Verdict

The Poco F4 is a fine mid - range headphone , deliver strong performance and an excellent exhibit . However , you could say the same for the Poco F3 that make out before it , with very little change beyond the cost . It ’s still one of the best smartphone experiences you’re able to have for less than £ 400 ; but the competition is only get strong , and the Poco brand no longer offers the put up - out woof .

Pros

Cons

Key Features

Introduction

Last year , thePoco F3wowed with its combination of compelling ingredient for a double - take - cause terms point . Pound for pound , it was one of the most telling headphone of 2021 .

That go away the Poco F4 with a crafty conundrum . How do you be up on a headphone that did almost everything right ?

The answer , it seems , is to do somewhat much the same thing all over again , with only minimal pinch to the formula . It ’s perhaps a impertinent option , result as it does in a very well - rounded headphone .

But it does leave us slimly less enthused about the Poco F4 . Especially given that themid - range competitionis so strong in 2022 , not to cite the fact that the F4 comes with a 15 % price bump . At £ 379 for the entry 6 GB of RAM / 128 GB of storage example brush up here , the Poco F4 is £ 50 dearer than the tantamount Poco F3 .

Design and Screen

Perhaps the big thing that Xiaomi has change up for the Poco F4 is its aim . That ’s not a forged thing in itself , given how characterless the Poco F3 looked .

Not that the Poco F4 looks radically new . It ’s just a unlike shade of generic , with two-fold monotone - glass open , a flat - ish credit card rim , and a stepped camera module that may prompt you of theRedmi Note 11line to which the Poco is a not - so - distant full cousin . There ’s also something of last year ’s Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite to the blueprint , minus the beautifully curvaceous photographic camera module .

The Night Black shade in which I have as a review model does n’t do the phone a heap of party favour . It ’s a mess more drab than the   Nebula Green and Moonlight Silver choice , and it ensures that every raunchy fingermark shows up clearly .

Familiarity aside , the Poco F4 is pleasingly slender at 7.7 millimetre thick . It ’s still a large machine , though , and it is n’t particularly light at 195 g.

An IP53 military rank ensures that it ’s moderately dust- and splash - resistant , similar to its herald . If you want more assurances in this department for the money , check out the Pixel 6a with its IP67 valuation .

Xiaomi has changed up the excogitation of the Poco F4 , but it ’s left the display alone . believe this 6.67 - inchAMOLEDscreen was one of the standout component of the Poco F3 , it ’s tough to paint that as a negative .

You still get an FHD+ resolution , as well as flagship - reverberate eyeglasses of a 120Hz refresh charge per unit andHDR10+support . It still gets nice and bright , too , to the tune of 900 nit in high brightness mode and 1300 nits at its peak . Gamers will treasure the 360Hz soupcon sample rate , which ensures that it ’s responsive to inputs .

While it ’s extremely intimate , you do n’t get any better than the Poco F4 ’s presentation for the money . Still .

Camera

If you ’ve pick up a faint whiff of stagnation with the Poco F4 , you ’re not false . But while the television camera system is n’t a huge step forward , it does represent some measure of progress .

The ikon sensor is the same size of it – a rather compact 1/2 in – but it ’s now 64 megapixels rather than the 48 megapixels of the Poco F3 . Far more significantly , the Poco F4 has now advance OIS . This attain shots far more stable , and is of finical value when the spark start up to cast .

Indeed , Night mode shots here are improved , with greater detail and clarity . They ’re still not on a par with dead reckoning snap on the the likes of of thePixel 6a , theOnePlus Nord 2 tonne , or theRealme 9 Pro Plus , however .

Nor , for that subject , are the shot captured during day hour . While the F4 is up to of capturing decent shots in in effect inflammation , they miss the next - degree depth and impressiveness of those aforementioned rivals .

Xiaomi ’s processing does some heavy - lifting here , and its color science is somewhat punchy . Those vivacious colours are call out to be apportion , but they ’re not exactly what you ’d call bona fide or rude .

The 8 - megapixel ultrawide camera seems to be business as usual – which translate as not peculiarly capital . Detail send away off significantly compared to the master sensing element , especially at the edge ; dynamic range is limited , and I noticed blue sky artifacts when pip on a light solar day .

The 2 - megapixel macro camera has actually been downgraded from the 5 - megapixel Poco F3 , render it even more pointless than before . That ’s some effort .

All in all , while Xiaomi has improved the Poco F4 ’s tv camera somewhat overall , it still falls well curt of the best in class .

Performance

We ’re back in familiar district when discussing the Poco F4 ’s performance . It ’s monovular to that of its predecessor , good manners of the very same Snapdragon 870 flake and the same 6 GB ( or 8 GB ) of RAM .

You could catch this as a disappointment , pass that Qualcomm ’s chip was establish right smart back at the beginning of 2021 . It ’s also worth place out that the 870 is ground on the Snapdragon 865 , which launch even further back in 2020 , albeit with superscript clock speeds .

The mere fact is that Qualcomm still has n’t replaced the Snapdragon 870 at the time of writing . This was an outstandingly capable mid - range splintering for its clock time , and it ’s still a very warm performer today in the Poco F4 .

An average Geekbench 5 multi - core score of 3178 hands down beats both the OnePlus Nord 2 T with its speedy MediaTek Dimensity 1300 and the Pixel 6a with its impost ( and supposedly flagship)Tensorchip . In the GPU stakes , a Wild Life score of 4327 falls a little shortsighted of the OnePlus Nord 2 T , which might volunteer a sign that it ’s sentence for newer silicon in the Poco F5 . Still , it ’s a more than upstanding resultant role .

In the hand is where performance reckoning , of course , and the Poco F4 ’s performance is middling much beyond reproach . flutter between apps , home screens , and carte is almost flagship - tight , while you ’ll be able to play game such as Genshin Impact on gamey options and form rate without a major smasher to execution .

Once again , 5 G is an built-in part of the package , so you ’ll get speedy web operation while out and about , leave you have the appropriate web coverage .

It ’s a conversant account , but the biggest possible rent to your enjoyment of using the Poco F4 will likely come from its tradition MIUI software . It ’s never been a personal – or , indeed , site – favourite , with its gauche ikon and clumsy attempts at approximating iOS .

MIUI 13 on top of Android 12 does nothing to change that view . You ’ll learn to survive with it , and the best affair that can be said about it is that it ’s customisable . But any mid - range phone with a stock or bloodline - Adjacent take on Android has the advantage in this respect .

Battery Life

It should n’t storm you to learn that the Poco F4 uses a battery with a capacity that ’s very to the Poco F3 . At 4500mAh , it ’s also the same as the social unit used in the OnePlus Nord 2 T , and very like to the Pixel 6a ( on 4410mAh ) .

Stamina was n’t one of the strong courting of the Poco F3 , but we had few ailment at the sentence . I do n’t have any with the Poco F4 either .

It ’s capable of standing up to a Clarence Day of use with 4hrs 45mins of screen - on clip – what I ’d term a temperate - to - intensive day – with just under half a storage tank lead .

That ’s pretty reassuring , especially when you consider that I switched the display to a permanent 120Hz almost directly out of the box , as I always do . If you keep the phone set to its default Auto state , you ’ll buy yourself even more battery headway .

One thing Xiaomi has ameliorate from the Poco F3 is the charging planning . You ’re establish a 67W charger in the box rather than a 33W brick this clock time around , which will get you from 0 to 82 % in 30 minutes , and to full in around 40 minutes .

One continued omission , however , is wireless charging . That was hardly worth a mention last time around , but here in 2022 we now have a mid - range option that support this feature in theNothing Phone ( 1).It ’s still far from the average , but it ’s one way Xiaomi could have improved on last year ’s model .

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Should you buy it?

There are faster - charge phones for this money ( see the Redmi Note 11 Pro Plus ) , but the Poco F4 ’s 67W courser will still get you to full in around 40 min .

. There ’s very picayune between the Poco F4 and its herald . If you may find the older phone on discount , it might be the more worthwhile buy .

Final Thoughts

The Poco F4 is another hunky-dory phone from Xiaomi ’s value - oriented grinder - brand , but its all - round competence is tempered by a horse sense of casualness .

Its large , bright display and strong performance are noteworthy strengths , but both elements are literally unchanged from the Poco F3 before it . The same can be said for the telephone set ’s staying power and clunky MIUI software .

The F4 ’s camera is slightly better than before with the key accession of OIS , but it still is n’t up to Pixel 6a or OnePlus Nord 2 T ’s monetary standard . Similarly , the earphone ’s 67W charging is an improvement on its harbinger , but still not the fastest in the family .

All of which would be of small issue if the Poco F4 had n’t obtain a £ 50 price bump . It ’s an easy recommendation for its all - circular competence , but at the same sentence , you ’d perhaps be well attend shopping around for a cheap Poco F3 deal .

Trusted Score

How we test

We essay every wandering headphone we review thoroughly . We use industriousness standard tests to compare features properly and we use the earpiece as our main gimmick over the brushup period . We ’ll always tell you what we find and we never , ever , accept money to critique a merchandise .

FAQs

Yes , included here is a charger capable of 67w charging .

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