POCO might be a relatively new brand in the smartphone space, but what the company had achieved thus far is beyond what most of us could have imagined, as it continues to register impressive growth over the years and established itself as one of the prominent brand within the most highly-competitive segment of the smartphone market.
While this may seems to be an uphill task, but the company’s success formula is in fact pretty straight forward, which is to provide value for money smartphones that allow consumers to enjoy superior hardware and software experience without breaking the bank.
This is something which holds true until today in the new POCO X4 Pro 5G which had once again impressed us in many aspects, from it’s electrifying design to it’s upgraded chipset and camera system.
However, are all these improvements enough to make the phone stand out from the overcrowded market? Let’s find out in our POCO X4 Pro 5G review!
Design & Build
POCO has a reputation of being creative with it’s smartphone design and it’s therefore not surprising to see the POCO X4 Pro 5G with a whole new design language that looks nothing like it’s processor.
Instead of having a circular-shaped camera module at the back, the POCO X4 Pro 5G opted for a rectangular camera island that sits horizontally in the upper-halve of it’s rear panel – a feature which somehow reminds me of the Xiaomi 11 Ultra to some extent (save the absence of a rear screen display).
Another notable design change lies in the adoption of a flat frame design just like what we saw from the recent Redmi Note 11 series (Review) smartphones. This is certainly a nice change considering that most of us were already bored of the usual curve edge design adopted by majority of the smartphones over the past couple of years.
Apart from the good look that accompanies a flat frame design, it does have other ergonomic benefits too. That’s because having flat frame actually makes the phone way easier to hold and grip as compared to curved edges which feels ”slippery” along the sides. Most importantly, you wouldn’t possibly run into any issue with accidental touches.
Sporting an overall dimension that measures 164.2mm x 76.1mm x 8.1mm, the POCO X4 Pro 5G is also a decent-sized phone which allows you to hold or use the phone easily with one hand when commuting in a crowded train.
The review unit I’m holding to comes in a Laser Black colorway which looks absolutely stunning as it produces a dynamic shine under the influence of light. It’s by far the most innovative rear design I’ve came across among budget smartphones.
Display
Coming over to the front side, we’ll be greeted by a 6.67” display enclosed by some fairly slim bezels along it’s side edges. As usual, it’ll stick with a centered punch-hole cutout to accommodate it’s 16 megapixels front-facing camera that handles selfie and video call on the device.
Despite being a budget-centric smartphone, the POCO X4 Pro 5G adopts a more expensive AMOLED panel that promises greater vibrancy over the traditional LCD display. This is of course, a big step up from it’s predecessor.
The display itself offers plenty of details with an overall screen resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels (FHD+). Also, it comes along with DCI-P3 color gamut coverage and a deep contrast ratio which explains why the display is able to render colors that are close to what we actually see in real life – especially when viewing media contents.
While these alone might sound impressive enough for a smartphone of it’s price, let’s not forget that the POCO X4 Pro 5G also features a buttery-smooth 120Hz adaptive refresh rate which makes scrolling and animation felt slick on the device.
Along with a peak brightness of up to 1,200 nits, the phone is also able to keep the screen visible even when you’re using the phone in an environment with strong ambient light. That’s one aspect which the POCO X4 Pro 5G does better than most of it’s competitors in the same segment.
Last but not the least, POCO had also equipped with the phone with a layer of Gorilla Glass 5 atop it’s front display to protect it against accidental drop or scratches. This is no doubt a nice-to-have feature which we don’t normally see among devices of it’s price.
Performance
Under the hood, the POCO X4 Pro 5G is powered an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 chipset that comes with an integrated 5G modem which allows the phone to support the next-generation’s 5G connectivity for faster download speed and lower network latency.
Connectivity-aside, the Snapdragon 695 chipset is also a capable mid-range silicon that delivers good performance for both productivity and entertainment. For instance, the phone didn’t show any sign of sluggishness whenever I was working across multiple apps or switching between dozens of tabs on Google Chrome.
Likewise, the phone continues to excel even on graphics intensive game titles such as Asphalt 9 Legend and PUBG Mobile New State. This isn’t exactly surprising since it’s predecessor was already touted to be one of the best budget gaming smartphone last year.
To take things further, POCO also equipped with POCO X4 Pro 5G with a dedicated cooling system known as the LiquidCool Technology 1.0 Plus which does an excellent job in keep the phone cool during long gaming sessions to prevent throttling. This allows the phone to run smoothly without any notable drop in frame rate which would otherwise lead to an unpleasant gaming experience.
In the memory department, the POCO X4 Pro 5G also features up to 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB UFS 2.2 storage which are probably more than sufficient for an average user. Also, the phone does support microSD card for storage expansion just in case you have plenty of media contents to store on the device.
Cameras
For photography, the POCO X4 Pro 5G relies on a triple-camera system lead by a 108 megapixels (f/1.9 aperture) main camera alongside an 8 megapixels (f/2.2 aperture) ultra-wide camera and a 2 megapixels (f/2.4 aperture) macro camera.
No doubt, the 108 megapixels main camera is a significant upgrade over the 48MP camera found on last year’s model, and it’s improvements were deeply felt across the board. In short, it’s able to capture delightful-looking photos with ample details and wide dynamic range whether you’re shooting in a well-lit or poor lighting environment.
Similarly, it also does well in terms of color accuracy which results in colors that look natural and realistic – just to my liking. In high contrast scenes, the POCO X4 Pro 5G also has a usable HDR mode to further maximise the dynamic range it’s able to capture, leading to greater vibrancy and shadow details.
Other than that, there’s also a reliable night mode feature that will come in handy whenever you’re shooting in a low-light environment. Like any of the POCO smartphones we’d tested so far, the night mode feature on the POCO X4 Pro 5G does a remarkable job in improving the overall exposure of the photo, giving rise to better details within the darker regions.
As for landscape photography, the POCO X4 Pro 5G features a dedicated 8 megapixels ultra-wide unit which is able to capture decent photos with pretty good details and dynamic range. It might not be on par with the main camera, but is surely a nice addition considering that some devices in this price range don’t even have a dedicated unit for landscape photography.
Although the phone comes with a 2 megapixels macro camera for close-up shots, but I personally prefer to use it’s 2x / 3x digital zoom feature for this regard as it seems to offer better stabilization and focusing than the macro camera.
Most importantly, the adoption of a high-res sensor for the main camera allows details to be well preserved even after digital cropping, and that probably explains why it’s able to output better quality photos than the macro camera in most occasions.
Battery & Charging
To keep it’s lights on, the POCO X4 Pro 5G is backed by a respectable 5,000mAh battery which never fails to supply me with around 1.5 day’s worth of usage on a single charge. This is one aspect which I really love about POCO and Xiaomi smartphones – they never leave me with a flat battery at the end of the day even with heavier usage.
To sweeten the deal, the POCO X4 Pro 5G also supports a blazing-fast 67W charging speed which is currently the quickest in the segment. During my testing, the phone is able to recharge from a completely flat battery to it’s brim in less than 45 minutes. Similarly, a mere 22 minutes charge is sufficient to recharge the phone from 0 to 70%, which is equivalent to a day’s worth of battery life.
Verdict
There are plenty of options in the mid-range market, but the POCO X4 Pro 5G is one device that really stands out from it’s competitors when it comes to display quality, mobile performance, as well as battery endurance and charging speed.
These are features that make the POCO X4 Pro 5G felt as if it’s a six or seven hundred dollars smartphone despite costing significantly less, and is exactly the reason why we say the phone offers great value for money.
As such, the POCO X4 Pro 5G is an easy option to recommend to anyone who’s looking for a reliable, all-rounded smartphone that doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket.
Pricing & Availability
In Singapore, the POCO X4 Pro 5G is available in a trio of colors such as Laser Black, Laser Blue, as well as the signature POCO Yellow. For those who’re interested, the phone will be available in both 6GB+128GB and 8GB+256GB variants which are priced at S$399 and S$449 respectively on POCO’s official store in Shopee.
