Review of POCO M4 Pro 5G - an inexpensive smartphone with a good screen and fast charging

Do not be fooled by the word Pro in the name of this POCO smartphone model. In the brand's lineup, the division into categories is arranged in its own way. The top models are designated by the letter F, the mid-range segment by X, and the least expensive by M. However, the POCO M4 Pro 5G is a phone for more than just basic tasks. It has a fairly powerful processor, a screen with support for 90 Hz, a capacious battery and fast charging to boot.

And while the new model costs more than last year's POCO hit M3 Pro 5G, she has every chance to repeat the success of her predecessor. In this review, we'll explain why we think so.

Table of contents

• Specifications
• Design and ergonomics
• Screen
• Performance and operating system
• Sound
• Cameras
• Autonomy
• Outcomes

Specifications

Design and ergonomics

The POCO M4 Pro 5G has grown in height by a couple of millimeters, but this has no effect on ergonomics. The smartphone still fits comfortably in the hand. It is well balanced, so you are not afraid to drop it.

We tested a graphite-colored model, which the manufacturer calls “charged black”. This option doesn't seem boring. The sophisticated dark gray goes well with the rounded rectangle at the top where the camera block is. The contrast here is not as bright as that of smartphones in a different color - yellow or blue.

The main body material is plastic, pleasant to the touch. Fingerprints appear on it quickly, but they do not wear off well, so it is better to immediately pack the gadget into the case that comes with the kit.

Huge block cameras creates the illusion that a smartphone has at least four lenses, but this is not the case. The POCO M4 Pro 5G has only two cameras, and the rest is a flash, a red dot that has no practical function, and a tiny AI icon that denotes artificial intelligence support when shooting.

The active parts of the POCO M4 Pro 5G case are designed according to the classic scheme. On the right is the power button, which has a built-in fingerprint scanner. It is slightly lower than we would like. Because of this, there are problems with fingerprint recognition: when you take the smartphone in your hand, your finger rests on the volume rocker located above. This is not a critical drawback: if it is inconvenient, face recognition can be used for identification.

On the left is the card slot. It can accommodate two SIM cards or just one, and the second slot can be used for storage up to 1 TB.

At the bottom end, in addition to the speaker, USB Type-C connector and microphone, there is an input for headphone 3.5 mm is a rarity in modern smartphones.

Screen

The POCO M4 Pro 5G has a 6.6-inch display with a resolution of 2,400 x 1,080 pixels. The top is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The bezels are thin, and the cutout for the front camera is small.

In the smartphone settings, you can choose the classic look, which visually enlarges the upper frame. Or, conversely, remove the control buttons from the bottom panel to make the screen "limitless".

The POCO M4 Pro 5G display is a pleasure to look at. Colors are natural, balance and contrast are good. I would like only a little more margin of brightness.

The smartphone supports a screen refresh rate of 90 Hz. This makes content display smoother - for example, when scrolling down a page on a site.

This mode increases the load on the battery. Xiaomi says they have solved this problem by adding dynamic adjustment: the smartphone automatically switches to a less power-hungry mode if Appendix does not support 90Hz.

It is impossible to check whether this is so, since the change in frequency is not recorded anywhere. But we really didn't notice a big increase in the discharge rate due to the increase in the refresh rate.

Performance and operating system

POCO M4 Pro 5G, like the previous model, is built on the Mediatek processor, only now it is the Dimensity 810 chip - more powerful and energy efficient. Two versions of the smartphone will be on sale in Russia:

• 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of permanent memory. The recommended price is 20,990 rubles.
• 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of permanent memory. The price is 2,000 rubles higher. (This is exactly what we had.)

In synthetic tests our copy showed modest results, but in everyday life he behaved well. I was surprised only by a slight slowdown when entering the "Settings" menu. Most likely, this is a bug that will be fixed in the future.

In games, the device performs well if you do not set a high refresh rate. Even with serious loads, the case does not heat up much.

This model runs MIUI 12.5 with POCO Launcher desktop. Of the interesting features of the software shell, we note a couple:

• split top curtains two - with notifications and the most popular settings;
• organizing all applications by thematic tabs: "Communication", "Entertainment", "Photography" and so on.

What pleasantly surprised the POCO M4 Pro 5G is the non-intrusive advertising. The most striking features are the suggestions to install new programs and the Google Discover newsbar, which appears when you swipe left from the home screen. But it also turns off in the settings desktop.

Sound

The smartphone cannot boast of audio quality. The sound is flat, and when the power slider is turned to maximum, the dynamics clearly begin to wheeze.

In telephone conversations, the gadget proved to be excellent. The interlocutor can be heard well, there were no problems with the microphone either.

In POCO M4 Pro 5G there is no proximity sensor, its role is taken over by a virtual one. It uses microphones to understand when you're on the phone and turn off the display.

A similar replacement is practiced in inexpensive smartphones to reduce costs and often causes complaints from users. They complain that this method does not always work correctly. We tested how the POCO M4 Pro 5G virtual sensor behaves and found no glitches during testing.

Cameras

Despite the impressive appearance of the main camera unit, everything here is modest for the POCO M4 Pro 5G. It received a 50-megapixel main lens and an ultra-wide-angle 8-megapixel camera with a 119 ° field of view. There is no depth sensor in the smartphone, so the depth of field in portrait mode is determined by software methods.

The declared 50 megapixel main lens should also not confuse you. In auto mode, shooting is carried out in standard 12 megapixel resolution, and "ultra-high" is switched on separately and in fact does not give an advantage.

The smartphone does not always cope with macro. The POCO M4 Pro 5G camera can focus only at a distance of at least 10-15 cm.

But the quality of ultra-wide-angle shooting was a pleasant surprise. Slightly curved verticals and blurred edges in such photos are a common thing even in more expensive devices, but the POCO M4 Pro 5G is doing well here.

Night shots are also good (for a state employee). They slightly yellow, but in general the color rendition is adequate and pleasant. Only the main camera supports the "Night" mode.

In natural light, the shots are good, although sometimes the smartphone makes mistakes with the color reproduction. Compare these two snapshottaken a couple of seconds apart:

In the camera application, you can enable support for artificial intelligence, but it is almost impossible to tell the difference between pictures taken with it and without it.

Autonomy

The POCO M4 Pro 5G has a 5,000 mAh battery, which is enough to get by without socket for almost two days with a refresh rate of 60 Hz and one and a half - if you increase it to 90 Hz. This, of course, is not about continuous video viewing, alternating with photography and PUBG, but about the usual mode with scrolling through social networks, web surfing and time-killer games.

For the convenience of the owner, the Power and Performance menu displays the time remaining until the battery is fully discharged, but this is a very rough estimate. For example, at 1% we were promised 15 minutes of work, but the device turned off after a couple of minutes.

The new model comes with fast charging, and the power supply is more powerful than that of the POCO M3 Pro. If there was 22.5 watts, then here it was 33 watts.

Xiaomi saysPOCO M4 Pro 5G / Xiaomi review, which allows you to charge the device from 0 to 100% in just 59 minutes. With the phone on, it turns out. In the first 15 minutes, the battery was replenished by 30%, in half an hour - by 60%.

Outcomes

The POCO M4 Pro 5G proved to be a decent smartphone. For 21,000 rubles (the price of the version with 4/64 GB of memory) you will get high autonomy and fast charging, an eye-pleasing screen and a good camera by the standards of inexpensive devices. So the upgrade was successful, and the new model has every chance of becoming one of the most bought smartphones of 2022.

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The author thanks Xiaomi for the device provided for testing. The company had no way of influencing its outcome.