144 Hz, top chip and 360 euros – that’s typical Xiaomi with the excellent price-performance ratio of its Poco subsidiary. The new Poco X4 GT promises a lot – does it keep it?
With many smartphones, Xiaomi offers great packages with good hardware and a comparatively low price, this is particularly the case with its Poco phones. With its new models like the Poco X4 GT, it shouldn’t be any different, on the contrary. The manufacturer promises “pure speed” thanks to a “flagship chipset”, a 144 Hz display, fast charging and a “high definition” triple camera. Is that enough to live up to the reputation of the great price-performance ratio of its phones?
When it comes to design, there is light and shadow – with the light shining brighter and, depending on personal taste, the shadows should be erased. Because “shadow” primarily refers to the material used: The Poco X4 GT is a real plastic bomber with plastic for the frame, control buttons and back. It doesn’t look particularly high quality, especially when you tap on the back. On the other hand, this offers advantages elsewhere: Fingerprints cannot be seen on the material thanks to the matt, velvety surface, and nothing will normally break or splinter if the worst comes to the worst. We actually fear scratches less here than with glass, and if there are any, then it just doesn’t feel as bad as with high-quality materials.
The processing, on the other hand, is exemplary. Nothing squeaks or creaks, and there are no irregular gaps either. Thanks to the smooth transitions from the back to the glass front of the display, the smartphone is sufficiently comfortable to hold despite its expansive dimensions of 164 × 75.5 × 8.9 millimeters and a full 200 grams. The two camera lenses on the back that protrude clearly from the housing are a bit ugly. As a result, the device wobbles constantly when it is operated lying on a table and when you put it in your pocket, you sometimes get stuck on the lenses. On the other hand, Poco does not show off with obtrusive bling-bling, but presents a restrained, simple back. Even the camera does not have any advertising imprints, only a 64MP lettering can be found there.
screen
For the display, Poco relies on a 6.6-inch IPS LCD – like, no OLED? Actually no, the Poco X4 GT offers a full 144 Hz at 2460 × 1080 pixels and thus a really good picture. This not only means the image sharpness, which is a decent 407 pixels per inch (ppi), but also the contrast, color fidelity and white balance are okay. The model also offers many setting options here to adapt the screen to your own preferences.
In terms of brightness, the smartphone does not come close to the more expensive models with OLED technology with a maximum of 580 cd/m², but it does well in everyday use. The dynamic adjustment of the refresh rate, which regulates the frequency in fixed steps to 30, 48, 50, 60, 90, 120 and 144 Hz depending on the displayed content, is also positive. This saves energy and otherwise ensures wonderfully smooth playback of moving content. Unfortunately, those interested in the X4 GT only have to do without an always-on display. We also cannot answer the question of whether 144 Hz makes sense. However, we don’t really notice a difference of 120 to 144 Hz, so the answer to this question is probably “no”.
camera
The camera of the Xiaomi Poco X4 GT was apparently not the focus when developing the smartphone, it does not offer any real highlights. The manufacturer nominally relies on a triple camera consisting of a main and wide-angle camera from Samsung with 64 and 8 megapixels, plus a superfluous macro camera with 2 megapixels. There is no optical image stabilizer and the other values of the cameras do not elicit any storms of enthusiasm from data sheet fetishists.
This is not a problem in everyday use, at least in good light outdoors, because the main camera delivers sufficiently sharp and high-contrast images. Colors are stored in the memory in a strong, but mostly natural way. If you like it more colourful, you should activate the AI functions in the camera app. The image dynamics are also okay and image noise is not an issue during the day. In poor light, on the other hand, the camera’s mid-range photo technology is clearly noticeable. Recordings become much less sharp, contrasts decrease and image noise increases. Despite the comparatively old sensor, the main camera is still on the same level as the similarly expensive competition, which speaks for good software. The night mode, which gets a lot out of the recordings, is then helpful. The general assessment also applies to the wide-angle camera, albeit at a lower level overall. In daylight, the images are reasonably okay, at least for close-up objects, but the night mode doesn’t help anymore in poor light.
All original recordings with the camera of the Poco X4 GT
The Poco X4 GT does not shine when it comes to video recordings either, but even falls short of the standard offered in this price range. A maximum of 4K/30 is possible as a resolution, there is also no reasonable image stabilization and panning is always blurred due to the low number of images. Both can be remedied with 1080p/60 recordings, but then the general image sharpness drops – too bad. At least the sound is good as usual.
Furnishing
Contrary to many competitors, the Xiaomi Poco X4 GT does not have a Snapdragon chip from Qualcomm, but a Mediatek counterpart. Poco relies on the Dimensity 8100, which is manufactured using the 5-nanometer process and should therefore not only be powerful, but also energy-efficient. It relies on 4x ARM Cortex A78 with up to 2.85 GHz and 4x ARM Cortex A55 with up to 2 GHz for less computationally intensive tasks. A Mali G610 MC6 is used as the graphics unit. Mediatek promises 25 percent more energy efficiency of the CPUs and 42 percent more efficient GPUs compared to previous chips, and AI performance is said to have increased by a whopping 275 percent. The performance is indeed impressive: together with 8 GB of RAM, the Poco X4 GT delivers performance almost at flagship level – and that for around 360 euros!
In PCmark Work 3.0, the model achieves a good 12,600 points, in 3Dmark Wild Life it is almost 6000 points – competitor models such as a not slow Oneplus Nord 2 (test report) or a Samsung Galaxy A52 (test report) clearly cannot keep up, even that also extremely fast Realme GT Neo 3 (test report)is left behind – that is extreme! When it comes to the rest of the equipment, Poco doesn’t show any weaknesses either and gives the X4 GT fast internal UFS 3.1 storage with a capacity of 128 or 256 GB, the latest Bluetooth standard 5.3, Wifi 6, NFC and the Xiaomi-typical IR transmitter. Sound is output through stereo speakers that sound loud and powerful. Adjustments can be made via Dolby Atmos. The fingerprint sensor in the power button reacts quickly and directly – no wonder with the powerful chipset.
There is nothing to complain about in terms of the software either – as long as you don’t have any problems with third-party launchers instead of vanilla Android. Xiaomi relies on MIUI for Poco as the user interface for the X4 GT, which comes with the unofficial promise of making two more Android and three more MIUI versions available as updates. In the case of Android, this means that Android 12 is installed ex works, so Android 13 and 14 will probably be added in the future. Until then, everyone should be able to handle what is on offer, which is strongly reminiscent of MIUI on the parent company’s smartphones, but comes with small changes such as the “compulsion” to have an app drawer.
What we find most annoying is the advertising, which sometimes interrupts the user in an outrageously cheeky manner. If you want to change the ringtone, for example, you will be severely interrupted by an advertising window when you hear a new sound. It’s strange that there hasn’t been a shitstorm yet, when they’re so quick to come up with far less on the internet…
battery pack
The battery of the Poco X4 GT is 5080 mAh, which is as much as most smartphones today. The endurance of the model, on the other hand, is higher than the average, which is probably also due to the modern chipset. In the PCmark battery test, the device managed 11 hours at 200 candela from 80 to 20 percent battery – that’s a good value in the upper third, especially since the device was only set to 120 Hz in automatic mode. A good 1.5 hours more are even possible with a fixed 90 Hz – the visible difference of the lower refresh rate is hardly there, similar to 120 to 144 Hz. In everyday life, nobody should have problems with two days of running time.
Unsurprisingly, there are no convenience functions such as wireless charging in this price range. The supplied charger with 67 watts ensures that the smartphone is quickly charged: it only takes around 45 minutes for the battery to be fully charged again.
Price
The Xiaomi Poco X4 GT is available in black, silver and blue, and also with 128 and 256 GB of memory. Because of the small surcharge of a few euros at the time the test report was published, we recommend the “large” model.
Conclusion
There is no OLED on the Poco X4 GT display, but it does have 144 Hz and generally good quality. The smartphone’s Dimensity chipset doesn’t quite come close to a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, but it’s not far off and also benefits from better heat management. In addition, the Mediatek chip is energy-efficient, which is reflected in the relatively good battery life of the Poco X4 GT. The smartphone is also sufficiently chic despite the exclusive use of plastic and the rest of the equipment is also impressive – and at a price of less than 400 euros. If you don’t exactly expect a high-end camera, you can access it without hesitation.
