobile phones from 12% to 18% applicable from April 1st, 2020. As announced, mobile brands have increased the prices of their smartphones and earlier today, Apple increased prices of the iPhone lineup. Following that, POCO has also announced that a Rs. 1000 price hike across all variants of the POCO X2 smartphone.
After the price hike, POCO X2 6GB + 64GB variant costs Rs. 16,999, against its previous price of Rs. 15,999. The 6GB + 128GB variant now costs Rs. 17,999, against its previous price of Rs. 16,999, and lastly the top-end 8GB + 256GB variant now costs Rs. 20,999, against its previous price of Rs. 19,999. The revised prices are already live on Flipkart but due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, it is temporarily unavailable.
| Model | Old MRP (INR) | New MRP (INR) | % increase |
| POCO X2 (6+64GB) | Rs. 15,999 | Rs. 16,999 | 6.25 |
| POCO X2 (6+128GB) | Rs. 16,999 | Rs. 17,999 | 5.88 |
| POCO X2 (8+256GB) | Rs. 19,999 | Rs. 20,999 | 5 |
To recall, POCO X2 packs a 6.67-inch Full HD+ “Reality Flow” 120Hz LCD screen with 4.38mm, a dual-punch-hole screen with 91% screen-to-body ratio, thanks to 4.25mm ultra-narrow bottom frame, is powered by Snapdragon 730G with up to 8GB of RAM, has liquid cooling, and runs Android 10 with MIUI 11 on top.
It packs Sony IMX686 64-megapixel 1/1.7″ sensor, 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens, 2-megapixel 2cm super macro and a 2-megapixel camera for portrait shots. On the front, there is a 20-megapixel camera along with a secondary 2-megapixel camera for portrait shots. It has RAW support, 960 fps slow-mo capture, and vlog mode.
The phone has a 3D curved frosted glass body with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection, side-mounted fingerprint scanner and packs a 4500mAh battery with 27W fast charging with the fast charger in the box.
POCO India in a statement said:
For us here at POCO, delivering what we stand for is of utmost importance. It’s been an uphill, but enjoyable task for us — given the limited resources we have — since turning independent this January. However, we’ve been fortunate to have the support of our community during and after the launch of POCO X2.
These are unprecedented times. Business has been impacted by multiple factors, and while we did as much as we could to bear the brunt, it’s now come to a point where we will have to readjust pricing to continue making business sense. The falling rupee (against the US dollar) put pressure on our balance sheet, while the COVID-19 outbreak put pressure on the supply chain. Most importantly, the recent hike in GST on smartphones from 12% to 18% is a significant jump, and as a consequence, we have no choice but to increase prices.