Poco F4 evaluate: The Poco F3 reloaded

The Xiaomi-affiliated Poco model debuted again in 2018 with the landmark Poco F1, standing out because of its flagship silicon and inexpensive price ticket. The model has unfold its wings since then, tackling mid-range and low-end merchandise whereas additionally providing its first ecosystem merchandise. Nonetheless, you might argue that the Poco F collection stays its most necessary vary from a status perspective. Now, Poco has launched its newest F collection telephone, however is it a worthy entry? It’s time to search out out in our Poco F4 evaluate.

• Poco F4 (6GB/128GB): £379 / €399 (~$405)
• Poco F4 (8GB/256GB): £429 / €449 (~$455)

The Poco F4 is an higher mid-range providing within the Poco portfolio, positioned slightly below the gaming-focused Poco F4 GT however above telephones just like the Poco M4 household and Poco X4 Professional. It’s additionally value noting that it is a rebranded model of the Redmi K40s. Nonetheless, that Redmi gadget was a China-only telephone, so that is successfully a brand new gadget for international markets.

Both method, it brings some noteworthy specs for the worth. There’s the ever-popular Snapdragon 870 processor, a 6.67-inch 120Hz OLED panel, and 67W wired charging for that 4,500mAh battery. We’ve additionally received a 64MP rear digicam right here, packing optical picture stabilization for the primary time within the collection. Take a look at our devoted digicam evaluate part for our ideas on the Poco F4’s shooters.

Associated: The most effective Xiaomi telephones you should buy

In saying so, there are just a few cutbacks to fulfill the worth tag. The telephone lacks wi-fi charging, full-fledged water resistance, and a telephoto digicam, for one, although these options aren’t super-common on mid-range telephones within the first place.

Poco provided early chicken pricing of €349 for the 6GB/128GB possibility (examined) and €399 for the 8GB/256GB mannequin, however they’re usually offered at €399 and €449, or ranging from £379 within the UK. The Poco F4 is available in Moonlight Silver, Nebula Inexperienced, and Evening Black colour choices. It’s that can be purchased in Europe, the Center East, and Southeast Asia from Xiaomi’s on-line retailer, Amazon, and chosen different on-line retailers.

The Poco F4 — which is an identical to the Redmi K40s, bar an added Poco brand — isn’t going to win any awards for its aesthetics. What’s right here is generally good although, that includes a comparatively gentle design, flat edges, a remarkably tiny punch-hole cutout, and a really slippery glass again. The again is a complete fingerprint magnet too, so that you’ll need to slap this in a case as quickly as attainable. Fortuitously, Poco features a TPU case and display protector within the field.

The telephone has Gorilla Glass 5 on the entrance however there’s no phrase on safety for the again (we’ve requested Poco for clarification and can replace accordingly). Nonetheless, I unintentionally dropped the telephone from roughly a meter onto my lavatory sink and it survived the ordeal simply fantastic. I additionally dropped the telephone from my workplace desk onto the ground and it appeared no worse for put on — curse that slippery again. The presence of an IP53 splash-resistant ranking is welcome too, which is according to its predecessor, the Poco F3, and offers some peace of thoughts round liquids.

Extra studying: The most effective waterproof telephones you should buy

Flip the telephone on and also you’ll discover a 6.67-inch FHD+ OLED panel with a dynamic 120Hz refresh price. This appears to be Poco and Xiaomi’s go-to panel for mid-rangers in 2022, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a superb display. The show was shiny sufficient for viewing in direct daylight and also you’ve received these pretty blacks right here too, though colours had been a contact on the saturated facet because of the vivid colour profile being the default possibility. Fortunately, colours and the colour temperature could be tuned accordingly.

Energy-chasers is perhaps just a little dissatisfied that the Poco F4 retains the Poco F3’s Snapdragon 870 chipset, however the processor continues to be a really highly effective platform. Plus, Poco has stated it had no alternative as Qualcomm has but to launch a follow-up chip with such a pointy price-to-performance ratio. Benchmarks present that the telephone affords good efficiency, occupying the slot between latest flagship telephones and bona fide mid-rangers, which is what we’ve come to anticipate from the Snapdragon 870. The telephone additionally did nicely within the 3DMark Wild Life stress take a look at, providing spectacular stability.

These benchmarks are mirrored in real-world efficiency too, as basic scrolling, net searching, and multitasking labored simply fantastic. I did discover some lag on the odd event, such because the icons often taking a second to populate the house display after unlocking or the latest apps display lagging for a second, nevertheless it by no means occurred usually sufficient to be an issue.

The Poco F4 additionally acquits itself nicely relating to gaming, as titles like Name of Responsibility Cell, Genshin Influence, and World of Tanks Blitz all delivered clean efficiency. I additionally upped the body price to 60fps in Genshin Influence, and whereas I did see some stutters on occasion, it was a fluid expertise more often than not. Evidently, the telephone is value a glance if you wish to play superior video games and emulated 3D video games a few years down the road and have a restricted finances.

See additionally: The most effective telephones for gaming

One notable improve over the Poco F3 is the introduction of 67W wired charging in comparison with the earlier telephone’s 33W assist. I used to be in a position to take the telephone from zero to 100% in 45 minutes. That’s about seven minutes in need of Poco’s personal lab-tested declare of 38 minutes; a not insignificant discrepancy, however you’re nonetheless getting a fast-charging gadget on a budget. Plus, Poco handily features a 67W charger within the field.

Need a telephone that gained’t preserve you tethered to a charger? Then the Poco F4 is fairly strong by way of battery life, though not almost as long-lasting as one other, cheaper Xiaomi-related telephone, the Redmi Be aware 11 Professional 5G. I managed to eke out about six hours of screen-on time throughout a day and a half with the adaptive refresh price enabled. This era of utilization included about half-hour of gaming, roughly two hours of YouTube viewing, in addition to utilizing Uber Eats, and searching Reddit. That’s not a class-leading effort nevertheless it’s not a dunce both.

Lastly, the telephone’s side-mounted fingerprint scanner was extraordinarily quick and correct, and it didn’t get sticky as I discovered with the Poco F4 GT throughout my time with that gadget. Who says you want an in-display fingerprint sensor?

The Poco F4’s tackle MIUI is fairly strong by way of each options and polish. The Poco F3 was torpedoed by a litany of bugs at launch, however we didn’t expertise any main points throughout our Poco F4 evaluate testing. Sadly, that is considerably negated by the intrusiveness of the system advertisements on the brand new telephone.

I particularly observed these advertisements in Poco’s personal file administration, video, and music apps. I additionally received a notification from the Mi Video app to view a video for some cause. For what it’s value you possibly can take away most of those apps from your house display (however not uninstall them), whereas tried-and-tested strategies of disabling MIUI advertisements do work for essentially the most half.

Both method, that is nonetheless annoying when considered one of Poco’s authentic strengths was the dearth of system advertisements within the first place, which set them other than options from Redmi. Take a look at just a few screenshots of a number of the advertisements under.

One other space of concern with the software program is the dearth of any public long-term replace pledge. After we requested in regards to the Poco F4 GT beforehand, Poco advised us that it was in discussions with Google to supply three years of OS updates and 4 years of safety patches for its “efficiency” telephones. We’ve requested the corporate in regards to the Poco F4 particularly and can replace the evaluate after we know extra. For now, although, there’s no assure for a way lengthy or how shortly you’ll obtain Android model and safety updates. We do realize it took 5 months for the Poco F3 to obtain Android 12 (after launching on Android 11), so you might be in for a little bit of a look forward to Android 13.

The Poco F4 has its fair proportion of bloatware too. Though it’s not fairly the worst offender within the trade, you possibly can look forward to finding a number of pre-installed video games like Mud Settle, Fb, Jewels Blast, Spotify, and Tile Enjoyable. At the least they’ll all be uninstalled.

Want to harass passengers on public transport with obnoxious music? Then the brand new Poco gadget definitely brings loads of quantity, however the bottom-firing speaker is noticeably louder than the highest speaker. I observed this discrepancy on occasion when watching some movies.

And eventually, whereas the show is definitely a pleasant sufficient panel for a finances telephone, I might’ve appreciated to see Poco supply extra granular refresh price performance, akin to a 90Hz possibility. It additionally looks as if the telephone doesn’t dip under 60Hz fairly often, as I solely noticed the panel switching to 30Hz for the notification gentle pulse on the in any other case turned-off display. It nonetheless caught to 60Hz when viewing photographs, watching YouTube movies, or studying ebooks.

One of many Poco F4’s extra notable upgrades is the first digicam, because it adopts a 64MP sensor with optical picture stabilization (OIS). Compared, the Poco F3 served up a 48MP shooter with out OIS. Both method, the primary shooter does a good job in the course of the day, providing a wholesome stage of element, correct publicity, and respectable dynamic vary.

The digicam isn’t good in these situations although. Other than some photos simply being just a little too saturated, you’ll discover elevated ranges of noise in darker areas of a photograph (take a look at the foliage within the third picture under) whereas the digicam does typically ship an over-sharpened picture too. I additionally observed that the Poco F4 is often liable to lens flare and purple fringing when taking pictures some out of doors scenes, even when the solar isn’t immediately within the scene.

Associated: The most effective finances digicam telephones

The Poco F4 foremost digicam does a strong job at night time too, doubtless because of OIS enabling slower shutter speeds. You’re not going to get shiny leads to the default mode, however whereas the night time mode isn’t a transformative affair both, it’s able to visibly lifting the brightness and taming noise on occasion. OIS isn’t actually a boon for the telephone’s lengthy publicity modes, as you’d usually want to make use of a tripod anyway for finest outcomes. Nonetheless, it does come in useful for extra secure video (extra on that in a bit).

The 8MP ultrawide is a token effort at most, as even brightly lit photos can have pictures with simply seen noise within the darker areas of the scene. You’re additionally considerably inconsistent colours in comparison with the primary shooter.

The 2MP macro lens additionally seems like an inclusion for the sake of it, because the fixed-focus works fantastic however photos are just a little too low-res for something apart from social media. It’s additionally a downgrade in concept over the Poco F3’s 5MP telemacro lens with autofocus.

The Poco F4’s 20MP selfie digicam isn’t going to win any awards both, nevertheless it performs adequately. Pictures shot in the course of the day provide you with sufficient resolvable element for cropping, however there’s nonetheless a good quantity of grain seen within the scene. Indoor selfies are extra inconsistent, various between a comparatively sharp picture and a smooth shot. The telephone’s portrait selfie mode is pretty correct too, though the background is blown out and there are minor cutout errors with my hair and shoulder within the picture under.

Poco’s telephone performs nicely sufficient relating to video recording, serving up punchy colours, correct publicity, and a superb stage of element within the shadows. There’s additionally an excellent regular video mode topping out at 1080p/30fps, making a notable distinction by way of lowering judder. You do see the jello impact on occasion nevertheless it’s nonetheless a useful addition, particularly when the Poco F3 lacked this feature. One other characteristic lacking from the earlier telephone was 4K/60fps recording, nevertheless it’s current on the Poco F4 and works nicely sufficient. Nonetheless, you do understandably see extra judder in comparison with the tremendous regular mode.

The Poco F4 has loads of digicam choices on-hand, too. There’s the aforementioned lengthy publicity suite, 4K/60fps setting, and tremendous regular video mode. However you’ve additionally received a clone mode (letting you create multiple instances of someone in an image), vlog possibility, slow-motion (albeit topping out at 1080p/120fps or an interpolated 720p/960fps), time-lapse mode, and a film results suite. The latter consists of modes like gradual shutter results (holding a transferring topic clear whereas blurring the background), time freeze performance, and a Hitchcockian magic zoom characteristic.

By its personal deserves, the Poco F4 is a reasonably good launch for £379/€399. The Snapdragon 870 nonetheless delivers loads of efficiency, 67W charging is brisk sufficient to make charging really feel like much less of a chore, and the FHD+ 120Hz OLED display makes for a nice viewing expertise.

When judging the Poco F4 within the context of its predecessor, it’s clear the corporate did a good job of fixing the earlier telephone’s flaws. However it looks as if a double-edged sword in some methods. Positive, 67W charging is a beautiful addition, however battery life isn’t the easiest in its worth tier. Sure, we’ve received an improved foremost digicam, however the remainder of the sensors are an afterthought. Poco polished the software program expertise out of the field this time, however system advertisements nonetheless sully the expertise.

By way of options, the Poco F3 (£329) might be essentially the most logical rival proper now in case you like what you see and may dwell with the caveats. It lacks 67W charging and OIS, however you’re nonetheless getting the identical highly effective chipset, the identical battery capability, a equally good display, and a sharper macro lens. The total asking worth can be cheaper than the Poco F4 and it goes for even decrease on sale, plus lots of the early bugs we encountered in our evaluate have since been squashed.

Staying with the Poco household, the Poco F4 GT (£699) is a tool value contemplating in case you’re a hardcore cellular gamer. You miss out on OIS for the primary digicam however do acquire a extra highly effective processor, 120W charging, and a few cool retractable shoulder buttons.

The Samsung Galaxy A53 5G ($449) is a robust telephone value contemplating over the Poco F4. You miss out on a flagship-level processor and quick charging however acquire IP67 water resistance, a much bigger battery, a greater ultrawide digicam, and a powerful dedication to updates.

The Pixel 6a ($449) hasn’t hit the market on the time of this writing, however contemplating Google’s pedigree with finances telephones, it’s completely in rivalry. You’re getting a much less fluid 60Hz OLED display and far slower charging speeds. Nonetheless, the Pixel brings an prolonged replace dedication, Google’s AI-focused Tensor processor, unique software program options, improved water resistance, and a twin rear digicam system borrowed from the Pixel 5a that we already know delivers nice picture high quality.