Xiaomi Poco X4 Pro 5G smartphone review: 5G phone with 108 MP & 120 Hz OLED at a bargain price

For many users, one of the most important innovations of the Poco X4 Pro may well be the introduction of the 5G standard in the Poco X Pro lineup. However, this improvement in connectivity comes at the cost of reduced performance because the Snapdragon 860 in the Poco X3 Pro is nominally stronger than the Snapdragon 695 that now equips the successor. The display of the Poco X4 Pro 5G is a big step forward and no compromises are made here.

Xiaomi no longer relies on an LCD panel for its mid-range smartphone, but rather on AMOLED technology with peak values of over 1,000 nits. The refresh rate is still 120 Hz. The recommended retail price for the Poco X4 Pro 5G is around US$ 315.

Although the Poco X4 Pro 5G is comparatively heavy at 205 grams, it is lighter than its predecessor . But the Pro model of the X4 series is not really compact either. The glass backside is adorned with “laser stripes” which spread over the casing like the lights of small spotlights.

The mid-range smartphone is available in three different colors: Laser Black, Laser Blue and Poco Yellow . The Poco X4 Pro has IP 53 certification, which means that it is officially dust and water resistant. The build quality and feel are on a high level for a smartphone around US$ 300.

Sure, the plastic frame deprives the Poco X4 Pro of some of the value of a high-end phone, but it doesn’t feel cheap. However, the flat glass panel encasing the cameras on the back feels a bit bulky in the hands. In contrast to the predecessor, the manufacturer cuts back on Corning Gorilla Glass 6; only Glass 5 is used for the Poco X4 Pro.

The edges on the top and bottom of the 6. 67-inch display are moderately sized, which is reflected in the solid display surface ratio of 86%. The Poco X4 Pro 5G does not have any real points of criticism in terms of equipment for an inexpensive mid-range smartphone, offering all the features that one could reasonably expect from this price range.

These include stereo speakers, an IR blaster, a 3. 5 mm headphone jack, Bluetooth 5. 1, an NFC chip for contactless payment, dual-SIM and the Always On function.

In addition to the version with 128 GB of UFS storage and 6 GB of RAM, there is also the option of 256 GB with 8 GB RAM (RRP: US$ 315). The internal storage can be expanded by up to 1 TB via microSD cards. Although external peripherals and storage devices can be connected to the Poco smartphone, the USB-C port only works according to the 2.

0 standard. Wired image output is therefore not possible, but Miracast is supported. The Xiaomi phone has a hybrid card slot, which means that two nano-SIM cards or a microSD card can be inserted.

In terms of copying speed, the Poco X4 is not exactly fast at just 12 MB/s; a Samsung Galaxy M23 copies images more than three times faster. On the other hand, the microSD performance (in combination with the AV PRO V60 reference card) is convincing in the Cross Platform Disk Test. Xiaomi combines the Android system with its in-house user interface MIUI for Poco in version 13.

At the time of review, however, the Poco phone is only based on Android 11, which is better considering the RRP of around US$ 300. The security patches from July 2022 are very up to date The Poco X4 Pro should certainly get an upgrade to Android 12, but the manufacturer does not provide any official information on this. The update guarantee of the Xiaomi 12 series, i.

e. three major Android updates and four years of security updates, does not apply to the Poco series. More than 3 years, including 2 major upgrades, should not be expected.

With MIUI 13 for Poco, the X4 Pro uses a redesigned MiSans font, a variety of new widgets, and support for Google’s “Material You” design. We cannot make out any advertising banners or ads within the MiUI 13 interface, for example when an app is installed. Generally speaking, these so-called MSA (MIUI System Ads) can be disabled quite easily in the system settings under “Passwords & Security”.

For home WLAN, the Poco X4 Pro offers the ac standard with WiFi 5, including the 2. 4 and 5 GHz frequency ranges, which ensures solid transfer rates in our measurements. The rates are on par with the low-priced mid-range competition, but 322-349 mbit/s is not really fast.

In combination with our Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 reference router, the Poco X4 Pro proves to be consistent when sending data, but the initial phase of receiving performs poorly under testing. In addition to the fast 5G standard, the mid-range smartphone from Xiaomi supports access to a total of 17 LTE bands – all the relevant LTE frequencies for the German-speaking region, including band 28, are covered. The Poco phone is also well equipped for traveling, such as in the USA.

The Poco X4 Pro uses the main satellite systems GPS (L1), GLONASS (G1), BeiDou (B1) and Galileo (E1) as well as SBAS for localization. In order to evaluate tracking accuracy in practice, we took the mid-range phone on a short trip and recorded the route together with a Garmin Venu 2 for comparison purposes. We like the tracking capabilities of the Poco X4 Pro for the most part.

However, deviations from the selected routes are sometimes clearly visible upon examining the GPS history in detail. Despite minor inaccuracies, the Xiaomi phone is suitable for navigation tasks, but a satellite fix indoors takes a very long time and the signal strength is not very pronounced with an SNR value of 23. Speech quality is good and without abnormalities.

Voices are clearly reproduced and also conveyed very clearly on the receiving end. Standards such as VoLTE or Wi-Fi calls are also supported. Thanks to the well functioning microphones, the Poco X4 Pro also impresses when it comes to video calling – tested via Skype – and the speakers.

Users should not have high expectations of the Poco X4 Pro’s selfie camera, but the photo quality is solid. In difficult lighting conditions, the 16-megapixel shots are often overexposed, especially in portrait mode, and the sky looks burned out. Moreover, the soft focus is quite pronounced.

On paper, Poco has made major improvements to the rear-facing main camera, which now has 108 megapixels and an aperture of f/1. 9. As is usual for this price range, optical image stabilization is absent, so images become blurry and out of focus relatively quickly in the dark.

The illumination is also not very good. But for the price, the photo quality achieved in bright surroundings is appealing. Image sharpness and contrasts are convincing in daylight.

The 108 MP camera is accompanied by a 118 degree ultra-wide-angle camera with 8 megapixels and a 2-megapixel macro lens. The ultra-wide-angle camera has solid photo quality, but offers little detail and low sharpness. Although the main camera of the Poco X4 Pro has a very high resolution, video can only be recorded at up to 1080p at 30 fps – a higher frame rate or a UHD option is not available.

Switching between the main and ultra-wide-angle lenses during video recording is also not possible. The well-known video modes of the X3 Pro, such as dual video, are still on board. We also find the color fidelity in the photos of the Poco X4 Pro to be very appealing.

Under controlled lighting conditions, we analyzed the color representation of the 108 MP optics in comparison to the actual reference colors. The colors were measured once under full studio lighting and once at 1 lux light intensity. In our ColorChecker Passport test, the Xiaomi phone displays only a few slight outliers (Delta E values >10).

The Poco X4 Pro comes with a modular 67-watt power supply, a data or charging cable, a protective cover, a SIM needle and a quick start guide with warranty terms and conditions. A screen protector is applied ex-works. A two year warranty is provided in Germany.

This may differ in your country of purchase, so be sure to check with your supplier before purchasing. The fingerprint sensor integrated into the power button unlocks the Poco X4 Pro 5G reliably, but not very quickly. The FaceUnlock feature via the front-facing camera, which takes place via a rather unsafe 2D facial recognition solution, also works reliably in everyday use Inputs on the 6.

67-inch OLED display are accurately implemented right up to the corners of the touchscreen. Due to the 360 Hz sampling rate, the panel of the Poco X4 Pro is scanned for touches up to 360 times per second, such as in games, which ensures low latency during touches. Thanks to the high refresh rate of 120 Hz, image changes or scrolling on web pages are displayed smoothly.

The Poco X4 Pro has a 6. 67-inch AMOLED screen with a 2400×1080 resolution and supports a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hz. Those wanting to save some energy can also set the screen refresh rate to 60 Hz.

An adaptive refresh rate change is not possible. The OLED panel performs very well in our brightness measurement. With a full white display, the inexpensive mid-range phone from Xiaomi reaches a maximum of 713 cd/m², which is very good for this price range.

In the APL18 measurement, which is more representative of everyday use, this even reaches 1,106 cd/m² in the center of the screen. The display thus is well suited for rendering HDR content, although Poco does not officially advertise this. Due to the OLED panel, flickering cannot be avoided in the Poco X4 Pro.

Below a display brightness of 68%, the PWM frequency fluctuates between 159 and 479 Hz. The amplitude curve levels out more up to the maximum brightness and becomes more consistent at 120 Hz. We checked the AMOLED panel’s color calibration using CalMAN analysis software.

Under factory settings (profile: Standard), the sRGB color space is almost completely covered. According to the manufacturer, the larger DCI-P3 color space is also supported. Our measured DeltaE values indicate some very small deviation in the colors.

Minimal differences can be seen in blue and magenta. An even smaller deviation within the target range (<3) is seen in grayscale reproduction. The Poco phone is well equipped for outdoor use.

Bright ambient light does not cause any problems thanks to its high brightness. Only the highly reflective surface prevents good readability in sunlight. The viewing angle stability of the AMOLED display is very good.

The typical drop in brightness is seen at flat viewing angles, but no color distortions were observed. While the Adreno 619 doesn’t provide fast graphics processing, the Poco X4 Pro still achieves very decent scores and is on par with the realme 9 . However, a Poco X3 Pro with its Adreno 640 sometimes achieves results that are almost 3 times higher.

The Poco phone performs very well in terms of browser benchmarks and behaves unobtrusively well in everyday surfing. The 128 GB UFS storage in the Poco X4 Pro delivers only moderate read and write rates. The speed is rather below average for the price range, but this is also due to the low memory bandwidth of the Snapdragon 695 – similar to the Moto G82 .

We put the gaming capabilities of the Poco X4 Pro to the test with the tool from our partner GameBench . Although the Xiaomi phone has a responsive OLED panel with a refresh rate of 120 Hz, the Snapdragon 695 can only make limited use of these features. PUBG Mobile essentially runs smoothly, but only 40 fps is possible in the HD setting.

We did not have a UHD option for testing, but the Poco X4 Pro achieves a stable 60 fps at low details. The FPS rates in Armajet are also surprisingly good. The Poco phone achieves over 100 fps at times, which is much higher than a Moto G82 with 60 fps.

The case’s surface temperatures are neither problematic in idle nor under load. At a maximum of 35 °C, the waste heat measured is not too critical in view of the SoC’s performance stability. We evaluated this with the stress test of the GFX benchmark, which repeated the respective OpenGL ES 3.

1 scenario thirty times in succession and logged the frame rates. Afterwards, the Xiaomi smartphone was put through its paces in the 3DMark stress tests. A reduction of the refresh rate under high load does not occur in the Xiaomi phone in everyday use.

The performance of the Poco X4 Pro throttles only minimally in both 3DMark test scenarios. The stress test of the GFX benchmark is completed without any problems, but the results could not be retrieved. The dual speaker system of the Poco X4 Pro is sufficiently loud and the sound quality appealing for the price range thanks to stereo sound.

The two speakers lack depth, but the mids are reproduced linearly. The super high tones are only slightly present, simiarly to the higher basses. Headphones can be connected via the 3.

5 mm jack. Those who prefer to use Bluetooth for wireless output can fall back on audio codecs ranging from SBC, AAC, aptX, aptXHD to aptX adaptive as well as LDAC and LHDC. The battery of the Poco X4 Pro is, as typical for the price range, large at 5000 mAh and charges relatively quickly with up to 67 watts.

Fortunately, a corresponding power adapter is included in the scope of delivery. The charging process takes around 40 minutes via Xiaomi’s propietary Turbo Charging technology Power consumption levels are inconspicuous under load, but 1. 7 watts in idle mode is quite a lot.

Overall, the rates are average for a Snapdragon 695 -equipped smartphone. The 5000 mAh battery delivered solid runtimes at a refresh rate of 120 Hz in our two real-world battery tests, which were carried at an adjusted display brightness of 150 cd/m² and are therefore very comparable. For the WLAN test, the Poco X4 Pro manages 12.

5 hours, and another 5 hours more in video playback with the WLAN module disabled. In our load scenario, the Poco phone lasted a very long time at over 7 hours. The Poco X4 Pro is a successful mid-range phone with only a few weak points.

The high performance of the predecessor was sacrificed in favor of 5G connectivity, which nonetheless suits the Xiaomi smartphone well. The installed Snapdragon 695 offers very competitive performance rates for the price range of less than US$ 300 and sufficient graphics power for HFR gaming. The mid-range series has made a big leap in terms of display.

The installed 120 Hz OLED panel offers not only a much higher contrast ratio than the IPS screen of the Poco X3 Pro , but it is also brighter and better illuminated. However, this also increases the price (RRP) for the Poco X4 Pro by US$ 50 compared to its predecessor. A pity that Xiaomi continues to use outdated Android for its inexpensive smartphones.

Unfortunately, price-conscious buyers hardly have any alternatives to choose from, since Samsung doesn’t promise any update guarantees with its Galaxy M23 5G either. After all, the Koreans’ entry-level device already has Android 12. Another point of criticism extends to the stamina of the Poco X4 Pro in view of the 5000 mAh battery and the runtimes of the realme 9 5G .

Buyers not wanting to do without 5G in the mid-range will find a strong package overall in the Poco X4 Pro. Users who find the Poco X4 Pro a little too heavy and unwieldy will find an equally strong mid-range phone in the Redmi Note 11, which does not feature 5G but is available at a much lower price. The Poco X4 Pro 5G appears to be available in two configurations: 256GB + 8GB or 128GB + 6GB.

Depending on your location, either the former or the latter may be available. We found, for example, that the 256GB + 8GB variant is available via Amazon in: The 128GB + 6GB is available in: These lists are not exhaustive, so please check via Amazon (where applicable) at your location or via reputable retailers. Prices stated are as of 30.

07. 2022 and are subject to change. .