Review Verdict: The POCO X4 GT is a modern-day version of the Pocophone F1, where it makes slight compromises on other features to give way for unparalleled, raw performance that’s unheard of in the mid-range segment in the Philippines.

Pros

• Dominating performance from the Dimensity 8100
• Incredible price-to-performance ratio

Cons

• Generic looks
• Not the brightest display

 

POCO X4 GT Review Philippines Specs

• Dimensity 8100 processor
• 8GB RAM
• 128GB/256GB storage
• 6.6-inch Full HD+ IPS display, 144hz variable refresh rate
• 64-megapixel f/1.75 ISOCELL GW1 main camera with PDAF, 8-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide-angle camera, 2-megapixel macro camera
• 16-megapixel f/2.2 selfie camera
• 4G, 5G
• WiFi, Bluetooth 5.1, side-mounted fingerprint scanner
• IP53 rating
• 5080mAh battery
• 67w wired charging
• Android 12, MIUI 13

POCO’s X GT series aims to offer true raw power in the mid-range segment, and the X4 GT elevates expectations with the raw performance offered by its Dimensity 8100 processor. The new phone oozes power that isn’t usually seen in its price segment, giving us solid Pocophone F1 feels from the day we took it out of the box.

Design

Unlike previous POCO X-series phones, you’d probably mistake the X4 GT for a phone from another brand if not for the POCO branding at the bottom. Its triple rear camera module has a stepped design and looks similar to the camera module of several mid-range phones this 2022. While the design does make the X4 GT look rather generic, we’re glad to see POCO decide to use a frosted finish on the polycarbonate back panel and the squared-off frame, making it resistant against smudges.

While the X4 GT does not offer any MicroSD expansion, it does keep the headphone jack, which is located on top beside the loudspeaker, and an IR sensor. The latter is more of a novelty these days but can be useful for controlling some of your appliances at home.

Its overall size is typical of a mid-range smartphone, though the X4 GT looks and feels slim despite packing a 5080mAh battery inside.

Display and speakers

One of the downsides of the X4 GT is POCO’s decision to stick to an IPS panel and push the refresh rate to 144hz. As we reiterated in our quick review, any refresh rate over 120hz is overkill since there are no mobile games yet that can maximize it.

While it does have niceties like Widevine L1 for full HD Netflix viewing, and support for HDR10 and Dolby Vision, we find the brightness of the POCO X4 GT a bit lacking–not to mention that its automatic brightness feature can be inconsistent at times. POCO could have made a better choice in sacrificing refresh rate (ie. settle for 90hz) but in exchange for an AMOLED panel instead.

Moving to the speakers, the POCO X4 GT’s speakers are reasonably loud. Its general soundstage is balanced, with emphasis more on the highs and the lows being noticeable at higher volume levels.

Cameras

POCO chose to use the same set of cameras found on the X3 GT with the X4 GT. It’s not a bad thing, as the additional muscle provided by the Dimensity 8100 processor helped with better post-processing, especially with the main camera.

Using the POCO X4 GT as our daily driver for photos, image quality is generally good with outdoor shooting, though images tend to be a bit contrasty in some scenarios. In low-light shooting, however, the ultra-wide-angle camera dips in quality, losing detail and sharpness, while the main camera has good detail retention while not exaggerating color saturation and contrast.

The POCO X4 GT can shoot video at up to 4K30. While it does not have OIS, the POCO X4 GT’s EIS feature gets the job done in making the footage less jittery even while shooting handheld.

 

Internals and Battery Life

The POCO X4 GT’s main selling point is its use of a Dimensity 8100 processor, which offers a massive upgrade over the Dimensity 1100 used on the X3 GT. For its asking price, the POCO X4 GT simply crushes the competition in the under Php 20k segment, offering a performance level that is more at par with flagship-grade chips like Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 and 870.

We did a benchmark comparison in a previous article, and we’re very impressed at the Dimensity 8100’s overall performance against the competition.

Synthetic benchmarks only paint one side of the story, and we can confirm that the X4 GT offers the best real-life performance in its price range–especially when it comes to gaming. However, in order to get the most out of the Dimensity 8100, you will need to configure Game Turbo and add games to it. Without configuring Game Turbo, demanding games like Genshin Impact will be locked to 30FPS even if you have set the game to 60FPS.

With the proper Game Turbo configuration, data we obtained from GameBench shows that the POCO X4 GT can easily push Apex Legends and Asphalt 9 at their highest possible graphics settings to 60FPS while keeping stability at above 95%–which translates to very smooth gameplay.

Genshin Impact, on the other hand, was able to do 44FPS with a respectable 91% stability. Comparing this to flagship phones, the POCO X4 GT can go head-to-head with non-gaming-focused flagship phones that use a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor. Aside from that, we noticed that the POCO X4 GT was less warm than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 phones we previously tested after playing Genshin Impact for 30 minutes.

As for battery life, we recorded 12 hours and 13 minutes in PCMark’s battery benchmark test, with the display running at 144hz. That’s a good battery life score for a phone with a 5080mAh battery inside, though that could have been better if POCO used an AMOLED display instead on the X4 GT. Like its predecessor, the POCO X4 GT supports 67w wired charging, which takes less than an hour to top up the battery from flat to 100%.

Wrap-up and Conclusions

The POCO X4 GT is the new mid-range king in the Philippines for 2022, especially with raw processing power that’s well-optimized for gaming. An AMOLED display could have made the POCO X4 GT even better, but its use of a Dimensity 8100 processor alone makes it a real bang-for-the-buck smartphone for 2022.

POCO X4 GT Review Price Philippines

The POCO X4 GT is priced at Php 18,990 for the 8GB/128GB variant and Php 19,990 for the 8GB/256GB variant and will be exclusive to Shopee.