Poco has just unveiled its next generation F series smartphone called the Poco F4 5G. It’s not a direct successor to the gaming-focused Poco F3 GT (Review) which launched last year, but can be seen as more of a premium offering in the mid-range space. The F series has always been about delivering flagship-grade performance at very affordable prices, however, rather than focusing on just the specs, the F4 5G aims to strike a balance between powerful specifications and a premium design. We’ve got our hands on a unit, so let’s see what’s it all about.
Let’s kick things off with the configurations. Poco has announced three variants in India with 6GB, 8GB and 12GB of RAM. The 6GB and 8GB variants have 128GB of storage and are priced at Rs. 27,999 and Rs. 29,999 respectively, while the 12GB variant has 256GB of storage and is priced at Rs. 33,999. There’s no microSD card slot in this phone. Poco is also offering an additional one year of warranty with the F4 5G and it has announced some heavy discounts of up to Rs. 4,000 if you buy the phone on launch day (June 27).
My first impression of the Poco F4 5G is that it’s a good-looking smartphone, especially in this Nebula Green finish. The matte texture for the plastic frame and the glass back panel gives it very premium and sophisticated look. It’s also available in a Night Black colour. The dimensions of the phone and rounded edges of the frame make it quite comfortable to hold. The Poco F4 5G measures just 7.7mm in thickness and weighs 195g. The bundle also includes a silicone protective case.
You’ll find the usual selection of ports and buttons all in familiar places on the Poco F4 5G. There’s no headphone jack but you do get an infrared emitter. Oddly, there’s no in-display fingerprint sensor despite this phone using an AMOLED display, but the side-mounted one works just as well.
The Poco F4 5G has a bright and vivid AMOLED display with support for Dolby Vision playback
The Poco F4 5G has stereo speakers and Dolby Atmos support. What I like is there’s a separate cutout in the frame for the top-firing speaker, which should hopefully deliver a more balanced sound. However, it’s easy to block this opening with your palm when holding the phone horizontally so we’ll have to wait and see how much of an issue it really ends up being. The Poco F4 5G is also IP53 rated for dust and water resistance, which is always nice to have.
Switch it on and you’re greeted by a bright and vivid 6.67-inch full-HD+ E4 AMOLED display. Content generally looks crisp and clear and this is one of the few phones in this segment to support Dolby Vision HDR playback, in addition to HDR10+. The display gets Corning Gorilla Glass 5 scratch protection and has a 120Hz refresh rate. The Poco F4 5G also claims 1,300 nits of peak brightness and a touch sampling rate of 360Hz.
The Poco F4 5G is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870, which is a powerful 5G SoC for heavy multitasking and gaming. The phone supports 10 5G bands in total along with dual-5G standby. Poco has gone with a 4,500mAh battery for the F4 5G. There’s support for 67W fast charging and this charger is included in the box. Wireless charging is not supported.
Coming to the cameras, the Poco F4 5G features a 64-megapixel primary rear camera with optical stabilisation (OIS) and 4-in-1 pixel binning. There’s also an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera and a 2-megapixel macro camera. The phone has a 20-megapixel selfie camera. On paper, these specs look decent but we’ll know for sure after testing photo and video quality.
The Poco F4 5G is a good-looking phone with a sturdy body and pleasing aesthetics
Finally, we come to software. The Poco F4 5G runs MIUI 13, based on Android 12. The interface is colourful and feature-rich, and so far I haven’t noticed any notification spam from the preinstalled apps. Poco hasn’t yet committed to any long-term software updates for the F4 5G, which is a little disappointing.
The Poco F4 5G has all the makings of a successful mid-range smartphone. It has the brute power of a very capable SoC and a laundry list of impressive features, all packaged in a premium body. While Poco has done a commendable job with this phone, we shouldn’t forget the F4 5G’s not-so-distant cousin which most likely inspired its creation, the Mi 11X (Review) from Xiaomi. Launched in April 2021, the Mi 11X offers nearly the same set of features and specifications at a similar price. We also have the newly launched iQoo Neo 6 (Review) as a strong competitor to the F4 5G, and the upcoming OnePlus Nord 2T is also rumoured to launch in the same price segment.
Stay tuned for the full review of the Poco F4 5G coming soon on Gadgets 360.