The F4 and the X4 GT are two new smartphones from Poco, a subsidiary of Xiaomi. Based on the specs and price, they are flagship killers.
Xiaomi-owned Poco has announced two new smartphones, and their combination of specs and price, should give a lot of flagships a run for their money. The first Poco smartphone, the Poco F1/Pocophone F1 was the talk of the industry when it was announced in 2018. It had a flagship processor and sold for half the price of flagships released in the same year. However, it wasn’t just the chipset that made it a great device, the phone also received generally positive reviews overall.
No new Poco phones launched over the next few years and Xiaomi eventually decided to spin the brand off into an independent subsidiary in 2020. Several phones have launched since then that include flagships and entry-level models. More than a handful of them are rebadged models from Redmi, Xiaomi’s other subsidiary. Poco has also expanded its product portfolio to include smartwatches and earbuds.
The Poco F4 is the more expensive of the two new phones. Its design isn’t unusual as it sports a centered punch hole, a flat frame, and a camera bump that houses three sensors. Poco has tried to make it pretty slim at 7.5mm and the 195-gram weight isn’t bad for a phone of its size. The Poco F4 is available in Moonlight Silver, Nebula Green, and Night Black. The Poco X4 GT, on the other hand, has a somewhat similar design although the triple-camera array has a different arrangement. It is also available in Black, Blue, and Silver.
Flagship Features At A Killer Price
While their design might not be as interesting as that of the Nothing Phone (1), their specs are pretty solid. The Poco F4 has a 6.67-inch AMOLED display with an FHD+ resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. The display, which is protected by Gorilla Glass 5, has a peak brightness level of 1300 nits, and support for HDR10+, MEMC, and Dolby Vision. In contrast, the Poco X4 GT has a slightly smaller 6.6-inch 1080p screen with an LCD panel and a higher 144Hz refresh rate. Unlike the Poco F4, whose screen can only switch between three refresh rates, the Poco X4 GT is capable of switching between seven, depending on the content. It also comes with Dolby Vision, HDR10, and Gorilla Glass 5 protection.
The Poco F4 ships with a Snapdragon 870 processor 6GB/8GB LPDDR5 RAM, and 128GB/256GB UFS 3.1 storage. The POCO X4 GT opts for MediaTek’s Dimensity 8100 processor paired with 8GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB of storage. Neither of the two phones have a microSD card slot for storage expansion. While both phones have a 64MP main camera, only the Poco F4’s sensor has optical image stabilization. The camera is paired with an 8MP ultrawide sensor and a 2MP macro camera. In addition, the F4 gets a 20MP front-facing camera while the X4 GT has a 16MP selfie camera.
Their respective chips bring support for WiFi 6, sub-6GHz 5G networks, and Bluetooth 5.2 (Bluetooth 5.3 on the Poco X4 GT). The two phones also have a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, Face Unlock, NFC, IR blaster, stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos, and support for dual nano-SIMs. Poco ships the F4 with a 4,500 mAh battery while the Poco X4 GT gets a 5,080 mAh battery. The difference is understandable considering the Poco X4 GT’s LCD display isn’t as power efficient as the Poco F4’s AMOLED display. Battery capacities aside, they both support 67W fast wired charging (adapter included) which charges the phones from empty to full in 38 minutes and 46 minutes, respectively. The two phones also ship with MIUI 13 based on Android 12 out of the box.
Poco has not only packed both phones with impressive specs but a pocket-friendly price to match. The Poco F4 has a starting price of €400 and goes up to €450 for the 8+256GB model. Better still, the Poco X4 GT is priced at €380 for the base model with 8+128GB and the 256GB version sells for €430. These Poco phones have more to offer than competing phones like the Pixel 6a (priced at €459 for Europe), but the sad part is they won’t be available in the United States, which suffers from a severe shortage of good affordable smartphones.
