POCO M4 Pro Review – Almost A Budget Champion

The Poco M4 Pro is among the few new budget smartphones that skip 5G technology. There’s also the Poco M4 Pro 5G, which is a completely different breed. The Poco M4 Pro isn’t only a 5G M4 Pro without the 5G, but it’s also a lot more.

The M4 Pro is priced at Rs 14,999 and comes with a large and bright screen, MIUI 13 out of the box, a 64-megapixel main camera sensor, and fast charging. That’s practically everything you’d expect from a smartphone that costs less than Rs 15,000 in India. Here’s a full review of the Poco M4 Pro to help you decide whether or not to buy it.

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The POCO M4 Pro comes in three RAm and storage options. The 6GB Ram + 64GB storage costs Rs 14,999 whereas the 6GB Ram + 128GB storage costs Rs 16,499 in India. The last and top variant featuring 8GB Ram + 128GB storage sets you back at Rs 17,499. The phone comes in three colour options – Cool Blue, Power Black and Poco Yellow.

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The POCO M4 Pro includes the following items inside the box:

• Handset
• 33W Power Adapter
• USB Type A-C Cable
• Sim Ejector Tool
• Transparent Case
• Pre-Applied Screen Protector
• User Guide and Warranty Card

Before we talk in detail about the POCO M4 Pro, let’s see what the on-paper specs look like:

• Display: 6.43 inches AMOLED
• Chipset: MediaTek Helio G96
• RAM & ROM: 6GB 64GB, 6GB 128GB, 8GB 128GB
• Software: Android v11
• Rear camera: 64MP + 8MP + 2MP
• Selfie camera: 16 MP
• Battery: 5000 mAh
• Weight: 179.5 grams
• Dimensions: 159.8 x 73.8 x 8 mm

The Poco M4 Pro’s design is likely the one feature that sets it apart from other phones in its price range. The back of the Poco M4 Pro 4G is made of plastic, with a large camera bump. The Poco logo is boldly visible on the camera bump, which also features a triple-camera setup. Despite the fact that it is made out of plastic, it is very well done and feels good in the hand.

It weighs 179.5 grams and is rather light, making it easy to carry. It’s more compact and lighter compared to the 5G variant. Cool Blue, Power Black, and Poco Yellow are the three colour options available for the phone.

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The power button and volume controls are on the right side, while the SIM card slot is on the left. The phone includes a 3.5mm audio jack on the top and dual speakers on the top and bottom. The display features a front camera with a punch hole and thin bezels around the display.

It has an IP53 certification for splash resistance. Overall, the Poco M4 Pro 4G has a decent build and design for a budget smartphone. There’s nothing particularly good or bad about it.

The Poco M4 Pro has a 6.43-inch FHD+ display with a 2400 x 1080 pixel resolution. It’s an AMOLED panel with a refresh rate of 90Hz, a DCI-P3 colour gamut, and a peak brightness of 1000 nits. Even in direct sunshine, the display is bright enough to read text or watch videos without trouble. The navigation is smooth and the display is responsive.

Although these are great numbers for a phone around Rs 15,000, there are many others that offer similar features. Though it cannot compete with OLED screens in terms of contrast and brightness, it is more than enough for the price you pay. The colours are vibrant, and the details are clear. You can manually change the colour temperature to make it perfect for you.

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Since the phone supports Widevine L1, you’ll be able to stream FHD+ content on OTT platforms. Just because of the difference in display, I can easily rank this phone above the 5G variant. One small disadvantage is the reduced 180 Hz touch sampling rate compared to the Poco M4 Pro 5G which had a 240Hz touch sampling rate. The bezels around the display are quite thin, except for the chin, which is slightly thicker. All in all, the display is good for daily use or content consumption.

Poco could have done a better job here. The smartphone manufacturer has long been known for making high-performance smartphones. The Poco M4 Pro, however, is not one of them. It is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Helio G96 processor, which is paired with up to 8GB of RAM and up to 128GB of storage capacity. It performs well in everyday tasks. I’m sure you already know that the M4 Pro does not support 5G, but why is that? because the MediaTek Helio G96 does not support 5G.

With the Helio G96 processor, you can’t expect stunning performance, and it’s only mediocre. The Poco M4 Pro is capable of handling multiple apps and is suitable for everyday use. Although, you might still see the occasional hitches when there are a bunch of apps running simultaneously. However, it does not significantly impact the overall experience. With the help of a microSD card, the inbuilt storage can be increased up to 1TB.

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The AMOLED panel and 90Hz refresh rate make playing games enjoyable. I didn’t do a lot of hardcore gaming on this phone. You can play games like BGMI, New State, COD Mobile on the low-medium graphic settings with steady frame rates. However, I’m not shocked that the phone overheats when I load up big games and play for about an hour or so. The light games were enjoyable but they also tend to warm up the phone a little.

Coming to the software, the Poco M4 Pro ships with Android 11 OS topped with MIUI 13. The phone came pre-loaded with a number of applications, including Facebook, Netflix, and others. The good news is that you can uninstall nearly all of them, with the exception of Xiaomi-owned apps.

MIUI’s primary advantage is its ability to personalise. The Themes app acts as a virtual storefront for customized home screens and icon packs, allowing you to give your phone a whole new look.

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Xiaomi has worked on making the smartphone interface cleaner and better for users with MIUI 13. MIUI 13 is the first time I’ve had a genuine interest in Xiaomi’s own Android skin.

The POCO M4 Pro has a triple camera setup with a 64MP main sensor, an 8MP ultrawide sensor, and a 2MP macro lens. It includes a 16MP selfie camera with an f/2.4 aperture on the front. Despite having a better sensor than the 5G variant, the camera does not offer best-in-class results.

The phone takes some good photos, but it doesn’t always do so consistently. It does not perform any good in low-light situations. While the availability of an ultrawide lens is a plus, it lacks optical zoom support. Even digital zoom does not offer a smooth effect, particularly around the edges.

The main camera sensor does a good job in environments with proper lighting. There will be no complaints there. Sharpness, tone, and details all appear to be in point for a phone in this price range. However, as soon as it gets dark, the camera starts to struggle. Night mode can’t match the results of more expensive smartphones, but it does a decent job of brightening up the images.

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The 8MP ultrawide sensor lacks details, yet it captures colours as good as the primary sensor. In low light, though, it isn’t very good, and Night Mode isn’t supported. The macro lens is also rather average, and it does not contribute much to the photographs.

The 16MP front camera takes beautiful, vivid selfies, and even shines out while taking selfie portraits. However, if you want realistic photos, I recommend turning off the skin smoothing. The front-facing camera’s low-light performance is also quite good for a mid-range phone.

Both the rear and front cameras are capable of recording videos in 1080p@30fps. The Poco M4 Pro 5G could have given the option for 1080p at 60fps but never mind. Overall, I’m not really impressed with the M4 Pro’s camera performance, and I believe it could be better.

A big 5000mAh battery powers the Poco M4 Pro. That’s nice and big, but it’s also very standard for phones in this price range. It’s sufficient for an entire day of heavy use and possibly two days of mild to moderate use, just like the other budget rivals.

Using many apps at the same time while running the phone at 90Hz refresh rate will cause the battery to drain a little faster than you’d want. If you use the phone at 60Hz frame rate, you will not have any battery drainage issues.

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In addition, the Poco M4 Pro battery supports 33W fast wired charging. It takes around an hour to fully charge the battery from 0 to 100 per cent.

The POCO M4 Pro has a good stereo speaker setup. The audio is loud but is lacking in details. The speaker is good enough for simply listening to music or watching movies.

You get standard connectivity options including dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, and dual-SIM.

POCO has chosen a side-mounted fingerprint scanner over an in-display fingerprint sensor despite having an AMOLED panel. It is reliable and accurate. However, I found the fingerprint reader on the side to be a little slower than what most smartphones offer these days.