Introduction and specs
The Poco F series used to be all the fuss, but its mid-range offerings started to look more promising as the sub-brand expanded. Enter the Poco X4 GT - a solid upgrade over the X3 GT from last year and possibly a more reasonable alternative to the standard Poco F4.
Undoubtedly, the MediaTek Dimensity 8100 SoC is the star of the show. We've had the chance to test it out, and it shows an impressive price/performance ratio - more powerful and more efficient than the Snapdragon 870, yet capable enough to rival even the Snapdragon 888. Some compromises had to be made to squeeze in the recent Dimensity 8100 into the Poco X4 GT's price, and that's the screen. An IPS panel instead of an OLED would have to do.
Xiaomi Poco X4 GT specs at a glance:
- Body: 163.6x74.3x8.9mm, 200g; Gorilla Glass 5 front, plastic back and frame.
- Display: 6.60" IPS LCD, 144Hz, HDR10, Dolby Vision, 500 nits (typ), 650 nits (HBM), 1080x2460px resolution, 20.5:9 aspect ratio, 407ppi.
- Chipset: MediaTek Dimensity 8100 (5 nm): Octa-core (4x2.85 GHz Cortex-A78 & 4x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G610 MC6.
- Memory: 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM; UFS 3.1.
- OS/Software: Android 12, MIUI 13 for POCO.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 64 MP, f/1.9, 1/1.72", 0.8µm, PDAF; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.2, 120˚, 1/4.0", 1.12µm; Macro: 2 MP, f/2.4.
- Front camera: 16 MP, f/2.5, (wide), 1/3.06", 1.0µm.
- Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60fps; Front camera: 1080p@30fps.
- Battery: 5080mAh; Fast charging 67W, 100% in 46 min (advertised), USB Power Delivery 3.0.
- Misc: Fingerprint reader (side-mounted); infrared port; 3.5mm jack; stereo speakers, virtual proximity sensing.
However, that's not your ordinary, budget IPS LCD screen. The Poco X4 GT employs a bright, fast (144Hz) screen that's also Dolby Vision certified. Faster response time at 270Hz touch sampling rate is also on the menu. Particularly useful for fast-paced games.
Speaking of, since there's a GT in the name, the handset is tailored towards gaming. The cooling design has been tweaked and now provides a 32% bigger cooling area with seven layers of graphite. No need to worry about Bluetooth latency as well - Xiaomi is bringing the jack back after being axed in the Poco X3 GT.
No change in the battery department, but we weren't expecting any to begin with. A 5,080mAh battery is plenty competitive and charges quite fast over Xiaomi's 67W charging standard.
Last but not least, the X4 GT swaps out the main 64MP sensor for a bigger one this year. It's nice to see the successor being upgraded in almost every aspect. At least on paper, that is. We take a deeper dive beyond the specs in the following pages.
Unboxing the Xiaomi Poco X4 GT
There's nothing out of the ordinary inside the Poco X4 GT's box. It has all the usual user manuals along with the appropriate 67W charger and a USB-A to USB-C cable, also used for data transfer.
There's also a bonus transparent silicone case in there that fits very well.
Design and build
The Poco X4 GT's design is quite different from the rest of the Pocos in the family, and it's easy to distinguish from the X4 NFC and the X4 Pro as well. In fact, we see more resemblance with Oppo's Reno7 lineup due to the camera design. The handset is entirely made of plastic, with the back panel mimicking frosted glass. However, it's pretty easy to guess that it's not the real thing.
The front is now protected by Gorilla Glass 5, which is a downgrade from the Gorilla Glass Victus on the X3 GT. Unfortunately, there's no mention of ingress protection either - the X3 GT at least had IP53 certification. The added 3.5mm audio jack could be the reason.
Anyway, Xiaomi went for a more boxy design this time around, as the back panel is almost completely flat with more prominent and sudden curvatures towards the edges. The frame around the device is also completely flat, with matching buttons on the right side.
We got the Black option, which seems to repel nasty smudges and fingerprints. They are tough to spot and are easy to clean. As you'd expect, the surface isn't very grippy, though.
The camera bump sticks out quite a bit, and the lenses protrude even further, causing the phone to wobble when placed on a flat surface.
Back to the side frame - there's the volume rocker and the power key doubling as a fingerprint reader on the right side, both are easy to reach and well-placed. The power key should have been separated with some sort of indentation or offered another kind of tactile feedback since it's too flat and blends with the frame.
Poco X4 GT
The bottom houses the USB-C connector, the SIM card tray and the grille for the loudspeaker. On the top, we have another grille that likely serves as an echo chamber for the left channel speaker, the IR blaster and the audio jack.
The front design is standard stuff. A centered punch-hole for the selfie camera, the cutout is relatively bigger than on an OLED panel, and side bezels are somewhat thick, especially the bottom one, but are not obtrusive.
Poco X4 GT
For a 6.6-inch handset, the X4 GT is rather hefty measuring 8.9mm in thickness and tipping the scale at 200g. But that's not the main issue here. The boxy and sharp design makes the phone feel bigger than it actually is. Some gentler curves would have made ergonomics way better.
144Hz IPS panel with Dolby Atmos support
The Poco X4 GT goes for a fast, 144Hz IPS LCD panel with standard 1080 x 2460px resolution in a 6.6-inch diagonal. And although some may be put off by the lack of an OLED panel, Xiaomi didn't cut corners with the screen quality here. It boasts rare features even for an OLED screen - 144Hz refresh rate, 270Hz touch sampling rate, HDR10 and Dolby Vision support, as well as DC Dimming and 7 steps of refresh rate control. It's probably important to note that the touch sampling rate of 270Hz is achieved only at 90Hz or below. And the HDR experience, although Dolby Vision-certified, won't be OLED-level. Granular local dimming control is impossible on LCD panels due their nature.
There are many OLED-equipped options out there for a similar price, but none of those go up to 144Hz refresh rate. So you win some, and you lose some.
When it comes to brightness, though, the screen gets pretty close to competing OLED solutions. We got about 470 nits in manual mode and 600 nits in Auto mode with the usual brightness boost. This would normally be enough for outdoor use on a bright sunny day, but in this case, it depends. Due to the higher reflectiveness of LCD panels, brightness must be higher to match an OLED panel's legibility outdoors.
The Poco X4 GT offers just enough to read text, chat or browse, but it's not enough for comfortable content consumption such as watching videos or viewing photos.
The contrast ratio isn't impressive either - 1:1190. We've definitely seen LCDs with deeper blacks.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0 | 477 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 754 | ∞ | |
| 0.395 | 470 | 1190:1 | |
| 0.496 | 600 | 1210:1 | |
| 0 | 468 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 761 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 530 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 1003 | ∞ | |
| 0.301 | 429 | 1425:1 | |
| 0.38 | 537 | 1413:1 | |
| 0 | 427 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 830 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 613 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 433 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 438 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 633 | ∞ | |
When it comes to color accuracy, the standard mode delivers blue-ish whites and saturated colors overall, but going for the Original color preset would bring down the dE2000 to just 1.4. An excellent result, although whites and grays will still appear slightly blueish. Hard to spot for the untrained eye, though.
HRR control
The default setting seems to adjust the refresh rate dynamically according to the scenario but is not as "dynamic" as advertised. The system would default to 50Hz when the screen itself is not in use, 60Hz in some apps and will go up to 120Hz in pretty much all apps and system menus. Exceptions are the default Gallery app (90Hz or 60Hz when playing video), Netflix (60Hz) and YouTube (60Hz). We didn't see any other steps throughout our testing, and at no point did the system go up to 144Hz.
There's also a custom refresh rate cap that can be set, in which case you can choose between 60, 120 and 144Hz. Refresh rate behavior logic remains the same as the default mode, and the system will lower the refresh rate depending on the scenarios noted above.
When it comes to gaming, things are not ideal. We were able to run only two games at 120Hz (Real Racing 3 and Sky Force: Reloaded), whereas the rest were locked at 60Hz. Even so, we are unable to confirm whether the games saturate the refresh rate with actual 120fps with the tools at our disposal, so keep that in mind.
Battery life
We are happy to report that the X4 GT was able to improve upon its predecessor in terms of battery life, even if the gain is somewhat marginal. The X4 GT did post a particularly impressive web browsing runtime as well as a respectable video playback score. And in our opinion, those screen-on tests are perhaps the most important part of the overall 112h score.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating denotes how long the battery charge will last you if you use the device for an hour of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. More details can be found here.
Interestingly enough, just like the X3 GT, the X4 GT has a 5,080 mAh battery and an IPS LCD panel, leaving the chipset as the only significant differentiating factor that could positively influence battery life. The Realme GT Neo3 got a solid battery life as well, and it was the first Dimensity 8100-powered phone we tested.
Video test carried out in 60Hz refresh rate mode. Web browsing test done at the display's highest refresh rate whenever possible. Refer to the respective reviews for specifics. To adjust the endurance rating formula to match your own usage patterns check out our all-time battery test results chart where you can also find all phones we've tested.
Charging speed
There's no change in charging technology compared to the X3 GT - a 67W brick fills up the 5,080 mAh cell. And that's why we see no change in the 30-minute charging test - the system can charge the battery up to 75% in just 30 minutes. However, the charging curve changes significantly and starts to slow down. A full charge takes about 57 minutes, which is well above other competing solutions, and it's also sensibly slower than the X3 GT from last year. We've also noticed that it takes quite a few minutes to turn on the phone when the battery is completely dead. It refused to turn on until at least 5% of the cell was charged.
30min charging test (from 0%)
Higher is better
- Poco F4 GT
100% - Poco F4
92% - Realme 9 Pro+
77% - Poco X4 Pro 5G
75% - Poco X4 GT
75% - Poco X3 GT
75% - Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
45%
Time to full charge (from 0%)
Lower is better
- Poco F4 GT
0:17h - Poco F4
0:38h - Poco X3 GT
0:48h - Poco X4 Pro 5G
0:49h - Realme 9 Pro+
0:49h - Poco X4 GT
0:57h - Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
1:24h
Speakers
The Poco X4 GT runs a standard stereo speaker setup with the main one blasting from the bottom and a secondary one that doubles as an earpiece. There's a grille at the top side of the phone used for an echo chamber, but the left channel still sounds sensibly quieter than the main speaker at the bottom. Loudness-wise, the handset scored -27.4 LUFS, which is just enough for a "Good" score. In other words - not the loudest one around.
However, the device makes up for that with pretty good sound quality. With the Dolby Atmos tuning turned on (it's on by default anyway), the speakers sound full and clear. The bass is prominent, as far as smartphone speakers go, and there's minimal distortion in the highs and vocals. This is a good-sounding pair of speakers, especially in the said price range.
Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.
Latest MIUI 13 for Poco on top of Android 12
Like every other Poco, the X4 GT runs on a slightly tweaked MIUI, hence why they call it "MIUI 13 for Poco". For all intents and purposes, though, there's little to no difference in the software. MIUI users will feel right at home.
And even though Xiaomi's Android skin offers a plethora of features, some are a bit niche, and yet some of Android 11 and 12 intrinsic features are missing. Those in question are notification history, re-designed widget interface, and privacy dashboard. Since the handset is running an IPS LCD panel, there's no Always-on display function as well.
Anyway, the new MIUI 13 promises some under-the-hood improvements such as better RAM management, better CPU utilization and more effective storage use.
Overall, looks haven't changed, though, and previous MIUI users will feel right at home. What we noticed right away was the unusual DPI. The phone has a standard 1080p+ resolution, but the DPI makes it look as if it's 1440p+. Text and UI elements are sharper-looking yet smaller. You can change the UI scale in settings, of course.
Home screen, recent apps, Control center, notification shade
The split between a notification shade and Control Center is enabled by default this time around, and that's probably a good thing. We found it to be quite convenient, and it's a way to educate users about MIUI's unique approach to the UI. And in case you are not a fan, you can always revert back to the standard notification shade with quick toggles in one place.
The home screen, recent apps and the general settings menu are business as usual. The app drawer, however, is your only option as opposed to the standard MIUI, which gives you a choice between an app drawer and displaying all your apps on the home screen. We like that Xiaomi has placed the search bar at the bottom of the screen for easier reach. There are custom and preset app categories for faster navigation.
App drawer
Unlike the standard recent apps menu, MIUI's one lists the apps in a vertical arrangement and provides several useful shortcuts. That's where you can open up apps in floating windows. However, you can keep only one open at a time. In case you want a faster shortcut to apps that support free-form windows, just enable the Sidebar.
General settings
Notably, the Sidebar is different depending on the scenario. In games, the Sidebar provides a couple of gaming-related features, while in video apps, the Sidebar becomes a Video toolbox. It lets you launch video apps in pop-up windows, Screenshot, Record screen, Cast, and Play Video with the screen off, including on YouTube without Premium subscription. The only caveat is that the apps where you want the feature enabled need to be whitelisted in advance.
Sidebar and floating windows
Customization is, as always, a big part of MIUI. The system lets you choose the style of the Always-on display or the theme of the UI. Aside from the ones pre-installed on the device, there's a themes store that gives you a wide selection. The themes themselves change not only the general appearance but also ringtones and system icons.
Themes
MIUI comes with its proprietary multimedia apps - there's Gallery, and Music and Mi Video (both with local and streaming options). A MIUI File manager is also on board. And, of course, a Mi Remote app that uses the integrated IR blaster.
Moving on to privacy and security, MIUI has come with a pre-installed system Security app. Aside from the additional malware protection layer it provides, the app holds many of the app settings and privacy features in one place. It can manage your blacklist, manage or restrict your data usage, configure battery behavior, and free up some RAM. It can also manage the permissions of your installed apps, define the battery behavior of selected apps, and apply restrictions only to certain apps.
Security app
You unlock the screen via the side-mounted fingerprint scanner. The reader is easy to set up, blazing-fast, and the accuracy is superb. You can set the unlock method to Touch or Press - the Press will spare you accidental misreads of your palm (that eventually lead to PIN input) if you are using the phone without a case. A 2D Face Unlock is available, too, but it is far less secure than the fingerprint option.
Also, widely available on other phones with MIUI, Game Turbo is both the hub you can use to launch your games as well as an in-game utility for improving your gaming experience. It includes classic functionality like screen recording and limiting incoming notifications.
Game Turbo overlay and settings
Some MIUI ROMs include ads in the default apps; it is a well-known thing. And the Poco F4 does come with baked-in ad "recommendations".
You can disable those even if it's a bit tedious to do it because you have to do it for every system app that has them. For example, if you are annoyed by the app scanner's ads, just hit the settings gear, and disable recommendations. Ads in the File Manager - Settings->About should do it. Themes - go to Settings and disable Recommendations. It's not ideal, sure, but at least you can get rid of them all.
Overall, the MIUI 13 runs smoothly and feels snappy. Animations could be a bit faster, but you can enjoy them at 120 or 144fps, depending on your refresh rate settings.
Synthetic performance
The Poco X4 GT features one of MediaTek's latest chipsets, the Dimensity 8100. It's a step up from the standard Dimensity 8000, mainly in clock speeds. It sports the same hardware setup, though. Despite its high clock speeds (higher than even the Dimensity 9000), the CPU employs ARM's older architecture, and it's also based on the 5nm manufacturing process instead of the newer 4nm.
The octa-core CPU uses 4x Cortex-A78 cores clocked at 2.85 GHz and 4x Cortex-A55 cores ticking at 2.0 GHz. The GPU used for graphics tasks is the Mali-G610 MC6, the same one used in the Dimensity 8000, but it promises 20% better performance. We assume it's achieved through higher clock speeds.
In addition to the rather powerful CPU and GPU combo, the SoC boasts a capable NPU and ISP. The MediaTek Imagiq 780 ISP can simultaneously record HDR videos with two cameras or 4K@60fps HDR10+ footage using one camera. It can also handle 200MP sensors, 2x lossless zoom and AI-powered noise reduction and HDR imaging.
Another notable difference between the Dimensity 8000 and the 8100 is that the latter supports a 120Hz refresh rate at WQHD+ resolution and HDR10+ Adaptive. That last one means it can adjust the screen's brightness during HDR10+ videos depending on the ambient light.
AnTuTu 9
Higher is better
- Poco F4 GT
952124 - Realme GT Neo3
819348 - Realme GT2
810512 - Poco X4 GT
747871 - Realme GT Neo 3T
726007 - Poco F4
698586 - OnePlus Nord 2T 5G
619610 - Poco X3 GT
578505 - Realme 9 Pro+
416031 - Poco X4 Pro 5G
384646 - Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
379313
GeekBench 5 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Poco F4 GT
1244 - Realme GT2
1131 - Realme GT Neo 3T
1023 - Poco F4
975 - Realme GT Neo3
968 - Poco X4 GT
917 - Realme 9 Pro+
814 - Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
743 - Poco X3 GT
693 - Poco X4 Pro 5G
687 - OnePlus Nord 2T 5G
493
GeekBench 5 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Realme GT Neo3
4079 - Poco X4 GT
3719 - Poco F4 GT
3637 - Realme GT2
3487 - Poco F4
3190 - Realme GT Neo 3T
3180 - OnePlus Nord 2T 5G
2694 - Realme 9 Pro+
2335 - Poco X3 GT
2310 - Poco X4 Pro 5G
2063 - Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
1891
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Realme GT2
56 - Realme GT Neo3
53 - Poco F4
49 - Realme GT Neo 3T
49 - Poco X4 GT
46 - OnePlus Nord 2T 5G
42 - Poco X3 GT
38 - Realme 9 Pro+
23 - Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
19 - Poco X4 Pro 5G
17
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
- Realme GT2
68 - Realme GT Neo3
60 - Poco F4
59 - Realme GT Neo 3T
59 - Poco X4 GT
52 - OnePlus Nord 2T 5G
51 - Poco X3 GT
44 - Realme 9 Pro+
27 - Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
23 - Poco X4 Pro 5G
20
GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Realme GT Neo3
43 - Poco X4 GT
38 - Realme GT2
38 - Realme GT Neo 3T
34 - OnePlus Nord 2T 5G
30 - Poco X3 GT
28 - Realme 9 Pro+
16 - Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
15 - Poco X4 Pro 5G
12
GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)
Higher is better
- Realme GT2
30 - Realme GT Neo3
28 - Poco X4 GT
24 - Realme GT Neo 3T
24 - OnePlus Nord 2T 5G
20 - Poco X3 GT
19 - Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
10 - Realme 9 Pro+
10 - Poco X4 Pro 5G
8.1
3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)
Higher is better
- Realme GT2
5879 - Realme GT Neo3
5428 - OnePlus Nord 2T 5G
4653 - Poco F4
4357 - Poco X4 GT
4301 - Realme GT Neo 3T
4255 - Poco X3 GT
3991 - Realme 9 Pro+
2296 - Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
2292 - Poco X4 Pro 5G
1211
In the CPU-bound benchmark tests, the Dimensity 8100-powered handset outperforms pretty much all of the simi9larly-priced mid-range chipsets and even shows exceptional performance in the multi-core scenario where even the Snapdragon 870, 888 and 8 Gen 1 fall behind. However, we believe this is true because Geekbench doesn't utilize the big Cortex-X1 and Cortex-X2 cores in the multi-core test.
In the combined AnTuTu 9 test, the SoC still outperforms its rivals and places pretty close to the flagship Snapdragon silicons. MediaTek's solution trades blows in the GPU-intensive tests but still shows impressive performance compared to its direct rivals.
Sustained performance
Although not entirely for gaming, the Poco X4 GT definitely has some gaming-ready capabilities, including an improved LiquidCool Technology 2.0, which is just a fancy way of saying that the handset has a large cooling surface area and heat sinks to combat CPU and GPU throttling during long gaming sessions. Xiaomi says the cooling area is 32% larger compared to the X3 GT and has 7 layers of graphite.
To be fair, though, the Dimensity 8100 isn't one of the most demanding chipsets to support during heavy loads, but it's nice to see that the system is capable of maintaining 93% of the SoC's theoretical performance, even after an hour-long 100% CPU load.
CPU throttle test: 30 min • 60 min
And since the body is made of plastic, it's not that hot to the touch as well. One of the benefits of having a plastic frame and back panel.
Standard triple-camera setup with 64MP main sensor
The Poco X4 GT features a familiar and commonly used triple-camera combo. It's widely used even in upper mid-range devices. More importantly, though, the X4 GT offers a modest upgrade over the X3 GT - the main 64MP sensor is now larger. The new shooter uses a 64MP, f/1.9, 1/1.72", 0.8µm main camera.
The said snapper is joined by a well-known 8MP, f/2.2, 1/4.0", 1.12µm ultrawide camera offering 120-degree field of view. The third camera is used solely for macro - 2MP f/2.4.
For selfies, the X4 GT relies on a 16MP, f/2.5, 1/3.06", 1.0µm camera.
Camera menus
The camera app is a rather straightforward implementation, though it does have its quirks. First, changing modes works with side swipes (on the black bezel!), and you can also tap on the modes you can see to switch to those directly. Up and down swipes don't work for switching between the front and rear cameras; only the toggle next to the shutter release does that.
You can add, remove, and rearrange modes in the main rolodex by going to the More tab and navigating to the edit button, and you can access that from the settings menu as well. The unused modes will still be in that More tab, but you can switch to a (less intuitive) pull-out pane that's summoned from a line next to the shutter release.
The hamburger menu at the far end is where you'll find additional options, including the Super Macro mode (why here and not a mode in the rolodex?), plus the icon to access the settings. Next to that hamburger menu, you have a flash mode switch, an HDR switch, an AI toggle, a shortcut to Google Lens, and a magic wand with beauty effects and filters.
Camera modes
On the near end, you have the camera zoom switch that operates in one of two fashions. The first one is simply tapping on one of the three dots that represent the ultra-wide, primary, and 2x digital options. Or you can tap on the active magnification and slide sideways to reveal even more zoom levels - 2x and 10x, plus a slider for intermediate magnifications.
There's a nicely capable Pro mode, where you can tweak the shooting parameters yourself. You can use the primary, the ultrawide and even the macro cameras here. You get to pick one of 4 white balance presets or dial in the light temperature with a slider, there's a manual focusing slider (with peaking as an option, particularly useful for the macro), and shutter speed and ISO control with the range depending on which camera you're using. A tiny live histogram is available, and a toggle for zebras can be found in the hamburger menu.
Additional modes
As expected, there's a host of extra modes, including Long Exposure with its own set of different presets - moving crowd, neon trails, oil painting, light painting, starry sky, and star trails. The extra modes in the "More" sub-menu can be displayed with bigger thumbnails for easier navigation.
It's worth noting that once you switch over to the ultrawide camera for video recording, switching back to the main camera will default to 1080p. This is a bit annoying, and you should keep an eye on the resolution toggle since you might mistakenly record in 1080p instead of 2160p using the main sensor.
Daylight samples
Main camera
The phone's main camera produces some nice-looking daylight images with little to complain about, especially when compared to some of the X4 GT's direct competitors. Colors are punchy, although not over the top, contrast is great (like most Xiaomi's), dynamic range is okay, and the amount of resolved detail is somewhat impressive.
16MP daylight photos
If we do have to be more critical about the X4 GT's camera performance, we could say that sharpness needs a little nudge in the right direction. Under more close inspection, the foliage seems a bit on the fuzzy side too. Then again, this would most likely go unnoticed by the untrained eye.
16MP daylight photos
Quality drops significantly as you get the phone inside, even if there's enough artificial lighting around. Shadows may often be crushed, but sharpness suffers the most.
Shooting in 64MP mode won't bring much to the table. A tad more detail is resolved, but you get a narrower dynamic range, increased amount of noise and a significant drop in sharpness.
64MP daylight photos
2x zoom
We weren't expecting great results from the 2x zoom mode since it's a simple crop from the main sensor, but we were surprised to see the samples being of unacceptable quality. There's too much deterioration in overall quality - sharpness, dynamic range, and noise seem to suffer the most. Perhaps, a manual crop from the 64MP photos would be a better option than using the 2x zoom preset.
Daylight 2x zoom photos
Ultrawide camera
The ultrawide images, although coming from an overused in the industry, tiny 8MP sensor, are looking pretty decent. Dynamic range is limited, and sharpness needs improvement, particularly closer to the edges. Still, the lively colors and good contrast bring out the best from the ultrawide shooter, and there's a good amount of detail in subjects closer to the camera.
Daylight ultrawide photos
Macro camera
As usual, the 2MP macro camera delivers lackluster images with washed-out colors, insufficient contrast and a limited amount of detail. It's a 2MP sensor, after all. The lack of autofocus makes close-up shots particularly challenging as well, so remember to take at least a couple of shots at varying distances.
Macro samples
Low-light samples
Main camera
The low-light samples taken with the standard Photo mode are not what we expected. General softness and visible noise, which is sometimes taken care of by the noise suppression algorithm at the expense of fine detail, ruin the overall quality of the photos.
However, there's clearly some competent HDR algorithm running in the background, judging by the well-balanced highlights and light sources. There's plenty of detail in the shadows as well. Color reproduction, contrast, dynamic range and exposure are on point, even without resorting to the dedicated Night mode.
Low-light main camera photos
Still, we highly recommend using the Night mode at all times as it doesn't take more than a fraction of a second to snap and stack all frames and improves overall image quality by adding a little bit of sharpness and clearing out the annoying grain. The difference isn't striking, though, but shadows do look cleaner, so it's a bonus we would gladly take.
Night mode main camera photos
Otherwise, the standard Photo mode appears to deliver just about the same dynamic range, color reproduction and overall appearance as the Night mode.
2x zoom
It's really hard to recommend the 2x zoom mode at night as it was pretty unsatisfactory during the day as well. Images are visibly soft, grainy and lack fine detail. The Night mode does little to improve quality, although it balances out the highlights and shadows.
Low-light 2x zoom: Normal • Night mode
Ultrawide camera
The ultrawide camera struggles to deliver usable images at night with the standard Photo mode. The samples below are way too soft, have a narrow dynamic range and colors are washed out, although noise is hard to spot. Luckily, the Night mode helps with all that and delivers decent enough images for social media purposes. Sharpness is restored, highlights look better, shadows have much more detail in them, and colors are more lively.
Low-light ultrawide: Normal • Night mode
Once you are done with the real-life examples, take a look at our Photo compare tool for some pixel-peeping and see how the Poco X4 GT fares against the competition.
Poco X4 GT vs. Samsung Galaxy A53 5G and the Realme 9 Pro+ in our Photo compare tool
Portraits
Portraits are surprisingly good. It's been a while since we've seen such good portrait shots from a phone in this price range. Despite the fine grain in some of the scenes with sub-optimal lighting, the phone resolves quite a bit of detail, sharpness is good, dynamic range is excellent, and color reproduction is on point. As it's usually the case with edge detection, the software can sometimes fail to produce a convincing bokeh effect, even if the background isn't particularly challenging and complex. Case in point - the fourth sample below.
Portraits
Selfies
Unfortunately, the selfies are a bit of a letdown, even for a phone in this price range. No matter how good the lighting conditions are, selfies look too soft for our taste, the dynamic range isn't great either, and the colors are a bit dull.
Interestingly enough, the Portrait selfie mode produces somewhat sharper-looking images with a tad more detail. We suspect this is because the HDR is inactive in portrait mode, and some HDR algorithm implementations are known to cause sharpness issues.
Selfies: Normal • Portrait
Video recording
The handset is capable of recording 2160p@30fps videos using the main camera and 1080p@30fps videos with the ultrawide camera. There are no other fancy video modes except that you can add black bars on the top and bottom to achieve a movie-like aspect ratio.
Starting with the main camera's 4K footage. The video below seems sharp enough with accurate color reproduction, no noise and high enough contrast. However, the dynamic range might need some improvement, judging by the crushed shadows and clipped highlights of the building in the distance as well as the passing white cars.
As expected, the ultrawide camera's 1080p video is considerably softer and has an even narrower dynamic range. Even with the lively colors on display, it's hard to recommend the ultrawide video due to its general fuzziness.
Once you are done with the real-life scenarios, take a look at our video compare tool to see how the Poco X4 GT stacks against the other phones we've reviewed.
2160p: Poco X4 GT vs. Samsung Galaxy A53 5G and the Realme 9 Pro+ in our Video compare tool
Competition
There's plenty of competition to go through in the said price range, especially since the Poco X4 GT is currently being sold for an early bird price of €300 before returning to its original €380 price tag. For a €300, the handset is definitely a steal, and only a few can challenge the rather powerful hardware the X3 GT has to offer.
Undoubtedly, the Dimensity 8100 chipset is the key selling point here, and the X4 GT seems to be utilizing it pretty well, given the benchmark and the sustained performance test results. Long battery life and fast charging are also considerable advantages.
Unfortunately, for most, the device settles for a less-than-ideal IPS LCD panel. At least compared to rivals that run on OLEDs, that is. On the other hand, It's a decent IPS panel. It has sufficient brightness, 144Hz refresh rate and supports HDR10 and Dolby Vision. Not the best HDR experience, though, since local dimming is inferior to the one offered by OLED panels.
Without further ado, let's dive into the deep oceans of midrangers.
Realme's 9 Pro+, which currently sells for around €330, is a nice trade-off example of how the X4 GT would have turned out if it didn't go for the powerful Dimensity 8100 SoC. Realme went for a more balanced approach with the 9 Pro+ as it has an arguably better, albeit slower, 90Hz OLED panel but also a less powerful Dimensity 920 SoC. Overall camera performance is better on the 9 Pro+ due to its optically-stabilized 50MP camera with bigger sensor. Battery life is also on the contender's side as well as charging speed. It all comes down to what you prefer - picture quality and camera performance or pure horsepower. If it's the latter, the X4 GT will most likely be more suitable for you.
Realme 9 Pro+ • Samsung Galaxy A53 5G • Xiaomi Poco F4 • OnePlus Nord 2T
The same logic applies in the case of the Poco X4 GT vs. Samsung's Galaxy A53 5G dilemma. The latter may win you over with a superior OLED panel and better photo quality, but the performance gap between the Exynos 1280 chip and the Dimensity 8100 is substantial. Battery life is comparable, but the Poco has way faster at charging. Oh, and those of you looking for expandable storage and/or proper IP67 certification, the Galaxy A53 5G is one of the few to offer them in the mid-€300.
Thinking about going for the Poco F series? Well, the Poco F4 is the closest alternative to the X4 GT as it's currently selling for around €350 - a tad cheaper than the X4 GT's regular price. But it only has the 120Hz OLED display as a strong argument. The X4 GT runs on a more powerful SoC (Dimensity 8100 vs. Snapdragon 870), it has a bigger battery, and as a result, longer endurance, clearer speakers and takes better photos overall, especially during the day.
And even though we haven't had the chance to thoroughly test the OnePlus Nord 2T, it seems like a solid alternative, despite being more expensive than the rest of the handsets on the list here. However, if you are buying it from third-party retailers, the €380 price tag matches the regular pricing of the X4 GT. The device boasts solid camera performance, long battery life and a nice OLED display. But once again, the X4 GT's Dimensity 8100 is hard to beat in this price bracket.
Verdict
It would have been great to say that the X4 GT is an excellent all-rounder and an easy-to-recommend handset. It has a long battery life, a powerful chipset on board, a decent screen, fast charging, good-sounding stereo speakers and okay camera performance. But here's the thing - decent camera performance and display quality are not enough to stand out and keep us from giving the X4 GT an excellent score. Not that there's something inherently wrong with the LCD panel; it's just not on par with the majority of competing OLED-equipped solutions.
The 2x zoom mode, the low-light performance of the main camera and the selfie shooter all need a little bit of improvement, which we believe can be achieved through software optimization. On the other hand, there are a handful of options out there with bigger and better main sensors edging out the X4 GT in case photo quality is of great concern.
Nonetheless, the early bird price of €300 makes the handset particularly enticing, especially for users looking for a long-term, future-proof solution on a budget. And judging by past Poco releases, even the regular price will eventually come down to near €300 levels. If it only had an OLED panel, it would have been one of our go-to mid-range recommendations.
Pros
- The 144Hz IPS screen is of good quality.
- Solid battery life.
- Fast charging.
- Unrivaled price/performance ratio.
- Good camera performance during the day.
- Great-sounding stereo speakers.
- Mature and customizable MIUI 13 on top of Android 12
Cons
- The Gorilla Glass Victus and IP53 protection are gone.
- The 2x zoom mode and the selfie performance need improvement.
- Most rivals use OLED panels.
from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/DehPz6Q
via IFTTT
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Poco X4 GT review"
Post a Comment