Poco just launched a global version of its Poco M4 5G , and it has several differences compared to the Poco M4 5G released in India. Confusing naming aside, did Poco make the right changes to turn this into the value packed budget mid Ranger you’ve been looking for and let’s find out in our a full review.
Poco M4 5G Overall Review
Xiaomi has released two Poco M4 5G, one in India and this one for global markets. Why they didn’t just tack a letter on the end to keep them straight, I have no idea. For the most part, this Poco M4 5G is the same device as the Indian one, except that both the main cam and the selfie cam have seen a downgrade. But let’s take a step back and talk about the design first. Our Poco M4 5G made of plastic, as you might expect from an entry level phone. What stands out on the back is the wavy textured finish, as well as the glass plate that stretches across the camera bumps. Even though the frame is plastic, it does a good imitation of metal, and the phone feels solid overall. The Poco M4 5G also has an IP 52 rating that’s protection against dust and water drops, not serious water exposure. On the front of the phone is a 658 inch IPS LCD with a ten eight p resolution, Gorilla glass, three protection and a 90 Hz refresh rate. The high refresh rate smooths out your swiping and scrolling, and in some situations it can dial down automatically in order to save energy. This display is sharp enough, but not as contrasting as other LCDs we’ve seen lately. The color rendering is also all over the place. There are three color modes to choose from in settings, but none of them is particularly accurate. You don’t get HDR support here, but at least there’s a wide vinyl one DRAM for higher streaming. Our biggest issue with the display is the brightness.
We measured a maximum of just around 330 nits with a manual slider, and this can boost to 410 nits in auto brightness mode. In this regard, the Poco M4 5G sits at the bottom of the charts and is unpleasant to use outdoors in the sun. For audio, the phone has a headphone jack and a single bottom firing speaker. It is somewhat short on power scoring, just average in our loudness test. The sound quality is nothing special either, but not much worse than other budget phones. You can wake up and unlock the Poco M4 5G with the side mounted fingerprint reader built into the power button. It’s fast and responsive. The phone features 64 or 128 gigs of storage, and that is expandable through micro SD cards. The interface of the Poco M4 5G is Xiaomi’s Miya Y 13 based on Android Twelve? It’s essentially the same interface that you’ll find on all of Xiaomi’s recent phones, even though it’s still running on Android Eleven, if you’d like to find out more about MIUI 13 features, you can check out our dedicated video. Under the hood of the Poco M4 5G is a 5g capable chipset, immediate density, 700 in benchmarks. The performance is pretty competitive for the budget class. The UI and everyday tasks run smoothly, and it can even handle some less demanding games. The Poco M4 5G has a large 5000 mah battery, and battery life is great. The phone scored an endurance rating of 121 hours in our proprietary tests. Unfortunately, charging speed falls way short of the standard set by the battery endurance. It tops at 18 watts, while the Pro model gets 33 watt fast charging. With the bundled adapter, we were able to charge the Poco M4 5G from zero to just 31% in half an hour, and a full charge took over 2 hours. Now onto the cameras or should I say camera? There’s a main camera and a depth sensor at 13 megapixels. The resolution of the main cam is a considerable downgrade from the 50 megapixel one on the Indian version. The colors are mostly true to life, and dynamic range is good. There’s some detail, low noise and chops are usable. Overall, portraits are rather poor. The subject’s face often comes out soft or blurry. The subject’s separation is alright, though in low light, the rear camera does an adequate job. There is not a lot of fine detail, but colors have decent saturation. The camera struggles with the shadows, and light sources are usually clipped. If you turn on the night mode, you get more detail, while light sources and dark areas are developed better. Each shot takes up to 6 seconds to capture, though. Even though the selfie cam doesn’t sound like much with its five megapixel resolution, it captures decent photos. For this price range, there’s an okay amount of detail and colors look good. Videos can be captured in up to ten DP resolution with the main cam, the footage is usable but unimpressive. We did notice occasional focus hunting and there’s no stabilization available. So that’s the Poco M4 5G the global edition. It has a nice design, good battery life, and a decent chipset with 5G connectivity. However, its LCD screen is a major letdown. While it is large and has a high refresh rate, the low brightness means that the image quality quickly degrades when you go outdoors. There are plenty of alternatives to choose from too, even at this low price, and a few of them offer a more well rounded smartphone experience. More importantly, if you spend just a bit more money, you can get the Poco M4 Pro 5G, which offers several upgrades, including stereo speakers, faster charging and a brighter screen.
