POCO X4 Pro 5G Test - The Unknown Familiar
One of the most beautiful phones of recent times, but how to use it?
contents show
Unpacking and first switching on
Introductory
This article will not be a standard test for several reasons. One is that I’m going to shoot the joke at the beginning of the next chapter, the other is that it won’t include NEW test photos, test videos, or even measurement results.
And most interestingly, in a few sentences, you don't think it will make sense to include them.
Now you may rightly ask, if there is no picture, video, test result in a test, what makes it a test? Well, from the fact that I had only been testing this phone for a few weeks, I made a long enough video about it, which you could already see!
The next question, if this phone was introduced to the world today, is how could I write an article about it weeks ago?
The answer is already here!
The Clone Wars
With Xiaomi phones, we have become accustomed in recent years to selling some phones under a different name in China, a different name in India, and a third name in the rest of the world. However, what has just happened has never happened before, because in the present case, the same phone is being sold under two different names (as of today) and not on different continents, but here in Europe. So I'm shooting the joke here!
Yes, the POCO X4 Pro and Redmi Note 11 Pro are one and the same phone down to the last micron, only the back cover is different.
So in this article, I’m not testing, I’m trying to tell you why it may have turned out to be a new phone that isn’t even new, and what has changed compared to its predecessors, the POCO X3 and the POCO X3 Pro. , and the new device has gotten better or worse.
In the end, of course, you'll also find out if it's worth buying (YES!)
What could be the reason for cloning (strictly private opinion follows)
Xiaomi initially only sold phones under the Xiaomi brand. However, the winds of time have forced them to create sub-brands, selling cheap or gamer phones under a different name.
The first sub-brand was Redmi. Xiaomi had previously sold Redmi phones, but they ran under the name Xiaomi Redmi xxx, with the new brand the name Xiaomi disappeared. Redmi has become the entry level and the bottom-middle of the middle class.
Then came the Black Shark, which delivered particularly powerful gamer phones. There is no question here, iron, cooling, performance are all top notch, at most we have to expect some compromise in the field of photography.
Then there’s POCO, which has become a bit of a schizophrenic brand in recent years. Initially, we thought we could get cheap hardware built into cheap robes cheaply from them. Then we thought they would make cheap gamer phones. Then came the entry-level mobiles that competed with Redmi, and now it’s about. we don't even wonder what POCO wants, what it wants to be.
Perhaps one thing remained consistent with POCO, the fresh, youthful design.
I described the ones so far because I feel like that dead cat is buried here, meaning it took the sub-brands to complete the Clone War. Namely:
- There is not much variation in hardware. Although Mediatek has also brought competitive 5G chips, their prices are still too high for entry levels and even, in my opinion, for the bottom of the mid-range. However, most of the variation is still in the area of the central tiles.
- The display. With the Redmi Note 10 series, Xiaomi steered herself into a street where you can’t turn around or push out. He introduced AMOLED to the middle class. From now on, IPS can only be in the cheapest category, and one up at a time they can vary with capabilities like image refresh, and let’s face it, this leaves 90 percent of people cold.
- The cameras. There are currently two types of main cameras running, the 50 and 108 megapixels. These are included in every phone, so it’s very difficult to separate each category, since if a Redmi Note 10 Pro or 11 Pro has a 108 megapixel camera, why buy e.g. the Xiaomi 11T is more expensive when it also has this camera.
- More and more phones are being launched. That is, while it was known a few years ago that the Redmi 9A, Redmi 9, Redmi Note 9, Redmi Note 9 Pro will be the best devices in line, today there are POCO phones that know the same thing a little differently.
So the bottom line is that it’s getting harder to break down categories and convince people to buy one more expensive because a cheaper phone has nearly as good or even almost the same capabilities.
This is why the video capabilities of the Redmi Note 11 Pro had to be dropped by software.
That is, we are there today that in crazy dumping, they thought it would be better than Xiaomi not to develop another phone, but to sell it under the same name again. The only problem is that while the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G is a general purpose device, the POCO X4 Pro 5G is a gamer phone.
But how can you sell the same phone for two purposes?
Well, I’ve already said that apart from the video capabilities, the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G has become a brilliant device, but in the next chapter I will also tell you what makes it a brilliant gamer phone at the same time, namely the POCO X4 Pro 5G!
Evolution
When POCO released my X3, I was a little wary, at least initially. Today, however, looking back at the device, I have to raise my hat and say it has become brilliant. It was cheap and got capabilities that were only found in the more expensive devices before, and that made it a real GAMER.
I can mention here the stereo sound system, the Z-direction vibration motor, the 120 Hz IPS display, and the powerful Snapdragon 732G chipset, which is optimized specifically for games. We also got an evaluable camera system, all at a very affordable price!
Then came the wrinkle stitching and the successor, the POCO X3 Pro, became an even boomer phone. True, they were silly on the camera, but in return we got the Snapdragon 860, which is a brutal good proci. The even more optimized version of the Snapdragon 855, and even its upgraded 855+ version a few years ago, is the 860. Enough of everything, a real peak!
And now, here’s the successor, the POCO X4 Pro, which at first glance has gotten worse than its predecessor. It’s no coincidence that I write that at first glance, because the appearance in this case is very deceptive! Let's see the details!
In the last 1 and a half years, stereo sound and a vibration motor with a Z direction have become completely common in Redmi phones. So you no longer have to be a boom for a phone for these “extras”.
In the field of displays, AMOLED has appeared in the middle category. For the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G and thus the POCO X4 Pro 5G, we also get AMOLED with 120 Hz image refresh and 360 Hz sampling. In other words, the progress in terms of display is clear, instead of IPS we get a really great AMOLED, something you need in a gamer phone!
The proci is in question. The Snapdragon 4 695G in the POCO X5 Pro is a very significant improvement over the X3 Snapdragon 732G, but a significant setback compared to the X3 Pro Snapdragon 860. So performance has deteriorated here, but at the same time, if we felt the 732G was enough that year, we shouldn't have any complaints about the 695 5G either.
We have also made progress in the field of cameras compared to both the X3 and the X3 Pro. The former had a main camera of 64 and the latter had 48 megapixels. In comparison, the 108 megapixels are a real step forward. The video capability is nuanced by the video capability, which was particularly convincing in the X3, but rather weak in the X3 Pro. So in this area, the X4 Pro has not made any progress over its immediate predecessor, nor has it deteriorated.
By the end, the exterior remained. The POCO X4 Pro 5G has become one of the most beautiful phones of recent times. It comes in beautiful colors, and the way the light plays on the back is something quite wonderful. I really like the huge camera island, if only because the phone isn’t rocking on the desk.
Plus, the X4 Pro has become lighter and thinner than its predecessors, so we can't complain about that either!
Count on the POCO X3 Pro!
Pro - Much better display, better camera and shooting, faster storage, nicer exterior, lighter, thinner housing, newer proci with lower power consumption and warm-up, 5G support
Kontra - Slower processor
Unchanged - ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, vibrating motor, stereo sound, video capability
So, as I said above, we have stepped back at first glance, but objectively, there have been many more steps forward than backwards.
So what is the conclusion?
If we look at the abilities, at first we’ll just wave that there’s nothing extra, and we’ll be a little right about that. But for the most part, we’ll only be right because Xiaomi (i.e. Redmi) has spoiled us for the past year. All of their phones have great sound and stereo sound, great vibration feedback, and the Note 10-11, 10 Pro, and 11 Pro have great displays. Procs are strong enough, storage is fast, and cameras are good or very good.
That is, here we can go back to the first part of the article and state that there is nowhere to improve at the moment. If they were given even more, they would already be slipping around the necks of Xiaomi phones, which they obviously don’t want. They have squeezed themselves into a situation that gives us, the customers, very comfortable and very good phones at a reasonable price.
From a marketing standpoint, however, the situation is not good, as they are not very able to provide extra features that can be used to sharpen a marketing campaign. If the buyer doesn’t look closely at the devices, doesn’t read comparative writings like this, he will be fooled, even though they didn’t fool us, they did us a favor.
In the case of the POCO X4 Pro 5G, marketing has identified two major areas of impact, one being their first phone with a 4 Hz AMOLED display and the other being their first phone with a 120-megapixel camera. And within the brand, that’s true too.
Final conclusion
I hope after reading the article, everyone understood why it would have been pointless to write a traditional test, and now no one is blaming me for not having it.
The most important question is whether you should buy the POCO X4 Pro as a gamer phone!
So far, I hope everyone has found out that I think so. The spirituality is pretty much the same as what we got with the X3, in my opinion their brilliantly successful gamer mobile, that is, we get the frank gamer capabilities, but now with an AMOLED display. The phone can’t tell that time is running out, and the capabilities that have been classified specifically for gamer phones for just a few years are already there in the average mid-range.
So, the POCO X4 Pro 5G is a wonderful-looking gamer phone, and the Redmi Note 11 Pro is a wonderful-looking but much more restrained general-purpose phone. All this is true, or vice versa, the two statements do not collide so that the hardware of the two phones is the same to the last angle.
Which one is worth buying?
That's up to you. You can choose the exterior, but you can also choose the price. If anyone asked me, I would definitely buy the POCO X4 Pro for the same price because of the dazzling back cover and camera island. But, as you will see at the very end of the article, the price is not the same for the two devices. I don't know that the POCO X4 Pro 5G is cheaper by HUF 30-40 thousand compared to the same Note 11 Pro 5G only due to the introductory campaign, but I am likely.
And finally:
If you are curious about the capabilities of the POCO X4 Pro, don't be lazy to read this article: MEDIUM CATEGORY - XIAOMI REDMI NOTE 11 PRO 5G TEST
If you would like to buy the phone, you can add it to the cart in the introductory campaign starting today, in advance, by paying an advance payment, the balance of the price will have to be paid later. In addition to the introductory price, there is also a limited number of 20-euro coupons, which you can request in the store and use right away.
It is very important that with the introduction of the introductory price and the coupon, the phone can be picked up for ~ 90 thousand forints, while the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G for 120-130 forints is nowhere to be found. So the POCO X4 Pro is a very worthwhile offer right now, don't miss out!
Click on the link below to purchase:
