Poco X4 GT evaluation

We’ve turn out to be used to Xiaomi’s Poco-branded telephones outdoing the completion for worth and providing a near-flagship expertise for surprisingly low costs.

The X4 GT, nonetheless, doesn’t fairly stay as much as these expectations. However don’t write it off simply but: there’s rather a lot to love and also you may nicely be joyful to just accept among the compromises when you worth the issues which are really nice about this telephone. And there are fairly a couple of of these.

Options & design

• Plastic body and again
• Silver, blue and black fashions
• Headphone jack (with Hello-Res audio assist)

Though the X4 GT is kind of just like final 12 months’s X3 GT, there are many variations, too. The plastic body has a lot squarer edges, which makes it really feel thicker regardless that it isn’t.

The rear panel is constituted of plastic, too, and has a matt end that doesn’t entice fingerprints. It appears to be like plain, however when the sunshine catches it on the proper angle, it shines.

You’ll be able to select between silver, blue and black colors, and that applies to the body and again. I used to be despatched the silver mannequin to evaluation, and it’s higher described as gray and even graphite.

The general design sticks with the X3 GT’s formulation, so there’s a raised digicam module on the high proper, Poco 5G branding on the backside and the identical too-prominent regulatory info as on the X3 GT.

The facility button doubles as a fingerprint scanner and, like earlier than, didn’t reliably unlock the telephone for me. Possibly it’s simply my fingers, but it surely was annoying nonetheless.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

One shock is the return of a 3.5mm headphone jack on the highest edge, making the X4 GT engaging to those that nonetheless demand a wired connection.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

The X4 GT additionally has what Poco calls an X-axis linear motor. That’s an odd selection and doesn’t do a superb job of explaining that that is successfully haptic suggestions. Just like the ‘Taptic Engine’ in an iPhone, it supplies managed vibrations for issues like typing, and feels very related.

At 164x74x9mm, it’s fairly a giant telephone, however that is par for the course in the intervening time. It weighs 200g which is, once more, nothing out of the bizarre.

It’s good that there’s a clear case included within the field.

What’s lacking is any water-resistance ranking. The Poco X3 GT was IP53-rated, however there’s nothing in any respect for the X4 GT. This may very well be a cost-saving measure as getting that ranking is dear. Likelihood is, given issues just like the rubber gasket across the SIM tray, the X4 GT will survive precisely the identical form of unintentional splashes as its predecessor.

Display screen & audio system

• 6.6in IPS, 144Hz
• 20.5:9, 2460×1080 decision
• Gorilla Glass 5

Many mid-range telephones now use OLED screens, however Xiaomi has caught with IPS for the X4 GT. Happily, it’s rather a lot higher than the X3 GT’s show with a lot better viewing angles and an excellent increased refresh price at 144Hz.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

So far as IPS screens go, this is without doubt one of the higher ones. It has a 270Hz contact sampling price, helps HDR10 and Dolby Imaginative and prescient and may change between seven completely different refresh charges as applicable for no matter is being displayed.

I measured a most brightness of 475 nits by manually adjusting the slider, however open air, the display is able to 600nits. That’s nearly half what an OLED display can output. It’s not fairly sufficient to make it simple to observe movies in sunny situations or see the viewfinder when taking images or movies, but it surely’s wonderful in all places else.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

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If there’s one downside, it’s that black ranges aren’t wonderful. This implies distinction isn’t unbelievable so regardless that it’s an “HDR” show, HDR content material nonetheless appears to be like higher on OLED-equipped telephones which, due to the way in which they work, have higher native dimming than any IPS display.

In truth, there’s a second niggle: the X3 GT had Gorilla Glass Victus, however the X4 GT steps right down to Gorilla Glass 5. There’s no factory-applied display protector both, so it’s advisable to purchase one to keep away from any injury to the display.

There are stereo audio system that are respectable by smartphone requirements. They assist Dolby Atmos and though you received’t select to hearken to music on them over headphones, they’re nice for gaming and watching most movies.

The one situation is that the right-hand one (the one on the underside edge) is noticeably louder than the left (high) one, so there’s an annoying right-hand bias.

Specs & Efficiency

• Dimensity 8100 5G chipset
• 8GB LPDDR5+
• 128GB / 256GB storage (UFS 3.1)

If the Poco X3 GT had spectacular efficiency, the X4 GT is on one other degree. The MediaTek Dimensity 8100 chipset, actually, is the spotlight of the X4 GT.

It’s misplaced in a telephone costing this little: Realme’s GT Neo 3 additionally makes use of it, however prices significantly extra.

With a multicore rating of 3629 in Geekbench 5 (a bit decrease than the Neo 3’s 3882) it’s nonetheless approach sooner than different mid-range telephones.

That’s an understatement: it’s flagship-level quick, matching the Samsung Galaxy S22 Extremely and beating some others.

This can be only a artificial benchmark, but it surely exhibits simply how a lot worth the Poco X4 GT provides – when you care about pace, that’s.

Gaming prowess is fairly good, too. In GFXBench, body charges have been very respectable even when they weren’t fairly as much as flagship requirements.

In real-world use, although, video games reminiscent of Asphalt 9 and Actual Racing 3 ran very easily, although you might nicely discover that the refresh price doesn’t routinely improve in each sport. In Pokemon GO, for instance, I needed to hunt round within the settings to alter the refresh price, and even then the Android Developer choices for displaying the refresh price reported it was working at solely 60Hz. Twitter, Instagram and different apps ran at 120Hz, as do the Android menus, however I by no means noticed any app working sooner than 120Hz.

In comparison with the X3 GT, Xiaomi has made the vapour chamber 32% larger for higher cooling, and I by no means observed any points with the X4 GT getting scorching after extended use.

Nevertheless, there have been instances when the X4 GT would turn out to be laggy. Instance embody wen exiting apps again to the house display: app shortcuts and widgets took a few seconds to load. Some apps took longer than anticipated to launch and once in a while menus would show a spinning icon earlier than displaying their contents. Hopefully these are MIUI 13 points as there’s clearly no lack of uncooked energy, and there was no correlation between working the telephone laborious and these glitches occurring. They appeared to occur at random.

By way of different {hardware}, there’s an IR blaster, NFC (which helps Google Pay), Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6. And whereas 5G isn’t a part of the mannequin title, this is a 5G telephone. The SIM tray will take two nano-SIMs, however observe that there’s no expandable storage: you’re caught with the 128GB or 256GB you get. It’s price getting the higher-capacity mannequin because it’s not massively costlier.

Battery life & charging

I believed it was enterprise as regular within the battery and charging division: the Poco X4 GT has the identical battery capability and identical 67W charging because the X3 GT.

Nevertheless, utilizing the 67W charger and USB cable included within the field, charging was a lot slower. The X4 GT managed a one-third cost from empty in quarter-hour, and two thirds (65%) in half an hour. The X3 GT charged to 90% in half-hour.

The remaining third takes nearly one other half-hour for the X4 GT, with a full cost achieved in about 55 minutes.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

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The opposite draw back, however one which’s anticipated at this worth, is the absence of wi-fi charging. Nearly the one telephone round this worth to incorporate it’s the iPhone SE.

By way of battery life, the X4 GT will final two days with gentle use, however there’s sufficient juice for someday of laborious use.

Cameras

• 64Mp (16Mp) important digicam
• 8Mp extremely huge digicam
• 2Mp macro digicam
• 16Mp selfie digicam

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

On paper, it appears to be like just like the X4 GT has the identical digicam setup as its predecessor, however the primary sensor has been upgraded with a barely bigger one. It nonetheless has the identical 64Mp decision, however as with so many high-megapixel telephone cameras, it’s actually a 16Mp gadget. That’s as a result of it makes use of a way referred to as pixel-binning which takes a mean of every 4 pixels.

By default, then, you’ll get 16Mp images from the X4 GT and – when taken open air in good gentle – they’ll be completely good. There’s loads of element, colors aren’t oversaturated and dynamic vary is respectable. You’ll be able to drive it to shoot in 64Mp mode, however there’s not a whole lot of level: sure, there’s a bit extra element, however you lose out on dynamic vary and pictures are noisier.

Though the autofocus does a superb job of guaranteeing photographs are reliably sharp, this digicam doesn’t deal nicely with motion. Even in good gentle, transferring topics – children, pets, sports activities – will nearly at all times be blurry.

Speaking of blur, the portrait mode is surprisingly good. Though it may be fooled by messy hair and blur a few of it, the general impression could be very pleasing.

Issues go downhill when gentle ranges drop, with a noticeable lack of sharpness. You should utilize the primary Photograph mode to shoot in low gentle, however the devoted Night time mode does a greater job. You won’t instantly discover a lot distinction between the 2, however zoom in and also you’ll see images taken with Night time mode are a bit sharper and fewer grainy.

Swap to the ultra-wide digicam and also you’ll see related outcomes to so many mid-range telephones. Though images look wonderful when seen small (i.e. on the telephone’s display), zooming in reveals a scarcity of sharpness on the edges. Total, dynamic vary isn’t pretty much as good as the primary digicam, but it surely’s completely usable if you want a wider discipline of view.

The 2Mp macro digicam is identical right here as on nearly each different telephone: it’s a novelty that’s laborious to make use of. There’s no autofocus, so whether or not your picture in in focus or not, or whether or not the precise a part of the picture is in focus is extra right down to luck than anything.

Discovering the Macro mode is a problem. It isn’t in the primary modes carousel, neither is it underneath the Extra part. It’s hidden away within the hamburger menu on the high proper.

The digicam app provides a 2x choice, however that is merely digital zoom. It’s greatest to keep away from it fully because the ensuing images are severely missing intimately. You’d be higher off utilizing the 1x mode and cropping them in Google Images or your favorite editor.

The 16Mp selfie digicam isn’t dangerous, although it’d be good if photographs have been somewhat sharper. As soon as once more, dynamic vary isn’t great which leaves selfies wanting somewhat flat. Portrait selfies are fairly good, although, with lifelike blurring of the background and fairly good detection of the topic so hair and arms aren’t unintentionally blurred.

The Poco X4 GT defaults to 1080p30 for video and provides good (digital) stabilisation. It’s a disgrace that’s not out there at 4K30, so you need to commerce element for smoothness.

You’ll be able to shoot video utilizing the ultra-wide digicam, however you’re restricted to 1080p30. This implies video appears to be like a bit fuzzy and – as with images – you find yourself with smaller dynamic vary.

Software program

Opinions about MIUI 13 are blended at Tech Advisor. A few of us fairly prefer it, whereas others actually don’t.

A part of the issue – however maybe primarily for telephone reviewers always swapping telephones and having to study the place all of the settings are – is that Xiaomi has made so many modifications to inventory Android.

As my colleague Lewis observes in his evaluation of the X4 Professional 5G, the Settings app is a bit all over and in a really completely different order to Google’s model of Android which it makes use of on the Pixel 6. The notification shade is totally completely different too.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

It’s the identical interface all Xiaomi telephones use, and also you do get used to it. Plus MIUI13 has some helpful additions reminiscent of twin apps which lets you have two copies of WhatsApp, Fb, Instagram and different supported apps, permitting you to be logged into completely different accounts concurrently.

There’s additionally a sidebar which you’ll populate together with your selection of video games and different apps and Second Area, which is successfully a second, separate telephone the place you may set up a special set of apps, have a totally separate digicam roll and signal into apps with completely different accounts to the ‘First Area’. Switching between the 2 requires authentication, and it’s a great way to have separate private and work telephones without having two separate units.

One annoyance is the built-in safety app. It has a virus scanner powered by Avast which is all nicely and good, however will interrupt what you’re doing to scan newly put in apps slightly than dealing with that within the background. And it additionally exhibits adverts whereas these scans happen.

Value & availability

The Poco X4 GT isn’t bought formally within the UK or US. It’s aimed extra at Europe whether or not the worth for the 128GB mannequin is €379 – €20 cheaper than the Poco F4. The 256GB model is €429.

Nevertheless, whereas it isn’t bought by big-name retailers, you can see it on the market within the UK for somewhat underneath £300. If you would like the official UK mannequin, that’s the Poco X4 Professional 5G which (on the time of this evaluation) was one of many high decisions in our roundup of the most effective mid-range telephones.

For those who click on Purchase Now on Poco’s web site, you’ll arrive at Aliexpress the place all three colors can be found for $299 / £259 / €303. Or, if you’d like the 256GB mannequin, it’s $329 / £285 / €333.

Verdict

On paper, the Poco X4 GT appears to be like wonderful. It ticks nearly each field for a mid-range telephone, but is available in on the very backside finish by way of worth.

It has a flagship-level processor, 144Hz display, massive battery, quick charging, a superb digicam setup and dual-SIM 5G. You even get extras such because the headphone jack, stereo audio system and a 67W charger.

However the actuality isn’t fairly as spectacular. Sure, the Dimensity 8100 is massively fast and the display is a giant enchancment over the X3 GT’s. Nevertheless, the cameras – general – aren’t the most effective, there’s no (official) water-resistance ranking, the stereo audio system aren’t nicely balanced and MIUI13 does lag now and again. Possibly this can be fastened with software program updates, but it surely upset me in my time with the telephone.

It subsequently relies upon what you need out of your telephone. It may very well be a superb choice for anybody in search of an reasonably priced gaming telephone, however when you’d commerce some efficiency for an OLED display and higher cameras, there are different choices (together with the aforementioned Poco X4 Professional 5G). Admittedly, most rivals value greater than the X4 GT, so when you’re on a strict funds and may stay with the damaging elements, it’s superb worth certainly.

Specs

• 6.6in LCD show (144Hz, FHD+)
• MediaTek Dimensity 8100
• 8GB RAM
• 128GB or 256GB storage
• Rear cameras:
  • 64Mp f/1.9 important rear digicam
  • 8Mp f/2.2 ultra-wide digicam
• 20Mp f/2.5 selfie digicam
• Fingerprint sensor in energy button
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• 5G
• Bluetooth 5.3
• WiFi 6
• 5080mAh battery
• 67W quick charging
• 163.6 x 74.3 x 8.9 mm
• 200g
• Colors: Black, Silver, Blue