Poco X4 GT review

Latest MIUI 13 for Poco on top of Android 12

Like every other Poco, the X4 GT runs on a slightly tweaked MIUI, hence why they call it "MIUI 13 for Poco". For all intents and purposes, though, there's little to no difference in the software. MIUI users will feel right at home.

And even though Xiaomi's Android skin offers a plethora of features, some are a bit niche, and yet some of Android 11 and 12 intrinsic features are missing. Those in question are notification history, re-designed widget interface, and privacy dashboard. Since the handset is running an IPS LCD panel, there's no Always-on display function as well.

Anyway, the new MIUI 13 promises some under-the-hood improvements such as better RAM management, better CPU utilization and more effective storage use.

Overall, looks haven't changed, though, and previous MIUI users will feel right at home. What we noticed right away was the unusual DPI. The phone has a standard 1080p+ resolution, but the DPI makes it look as if it's 1440p+. Text and UI elements are sharper-looking yet smaller. You can change the UI scale in settings, of course.

Home screen, recent apps, Control center, notification shade

The split between a notification shade and Control Center is enabled by default this time around, and that's probably a good thing. We found it to be quite convenient, and it's a way to educate users about MIUI's unique approach to the UI. And in case you are not a fan, you can always revert back to the standard notification shade with quick toggles in one place.

The home screen, recent apps and the general settings menu are business as usual. The app drawer, however, is your only option as opposed to the standard MIUI, which gives you a choice between an app drawer and displaying all your apps on the home screen. We like that Xiaomi has placed the search bar at the bottom of the screen for easier reach. There are custom and preset app categories for faster navigation.

App drawer

Unlike the standard recent apps menu, MIUI's one lists the apps in a vertical arrangement and provides several useful shortcuts. That's where you can open up apps in floating windows. However, you can keep only one open at a time. In case you want a faster shortcut to apps that support free-form windows, just enable the Sidebar.

General settings

Notably, the Sidebar is different depending on the scenario. In games, the Sidebar provides a couple of gaming-related features, while in video apps, the Sidebar becomes a Video toolbox. It lets you launch video apps in pop-up windows, Screenshot, Record screen, Cast, and Play Video with the screen off, including on YouTube without Premium subscription. The only caveat is that the apps where you want the feature enabled need to be whitelisted in advance.

Sidebar and floating windows

Customization is, as always, a big part of MIUI. The system lets you choose the style of the Always-on display or the theme of the UI. Aside from the ones pre-installed on the device, there's a themes store that gives you a wide selection. The themes themselves change not only the general appearance but also ringtones and system icons.

Themes

MIUI comes with its proprietary multimedia apps - there's Gallery, and Music and Mi Video (both with local and streaming options). A MIUI File manager is also on board. And, of course, a Mi Remote app that uses the integrated IR blaster.

Moving on to privacy and security, MIUI has come with a pre-installed system Security app. Aside from the additional malware protection layer it provides, the app holds many of the app settings and privacy features in one place. It can manage your blacklist, manage or restrict your data usage, configure battery behavior, and free up some RAM. It can also manage the permissions of your installed apps, define the battery behavior of selected apps, and apply restrictions only to certain apps.

Security app

You unlock the screen via the side-mounted fingerprint scanner. The reader is easy to set up, blazing-fast, and the accuracy is superb. You can set the unlock method to Touch or Press - the Press will spare you accidental misreads of your palm (that eventually lead to PIN input) if you are using the phone without a case. A 2D Face Unlock is available, too, but it is far less secure than the fingerprint option.

Also, widely available on other phones with MIUI, Game Turbo is both the hub you can use to launch your games as well as an in-game utility for improving your gaming experience. It includes classic functionality like screen recording and limiting incoming notifications.

Game Turbo overlay and settings

Some MIUI ROMs include ads in the default apps; it is a well-known thing. And the Poco F4 does come with baked-in ad "recommendations".

You can disable those even if it's a bit tedious to do it because you have to do it for every system app that has them. For example, if you are annoyed by the app scanner's ads, just hit the settings gear, and disable recommendations. Ads in the File Manager - Settings->About should do it. Themes - go to Settings and disable Recommendations. It's not ideal, sure, but at least you can get rid of them all.

Overall, the MIUI 13 runs smoothly and feels snappy. Animations could be a bit faster, but you can enjoy them at 120 or 144fps, depending on your refresh rate settings.

Synthetic performance

The Poco X4 GT features one of MediaTek's latest chipsets, the Dimensity 8100. It's a step up from the standard Dimensity 8000, mainly in clock speeds. It sports the same hardware setup, though. Despite its high clock speeds (higher than even the Dimensity 9000), the CPU employs ARM's older architecture, and it's also based on the 5nm manufacturing process instead of the newer 4nm.

The octa-core CPU uses 4x Cortex-A78 cores clocked at 2.85 GHz and 4x Cortex-A55 cores ticking at 2.0 GHz. The GPU used for graphics tasks is the Mali-G610 MC6, the same one used in the Dimensity 8000, but it promises 20% better performance. We assume it's achieved through higher clock speeds.

In addition to the rather powerful CPU and GPU combo, the SoC boasts a capable NPU and ISP. The MediaTek Imagiq 780 ISP can simultaneously record HDR videos with two cameras or 4K@60fps HDR10+ footage using one camera. It can also handle 200MP sensors, 2x lossless zoom and AI-powered noise reduction and HDR imaging.

Another notable difference between the Dimensity 8000 and the 8100 is that the latter supports a 120Hz refresh rate at WQHD+ resolution and HDR10+ Adaptive. That last one means it can adjust the screen's brightness during HDR10+ videos depending on the ambient light.

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Poco F4 GT
  952124
• Realme GT Neo3
  819348
• Realme GT2
  810512
• Poco X4 GT
  747871
• Realme GT Neo 3T
  726007
• Poco F4
  698586
• OnePlus Nord 2T 5G
  619610
• Poco X3 GT
  578505
• Realme 9 Pro+
  416031
• Poco X4 Pro 5G
  384646
• Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
  379313

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Poco F4 GT
  1244
• Realme GT2
  1131
• Realme GT Neo 3T
  1023
• Poco F4
  975
• Realme GT Neo3
  968
• Poco X4 GT
  917
• Realme 9 Pro+
  814
• Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
  743
• Poco X3 GT
  693
• Poco X4 Pro 5G
  687
• OnePlus Nord 2T 5G
  493

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Realme GT Neo3
  4079
• Poco X4 GT
  3719
• Poco F4 GT
  3637
• Realme GT2
  3487
• Poco F4
  3190
• Realme GT Neo 3T
  3180
• OnePlus Nord 2T 5G
  2694
• Realme 9 Pro+
  2335
• Poco X3 GT
  2310
• Poco X4 Pro 5G
  2063
• Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
  1891

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Realme GT2
  56
• Realme GT Neo3
  53
• Poco F4
  49
• Realme GT Neo 3T
  49
• Poco X4 GT
  46
• OnePlus Nord 2T 5G
  42
• Poco X3 GT
  38
• Realme 9 Pro+
  23
• Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
  19
• Poco X4 Pro 5G
  17

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Realme GT2
  68
• Realme GT Neo3
  60
• Poco F4
  59
• Realme GT Neo 3T
  59
• Poco X4 GT
  52
• OnePlus Nord 2T 5G
  51
• Poco X3 GT
  44
• Realme 9 Pro+
  27
• Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
  23
• Poco X4 Pro 5G
  20

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Realme GT Neo3
  43
• Poco X4 GT
  38
• Realme GT2
  38
• Realme GT Neo 3T
  34
• OnePlus Nord 2T 5G
  30
• Poco X3 GT
  28
• Realme 9 Pro+
  16
• Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
  15
• Poco X4 Pro 5G
  12

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Realme GT2
  30
• Realme GT Neo3
  28
• Poco X4 GT
  24
• Realme GT Neo 3T
  24
• OnePlus Nord 2T 5G
  20
• Poco X3 GT
  19
• Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
  10
• Realme 9 Pro+
  10
• Poco X4 Pro 5G
  8.1

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Realme GT2
  5879
• Realme GT Neo3
  5428
• OnePlus Nord 2T 5G
  4653
• Poco F4
  4357
• Poco X4 GT
  4301
• Realme GT Neo 3T
  4255
• Poco X3 GT
  3991
• Realme 9 Pro+
  2296
• Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
  2292
• Poco X4 Pro 5G
  1211

In the CPU-bound benchmark tests, the Dimensity 8100-powered handset outperforms pretty much all of the simi9larly-priced mid-range chipsets and even shows exceptional performance in the multi-core scenario where even the Snapdragon 870, 888 and 8 Gen 1 fall behind. However, we believe this is true because Geekbench doesn't utilize the big Cortex-X1 and Cortex-X2 cores in the multi-core test.

In the combined AnTuTu 9 test, the SoC still outperforms its rivals and places pretty close to the flagship Snapdragon silicons. MediaTek's solution trades blows in the GPU-intensive tests but still shows impressive performance compared to its direct rivals.

Sustained performance

Although not entirely for gaming, the Poco X4 GT definitely has some gaming-ready capabilities, including an improved LiquidCool Technology 2.0, which is just a fancy way of saying that the handset has a large cooling surface area and heat sinks to combat CPU and GPU throttling during long gaming sessions. Xiaomi says the cooling area is 32% larger compared to the X3 GT and has 7 layers of graphite.

To be fair, though, the Dimensity 8100 isn't one of the most demanding chipsets to support during heavy loads, but it's nice to see that the system is capable of maintaining 93% of the SoC's theoretical performance, even after an hour-long 100% CPU load.

CPU throttle test: 30 min • 60 min

And since the body is made of plastic, it's not that hot to the touch as well. One of the benefits of having a plastic frame and back panel.