Poco’s latest competitive mid-ranger has a big battery, fast charging and a 120Hz display
Why you can trust Pocket-lint (Pocket-lint) – Poco – like Xiaomi’s other sub-brands – has developed an attractive identity over the past few years. It delivers phones that are big on performance and specs, but without big price tags. With Poco you almost get the sense that this is the cool, youthful brand, with bright yellow branding everywhere and – often – bright yellow phones. One of the latest to join Poco’s product portfolio is the X4 Pro. It’s a mid-range device, but with some specs that might just appeal to those who really care about a fast and smooth-feeling phone. Design 64.2 x 76.1 x 8.1 mm – 205g Gorilla Glass 5 front Side-mounted fingerprint sensor Plastic edges, glass front and back Laser Black, Laser Blue and Poco Yellow colours Phone manufacturers haven’t exactly been shy about making a show of their camera humps over the past 12-24 months. We’ve seen Google’s Pixel 6 with its striking camera band across the back, Oppo with its moulded, seamless hump and Xiaomi with its massive oblong protrusion equipped with a screen. Poco seems to be attempting something just as dramatic with the X4 Pro. Pocket-lint Rather than a neat little rectangle in the corner, the company stuck a huge rectangle protrusion on the back, emblazoned with ‘POCO’ in block caps. It’s certainly dramatic, although the affect is relatively subtle on the black model we have in for review. It’s a more striking on the other colours. Otherwise, the design is a pretty standard affair. There’s no curved glass – the back is completely flat – and the plastic edge all the way around the phone is squared off, not curved. Only the corners are rounded, slightly. And just like the back, the glass on the front is completely flat too. It’s simple, and that’s no bad thing. It’s a relatively thin device too at just 8.1mm, but it’s still on the large side. It’s taller than an iPhone 13 Pro Max, which isn’t small at all. Pocket-lint It’s dotted with a handful of ports and buttons, including the 3.5mm headphone port on the top edge, and the power button on the right which also doubles as a fingerprint scanner. It seems to work well in early testing, but has already proved that it will be very easy to trigger accidentally, usually with the wrong finger or the palm, and that could mean being asked for a passcode after too many ‚failed attempts‘. Display 6.67-inch fullHD+ (1080 x 2400) AMOLED display Up to 120Hz refresh rates 700 nits typical – 1200 nits peak brightness MIUI 13 for Poco software Where smartphone manufacturers used to push resolution as of the upmost importance, things have changed.
