[REVIEW] Exclusive test of the excellently equipped, affordable new POCO M4 Pro 5G

POCO consistently brings us interesting smartphones every year at very attractive prices that often beat the competition. This time, we had the chance to test the new POCO M4 Pro 5G even before its official launch, so here’s the review among the first.

Since we also tested the previous POCO M3 Pro model, in the review you’ll find a short comparison as well.

Where to buy the POCO M4 Pro 5G?

The POCO M4 Pro 5G is available for purchase through the officially authorized retailer Goboo, with the smartphone delivered from a Spanish warehouse.

You also get a full 2-year warranty and the option of returns within 14 days.

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POCO M4 Pro 5G Global Version

Spanish warehouse, 4 + 64 GB, 2 years warranty 174,00 €ES warehouseSpanish warehouse, 6 + 128 GB, 2 years warranty 194,00 €ES warehouse

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Buying on Goboo for the first time? See the guide!

Updated 9. 11. 2021 at 16:36

TIPExpress delivery from a Spanish warehouse without customs duties or VAT.

This product will be delivered express from the local Spanish warehouse. Shipping from Spain usually takes 7-10 days and is handled by a courier. On delivery, you don’t pay any extra fees—no customs duty or VAT.

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Buying on Goboo for the first time?

1. First, register or log in on the Goboo website.
2. In the product page, click the "Buy Now" button. You’ll be redirected to the shopping cart, where you first need to enter your address.
3. Next, you can apply a coupon in the right part of the cart, where the price summary is. Click the "Coupon or promo code" text and paste your coupon into the "Seller Promo Code" field. Then: Confirm the coupon by clicking "Apply".
4. You’ll confirm the order by clicking "Place Order", where you’ll be prompted to pay.

Technical specifications

Traditional yellow packaging

The POCO smartphone packaging is traditionally associated with the yellow color, which is sort of the brand’s signature shade. The standard-size box is all yellow again, with black text. Inside, we found a thin box containing a SIM eject pin, a transparent silicone case, paper documentation, and a set of stickers with the POCO logo.

Under that, the smartphone itself sits wrapped in a clear matte film with basic phone information on it. At the very bottom of the box, there’s also a cable and a charging adapter. So the packaging is standard—just like we’ve come to expect from POCO for several years.

Design and build quality

With its design, the POCO M3 Pro didn’t impress us at first—we were curious what the new model would look like. We had the POCO M4 Pro 5G available in a blue color called Cool Blue. The back cover is matte with a very subtle finish, and visually it looks genuinely appealing in blue. But to the touch, the back cover doesn’t feel particularly high quality.

Overall, at first glance, the back of the smartphone is some kind of design mix of the older POCO M3 and the new Redmi Note 11. From the older POCO M3, you get a black design rectangle with rounded corners and the brand logo, while from the new Redmi Note 11 you get the camera module.

Let’s take a closer look at the layout of the individual elements. On the left side, there’s a hybrid slot for SIM cards that can handle either 2 SIM cards or 1 SIM card plus a microSD memory card. On the right side, you’ll find a dual-button for volume control and the power button with an integrated fingerprint reader for unlocking the smartphone.

The bottom edge includes a charging USB-C port, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, a microphone, and a speaker. On top, there’s a second speaker, a microphone, and an IR sensor. Overall, from a design standpoint, the POCO M4 Pro is a very modern smartphone, but it isn’t among the thinnest and lightest models. It feels good in the hand mainly thanks to the rounded edges.

The display has been slightly improved

The POCO M4 Pro 5G comes with a 6.6″ IPS display with a punch-hole for the selfie camera in the center of the top bezel. Similar to other budget smartphones, the punch-hole here is quite small, but it’s optically enlarged by a film stuck on the display. The film has a significantly larger cutout for the selfie camera than the camera itself. Light bends at the edges of the cutout in the film, which makes the opening look bigger. POCO should take a cue from Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE, where the cutout in the film is only exactly as large as the selfie camera.

The older M3 Pro model had a weaker display, even though it has a higher refresh rate. In this case, that’s the same, 90 Hz, but the screen seems to us to be of better quality. Once again, we remind you that the preset refresh rate is only 60 Hz, so if you want a smoother display, you have to go into settings where you can change the refresh rate to 90 Hz.

You can also set popular dark mode, sunny mode, reading mode, or customize the color scheme to match your preferences. We were happy with the factory color settings, so we didn’t change any of these.

Fingerprint reader and stereo speakers

The fingerprint reader in the power button for unlocking the phone is, quite simply, perfect. The phone unlocks instantly after you place your finger on the sensor, without any unnecessary animation that would slow down the process. Reliability is also excellent, because we didn’t notice any failed unlocking attempts.

Other ways to unlock the smartphone include unlocking with face, a pattern, or a PIN code, and also via a Bluetooth device such as smartwatches. Face unlock works properly, but it’s a bit slower than the fingerprint reader.

We really like the trend of stereo speakers that you can now find in almost every model from the Xiaomi brand and its subsidiaries. POCO M4 Pro 5G is no exception, and it also has a pair of speakers. But their quality isn’t the best. They completely lack bass, and the maximum volume could also be a bit higher.

Once again, the MediaTek processor

In the POCO M4 Pro 5G smartphone, we can again find a processor from the less popular manufacturer MediaTek Dimensity 810 5G. It’s a 8-core processor, made up of Arm Cortex-A55 and Arm Cortex-A76 cores, manufactured using a 6 nm process. Its maximum clock speed is 2.4 GHz.

Similar to our other reviews, we installed the benchmark app AnTuTu on the POCO M4 Pro 5G as well, where we achieved a score of 355 648 points. This is a very decent score—we also surpassed the Redmi Note 10 Pro with Snapdragon 732G, and we ended up just a few places behind POCO X3, which scored 363 329 points.

In terms of performance, the new POCO is surprisingly good. During our entire testing, it ran very reliably, with no visible stutters. Even though MediaTek chips are less popular with us, we dare to say that concerns stemming from older processors from this brand are no longer justified.

The processor is supported by an Arm Mali-G57 MC2 graphics chip, LPDDR4x RAM with a capacity of 6GB, and also internal UFS 2.2 storage. In our case, we had the version with 128 GB of storage.

Cameras won’t wow you, but they’re good enough

The photo setup on cheaper models usually isn’t very rich, and it’s no different here. The main cameras are located in the rear module, and there are fewer than you might think at first glance. The camera module on the back cover looks, based on its design, like there are multiple cameras here—but in reality, there are only two. The other circles that resemble cameras at a quick glance are just design elements.

Here, we have the main camera with 50 MPx, which is the dominant element of the rear camera module. Under it, there’s an ultra-wide-angle camera with a 119° field of view, next to which there’s also an LED flash.

Compared to the older POCO M3 Pro model, we lost the macro sensor and the depth-of-field sensor, but we gained an ultra-wide-angle camera. The macro sensor in the previous model was very weak, so from our perspective we didn’t really lose much—and the ultra-wide-angle camera makes us happier than a basically unusable macro sensor.

Right at the start, we have to say that it’s not really reasonable to expect too much from the cameras of a smartphone in this category. Of course, in good lighting it’s no problem to capture nice shots with the main camera.

However, it has a weaker dynamic range, which leads to blown-out and underexposed areas in high-contrast scenes—like shooting in direct sunlight at lunchtime. Sharpness also isn’t the best, but if you view the photos only on the smartphone display (like most everyday users), you’ll be satisfied.

The ultra-wide-angle camera has a lower resolution, but it delivers very similar color reproduction to the main camera, although the dynamic range is a bit weaker. The main sensor also lets you create a 2-times zoomed-in shot, which is a crop from the 50 MPx photo.

Interior, night photos, and video

When shooting interiors, the photos are nice in good lighting, but without lighting—and in worse light—image quality drops dramatically. You’ll notice plenty of underexposed dark areas and noise in the photos.

There’s also a Night mode, but it doesn’t turn on automatically—you have to enable it manually in the camera menu. Night mode slightly brightens the photo and adds warmer colors, but it doesn’t handle strong light sources that well. In some photos, it’s not easy to see much difference between a shot with Night mode and one without.

As for video, the maximum available resolution is 1080p at 30 or 60 fps. However, the image quality in video is quite poor.

Runtime and charging

The POCO M4 Pro 5G got a 5000 mAh battery, so it’s not among the thinnest smartphones. The battery life is still very good, so we can forgive that extra couple of millimeters. During testing, we used the smartphone extremely intensively, but we always managed at least 1 and a half days of battery life. With normal use, a two-day battery life is also realistic.

When it comes to charging, the older model supported up to 22 W charging, so the charge itself took about 1 hours and 48 minutes. The POCO M4 Pro 5G comes with a 33 W charger, which significantly speeds up charging. You can check out its charging curve below:

• 18 to 50 % – 17 minutes and 30 seconds
• 75 % – 33 minutes and 37 seconds
• 90 % – 43 minutes and 15 seconds
• 100 % – 54 minutes and 35 seconds

With such an affordable smartphone, 33 W charging usually isn’t the norm, so we’re really happy that POCO brought an improvement in charging speed too.

Android 11, MIUI 12.5 and POCO launcher

We received the POCO M4 Pro 5G with Android version 11 and the MIUI 12.5.1 overlay in the global version. Unlike Xiaomi and Redmi phones, however, you get the POCO launcher, which offers a different user interface compared to those brands’ smartphones.

We’re personally used to the standard MIUI, so it took us a little while to get used to the POCO launcher. The interface is still very pleasant, and if you don’t want to use the main app menu that POCO offers, you can also place them on the side home screen, which is available by swiping the screen to the right. This gives you quick access to your favorite apps, just like on classic MIUI.

In the POCO launcher, all your apps are available by swiping up from the bottom of the display, which takes you to the app menu. Here are all the apps you have installed and the 10 most-used ones on top. By swiping left or right, you switch between different categories.

We also found plenty of preinstalled games here, the Booking app, POCO Community, and the POCO store.

POCO M4 Pro 5G: Final verdict

The POCO M4 Pro 5G is a complete new release we had a chance to test even before the official unveiling. Compared to the previous M3 Pro 5G model, you get a nicer, more modern design, a more powerful processor, a slightly better main camera, and faster 33 W charging.

This smartphone is more of a lower-tier model, but considering the low price, it offers truly a lot—and this time it holds that for the money you pay, you get a lot of music. Of course, it has a few drawbacks, like weaker cameras and speakers, but if you’re looking for a smartphone in this price range, you’ll be satisfied.