POCO F4 GT: Review
We’re finally seeing another POCO Smartphone. This time, however, it’s different because it is a phone that does not put much emphasis on camera performance but more on gaming performance.
Without beating around the bush, allow me to answer the question if this is really a flagship killer. The POCO F4 GT is indeed a flagship killer. There is so many things to discuss, and I’m pretty sure that everything I said on my video on YouTube does not capture my overall experience with this smartphone.
Display
POCO F4 GT is packed with a 6.67-inch flat AMOLED display. It can go as high as 120Hz refresh rate with 480Hz touch sampling rate. I honestly prefer this kind of display configuration when it comes to gaming-specific smartphones. POCO F4 GT‘s display is very suitable for mobile gaming, whether display quality and responsiveness.
Thanks to its 480Hz touch sampling rate, each tap on the display has virtually zero delay, which assures that you will not miss a shot on Call of Duty (assuming that you’re really good at shooting). Apologies for the shade, but in the end, skill has more weight than having an ultra fast display touch sampling rate. If you’re already a “pro” when it comes to shooting, that’s where having a responsive display can truly help out in achieve more frags in game.
There might not be a lot of games for you to be able to play games at 120fps to maximize its’ 120Hz panel. 90Hz should be enough, but I feel like POCO decided stick with the flagship-standard to make it worth every penny.
Quality-wise, POCO F4 GT’s display is impressive as expected from an AMOLED display. Colors pop, but not to an overblown state; and the amount of sharpness is almost perfect. For the price it asks, this phone is nailing the display department, by far.
Design
The POCO F4 GT is an inconspicuously looking gaming smartphone, and I totally love it. It does not scream “I am a gaming smartphone”, and it subtly keeps it big guns using magnets. By ‘big guns’, I am referring to its physical gaming triggers, which is something that other brands can take inspiration from. It somehow embraces a minimalist design and keeps an ingenious tool that will keep you doing the thing you love, which is gaming.
Taking this feature out does not make it less of an amazing smartphone at all. Design-wise, while the gaming triggers are among its important features, it still stands out and keeps it at par with flagship devices. The lack of an IP68-rating may be a bit of a downer for some people, but it’s probably the only thing in its design aspect that’s ‘limiting” – for the lack of better term.
The phone also has an LED charging and notification lights beside its cameras. Also, you can also find in this section two small texts – FREEZING and SPEEDIEST (sic), which say something about its cooling and fast features, albeit weirdly worded.
Performance
As a gaming smartphone, I believe it’s important to talk about how this performs compared to the current line-up of flagship smartphones with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset. Let me get straight to the point: this performs just as good as the Galaxy S22 Ultra and the ROG Phone 5s Pro. I understand that the latter does not have a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, but it’s the closest gaming smartphone that can definitely rival the performance of the the POCO F4 GT. It’s a gaming smartphone, and I find it essential to give you a quick impression in terms of the performance of both devices on a separate article.
The POCO F4 GT performs almost just as fast as the Xiaomi 12 Pro, but outperforms the Galaxy S22 Ultra on Antutu Benchmark. It even outperforms both devices in terms of 3D rendering tasks. While these may appear to be numbers, they are solid indications of how capable the POCO F4 GT is. What I did is I played a few games that I’m really engrossed about; and I’ve got lots of things to tell you.
Let’s specifically talk about the performance of Call of Duty Mobile. I managed to play this game at maximum graphics and frame rate settings using performance mode. Now, the magnetic pop-up triggers are extra useful when playing games like Call of Duty Mobile. The phone’s app has this feature, which allows you to bind the left and right physical triggers to the game’s on-display controls. The function is somewhat similar to the one on the ASUS ROG Phone 5s, except the fact that the POCO F4 GT has physical triggers as opposed to ROG Phone’s ultrasonic sensors.
Gameplay of COD Mobile was flawless, and the heat I felt was bearable. I mean, it can be better, but this wouldn’t have been the case if this didn’t have Liquidcool Technology 3.0. You need to remember that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is a pretty hot chipset based on my experience with other devices, but the POCO F4 GTis able to manage the temperatures very well.
POCO F4 GT Benchmark Results
Camera
The POCO F4 GT is undoubtedly an amazing gaming smartphone, with or without its bells and whistles. While is POCO is actively promoting its already impressive set of gaming features, it is also a goodsmartphone camera. Specs-wise, it is not Galaxy S22 Ultra levels, but you are assured that you can maximize it as a camera device.
It packs a 64MP f/1.9 main camera, coupled with an 8MP ultrawide and 2MP macro. It also has 20MP front facing camera f/2.4 aperture and wide FOV.
In terms of camera features and modes, you get almost everything you can find on other flagship devices. Pro Mode is amazing as well as it has histogram available at boot plus an amazing smooth manual focus implementation. If you’re starting to make a career in mobile video or photography, the POCO F4 GT is the most flexible flagship device you can find at the moment.
At auto mode, you can expect photos to be a little less poppy compared to photos taken with Galaxy S22 Ultra. It excels in terms of sharpness and clarity; and it takes a color and calibrated device to really appreciate how the photos I took with this device really looks.
Here are sample photos that I took for your reference:
Software
I have always been a fan of how POCO’s/Xiaomi’s software, MIUI. While there have been questions surrounding it about some boot loop and optimization issues, the software – at least on my experience – was almost flawless. I never had any concerns while playing games; even when I’m using its gaming features.
The only concern I’ve got when it comes to personalization is the compatibility of themes to the POCO F4 GT. In my case, I managed to install a theme from the Xiaomi’s theme store, but some of the status bar icons won’t fit perfectly.
Also, you may want to check the Special Features tab on Settings if you want to able to maximize its extra features. This is where you’ll find the settings for Sidebar, Floating Windows, Second Space, LED Light and Pop-up trigger.
Battery and Charging
The phone is packed with a 4700mAh battery. It isn’t much, honestly. To give you a concrete example: I played Dislyte on this device. It’s a turn-based RPG game with gacha elements. It’s like Summoner’s War on steroids! It performs very well on this device, but it will really drain its battery pretty fast. In my experience, 3 hours of gameplay will drop its battery life from 100% to 70%. So, it’s safe to say that it’s about 10% per hour of gameplay at maximum graphic settings.
Perhaps, the best thing about this is how POCO managed to take the Xiaomi 12 Pros’ 120W charging capability to the POCO F4 GT. It will only take about 17 to 20 minutes to fully charge this device!
Sound
In terms of sound performance, the POCO F4 GT sets a very high watermark on smartphones of the same price point. It even has Dolby Atmos, which takes advantage of its stereo speakers. So, if you’re aiming to use this phone to watch movies, play games or even play your favorite tracks at full volume, you’ll experience glorious sound experience on a mobile device.
Verdict
POCO F4 GT, is by far, the flagship killer that people have been waiting and looking for. Although I would under people picking other more expensive devices than the POCO F4 GT; but those who can meet this phone’s asking price is best to consider buying it. Unfortunately, POCO F4 GT is very hard to find these days, and if you stumble upon an available unit via Lazada from POCO’s official store, you know what to do.
Giancarlo Viterbo is a Filipino Technology Journalist, blogger and Editor of gadgetpilipinas.net, He is also a Geek, Dad and a Husband. He knows a lot about washing the dishes, doing some errands and following instructions from his boss on his day job. Follow him on twitter: @gianviterbo and @gadgetpilipinas.
