Poco F4 5G Review: A powerhouse gaming smartphone at a mid-range price

The Poco F4 5G was the latest smartphone from the brand to hit Indian shores. The Poco F4 5G follows the same formula as the original Pocophone, bringing top-tier specifications at a mid-tier price.

The Poco F4 5G features a starting price of Rs 27,999 in India for the base 6GB/128GB model, while the phone is also available in an 8GB/128GB and a 12GB/256GB variant that will set you back Rs 29,999 and Rs 33,999, respectively. But can the Poco F4 5G cut it in one of India’s most competitive markets; well, let’s find out.

Design and Build

Straight off the bat, you’ll see that the Poco F4 5G ditches much of its gaming identity for a more subtle look. The Poco F4 5G doesn’t have any of the physical triggers or a gamer aesthetic, instead, there is a standard design with glass on the front and back. And while the phone uses Gorilla Glass 5 protection on the front, we don’t know about the glass used on the back. The Poco F4 5G also opts for a plastic frame, giving it a unique box-shaped look. You also get an IP53 rating for minor splash and dust resistance.

The box-shaped comes as a result of the Poco F4’s sharp, square edges as opposed to the rounded corners on most smartphones. I liked the new design aspect when I first saw it on the OnePlus 10R (Review) and that bit hasn’t changed. The Poco F4 5G comes in Neptune Green and Night Black colours, although our unit arrived in the former. Both models feature a shiny matte finish on the back, which is resistant to fingerprints but some smudges were visible under direct light.

The phone has a circular camera module on the back housed in a rectangular-shaped island. The phone has stereo speakers and comes with a volume and power button on the right. There’s a USB Type-C port and SIM tray on the bottom that sits alongside the speaker grille. The Poco F4 5G follows a pretty standard design, although leaning towards the box shape as opposed to rounded edges makes the phone look so much better.

Display

The Poco F4 5G has an impressive 6.67-inch FHD+ AMOLED panel with an extremely tiny hole-punch cut-out for the selfie camera. The display comes with both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision support. Users can also choose between DCI-P3 or sRGB in the Advanced Settings. Moreover, the display boasts a 120Hz refresh rate and a 360Hz touch sampling rate, which makes the display extremely smooth and responsive, making it excellent for gaming. Sadly, the display can only scale between 60Hz and 120Hz.

The screen defaults to 120Hz but can scale it down to 60Hz when the picture is static. The display has good viewing angles and a nice 20:9 aspect ratio that makes it comfortable to watch content on. The panel also boasts a peak brightness of 1,300 nits and is plenty bright, allowing you to view content under direct sunlight. Despite not using LTPO technology, it is hard to criticise the Poco F4’s display as it is arguably the best in the segment.

Performance

The Poco F4 5G is quite the performance with its Snapdragon 870 chipset at the helm, which is further paired with up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM. The phone also comes with 128GB and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. While the SD870 does lag behind the Snapdragon 888 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chips in terms of performance, Poco does claim that the 870 chip is more power efficient. But how does the chip actually perform, surprisingly well?

#Callofdutymobile High graphics/frames on the #pocof4 @POCOGlobal pic.twitter.com/8tnTbQ9zGX

— Carlsen (@Carlsen0491) July 24, 2022

The Poco F4 5G managed a 965 single-core score and a 3301 multi-core score on Geekbench 5. In AnTuTu, the F4 5G managed an overall score of 678901 points. This enabled smooth multitasking and navigation. In gaming, Call of Duty: Mobile ran on High Graphics with Very High frame rates or vice versa. Diablo Immortal ran on High graphics at 60fps, while Apex Legends Mobile also ran on UltraHD graphics and High frame rates.

#diabloimmortal on high graphics courtesy of the #pocof4 pic.twitter.com/1oDzF6tax8

— Carlsen (@Carlsen0491) July 24, 2022

The Poco F4 5G remained relatively cool while playing games. I also didn’t notice any major drops in frame rates while gaming. When it comes to performance, the Poco F4 5G didn’t fail to impress. If you are a serious mobile gamer or play demanding mobile games often, then this phone is certainly worth considering. While it may not offer performance on par with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC, you will still be able to run just about any game on the Poco F4 5G.

Cameras

For optics, the Poco F4 5G boasts a triple-camera setup with a 64 MP OmniVision OV64B primary sensor that offers OIS. The main camera is paired with an 8 MP ultrawide shooter and a 2 MP macro unit. Additionally, there’s a 20 MP Sony IMX596 sensor up front for selfies. So, let’s take a look at real-world camera results.

In daylight, the main camera takes photos with punchy colours and plenty of details. The dynamic range was good for the most part, while the contrasty images were social media-worthy without any editing required. You do see sharpness drop off and noise creep in when taking photos indoors or in more complex scenarios, like late evenings when the sun is just about to set. You can also use the 64 MP mode to take high-res photos, although HDR is not supported in this mode.

Moving on to the ultrawide unit, which was surprisingly good in maintaining colour consistency. However, the images did appear softer and grainy with noise creeping in at times. The lower resolution of the ultrawide camera did tend to show and results weren’t as good indoors. Lastly, the 2 MP macro camera was a hit and a miss. At times, colours looked particularly bad and images lacked detail, although contrast was average.

In low light, the Poco F4 5G’s dedicated Night mode does a solid job reproducing balanced shots with good exposure. By default, photos didn’t look oversaturated or overprocessed when using Auto Night mode on the main camera, while dynamic range was respectable and noise is kept in check. For a sub-30K smartphone, low light photography on the main camera was quite good, although results on the ultrawide were found lacking in most instances.

The 20 MP selfie camera captured good selfies in daylight. The level of detail was solid, while skin tones looked natural for the most part. I also saw good edge detection and subject separation with portrait selfies. The Poco F4 5G can capture 4K video at up to 60fps on the primary sensor, although the ultrawide and front cameras are limited to 1080p at 30fps. There’s no stabilisation while shooting 4K 60fps video, although lowering it to 30fps should enable decent EIS. 4K recording in daylight offers accurate colours, good exposure, and solid detail.

The Poco F4 5G also comes with a ton of camera modes, including VLOG, Dual Video, Long Exposure, Movie Effects, and more. Overall, the Poco F4 5G has a very reliable primary rear camera backed by a decent ultrawide shooter and selfie camera. However, there are still some shortcomings of the lower resolution ultrawide sensor. After seeing two 50 MP cameras on the Moto Edge 30 and Nothing Phone (1), it would be nice if more OEMs adopted the dual high-resolution camera strategy as opposed to having gimmicky macro cameras and unreliable depth sensors.

Battery Life

When it comes to battery capacity, the Poco F4 5G’s 4,500 mAh battery proved sufficient enough to get us through an entire day under heavy usage. My usage involved an hour of gaming and 20 minutes with the phone’s camera, apart from the usual daily tasks. The Poco F4 5G gave me anywhere between five to six hours of screen time with a 100 percent charge, which was pretty good. Additionally, there is an Ultra saving mode that ramps down the performance in most applications barring messages, calls, and network connectivity.

You will be able to squeeze out even more battery time using this mode. The phone also has a Performance mode to maximise performance and reduce battery time. The 67W charging support on the Poco F4 might not be segment-leading but does power up the phone in no time, giving you a full charge in about an hour. The battery life of the Poco F4 5G was pretty good while the charging speed was even better.

Software

On the software side, the Poco F4 5G boots Android 12 with MIUI 13 on top, which Poco calls “MIUI for Poco”. The software here does ditch spam notifications and ads. However, the interface does seem a little cluttered with more pre-installed apps than I’d have liked. You can uninstall most pre-installed third-party apps but there are a few first-party apps here to stay. On the plus side, the interface is still pretty functional with tons of features and customisations that we’ve come to expect from MIUI.

Poco is also offering two years of Android updates and three years of security updates, which means the phone will get a timely Android 14 update. The Poco F4 5G also has a side-mounted fingerprint reader that is fast and accurate. Overall, it is easy to appreciate the level of customisation that comes courtesy of MIUI, although the interface does feel a bit cluttered.

Verdict

When it comes to sub-30K smartphones, the Poco F4 5G is quite the performance. In principle, the formula is the same as the previous generation, with a major emphasis on performance, although the F4 5G does lose a lot of its gaming aesthetics. However, the box-shaped design and the glass protection make the phone look and feel solid. Additionally, you get a stunning display and superb performance, which enables one of the best gaming experiences in the sub-30K segment. Battery life and charging support were also on point.

Where the Poco F4 5G could use some work is in the software and camera departments. Particularly with competition from the Motorola Edge 30, Nothing Phone (1), and Samsung Galaxy A53 5G ramping up their camera efforts. But there’s no doubt that the Poco F4 5G does more right than wrong, while its performance greatly surpasses any of its competitors, making it one of the best, if not the best, smartphones for gaming under Rs 30,000. The performance coupled with a vibrant display, good battery life, fast charging, and a reliable design earn the Poco F4 5G an easy recommendation in our books.