Poco F4 GT: a high-class smartphone… and not just for gaming!

Poco F4 GT – Best prices:

Poco is a consumer-focused smartphone maker, which spun off from its parent company Xiaomi in January 2020. The manufacturer has just launched its latest flagship, the Poco F4 GT, priced at 599 euros for 8GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage, or 699 euros for a 12 GB/256 GB version.

The Poco F4 GT runs on Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, and features a 120Hz refresh rate as well as 120W fast charging which the manufacturer claims will charge the 4,700mAh battery of the Poco F4 GT. telephone in 17 minutes. Several features are designed specifically for gamers, including contextual triggers. Does this make it a smartphone only dedicated to video game enthusiasts? This is what we are going to see in the test of this new device that might interest you!

Ergonomics designed for gamers

The 6.67-inch Poco F4 GT has a footprint of 76.7mm wide by 162.5mm deep, is 8.5mm thick and weighs 210g. There are three color options. In all three cases, the camera LED light is in a zigzag window, located outside of a very prominent camera diamond. A narrow stripe running the length of the back plate and two angular patterns halfway down the long back edge reflect light on the matte finish. As an example, if you go for the yellow variant, you will get orange and black highlights on the back.

Whichever color variant you choose, the Victus glass back and Gorilla Glass front provide some degree of drop protection, and make the phone feel heavy and solid in the hand. It is a pity that no IP protection index is mentioned in the specifications. The sides of the phone have features designed to attract gamers. One of them is a pair of contextual triggers – buttons used as game controllers – located on the far left and right of a long edge. By default, they’re flush with the edge of the chassis, and a pair of sliding knobs pop them out and retract them.

Poco F4 GT – Best prices:

Triggers can be assigned to specific actions in games, and receive sounds when pressed to enhance the gaming experience. It is also possible to assign them single or double press actions when not playing. The triggers deploy individually, allowing you to leave one active all the time and use its out-of-game functionality for day-to-day tasks.

A competitor to the best flagships?

The smartphone’s speakers are located on the short edges, positioned so that you don’t cover them when holding the device with your index fingers on both triggers. The four speakers – a tweeter and a woofer at each end – pump out high-quality sound, which is as welcome when watching a video or listening to music as it is when gaming. There’s no 3.5mm audio jack, but a USB-C to 3.5mm headset adapter comes in the box.

The phone also features what Poco calls a “gaming mic” design. In addition to the mics in the usual locations, it has a third mic in the center of the long edge opposite the triggers. This is placed so as not to be hidden when the phone is held in game mode, in order to respond to any voice action. Gaming support even extends to the charging cable, which is L-shaped so you can slide it out of the way if the battery needs recharging while you’re in the middle of a game.

That’s not all: the smartphone has an infrared sensor on the top edge, and the bundled Mi Remote software means you can use the phone to control devices like a TV. The main power button is on the long right edge, with an in-display fingerprint sensor, while the volume buttons are hidden on the opposite side away from the triggers. This is also where the SIM card slot is located, which can accommodate a pair of SIM cards but not a MicroSD card slot to expand storage.

The 6.67-inch AMOLED screen of the smartphone supports 10-bit colors and has a definition of 2400 x 1080 pixels (20:9, 395 ppi). The pixel density is a bit low, but in use the screen is perfectly clear and bright – it peaks at 800 nits. With a 120Hz refresh rate, 480Hz touch sampling rate, support for HDR10+ and DCI-P3 color gamut, the screen might seem like it ticks all the boxes. Still, the screen refresh rate only oscillates between 60 Hz or 120 Hz, set manually or automatically.

Android 12 and extras

Out of the box, 28GB of device storage was already used, leaving 228GB for apps and data. As already noted, the storage is not expandable by MicroSD card, the SIM slot only accommodates two 5G SIMs.

Poco enriches Android 12 with the MIUI 13 overlay, which adds a number of apps, features and tweaks. These include duplicates for some Android services, like a music player and gallery app, third-party apps like Spotify, TikTok, and Facebook, and a few extras like a notes app, compass, share app wireless and a full themes app – as well as the previously mentioned Mi Remote app. It’s far from a clean Android experience, but it’s the Poco way.

The Poco F4 GT is equipped with three cameras on the back: 64 MP f/1.9 wide angle, 8 MP f/2.2 ultra-wide (120°) and 2 MP f/2.4 macro. The front camera, which is integrated into the display, is a 20 MP f/2.4 unit. Both main cameras are great for point-and-shoot photography, but the macro lens isn’t particularly impressive, limited by its fixed focus and 2MP resolution. Selfies with the front camera are perfectly acceptable.

For players… but not only!

The device also has a 4,700mAh battery that lasted the phone 11 hours and 13 minutes in the PCMark for Android Work 3.0 battery life test. When asked to stream YouTube videos for three hours from a full charge, it lost 18%, suggesting a total battery life of around 16.7 hours.

Charging is exceptionally fast when the included 120W charger is used. Poco claims that a full charge can be reached in 17 minutes. For a real-world test, I plugged in with a 21% battery: after five minutes, it had reached 53%. After 10 minutes it was 79% and after 15 minutes it was 98%.

While the Poco F4 GT offers features aimed specifically at gamers, that shouldn’t put off potential buyers looking for a powerful, solidly built, and relatively affordable phone. Indeed, these features can improve usability for everyone. Also, the battery life is good, and the 120W fast charging really impresses. However, if you need MicroSD card expansion, bloatware is an issue for you, or you need high-quality cameras, this might not be the phone for you.

Poco F4 GT – Best prices:

Source: ZDNet.com