Redmi K50 Gaming Edition has just become official in China as the first phone in the highly anticipated K50 series. The lineup is expected to be called Poco F4 in Pakistan, while the K50 Gaming Edition will hit the international market as Poco F4 GT.
K50 Gaming Edition is also the first Xiaomi phone to flaunt the company’s partnership with the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team. The result is a special edition phone graced with the racing team’s badge and colors.
The screen is a 6.67-inch AMOLED panel with 1080p resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a 480Hz touch sampling rate for a low input delay during gaming. It also supports 10-bit colors for superior color accuracy and is protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus.
Just like its predecessor, the K50 Gaming Edition also has physical shoulder buttons on the right side and a profile switcher to switch between gaming modes.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC is one of the main upgrades over the last generation. It is a 4nm powerhouse, but it is also infamous for overheating. Xiaomi has that in check with an all-new dual vapor chamber (VC) cooling system. There is a copper radiator right on top of the chipset and there are also graphite sheets, stainless steel, and mesh materials to keep thermals in control.
The available memory configurations are 8GB/128GB, 12GB/128GB, and 12GB/256GB. All of these are a combination of LPDDR5 and UFS 3.1 memory.
The phone boots Android 12 with MIUI 13 on top.
Gaming phones are not exactly known for their cameras, so we don’t expect to see high-end camera quality here, but Xiaomi has still equipped the phone with a decent setup. This includes a 64MP Sony IMX 686 primary sensor, an 8MP ultrawide camera, and a 2MP telemacro camera. The primary sensor is slightly larger than the last generation, which should result in better photos.
The selfie camera has been updated from a 16MP shooter to a 20MP Sony IMX 596. Gaming phones tend to have better selfie cameras as they can be used for live streaming.
Battery capacity has been marginally downgraded to 4,700 mAh, but fast charging has seen a significant upgrade. The K50 Gaming Edition comes with 120W wired charging, which can fill up the phone’s battery from 0 to 100% in only 17 minutes.
The regular K50 Gaming Edition has a starting price of only $520 in China, but the special edition Mercedes AMG F1 model will cost $662. International availability and pricing are yet to be announced.