Is the POCO X4 Pro the perfect mid-range that money can buy?
Xiaomi's sub-brand POCO has always been known for its performance as we all saw in 2018 with the launch of the POCO F1. Since POCO became an independent brand, the focus has been always on performance over all other aspects thus providing some very good smartphones. Last year POCO launched the POCO X3 Pro (Review) which was one of the most powerful smartphones that were a perfect all-rounder.
The POCO X3 Pro had some very good specifications and the main talking point about it was the Snapdragon 860 chipset which was the most powerful chipset found on any mid-range smartphone so it was a boon for all the gamers. However, there were some areas where the POCO X3 Pro needed some improvements and with the POCO X4 Pro, POCO has addressed almost all of them.
The POCO X4 Pro proves to be a solid mid-range smartphone as it brings in a premium glass design, a 120Hz AMOLED display, a 64MP triple camera setup, and a powerful Snapdragon 695 chipset which includes support for 5G (the POCO X3 Pro did not have), and a 5000mAh battery with support for 67W fast charging. So is the POCO X4 Pro worth considering? Let's find out in the full review.
POCO X4 Pro 5G Design:
The POCO X4 Pro gets a premium glass sandwich design which is a big upgrade over the polycarbonate back of the POCO X3 Pro. The back of the POCO X4 Pro has a glossy finish that does attract smudges and fingerprints and it does shine when you tilt the smartphone at different angles. Unlike the POCO X3 Pro, which had a huge POCO logo, here it is smaller and is placed on the camera module.
Another big change is the flat back of the POCO X4 Pro compared to the slightly rounded back present on the POCO X3 Pro and also the POCO X4 Pro is slimmer around the sides compared to the POCO X3 Pro. Unlike the POCO X3 Pro and the POCO X3 which had a circular camera module, this one has a rectangular camera module placed in a large camera island that is rectangular in shape.
It does look unique and good and overall, does make the smartphone wobble when kept on a flat surface. There is a LED flashlight present and the 108MP print written denoting that the main camera is now a 108MP one. This back also has an IP53 rating for dust and water resistance. The POCO X4 Pro is also lighter by 10grams compared to the POCO X3 Pro and weighs around 205grams.
So as a result it feels lighter to hold compared to the POCO X3 Pro. Around the sides, there is a plastic frame that houses the power button with volume buttons on the right side whereas the left side remains cleaner. At the bottom, there is a USB Type-C port, a hybrid SIM card slot that houses two SIM cards or one SIM card with a microSD card for storage expansion, a loudspeaker grill, and a primary microphone.
On the top, like all Xiaomi smartphones, you do have an IR Blaster, and other things include the secondary noise-canceling microphone, a loudspeaker grille as it sports a stereo speaker setup and a 3.5mm headphone jack. On the front, there is a single punch-hole display with minimum bezels around the sides. On the front, instead of the Gorilla Glass 6 on the POCO X3 Pro, here there is Gorilla Glass 5 for protection.
Overall, the build and design of the POCO X4 Pro feel premium compared to its predecessor.
POCO X4 Pro 5G Display:
In terms of display, the POCO X4 Pro brings a major upgrade in the form of an AMOLED display compared to the IPS LCD display on the POCO X3 Pro. The POCO X4 Pro has a larger 6.67-inches Full HD+ (1080x1920 pixels) AMOLED display with a screen-to-body ratio of 20:9. As this is an AMOLED display, you get better viewing angles and color reproduction compared to an IPS LCD display.
This display like the POCO X3 Pro has a 120Hz refresh rate which makes things work smoother whether it is playing games or multitasking between applications. However, this refresh rate is not an adaptive one as you can only switch between standard 60Hz and 120Hz refresh rates only. Combined with it, you get a 360Hz touch sampling rate which is great for gaming and faster touch inputs.
In terms of display brightness, the POCO X4 Pro can achieve a peak brightness of 1200nits which is good, and also under direct sunlight, the display has good color reproduction. The display has three different color modes - Vivid, Saturated, and Standard. Switching to Vivid covers the DCI-P3 gamut while Standard provides more natural colors and covers the sRGB scale.
The display has support for Widevine L1 so you can stream HD contents on OTT platforms but there is no support for HDR as Snapdragon 695 chipset does not have support for HDR, so you can stream Youtuber at HD resolution only. Though having an AMOLED display, there is no optical in-display fingerprint scanner, instead, you get a side-mounted one placed on the power button which works accurately.
POCO X4 Pro 5G Performance:
The one area where POCO has stepped backward is in terms of performance with the POCO X4 Pro 5G as its predecessor, the POCO X3 Pro has a much more powerful flagship Snapdragon 860 chipset compared to the Snapdragon 695 chipset here. But what you now get is support for 5G as the POCO X3 Pro is a 4G smartphone only.
In terms of daily activities like browsing web pages, switching between applications, etc. there was no lag and the smartphone could handle it easily. However, when it comes to heavy tasks like playing games like Call Of Duty Mobile, BGMI, etc., and rendering videos, there were some minor stutters noticed throughout the user interface.
In BGMI, the POCO X4 Pro could only run Smooth graphics with Ultra frame rates as there are no settings for Extreme with Smooth graphics. After long hours of gaming, the back of the smartphone does not heat much as POCO has provided a dedicated vapor cooling system to dissipate heat faster. In CPU throttling tests, the POCO X4 Pro 5G could easily maintain around 80-90 percent sustained performance.
There are two storage variants present - 6/8GB LPDDR4X RAM with 64/128GB UFS 2.2 storage. The POCO X4 Pro supports 7 bands of 5G and has good carrier aggregation also. However, still, this chipset is not the most powerful when compared to other chipsets and is also very less powerful than POCO X3 Pro. Overall, the performance is good but still, this chipset is not meant for heavy tasks.
POCO X4 Pro 5G Software:
The POCO X4 Pro 5G runs on the latest MIUI 13 built on top of Android 11 out of the box. MIUI 13 is not an upgrade over the MIUI 12.5 and you continue to get the quick toggles also called the Control Center and when you swipe from the top left and notification tray while swiping from the top right corner. And since this is a POCO smartphone, there is the POCO launcher present.
So you get an app drawer that can not be disabled and you get all the applications organized properly into different categories like All, Communication, Entertainment, Tools, Photography, New, and Business. Like all Xiaomi and POCO devices, this smartphone also has certain Xiaomi-specific applications like Mi Video, Mi Remote app, and also File Manager.
When it comes to RAM and performance, MIUI 13 is slightly better optimized and definitely feels faster compared to MIUI 12.5. There is also Dynamic RAM using which you can extend RAM by another 2GB for enhanced multitasking. Other features include customizations to wallpapers, themes, Always-On display, etc. However, there are some pre-loaded applications present that can be uninstalled.
Like all other Xiaomi and POCO smartphones, you get the Google applications like dialler, messages, and also the Google Discover page when you swipe from the left of the home screen. In terms of software updates, POCO claims that it will get another 2 years of AndroidOS updates and three years of security patches. But still, it is slightly disappointing as you are not getting Android 12 out of the box.
POCO X4 Pro 5G Cameras:
The POCO X4 Pro 5G sports a triple camera setup that consists of the 64MP f/1.9 main camera, an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, and a 2MP f/2.4 macro camera. The main camera definitely feels like an upgrade over the 48MP main camera on the POCO X3 Pro. On the front, the POCO X4 Pro has a 16MP f/2.5 camera. However, still, you do not get the 108MP main camera as present on the global variant.
The images from the main camera come out with good details that look sharper and the dynamic range is good. The colors look natural without any oversharpening and the noise is also considerably lower. However, in some scenarios, there is some oversharpening present. The images come out at 16MP by default but if you shoot in 64MP resolution, the details come out sharper but do crop in a bit.
At night, the images come out with details that look good but there is a considerable amount of noise present and a lot of oversharpening takes place. The colors do oversharpen and exposure is not so good with blown away highlights. Turning on the dedicated night mode, the details look with better dynamic range, the noise gets reduced, and also highlights in shadows are restored.
The 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera takes images with a good dynamic range and the details look good. The 119-degree field of view ensures all subjects are in frame. But there is a considerable amount of noise present and a lot of distortion around the edges. During the night, the images do come out with softer details and the dynamic range is just average. The colors look slightly washed out.
But you do get a dedicated night mode for the ultrawide camera which does bring out the better dynamic range and also colors look natural as oversharpening is not present. The 2MP macro camera takes images with decent details that have a large amount of noise present and colors also look washed out. Since it is a fixed focus macro camera, the details look much softer.
In terms of portraits, the images do have good edge detection with proper background blur and the dynamic range is also very good. The color reproduction is on the natural side also. On the front, the 16MP camera does a very good job in terms of selfies with dynamic range and skin tones look natural though the details are slightly softer.
There is very less noise present in the background and during the night, the selfies come out with good dynamic range but there is some oversharpening present. The portrait selfies come out with good edge detection and dynamic range but details look slightly softer.
In terms of videos, the POCO X4 Pro can only record 1080p videos at 60fps which is the highest as the Snapdragon 695 chipset cannot support 4K video recording which is slightly disappointing as the POCO X3 Pro could record 4K videos at 60fps. The videos come out with good dynamic range and since EIS is present, the videos come out less shaky but do have some amount of noise present.
The ultrawide camera can also record videos at 1080p at 30fps and these videos have good color reproduction with no oversharpening and also good dynamic range but have a considerable amount of noise. The front camera can record 1080p videos at 30fps and the footage does come out with good dynamic range and skin tones have a natural look.
The portrait videos both from the front and rear camera come out with good edge detection and dynamic range without any oversharpening taking place. Overall, the cameras are good but certain limitations like no 4K video recording is a big miss.
POCO X4 Pro 5G Battery Life:
The POCO X4 Pro sports a larger 5000mAh battery which is slightly smaller in size compared to the 5160mAh battery on the POCO X3 Pro. With normal usage and the display set to 120Hz, the smartphone easily lasted for two days which is very good considering the efficient Snapdragon 695 chipset that is built on the 6nm process.
With the display set to standard 60Hz, the smartphone can last for more than two days. In terms of normal usage includes playing games for a long time that includes 3-4 hours, scrolling through web pages, and also using social media for 4-5 hours, the POCO X4 Pro lasted for one single day and a half with the display set to 120Hz.
The POCO X4 Pro ships with a 67W fast charger which seems to be a good upgrade over the 33W fast charger present with the POCO X3 Pro. The 67W fast charger takes around 0 to 50 percent within 15minutes but the complete charge takes around 60 minutes from 0 to 100 percent which is slightly time-consuming but POCO has ensured this to maintain healthy battery life.
POCO X4 Pro 5G Audio Quality:
The POCO X4 Pro has a dual stereo speaker setup that sounds very loud and clear. There is also a 3.5mm headphone jack present and the audio output through it is very good. There is also support for Dolby Atmos for enhanced sound output.
Verdict:
The POCO X4 Pro is a perfect all-rounder when compared to some other mid-range smartphones the build and design are very premium, instead of an IPS LCD display you are now getting an AMOLED display that is great for media consumption, the cameras are good, the software experience is good with less bloatware and battery life is very good with support for fast charging.
However, there are some areas where the POCO X4 Pro falls short especially when it comes to performance as you are getting an inferior Snapdragon 695 chipset compared to the flagship Snapdragon 860 chipset on the POCO X3 Pro and since you have Snapdragon 695 chipset, you do miss out HDR support on the display and no 4K recording also.
Though the cameras seem to be a slight upgrade over the POCO X3 Pro, could have been better. And since there is MIUI, there are certain bugs present and some bloatware present. So as an overall package, if you are looking for a good 5G smartphone that has a premium build and design, a good display for media consumption, a good set of cameras with good battery life with performance and gaming not being the propriety, then the POCO X4 Pro is a perfect all-rounder in the mid-range segment.
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