Poco M4 Pro 5G Review Summary
Editor’s Rating- 3.5/5
Design
Display
Battery
Camera
Performance
Pros
- Unique Design
- Powerful Battery
- Fast Processor
- Good camera setup
Cons
- Mediocre Brightness
- Too much bloatware
- Runs Android 11
After a long break, Poco is back in action with the Poco M4 Pro 5G which in India in February 2022. The Poco M4 Pro comes with 5G connectivity, MediaTek Dimensity 810 chipset, and a 5000mAh battery. It is basically a rebranded version of the Chinese Redmi Note 11 5G or Indian Redmi Note 11T. Barring changes in the facia, the Poco M4 Pro 5G has the same core as the Note 11T. [हिंदी में पढ़ें]
Should you buy the Poco M4 Pro 5G? Well, it falls in a highly competitive segment. Will it succeed or crumble under the pressure of expectations? Let’s find out.
Specs | Price & Availability | Design | Display | Battery | Performance | Camera | Verdict
Poco M4 Pro 5G Specs
- Display- 6.6-inch FHD LCD
- Refresh rate-90Hz
- Processor- MediaTek Dimensity 810
- RAM- 8GB
- Storage- 256GB
- Rear Camera- 50MP+8MP
- Front Camera- 16MP
- Battery- 5000mAh
- Fast Charging-33W
- SIM- dual
- OS- MIUI 12.5 Android 11
- Weight- 195 grams
- Dimensions- 163.6×75.8×8.8mm
Poco M4 Pro 5G Price & Availability
Poco M4 Pro 5G is priced at Rs. 14,999 for the base 4GB RAM and 64GB storage model. The 6GB RAM and 128GB storage variant costs Rs. 16,499 while the top variant with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage costs Rs. 17,999. It comes in 3 colors- Poco Yellow, Cool Blue, and Power Black. It has gone on sale via Flipkart in India.
Poco M4 Pro 5G Review: Design
The Poco M4 Pro 5G has similarities in design with some other Redmi smartphones in the market except for some differences in the branding. This is expected as I said earlier Poco M4 Pro 5G is the rebranded version of Redmi Note 11T 5G. It has the same dimensions and weight there are slight changes in the design element of the smartphone.
Poco M4 Pro 5G boasts an attractive and colorful design. At the front, M4 Pro 5G has a large 6.6-inch display with a centered punch-hole cutout for the camera and a chin at the bottom. Although it looks ok I seriously would have liked it if Poco had gotten rid of the silver ring around the camera.
Turn it around and you will find a huge square camera module with POCO branding in bold. The module is made of black plastic and looks like a complete contrast to the bright color of the device. If you look at the bottom left side, you will find a small 5G branding there which reasserts the fact that the smartphone has 5G connectivity.
The smartphone comes in 3 shades- yellow, blue, and black. I got the yellow color variant and I found it stunning. The company calls this color ‘Poco Yellow’. I love smartphones that come with a matte finish and not a glossy look and thus Poco M4 Pro 5G’s color was a perfect fit for my taste. One reason I love Matte finish is that it means lesser smudges. The phone feels compact in hand and its weight also did not bother me at all. It is comfortable to hold and tactile overall and the back camera module has a grand look and feel.
The side rails are where the connectivity options lie and in Poco M4 Pro’s case, the right edge has a power button (which doubles as a fingerprint sensor) and volume rocker. Pair of speakers are present at the top and bottom rails while the USB Type-C port is at its usual position (bottom edge) along with a 3.5mm headphone jack and microphone. Since Poco M4 Pro has a secondary microphone as well, this one is placed at the top edge.
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Poco M4 Pro 5G Review: Display & Sound
Poco M4 Pro 5G has a large 6.6-inch LCD panel with a 90Hz refresh rate which falls short of competition as most phones have a refresh rate of 120Hz or an 90Hz AMOLED display at this price rate.Thankfully, Poco has added dynamic. Although I don’t mind phone coming with LCD as more than the LCD or OLED it’s the calibration that matters the most.The Poco M4 Pro 5G display delivers life-like colors. I could switch between color profiles depending on the type of content I was watching- Vivid, Saturated, or Standard. LCD panel gives an FHD resolution of 2400×1080 pixels and comes with a WideVine L1 certification which meant I could enjoy my Premium Netflix subscription in Full HD quality.
Brightness is a major issue and this makes viewing under sunlight a task. Even with brightness levels set to the highest levels, I found it difficult to read even when conditions aren’t that harsh. I wish the company would have worked on the display aspect a bit more, as it would have taken the overall performance of the phone a notch higher. For now, I can easily say that after a very impressive design department, the display part comes with quite a lot of shortcomings.
A good display needs a good sound system to give an even better all-around performance. Poco M4 Pro 5G comes with dual stereo speakers which give an above-average performance. The sound is clear, crisp, and powerful. Listening to music is better via headphones and the 3.5mm headphone jack meant I could listen to my favorite music the old-fashioned way. Yes, I am one of those who like to download Mp3 songs and listen to them via wired earphones even in today’s day and age, and Poco M4 Pro allows me to do that as it comes with a good storage amount and a 3.5mm jack for plugging in earphones.
Poco M4 Pro 5G Review: Performance
Poco M4 Pro 5G is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 810 chipset which is entry-level silicon manufactured at 6nm node process and brings 5G capabilities on board. The processor handles day-to-day tasks like surfing, calling, texting, streaming with ease. 8GB LPDDR4X RAM comes with an option to expand the RAM by 2GB using the virtual RAM feature. This RAM with 810 SoC makes opening and closing of apps, running simultaneous apps like flying through social media, and browsing the web together between tasks faster. Never did any app stutter, shut down, or got unresponsive. It has a storage of 256GB which allowed me to store a good amount of audio, videos, and photos.
Gaming is one department that lags behind all thanks to the ARM Mali G57 GPU in the Dimensity 810 which might give an ok performance in lower graphic settings but breaks out a major sweat as soon as I tried switching to higher HD graphics. Asphalt 9 and BGMI can only be smoothly played when graphics are set to low or maybe medium. Gaming should have been improved, considering the fact that Poco claims that it makes its devices for gamers. Here are the results of some benchmark test results.
As for the software, Poco M4 Pro 5G runs Poco’s version of MIUI-the Poco Launcher. It is MIUI with a new set of icons while the rest of the UI is the same as the other MIUI. It is MIUI 12.5 so it has all those features which are found on a Redmi device. One more drawback comes in the form of Android 11 but hopefully, it will be rectified soon when Mi launches MIUI 13.
Bloatware has become one of the most common things with any UI these days (Apart from Moto’s stock android) and this one is no different. Poco M4 Pro comes with a whole lot of third-party apps installed but thankfully I could uninstall those I didn’t need. When I rebooted the device for the first time, there were UI frame drops too which settled down after a while. There is no adware which is a relief.
Call Quality is good as the signal doesn’t get disrupted even in low network zones. Video calling while your internet connection is not having its best day is also decent.
Poco M4 Pro 5G Review: Battery
Poco M4 Pro 5G packs a 5000mAh battery which comfortably lasted for just above 1.5 days with moderate usage. Along with a powerful battery, there is support for 33W fast charging which recharged the phone from 0 to over 90% in about 52 minutes. There were no heating issues with the device, forget about heating, the device doesn’t even get warm after the heaviest of usage.
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Poco M4 Pro 5G Review: Camera
In terms of camera, Poco M4 Pro 5G is quite different from other phones. Unlike other mid-range devices, it has 2 rear cameras- a 50MP Samsung ISOCELL S5KJN1 ½.76-inch sensor paired with a wide lens and an 8MP ultrawide camera. There are no useless macro, depth, or portrait sensors that hardly serve any purpose but are just included to add a lens and claim it as a triple camera setup. The dual rear camera setup on Poco M4 Pro is good enough and gives what’s required of a smartphone’s camera. It takes decent shots in low as well as good light conditions and pictures with the 50MP camera are detailed, dynamic, and colorful.
8MP Ultrawide sensor covers a good field of view and clicks photos with the correct level of saturation. The images are detailed even when the area is large and I feel it is adequate for a mid-range phone’s camera.
Low light photography is above average and I felt Night Mode is not needed while clicking these pictures, it was better when I clicked pictures in normal mode during night time too. Switching on Night Mode gave grainy pictures, which was a turn-off.
Poco M4 Pro 5G has a 16MP selfie camera and it does a good job too. The selfies clicked are focused on the subject, detailed and pleasing. Portrait mode on the front camera doesn’t have much of a use and looks more like a marketing gimmick. Overall camera performance is above average on Poco M4 Pro 5G.
Review Verdict: Should you buy Poco M4 Pro 5G?
Poco M4 Pro 5G is a smartphone that has its plus and minuses. It comes with a distinctive design, great battery, capable processor, and good camera setup but lags in the display and OS department. The performance is not the best in the segment but it can’t be called worst as well.
It comes with support for 7 5G bands so if you think you can use it till 5G comes to India, then you might buy it. If you don’t need a 5G phone, then smartphones like Redmi Note 11, Realme 9i, or Narzo 50 might be better options in this price range.
All in all, Poco M4 Pro 5G might not be the best but can work for those who need an all-around performance without compromising much.
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