The Xiaomi poco F4 is some other low cost handset from a logo that has continually impressed us with its mid-range smartphones. Its predecessor, the % F3, earned a 5-famous person satisfactory buy award closing year, leaving some pretty massive shoes to fill.
Although it’s greater of a victory lap than a true evolution, the brand new Xiaomi percent F4 continues to be a fantastic and low-priced phone that once more proves you don’t need to spend upwards of £six hundred to get flagship capability.
Xiaomi poco F4 review: What you want to realize
The Xiaomi poco F4 makes use of the same Snapdragon 870 processor as the poco F3, subsidized up by 6/8GB of RAM and 128/256GB of inner garage. Whilst not an upgrade, this chipset nevertheless holds its personal, closing competitive with different in addition priced phones released this year.
Compared to its predecessor, the F4’s build is more of a tweak than an overhaul, losing a millimetre here and there for its 163 x seventy six x 7.7mm dimensions, and weighing in one gram lighter than the F3, at 195g. The percent F4 still has plenty to offer elsewhere, too, with a 120Hz AMOLED display, an advanced 64MP main digicam and a nippy 67W fast charger.
The running system runs on Android 12, with Xiaomi’s very own MIUI 13 plastered over the pinnacle. Supplying plenty of customisation options and keeping off the cluttered UI or immoderate bloatware that plague a few other OS skins, that is an reachable and person-pleasant revel in.
Xiaomi poco F4 assessment: price and competition
There are fashions of the Xiaomi p.C. F4 available inside the uk. The 128GB version examined here comes with 6GB of RAM and retails for £379, whilst the 256GB version with 8GB of RAM prices £429.
The biggest task going through the Xiaomi F4 is justifying why you should purchase it above the 128GB p.C. F3, which can presently be had for £310. For the decrease asking charge, you’re getting similar performance and battery lifestyles, but the fundamental digital camera is of a decrease first-class, charging speeds aren’t as rapid and you’ll pass over out on capabilities together with Dolby imaginative and prescient HDR.
Outdoor of Xiaomi’s own lineup, there’s nevertheless a wealth of competition in the sub-£400 smartphone market: the OnePlus Nord 2T 5G starts at £369 and offers great battery life, the amazing cameras of Google’s Pixel 6a are just a chunk pricier at £399, and the Motorola Moto G200 grants a whole lot of strength for £four hundred.
Xiaomi poco F4 assessment: design and key functions
It nearly feels played out to mention that price range and mid-variety telephones are now not the sole refuge of chunky, unappealing designs, with all but the very cheapest imparting the identical sleek aesthetics as many excessive-quit models. To be had in night time Black, Nebula inexperienced and Moonlight Silver, the percent F4 is equipped with a huge 6.67in display, bordered by means of minuscule bezels and protected with a defensive layer of Gorilla Glass five. A hollow punch notch sits centrally along the top of the screen, housing the selfie digicam.
The rear panel is included through a sparkly glass panel, that's virtually appealing and feels certainly premium however is also a fingerprint magnet, so prepare to be wiping it smooth constantly. The rectangular camera module sits inside the pinnacle-left corner, sticking out multiple millimetres from the floor. This will cause a few wobbling or sliding when you place the cellphone on a flat surface, however compatible cases will easy the returned out if this bothers you.
Person-friendly functions are some thing of a mixed bag here: you’ve got a fingerprint sensor built into the electricity button at the proper-hand side, an green face release feature, stereo audio system and dual-SIM support. That SIM intake tray doesn’t feature a microSD card slot, but, neither is there a 3.5mm headphone jack. The cellphone is rated IP53, certifying it as supplying limited safety in opposition to dust ingress and sprays of water from above.
Xiaomi poco F4 evaluation: show
The trend seems to be for mid-variety phones to prioritise the show above maximum other elements, and this surely jewelry proper with the p.C. F4. The 6.67in 2,400 x 1,080 panel gives the correctly perfect comparison and black stages that define AMOLED displays, in addition to a slick 120Hz refresh fee. This is off by default to hold the battery, however you can without difficulty transfer it on within the settings to make all your scrolling and gaming silky easy.
There are 3 shade modes to select from: unique, Saturated and vivid. Whilst shiny is the recommended and default putting, colour purists will want to exchange to the original mode. We measured an sRGB gamut of 94% and a quantity of 94.Five% in this setting, which interprets to a huge variety of colors produced with amazing accuracy. The display also holds up well in both indoor and out of doors use, hitting a top brightness of 482cd/m² during testing.
Similarly to the HDR10+ supplied through the percent F3, the p.C. F4 provides Dolby imaginative and prescient support, supplying you with a broader variety of HDR content material to enjoy. In tandem with the effective Dolby Atmos-compatible audio system, these credentials make the percent F4 an fantastic desire for streaming. Firing up Our Planet on Netflix to test it out, i discovered David Attenborough’s dulcet tones to be suitably soothing, and that i’ve actually never seen a penguin appearance better.
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Xiaomi poco F4 evaluate: overall performance and battery existence
Under the display screen the Xiaomi percent F4 is powered by using an octa-middle 3.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 5G processor, backed via either 6 or 8GB of RAM. That is exactly the equal setup that become present in the p.C. F3, so it’s no marvel that the 2 achieve almost equal CPU benchmark rankings.
Whilst a bump in uncooked energy would had been appreciated, the overall performance right here continues to be decent, with round 20% profits at the OnePlus Nord 2T within the multicore tests and more or less a 13% area at the Google Pixel 6a. The percent F4 even manages to compete with the higher-tier Snapdragon 888 Plus chipset that powers the Motorola Moto G200.
Extra incredible is that the % F4 proved to be the excellent choice from the comparators on the subject of gaming, with an fantastic result of 114fps within the GFXBench new york 3 onscreen test, in which none of the others made it into triple figures. Offscreen consequences additionally saw an impressive displaying of 140fps – a discern that only the Google Pixel 6a even comes close to. The p.C. F4 effortlessly treated any sport I threw at it, easily taking pictures the whole lot from the short-paced racing motion of Asphalt nine: Legends to the easy delights of candy crush Saga.
The consequences of our preferred battery rundown test are less beneficial for the p.C. F4, serving up the lowest end result out of this selection and coming in more or less 10% less than its predecessor. To be clear, a score of over 19 hours isn’t terrible by means of any stretch – you’ll fortuitously get days of moderate use out of it – but whilst maximum new iterations enhance upon the battery lifestyles, this two-hour downgrade remains disappointing.
Despite falling to the rear of the in normal stamina, the percent F4 has a trick up its sleeve in the shape of a 67W rapid charger. Greater than doubling the 33W charger that came with the F3, this can take the F4’s battery from empty to full in just 38 minutes. At the same time as this genuine discern can’t be assured, something in that ballpark remains deeply outstanding and helps to make up for the mild hit in universal stamina.
Xiaomi poco F4 evaluate: Cameras
The camera array is another vicinity wherein specs had been jiggled around barely from the preceding version. In which the F3 provided a 48MP important camera paired with an 8MP ultrawide and a 5MP macro lens, the F4 has cut returned the latter to 2MP (f/2.Four), kept the 8MP (f/2.2) ultrawide as is, and thrown the extra oomph into a 64MP (f/1.8) most important lens.
For me, this distribution is most effective, as greater lenses including macro and ultrawide are regularly just gimmicky additions on finances and mid-range telephones. That interest is better served going into the principle enchantment, and it’s truly paid off here. The colours within the sky and leaves are brilliant without dipping into oversaturation territory, the assessment within the shadows of the trees is powerful and there’s a big amount of element within the mansion’s brickwork and window frames.
Even after dark, the digicam holds up nicely. The night time mode efficaciously brightened the moonlit scene, keeping the sky fairly free of noise and showing the glow of the moon and the planet with none obnoxious lens flares.
Although the percent F4 functions a 10x digital zoom, there’s little reason to exaggerate that tons, as even the 3x zoom loses quite a number of detail. Beneath, you can see the wire mesh that sits over the facade but the intricacies of the stonework are smoothed out rather. It'll do in a pinch, however nine times out of ten you’ll be better off just moving toward your difficulty.
As predicted, the ultrawide camera feels largely tacked on, expanding the scope but sacrificing some of the element and vibrancy. The macro digital camera downgrade isn’t a great deal of a loss, both: the blurred background is excessively noisy, but the foreground is acceptable sufficient, although this digital camera-shy bee didn’t sit down still.
The 20MP f/2.5 selfie digicam is any other returning feature from the p.C. F3 and the feature is basically the identical. Portrait mode slaps an powerful heritage blur in the back of the situation, and the extended range of beautification filters offers nips and tucks for people who need to decorate their selfie recreation.
Video sees a minor improve over the percent F3, and is now capable of capture 4K footage at up to 60fps. The option is all over again buried inside the UI, but, tucked away in the top-proper menu. The photos is definitely fluid, keeping a first rate quantity of element in proper lighting fixtures situations, though the optical stabilisation should do with tightening.
Xiaomi F4 overview: Verdict
All told, this is an extremely fantastic comply with-as much as an already extremely good smartphone. We don’t see the type of leaps in overall performance or battery lifestyles that i'd have preferred but the addition of Dolby imaginative and prescient, the upgraded 64MP primary digital camera and the lightning-brief 67W speedy charger more than make up for those deficiencies.
Add to this the inclusion of 5G connectivity and the slick 120Hz AMOLED display, in addition to some tremendous gaming overall performance, and the Xiaomi percent F4 is an absolute good deal at this rate.
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