Poco F4 GT Evaluation | Trusted Opinions

The Poco F4 GT is a gaming cellphone with a top-tier processor, and prices considerably lower than some on this class. Nonetheless, its battery life is pretty brief, the extent of efficiency throttling is disappointing and it will get fairly sizzling in regular use – which helps clarify why that throttling is important.

Introduction

The Poco F4 GT is a part of a sequence from Xiaomi that appeals primarily for techies and cellular avid gamers. Early Poco telephones have been nigh-on unbeatable within the efficiency they supplied for the cash.

This cellphone is a bit of completely different. The Poco F4 GT prices £699, greater than a Google Pixel 6 however – granted – nonetheless considerably lower than one thing just like the Asus ROG Telephone 5S.

I make that comparability as a result of the Poco F4 GT is a devoted gaming cellphone; it has a “gamer” design, and attention-grabbing buttons that emulate the texture and performance of a gamepad’s triggers.

These are properly engineered however not massively snug to make use of, making a Razer Kishi a greater resolution for individuals who need the gamepad expertise on their cellphone. There are additionally questions over the Poco F4 GT’s efficiency.

Whereas it makes use of the top-tier Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC, efficiency finally ends up throttled onerous and quick. And comparatively brief battery life means you’ll need to lean on the, admittedly super-quick, 120W charging.

Like different Poco telephones, the Poco F4 GT doesn’t have an ideal digicam array both. Whereas the primary one is sound, and snappy to make use of, it falls behind the usual at £700 with restricted low-light efficiency and advantageous texture element retention.

An excellent-powered mid-price gaming cellphone is a good suggestion in principle, nevertheless it doesn’t pan out completely right here due to pretty extreme efficiency throttling and mediocre battery life.

Design

• Highly effective audio system
• High quality glass and metallic construct
• Gaming type: a profit to some, off-putting to others

The Poco F4 GT is made within the type of devoted gaming telephones, like these from the Asus ROG sequence. It isn’t what many would outline as engaging, however for these in for the experience, Xiaomi has nailed the type.

Triangular indents sit within the digicam housing, the end on the rear cowl, whereas the digicam flash LED sits inside a lightning strike-shaped cutout.

This cod-seriousness is strictly what we see in a number of the greatest gaming laptops we check. I didn’t discover the look all that interesting, however have the identical response to LED-packed gaming PCs with large fan shops, in order that is sensible.

Nonetheless, there are a lot who will respect the Poco F4 GT’s type, and this handset fulfils the transient simply in addition to pricier telephones. The supplies used are glorious too.

The Poco F4 GT’s again is glass, and its sides are aluminium. The one plastic on present here’s a tiny band of the stuff between the show glass and the metallic sides. You couldn’t ask for a greater development. Pricier telephones might have curved glass fronts, however that is arguably not an ideal match for a gaming cellphone. Curved entrance glass makes a cellphone really feel smaller, but in addition swimming pools reflections, making creating brilliant strains down the facet for the show in sure lighting circumstances. There’s none of that impact right here.

Put together your self for a bigger cellphone, although. The Poco F4 GT weighs 210g and is 8.5mm thick and 76.7mm broad, making it a bit chunkier than loads of its less-nerdy contemporaries.

The Poco F4 GT doesn’t have an in-screen fingerprint scanner, as an alternative utilizing the extra economical side-loaded pad, and it doesn’t have a 3.5mm headphone jack both. Nonetheless, the stereo audio system are loud and beefy-sounding, which is much extra necessary in a gaming cellphone.

One design quirk of this gadget is its extremely uncommon “magnetic” facet buttons. Two sliders sit on the fitting facet of the Poco F4 GT, and every lifts up a button that acts a bit just like the set off on a gamepad. These don’t mimic the inputs of such a pad although, and as an alternative are used to mimic touchscreen presses. You set the zone, successfully taking up the position of on-screen digital controls.

It’s an ideal concept, and zones are set per sport. I performed Fortnite, utilizing them to leap and shoot, and retro favorite Hill Climb Racing to manage the complete sport. They work nicely and really feel sturdy. That they retract into the physique avoids unintentional presses, and you’ll set them to behave as shortcuts when not taking part in a sport. That mentioned, the ergonomics right here aren’t even on the similar stage as one thing just like the Razer Kishi, which plugs two halves of a gamepad onto your cellphone.

The concept is sound, and so is the execution. However further buttons mounted onto a skinny cellphone usually aren’t a lot of an improve to the digital on-screen controls designed for the aim.

Display

• Good outside visibility
• A high quality 120Hz OLED display screen
• Nerd-friendly show controls

The Poco F4 GT has a 6.67-inch Full HD 120Hz OLED display screen. That is the very best we might ask for at £700, and whereas much more costly telephones have sharper shows, this cellphone would merely need to price considerably extra if it used one.

Vivid mode is utilized by default. That is an “clever” vibrant mode, in that whereas the app icons on your private home screens could have eye-popping color, once you go to the Pictures app to have a look at pictures taken with the digicam, they gained’t seem comically oversaturated.

That is vibrant color carried out proper, and there are different color modes when you’d desire a extra reserved look. The Poco F4 GT provides presumably probably the most versatile, geek-friendly show tuning I’ve seen thus far this yr.

My most potent takeaway from the Poco F4 GT’s display screen is how a lot it’s prepared to push show brightness in regular outside circumstances. Many telephones with top-quality mid-range shows will solely use their true peak brightness when displaying HDR content material, not when competing with super-bright daylight.

The Poco F4 GT is unusually clear outside, as a result of the OLED is allowed to achieve nearer to its true peak brightness outside than most. Outside readability is subsequently superb.

This show additionally rocks 120Hz, that means it refreshes itself that many instances per second, so that you’ll get super-smooth scrolling across the Android working system.

Software program and Efficiency

• Wonderful peak efficiency, however extreme thermal throttling
• Will get fairly heat with regular mild use
• Quick basic efficiency, however some UI annoyances and bugs

The Poco F4 GT has a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor. Whereas Qualcomm has introduced the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, that is at present probably the most highly effective SoC on this sequence really accessible in telephones you should purchase on the time of launch.

Its basic efficiency is simply as nice as you’d hope, with apps and multi-tasking transitions being far quicker than these of the OPPO Discover X5 Lite I used earlier than the Poco, getting you the flagship expertise I’d count on from a cellphone with this type of energy.

Nonetheless, I don’t suppose the Poco F4 GT delivers the type of gaming cellphone efficiency the design appears to vow.

Peak gaming efficiency is implausible, netting 10140 factors in 3D Mark’s Wild Life benchmark. That is much more abstracted from real-world than a benchmark rating normally is, although, as energy is massively throttled throughout successive runs.

The Stress Take a look at model of Wild Life runs the identical GPU-maxing scenes 20 instances to see how the outcomes change. They drop virtually instantly, all the way down to 45.6% of its peak energy (4628 factors).

This type of throttling occurs in each cellphone I’ve used with the Snapdragon SoC, however it’s worse there than in most. Maybe crucial job of a gaming cellphone is to keep up good efficiency. However after a couple of minutes the Poco F4 GT’s dips beneath that of the Realme GT 3 Neo, for instance, a cellphone with a lot much less of a gaming focus.

That is an indictment of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 as a lot because the Poco F4 GT itself, however the cellphone’s cooling system clearly can’t sustain regardless of utilizing vapour chambers. There’s a resolution. It’s simply not a sensible one. I re-ran the stress check however put the cellphone within the freezer, which introduced the minimal run rating as much as 8807 factors.

The processor’s peak gaming efficiency is terrific, however you solely get to expertise it for minutes at a time. Nicely, until you have been to play outside within the snow.

It doesn’t take a lot to make the Poco F4 GT heat up both. Simply obtain a file or watch some YouTube, and the again will get noticeably heat.

On a extra constructive notice, the Poco F4 GT’s basic efficiency is great. It has the flagship zip that allows you to soar from app to app snappily, and regardless of my reservations about efficiency, video games run very nicely.

Fortnite’s 60fps mode is unlocked for the cellphone, as is the “Epic” graphics preset. Nonetheless, I did discover extra stutters dips after a couple of minutes of play, by which period the highest of the cellphone — the components close to your left hand — have been virtually uncomfortably sizzling.

The Poco F4 GT runs Realme’s MIUI 13 software program on prime of Android 12, the newest model on the time of overview. It appears to be like good, however this is among the quirkier customized interfaces round. For instance, messes with the notifications drop down, utilizing left-right swipes to allow you to swap between the perform toggles and your notifications.

Just a few months in the past I used a few MIUI telephones in a row and acquired used to this type. Having used a few others telephones since then, this variation appears annoying and unintuitive over again. Nonetheless, you’re going to get used to it in time.

Sadly there’s a critical software program subject that seems to have an effect on some Poco F4 GTs at launch, which makes the cellphone cycle between recognising and never recognising the SIM card when inserted, inflicting it to crash so onerous the cellphone resets after a handful of seconds.

I needed to manufacturing unit reset the Poco F4 GT to unravel this downside. And after letting the battery run down fully, the issue returned — that is one thing Xiaomi urgently wants to repair.

Digicam

• Weak secondary cameras
• Main digicam is respectable, however beneath par at £700
• Shoots properly stabilised 4K/60 video

The Poco F4 GT has three rear cameras. A 50MP Sony IMX686 (1/1.7-inch) with f/1.9 lens is the first, backed up by an 8-megapixel ultrawide and a 2-megapixel macro.

Its macro digicam is unhealthy, identical to all tertiary cameras of this spec. The ultrawide is mediocre too, producing photographs with washed-out mid-tones and considerably completely different color character to the primary digicam’s images. There’s a really noticeable step down in high quality from the primary digicam, and pictures don’t maintain up too nicely once you zoom in.

That’s regular for a mid-range cellphone, however as this sits in the direction of the highest of what I’d think about “mid-range”, you would possibly hope for higher efficiency.

The Poco F4 GT’s major digicam is significantly better however, once more, doesn’t fairly match as much as what you will get elsewhere for the cash. Tight pure textures like leaves and grass can look unnatural up shut, notably in something lower than nice lighting.

Far-away grass turns into fuzzy in some scenes, evening picture high quality is not so good as that of some considerably cheaper cellphone. Shadows element shouldn’t be improved as a lot as I’ve seen even at £400 when utilizing the Night time mode and outcomes could be inconsistent, which can be due to the shortage of OIS.

Whereas the 2x zoom mode is helpful for composition it doesn’t reveal vital additional element not seen in normal pixel binned 1x pictures. I used it to snap pics or some ducklings at one level, and the rendering of their downy feathers was mediocre.

The Poco F4 GT can take poppy, ready-to-share photos, however a digicam cellphone on the extent of the Pixel 6 would nonetheless wipe the ground with this one. That mentioned, I’d nonetheless be blissful to make use of this cellphone as my day-to-day digicam; it’s responsive, quick to shoot, and might take respectable photos. It simply isn’t near the very best you will get in your cash, and I’d hope for a minimum of barely higher outcomes contemplating the big 1/1.7-inch sensor dimension.

The ultra-wide digicam (above) tends to smear robust mild sources.

The primary digicam takes nice photos (above), however they don’t all the time maintain up nicely once you zoom in

Above is an indication of the potential lens flare from the digicam.

As you may see above, the 2x zoom doesn’t deal with pure textures notably nicely.

The above image was shot utilizing the Portrait mode, these blobs within the background emulating lens bokeh.

Up-close focusing could be tough with the Poco. The above picture was the very best outcome we might get, following a number of makes an attempt.

Though the 2x zoom isn’t the very best, it nonetheless usually is available in helpful for composing higher pictures just like the one above.

As you may see within the previous picture, trickier textures corresponding to fur and options can merely disintegrate when the lighting is sub-optimal.

The extent of element can nonetheless maintain as much as some extent even when coping with the 2x zoom, as within the shot above.

Fortunately there are not any big technical roadblocks for video. You may shoot at 4K decision, 60 frames per second, and pictures remains to be correctly stabilised. I did discover element shimmering in time together with your footfalls, which suggests the body publicity time is a bit of too lengthy to keep away from in-frame blur.

The Poco F4 GT additionally has an excellent stabilised mode, however I feel the stabilisation at 4K/60 is sweet sufficient usually. It’s what I might recommend utilizing by default, because the added stabilisation limits you to 1080p/30fps seize.

A 20MP selfie digicam sits up entrance, and it’s respectable. Its decision is a bit excessive for the 1/2-inch sensor dimension, which results in solely OK element integrity, however selfies normally are good. Be sure you have interaction the Auto HDR mode when taking backlit images, although, as in any other case massive components of the picture will seem blown out. HDR is switched off as normal, for some cause.

Battery Life

• Shorter battery life than most
• Very quick 120W charging
• No wi-fi charging assist

The Poco F4 GT shouldn’t be a long-lasting cellphone. It has a 4700mAh battery, which is a bit of smaller than the 5000mAh utilized in many mid-range Xiaomi telephones and much smaller than the 6000mAh of the Asus ROG Telephone 5s Professional.

Its real-world stamina seems to be additional lowered by how the cellphone operates. The best way it will get heat with little provocation suggests energy administration could possibly be higher, and its excessive show brightness outside, whereas nice for readability, will do the battery life no favours.

On in the future of testing, a day after I used the cellphone as regular quite than subjecting it to emphasize or efficiency assessments, it was at 5% cost by 6pm. It was used to stream podcasts for a number of hours earlier that day, however nothing else too taxing, and it was set to the usual “balanced” efficiency profile, which is what most consumers are possible to make use of on a day-to-day foundation.

The battery stage drops shortly sufficient to develop into an everyday frustration for individuals who prefer to cost their cellphone in a single day and never have to fret about it operating out every day – which this cellphone might nicely do.

Quick charging is the partial resolution we’re supplied. The Poco F4 GT has 120W quick charging, which is great. Whereas it dips to 100W by its fourth minute on cost, 75W by the 5 minute mark, and dips additional in a while, its pace remains to be glorious.

You get from flat to 50% cost inside 10 minutes. It ticks over to 100% at 24 minutes and — a cheeky option to make charging appear even quicker — stops drawing vital energy at half-hour 22 seconds. There’s no wi-fi charging, possible a budget-related lower.

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