Poco X8s Goes Global: a Compact Phone With a Telephoto Camera From $399

By TaazaPulse News Desk · Published: 30 October 2026 · TaazaPulse Tech Desk

Poco has launched the X8s globally, and it is not the phone the market expected from the brand. Unveiled on 26 October, the X8s is a compact handset — a 6.35-inch display in a body barely 8 mm thick — carrying equipment Poco has never fitted to this line before: a dedicated 50-megapixel telephoto camera with 2.5x optical zoom, an IP68 water-resistance rating and an ultrasonic in-display fingerprint reader. Early-bird pricing starts at $399 for the 8 GB/256 GB model and $499 for the 12 GB/512 GB version. There is, however, no Pakistan launch and no official Pakistani price — and one line on Poco's own specification sheet, older memory and storage standards, is the trade-off buyers are being asked to accept for the rest.

The headline feature is the screen. The 6.35-inch LTPO AMOLED panel runs at a 2656×1220 resolution with an adaptive refresh rate that scales from 1 to 120 Hz — technology that lets the display sip power on static content and spin up for gaming — and Poco claims a peak brightness of 3,500 nits, with bezels of just 1.18 mm. Compact flagships have become a small but vocal niche as mainstream phones have grown past 6.7 inches, and the X8s is Poco's entry into it: at 151.1 × 71.8 × 8.06 mm and 187 grams, it is notably smaller and lighter than the brand's usual X-series slabs.

Cameras: a telephoto where none was expected

The camera system is the launch's real surprise. The main camera uses a 50 MP Light Fusion 800 sensor — a large 1/1.55-inch unit — with optical image stabilisation. Beside it sits the phone's signature addition: a 50 MP telephoto with a 57 mm-equivalent lens, giving 2.5x optical zoom at an f/2.2 aperture, a specification mid-range phones almost never offer. An 8 MP ultrawide and a 20 MP front camera complete the set. For Poco, whose X line has historically sold on chipset-per-dollar and treated cameras as an afterthought, leading a launch with a three-lens system and a genuine optical zoom is a change of doctrine — aimed squarely at buyers who cross-shop the camera-first competition.

Performance comes from Qualcomm's Snapdragon 7 Gen 4, a 4 nm chip clocked up to 2.8 GHz — capable upper-mid-range silicon rather than a flagship processor, which is precisely where the compromises begin. Poco's own global specification page lists the X8s with LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 2.2 storage: both are standards a generation or two behind what rivals fit at this price, and both affect how fast the phone loads, saves and ages. Some launch-week coverage described the phone with faster LPDDR5X and UFS 4.0 components; Poco's published specifications say otherwise, and the company has not commented on the discrepancy. Buyers comparing spec sheets should trust the manufacturer's page over the launch headlines.

Battery, build and the Xiaomi 17 question

The battery is easier to praise: a 6,330 mAh silicon-carbon cell — large for a phone this size — with 100 W wired HyperCharge and 22.5 W reverse charging for topping up accessories. The body carries a full IP68 rating against dust and water immersion, the fingerprint reader is the faster ultrasonic type rather than the optical sensors usual at this price, and the checklist runs to an infrared blaster, NFC, Wi-Fi 6 and 5G. The phone ships with Android 16-based HyperOS 3, in Blue, Black and White.

Specification watchers noticed something else within hours of the launch: the X8s's dimensions and battery capacity are, to the decimal, identical to Xiaomi's global Xiaomi 17 — 151.1 × 71.8 × 8.06 mm and 6,330 mAh. Poco has not said the X8s is built on the Xiaomi 17, and the two phones differ where it counts: Xiaomi's flagship runs the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 with Leica-tuned cameras and wireless charging, while the X8s uses the 7 Gen 4, different sensors and no wireless charging at all. The shared shell appears to be platform economics rather than a rebrand — a proven compact body, refitted at a lower price.

Side-by-side comparisons published after the launch — Memeburn's analysis of the two official specification sheets among them — underline how much of the flagship experience the X8s keeps and where the $400 difference lives. Buyers give up the flagship processor's gaming headroom, the larger and finer camera sensors and their Leica co-engineered optics, 50 W wireless charging and the Xiaomi phone's extra water-resistance tiers; the Xiaomi 17's global pricing starts around $799, double the X8s's early-bird entry. What X8s buyers keep is the part most people handle all day: the compact body, the bright high-refresh screen, the battery size and charging speed, and — unusually — a dedicated telephoto, which the comparison judged sufficient for most users' photography, with the flagship reserved for enthusiasts and heavy gamers. It is a coherent product strategy: same hand-feel, half the price, and the cuts made almost entirely in places a spec sheet notices more than a hand does.

Prices, availability — and Pakistan

The early-bird prices — $399 and $499 — were announced through Poco Global's own channels at the unveiling and apply to the launch window; Poco has not announced what the phones will cost once the early-bird period ends. The X8s went on sale first in Vietnam on 25 October at list prices of VND 11.5 million and VND 14 million, with other global markets following through Poco's usual online channels.

For Pakistani buyers, the position is simple and, for now, disappointing: Poco has announced no Pakistan launch, no PTA-approved variant and no price in rupees for the X8s, and none should be quoted until it does. The phone will likely surface through unofficial import channels in the coming weeks, but grey-market prices vary by seller and day, and TaazaPulse's mobile prices desk lists only verified, dated prices from named sources — which is why the X8s does not yet appear in our mobile prices section. If Poco Pakistan announces the phone officially, its verified price will be added there the same day.

The full specification sheet

For readers comparing on paper, the X8s's confirmed specifications run as follows. Display: 6.35-inch LTPO AMOLED, 2656×1220, adaptive 1–120 Hz, up to 3,500 nits peak brightness, 1.18 mm bezels. Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 (4 nm, up to 2.8 GHz). Memory and storage: 8 GB RAM with 256 GB, or 12 GB with 512 GB — LPDDR4X and UFS 2.2 per Poco's own global specification page. Rear cameras: 50 MP Light Fusion 800 main sensor (1/1.55-inch, OIS), 50 MP telephoto (2.5x optical, 57 mm equivalent, f/2.2), 8 MP ultrawide. Front camera: 20 MP. Battery: 6,330 mAh silicon-carbon, 100 W wired HyperCharge, 22.5 W reverse wired charging. Build: IP68 dust and water resistance, ultrasonic in-display fingerprint reader, 151.1 × 71.8 × 8.06 mm, 187 g. Connectivity and extras: 5G, Wi-Fi 6, NFC, infrared blaster. Software: HyperOS 3 on Android 16. Colours: Blue, Black and White.

Who this phone is for — and who should wait

The X8s makes most sense for a specific buyer: one who wants a phone that fits a smaller hand and a normal pocket, takes portraits with a real optical zoom rather than a digital crop, and charges fast enough that battery anxiety disappears — and who does not play the heaviest games at maximum settings or transfer enormous files daily, the two places the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 and UFS 2.2 storage will actually be felt. Against compact flagships costing far more, the early-bird price is aggressive. Against Poco's own larger X-series phones, the calculation flips: buyers who prioritise raw performance per dollar, and do not mind a 6.7-inch handset, will find faster chips and faster storage elsewhere in the same catalogue for similar money. The X8s is a bet that a measurable slice of the market is tired of big phones — a bet other manufacturers have made at flagship prices, and that Poco is the first to make at this one.

Pakistani buyers tempted by imports should add two cautions to that calculation. An unofficially imported X8s would need PTA registration to work on local mobile networks, at whatever charges apply at the time, and would carry no local warranty — costs and risks that can erase the early-bird saving. The rational move for this market is the patient one: wait for Poco Pakistan to announce the phone, or for its verified price to settle, before treating the $399 headline as a Pakistani price. It is not one yet.

Judged on its own terms, the X8s is the most interesting phone Poco has made: a genuinely compact body, a camera system with a real telephoto, flagship-grade waterproofing and a very large battery, traded against a mid-range processor and yesterday's memory standards. At $399 in the early-bird window, that is a defensible bargain for buyers who value size and cameras over raw speed. Whether it stays defensible depends on the price Poco sets when the early birds fly — and, for this market, on whether Pakistan gets the phone at all.