Poco M4 Pro review

Introduction

If you don't find 5G essential, and a nice OLED display is higher up your priorities list for your smartphone purchase, the Poco M4 Pro 4G will trade one for the other compared to the M4 Pro 5G, which we already reviewed a while ago.

The 4G version swaps out the Dimensity 810 chipset for a Helio G96, another Mediatek design that's only slightly less powerful and lacks the next-gen connectivity. On the flipside, it gets a 6.43-inch OLED display that's marginally smaller than the 5G's 6.6-inch unit, keeps the 90Hz refresh rate and promises a lot more brightness, on top of OLED's other inherent advantages.

Light touches can be seen in the camera section too, where the main unit uses a 64MP sensor in place of the 5G version's 50MP one, and a 2MP macro camera has cropped up where there wasn't one. The ultrawide on the back and the selfie camera appear unchanged.

The Poco M4 Pro gets to keep the 5,000mAh battery capacity and with it the 33W charging capability, by now a staple of the Xiaomi lineup. Other classic goodies like an infrared emitter, headphone jack, and dedicated microSD slot make for a complete feature set.

Xiaomi Poco M4 Pro specs at a glance:

• Body: 159.9x73.9x8.1mm, 179g; Gorilla Glass 3 front, plastic back, plastic frame; IP53, dust and splash resistant.
• Display: 6.43" AMOLED, 90Hz, 1080x2400px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 409ppi.
• Chipset: Mediatek Helio G96 (12 nm): Octa-core (2x2.05 GHz Cortex-A76 & 6x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G57 MC2.
• Memory: 64GB 6GB RAM, 128GB 6GB RAM, 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM; UFS 2.2; microSDXC (dedicated slot).
• OS/Software: Android 11, MIUI 13 for POCO.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 64 MP, f/1.8, 26mm, 0.7µm, PDAF; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.2, 118˚, 1/4", 1.12µm; Macro: 2 MP, f/2.4.
• Front camera: 16 MP, f/2.5, (wide), 1/3.06" 1.0µm.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 1080p@30fps; Front camera: 1080p@30fps.
• Battery: 5000mAh; Fast charging 33W, Power Delivery 3.0, Quick Charge 3+.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (side-mounted); NFC; Infrared port; 3.5mm jack.

Poco M4 Pro unboxing

The Poco M4 Pro ships in a two-piece cardboard box in recognizable yellow livery, now with oversized branding - the 5G version opted for a more restrained font size.

The contents are the usual - a charger, USB cable, and a soft clear case. The charger is a beefy 33W Xiaomi fast charging unit with a USB-A output port. There's no headset bundled, as is the norm, so you'll need to supply your own if you plan to use the FM radio with any amount of reliability.