Poco X4 Pro 5G Review: Offers a Good Balance Between Performance and Value

Poco X4 Pro is the latest entry in the company’s 5G smartphone portfolio in India. Poco, in a very short time, has managed to leave a mark in the mid-range smartphone segment. The company has enough devices to cater to a wide array of consumers, a portfolio that has devices starting at as low as Rs 8,000 to up to Rs 30,000. If there’s one thing that has been consistent with Poco, then it has to be the packaging. The company tries to offer more for less, which makes it the talk of the tech town around its launch.

Poco phones in India come with a host of features and some of the best specs in the price segment. If that wasn’t enough, then Poco lately has started featuring a unique design that is pleasing to the eye and has a distinct look compared to the sea of rivals. The all-new Poco X4 Pro 5G is a case in point that looks premium with a flat-edge design.

Poco X4 Pro 5G First Sale Today via Flipkart: Price in India, Launch Offers, and Specifications

The Poco X4 Pro 5G smartphone has a lot going in its way when we talk about the innards and the design. But, one of the biggest in-house challenges for the Poco X4 Pro 5G will be Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 11 Pro Plus and Redmi Note 11 Pro. We have to understand that the Poco X4 Pro isn’t the first and won’t be the last that would be inspired by Xiaomi phones. 

So, does the Poco X4 Pro has what it takes to beat the competition in sub-Rs 20,000? We try to answer that in the review. Read along.

Poco X4 Pro 5G Review: Solid Build and Stunning Rear Design

The first thing that comes to mind when looking at the Poco X4 Pro 5G is that it feels premium for the price. However, the device misses the freshness quotient because of design similarities to the Redmi Note 11 series.

But, do not doubt that the flat-edge design looks and feels solid. Though, compared to the rounded edges, it takes some time to get used to. With a thickness of 8.12mm, the Poco X4 Pro is the thinnest Poco X-series phone that the company has launched so far. 

At 205 grams, the Poco X4 Pro is among the smartphones that are on the heavy side. But, give it a few days, and you will love the design of the Poco X4 Pro. The weight distribution is balanced and doesn’t feel heavy when used during everyday usage. We had a great time using the Poco X4 Pro with just one hand most of the time. 

The phone chassis feels sturdy and gives you confidence in the overall build for everyday use. However, it’s worth pointing out that the Poco X4 Pro uses the typical glass sandwich design where both the front and rear panels are glass. In addition, the screen features a Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for protection. However, the company doesn’t use any special cover glass at the back. In this case, the frame is a plastic one, but that shouldn’t be something you should be worried about.

Another add-on feature that comes on the Poco X4 Pro 5G is its IP53 rating, which means splash and dust resistance. Mind you, this is not a rating that classifies it as being a waterproof device. But the IP53 rating should be good enough to handle light rain. 

The phone comes in Black, Blue and Poco’s signature Yellow colour. We got the Black one, and it looks okay. But our favourite pick would be the Yellow one. The Poco X4 Pro is also among a handful of devices that still ships with the 3.5mm audio jack.

The glass body at the back feels good in my hands. Unlike some phones in the price segment, the Poco X4 Pro doesn’t offer any colour changing tricks. But instead, whenever light falls on the back, there appear lines coming out of the bottom corners of the device that feels unique. While the front doesn’t have anything distinct which differentiates it from its predecessors or rivals. The back panel is the show stopper here. The familiar rectangular shaped camera housing at the back with Poco branding may remind many of the Poco M4 Pro. But, we like it. 

The Poco X4 Pro has a unique camera setup style that helps anyone differentiate it from the rest of the crowd. First, there’s the primary 64-megapixel sensor that has the largest cutout, followed by an 8-megapixel ultra-wide and 2-megapixel macro sensor. Then, there’s a small 5G branding at the bottom. There’s a power button on the right panel that also doubles up as a fingerprint scanner and a volume button. The placement is apt, and it works flawlessly. It’s quick, and there’s no better place to fit the fingerprint scanner. 

Overall, the Poco X4 Pro 5G design is a practical one. Attention to detail is something we love. Unfortunately, Xiaomi already introduced the Redmi Note 11 series with a flat-edge display, which took away some freshness of this device. But that shouldn’t be a deal-breaker for anyone. 

However, if Poco could bring some sort of dust and water protection to this segment, it could be unbeatable. We hope someone is reading this (Fingers crossed).

Poco X4 Pro 5G Review: Beautiful Display and Good Audio Performance

The Poco X4 Pro 5G features a 6.67-inch Super AMOLED Full-HD+ dot display with a screen resolution of 1080×2400 pixels. The phone offers a 120Hz refresh rate and 360Hz touch sampling rate. In addition, it supports DCI-P3 and offers a peak brightness of 1200 nits.

The display on the Poco X4 Pro is a great companion for your multimedia content needs. It produces decent colours that you can enjoy, be it any sort of videos, images, or even just browsing the Internet using Chrome. The dot display has a small front camera spot at the top of the display, which doesn’t come between you and your game or even your shows or movies. The sunlight legibility is excellent, and you won’t face any issues using the display on the Poco X4 Pro under direct sunlight. The texts appear sharp, and the images are crisp on display. Overall, it’s an excellent display panel on the Poco X4 Pro for the price.

Coming to the audio (speaker quality), the device packs powerful dual stereo speakers that are more than enough for your gaming and videos. If you’re someone who loves to play songs on your phone, then the Poco X4 Pro won’t let you down. However, we noticed that the audio gets slightly muffled at full volume, so we recommend keeping it at 80% max for optimum audio performance. As expected, the phone doesn’t ship with earphones, so you will have to buy them separately.

Poco X4 Pro 5G Review: Cameras need improvement

The Poco X4 Pro that launched in India has one big missing feature: the 108-megapixel primary camera. The India unit ships with a 64-megapixel primary sensor, and we will talk about the performance in a bit. The other two sensors are an 8-megapixel ultra-wide and a 2-megapixel macro sensor. At the front, there’s a 16-megapixel selfie shooter. 

Starting with the camera app UI, it is what we have seen on recent Redmi phones. The options to change modes on the bottom while choosing HDR, AI, Google Lens, Flash, and other camera settings are on the top of the screen. In addition, users can tap on the More options on the bottom to show a detailed list of camera modes, including Dual Video, Panorama, Night, 64MP mode, Timelapse, and more. 

Coming to real-world camera performance, The primary 64-megapixel camera is excellent for most light conditions. The colour accuracy and details are intact in most of the daylight shots we took. Even in close-up shots, the phone was able to autofocus quickly. The dedicated 64MP camera mode captures amazing shots, though we only got better results during the day.

In indoor conditions, the phone is a hit and a miss. Some of the shots we took came out with excellent results, while some missed crucial details. We will still say that this is a good point and shoot camera, but in indoor and low-light, users will have to be patient with this one.

We preferred results with the AI option turned off as the captured subjects included additional details. You can see the samples below.

Even for the low-light shots, the colour vibrancy seems to be missing. There are missing details in the areas that are dark, while focusing also takes slightly longer. The focusing takes up additional time if there’s no light source around. However, the Night mode does help slightly.

The ultra-wide sensor is capable and can keep users satisfied with its results. It captures enough details and has an excellent dynamic range. Unfortunately, there’s no telephoto sensor onboard the Poco X4 Pro, but the camera UI offers a 2X button. While this is an excellent addition for a quick photo of something for easy reference. But, there are major quality issues, and it’s no surprise.

Instead, the company should have offered a way to launch macro mode directly from the quick tools. Right now, it is hidden within the grid option. 

Finally, coming to the front camera performance. The device offers a 16-megapixel selfie sensor which is a decent one when it’s daytime, and you have enough light around. However, the selfie quality takes a bit of a hit when in low light. But, as with other mid-range Xiaomi phones, the Poco X4 Pro selfie results are satisfactory if you’re someone who loves to take selfies to post on Instagram or Facebook or other social platforms. One of the big letdowns was no 4K video recording support on the Poco X4 Pro. The device can record videos up to 1080p at 30fps.

Overall, the cameras are good, but some devices in the same price bracket offer better photography capability.

Poco X4 Pro 5G Review: Decent performance

Poco X4 Pro is a successor to last year’s Poco X3 Pro, but it’s much more than an upgrade. One of the departments where Some have called out Poco has been the processor. Unfortunately, these aren’t familiar with Qualcomm’s naming convention. We explain how. The 6nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 processor is faster and has a better CPU than the Poco X3 Pro’s Snapdragon 860. However, the GPU performance is where 695 gets slightly behind the 860 chip. Now, this doesn’t mean that the new 695 chip from Qualcomm on Poco X4 Pro isn’t as capable as the 860 chip. 

The only real-world difference will be during high-graphic gaming and intensive editing on the device. For the rest of the tasks, the Poco X4 Pro is an absolute beast. As a result, the X4 Pro is a great everyday companion, from multitasking to gaming to streaming videos. 

During Battlegrounds Mobile India, the Poco X4 Pro picked HD graphics settings by default and during Call of Duty: Mobile, the device launched with a high graphic setting. We had multiple rounds of a gaming session on the new Poco device and didn’t notice any issues, including any device heating problems. In addition, there’s a dedicated Gaming Turbo app that helps amplify your gaming sessions. 

The device fared well across different situations, be it latching on to networks or offering excellent call quality. Even the Wi-Fi performance is decent. 

Talking about benchmark apps, the Poco X4 Pro scored a decent 378,252 on AnTuTu 9, while on GeekBench, the phone scored 685 in single-core and 1817 in multi-core tests. In 3D Mark Sling Shot Extreme, the X4 Pro scored 2940. While these scores are not the highest we have seen on a device, they also hint that it isn’t on the bottom either.

However, we noticed that having too many apps open in the background (up to 15) can slow the UI bit. This is probably something Poco can take care of with regular updates. Overall, the Poco X4 Pro is a decent device for performance.

Poco X4 Pro 5G Review: Still has Android 11

The Poco X4 Pro runs on MIUI 13 based on Android 11, with the Poco Launcher 2.0 on top. This is a bummer, though, an OTA update is expected from Poco for consumers soon. 

There aren’t great additions to the UI of the Poco X4 Pro that we haven’t seen before. We expect the phone to receive an update based on Android 12 in the coming months. The MIUI 13 offers enough customisation options to users who can tweak things like app icons to the theme, fonts, etc. Part of the UI is the Digital Wellbeing tools, which offer an overview of how much time one spent with the device with a screen on and what apps were used. In addition, users get an option to set up Focus mode to limit their screen time. The MIUI 13 brings some iOS inspired features like a swipe down gesture from the right that offers quick settings options, while from the left top screen, swipe down provides a peek into the notifications panel.

The Poco Launcher has a limited number of distractions regarding notifications that the preloaded apps keep pushing through the day. Talking about bloatware apps, a good number of apps come preloaded on the Poco X4 Pro, like Xiaomi’s GetApps, Mi Pay, Themes, Game Turbo, Music, Mi Credit Cleaner, ShareMe, Recorder and more apps. In addition, there are some third-party apps also onboard, which include Facebook, LinkedIn, Prime Video, Spotify, and Netflix. Overall, the Poco Launcher has improved and feels more polished than ever before.

Poco X4 Pro 5G Review: Solid Battery Performance

The Poco X4 Pro 5G comes with a massive 5000mAh battery which we believe is apt for the screen size. The phone ships with a 67W fast-charging adapter in the retail box.

In real-world performance, the Poco X4 Pro is a beast when it comes to the battery department. We got over 7 hours of screen-on time on the new Poco phone, which included streaming on Netflix, gaming, typing emails, texts, Telegram, WhatsApp, YouTube videos, and Twitter running in the background at all times. So even with heavy usage, the phone lasted for over a day. 

The 67W fast-charging adapter makes sure that you are all set for almost 3-4 hours in about 20-30 minutes of charging. All of this makes the Poco X4 Pro a great beast in terms of battery performance. The phone charged fully from 0 to 100% in less than 60 minutes, which is impressive.

Poco X4 Pro 5G Review: Verdict

Poco made a name for itself in the tech industry and among phone enthusiasts because of the Poco F1 that still hasn’t got a successor. While in no way Poco X4 Pro carries the same DNA but it’s for those who are looking for a value proposition. Plus, we always knew what to expect from the Poco X4 Pro, considering it is a Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G with new branding.

The Poco X4 Pro is a beautifully designed phone for those who need a mix of performance and value. It offers a decent gaming experience but is not ideal for those who are hardcore gamers. Instead, it’s a nice phone for point and shoot and social media uploads. Battery life is a strong point, and the IP53 rating is a good add-on. 

At a starting price of Rs 18,999, the Poco X4 Pro is a decent buy in the sub-Rs 20,000 price segment. However, the basic 6GB RAM and 64GB storage isn’t something we recommend to our readers. The second trim, featuring 6GB RAM and 128GB storage, is an ideal one to go for and comes at Rs 19,999. The top trim with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage is priced at Rs 21,999. But, if you have that much budget, then we would recommend the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G, which starts at Rs 20,999.

There are a few things that the Poco X4 Pro gets right and make it worth its asking price. But then there are a few that let us down.