The Poco X4 Professional is a good worth handset that provides a beautiful display screen, a really succesful digital camera, and 5G connectivity. The design will not be to everybody’s tastes, however this machine is nicely price your consideration for those who’re on a £260 finances.

Introduction

Poco is a sub-brand of Xiaomi that specialises in finances telephones. In earlier years we’ve been significantly impressed by the likes of the Poco F3, however can the Poco X4 Professional enhance upon that top commonplace?

With stand-out specs comparable to a 108-megapixel major digital camera, 67W fast-charging, a 5000mAh battery and a 120Hz show refresh charge, issues actually look promising for this well-priced cellphone.

Design and Display

• Unattractive seems
• Good display screen
• Gorilla Glass 5 and IP53 certification

Whereas the Poco X4 Professional 5G punches above its weight in lots of respects, the design is one aspect the place it lets itself down fairly a bit. The digital camera module spans many of the machine’s rear and is downright ugly, with an enormous model title plastered over it for good measure. 

The again panel itself is sort of eye-catching, particularly when the solar’s out, as then it catches the sunshine with glistening criss-crossing streaks from prime to backside. Nonetheless, this added gloss truly makes it fairly slippery to the contact, and given the massive and protruding digital camera module as nicely, I sadly found on a few events that this does make it a bit vulnerable to falling off barely inclined surfaces for those who haven’t set it down rigorously.

Once you wish to unlock the machine, you’ve obtained the selection of utilizing Face Unlock on Fingerprint Unlock (through the scanner that’s embedded within the energy change); in my expertise, each of those strategies labored reliably and effectively.

Luckily, there are some sensible touches at play with the design, regardless of its undoubtedly divisive look. The display screen is forged in Gorilla Glass 5, which means that it ought to be fairly proof against bumps and scratches. It additionally has an IP53 certification, which implies it’s shielded from some water spray and from restricted mud ingress. The Poco X4 Professional has additionally obtained a MicroSD slot for expandable storage along with the utmost of 256GB that’s onboard – you received’t discover that on a lots of the best phones, just like the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. There’s a 3.5mm headphone jack too, one other function normally misplaced on high-end telephones now.

The display screen is not going to have almost as many detractors because the design, because it’s frankly flat-out wonderful for the worth. 

Measuring a beneficiant 6.67-inches diagonally throughout, this AMOLED panel boasts wonderful distinction in comparison with LCD counterparts, whereas at 1080p the decision is a lot sharp sufficient for watching movies or taking part in video games. 

The 120Hz refresh charge is a killer function for this worth, making content material comparable to social media feeds good and easy to scroll down because of the display screen being always up to date. It’s price noting although that not like premium units just like the OnePlus 10 Pro which might provide adaptive refresh charges, this one can solely be set at 120Hz or the usual 60Hz manually, with none means of computerized adjustment for battery conservation.

I additionally discovered the adjective brightness to be responsive and efficient, with the panel lighting up rapidly sufficient to make sure that I by no means needed to scrunch my resist make out what was on my display screen, even when beneath direct daylight.

Digicam

• Sturdy 108-megapixel major digital camera sensor
• Secondary sensors and selfie digital camera aren’t on the identical stage

One of many headline specs of this machine is, doubtless, its 108-megapixel major digital camera. If the display screen specs weren’t sufficient to get you rubbing your eyes and double-taking the price-tag, then this one will, as habitually I might count on this sensor to be present in far more costly units.

Night time Mode clears up a few of the noise and restores pure colors, as you may see from the image beneath. Nonetheless, clearly this mode shouldn’t be as spectacular as barely pricier mid-range telephones just like the Pixel 4a.

You may select to make use of Synthetic Intelligence to the images through the cellphone’s AI mode, which recognises totally different scenes and adjusts them accordingly – so as an illustration it’d add color to a plate of meals to make it look extra appetising. Typically talking although, I discovered that it simply added lurid ranges of color to the picture with out actually bettering it. For those who’ve a fan of the super-saturated look then you definately may wish to use this selection, however I most popular the outcomes when it was switched off.

The spectacular major digital camera is accompanied by a 2-megapixel macro sensor, and an 8-megapixel ultrawide lens. The ultrawide lens isn’t significantly spectacular, as you may see from the snap above, and the bounce down in high quality is manifestly noticeable once you change to it from the principle. The lack of element signifies that you’ll be finest suggested to stay to the principle digital camera as a lot as potential once you’re taking pictures.

The macro digital camera is, as per common on telephones of this sort, pointless and never significantly good high quality; I doubt you’d use this very a lot because it hardly ever turns out to be useful.

You’ve not obtained a devoted telephoto sensor right here, so if you wish to get nearer to your topic then the very best you are able to do is make use of the digital zoom on the principle sensor. Above is a picture taken at 2x digital zoom, and as you may see there may be an apparent lack of element even at this extent, but it surely does nonetheless produce usable footage.

The selfie digital camera is satisfactory however not significantly good, with images usually having a washed-out look that doesn’t ship a lot element.

In relation to video recording, you may take 1080p footage at 30fps. You may’t document at 60fps, so the video outcomes aren’t all that easy, and regardless of the sensor’s excessive decision you may’t document in 4K high quality both, which might be all the way down to the constraints of the processor.

Efficiency

• Respectable, however not standout, efficiency ranges
• 5G connectivity

The Poco X4 Professional runs on a mid-range Snapdragon 695 processor, which isn’t the quickest round however happily does pack in a 5G modem in an effort to have entry to the very newest in cellular knowledge speeds. 

It’s removed from a given for a cellphone at this worth level to have 5G connectivity, in order that’s a serious promoting level in its favour, significantly for those who’d prefer it to be considerably future-proof. Along with 5G, the handset additionally has dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity.

Within the desk beneath, you may see how the Poco X4 Professional stacks up when in comparison with its friends – and whereas it’s not the very best in school, it’s actually no slouch both. The Geekbench scores check with the CPU means, which is the a part of the processor that manages most duties that you simply undertake, whereas the 3DMark scores choose its GPU efficiency, which is a very good indicator for its gaming means.

I by no means observed any lag or glitching when utilizing the cellphone every day, and what’s extra it additionally carried out nicely when taking part in cellular video games too, though naturally not on the stage of a flagship cellphone.

The software program at play here’s a “Poco model” of MIUI 13, and it’s based mostly on Android 11. I’m not an amazing fan of MIUI, which all the time comes filled with bloatware upon set up and even reveals adverts at some factors – I’d a lot desire a cleaner and extra streamlined software program bundle. Further options embody the flexibility to create a separate app drawer that hides away delicate apps you wouldn’t need different folks to see, although this doesn’t add an excessive amount of added worth all in all.

Battery

• Potential two-day battery life
• 67W fast-charging

The battery has a beneficiant 5000mAh capability, and this is delivered to bear with spectacular impact. I by no means got here near draining the battery fully, even after as much as six hours of screen-on time in at some point. For those who use your cellphone comparatively conservatively, I may simply see it lasting you two days.

By way of particular duties, I watched an hour of Netflix and the battery drained by 5%, whereas streaming music on Spotify introduced the battery down by simply 2% after an hour.

Not solely can the battery stand as much as intensive utilization, however you may prime it up once more in a short time as nicely due to the 67W charging – and this charger is included within the field too. That is marketed as having the ability to prime you as much as 90% from zero in simply 31 minutes, which is extremely spectacular for any smartphone not to mention one which prices comparatively little.

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