Poco F4 5G launched in India: Here are our first impressions

Poco today launched its next F-series phone in India, the Poco F4 5G. The Poco F4 5G is the brand’s third F-series phone in India following the Poco F1 and last year’s Poco F3 GT, and only the second F-series phone in the country to be powered a flagship Qualcomm 800-series chipset.
Poco F4 5G: What’s new
The phone is powered the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 chipset this time around and has other flagship-grade specifications to go with it. These include a 6.67-inch 120H AMOLED display that can switch between 30Hz, 60Hz and 120Hz and comes with 360Hz touch sampling. The display also has a peak brightness of 1300 nits and supports DCI-P3 colour gamut, along with support for Dol Vision and HDR10+. The phone comes in multiple variants with either 6, 8 or 12GB RAM and 128 or 256GB UFS 3.1 storage.

Coming to the camera we get a 64MP primary camera with OIS along with an 8MP ultrawide sensor and a 2MP depth sensor on the back. This is joined a 20MP single front camera. The Poco F4 5G also gets a 4,500mAh battery with support for 67W fast wired charging and 10W reverse wired charging. Other features here include 10 5G bands, Dual stereo speakers, Dol Atmos and high-res audio support, an IR blaster, IP53 certification and a side-mounted fingerprint sensor.
Available in two colourways and three storage variants, the Poco F4 5G is priced at Rs 27,999 for the 6GB/128GB variant, Rs 29,999 for the 8GB/128GB variant and Rs 33,999 for the 12GB/256GB variant. The F4 5G will go on sale on Flipkart from June 27 along with a number of offers. Here are our first impressions of the phone.
Poco F4 5G: Our quick first impressions
It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a Poco phone, and yes, the Poco F4 5G is quite an evolved phone, compared to the Poco F1 from 2018. The original device launched with the top-end Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. But Poco’s F-series is no longer priced in the same range as the OnePlus series, which is much more premium device in the market. While the Poco F4 5G remains in the mid-range pricing (which we’re categorising somewhere between Rs 25k to Rs 35k), its specifications are not necessarily top-of-the-line. Still that doesn’t mean this is a compromise device for the price.
The Poco F4 5G has a 120Hz AMOLED display protected Corning Gorilla Glass 5. (Image Source: The Indian Express/ Shruti Dhapola)
First, this is a good looking phone. The Nebula Green has a muted tone, and the glass at the back gives this premium finish. The Poco branding is subtle enough. It also has ‘5G’ written next to it, guess a reminder was needed for users. The front glass has Corning Gorilla Glass 5, so you are can be assured of some protection, at least. The frame on the side is polycarbonate those. The triple camera module does remind me of the Redmi phones, which is not surprising given Poco, Redmi and Xiaomi are one big family.
The only problem right now is that the phone’s back gets covered in smudges easily, and given the 6.67-inch screen size this is a very tall device. In fact, it’s a little taller than my iPhone 12 Pro Max, which has a 6.7-inch display. The phone’s display is an AMOLED one and one can crank up refresh rate to 120 Hz. There’s no headphone jack here, for those wondering. Poco is also skimping out on expandable storage. The maximum onboard storage offered is 256GB.
The Poco F4 5G comes with a triple camera setup on the back. (Image Source: The Indian Express/ Shruti Dhapola)
Poco’s phone comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 processor. In my limited usage I’ve not faced an issues, and I don’t expect them given this is a powerful enough chipset on the device. We’ll have more details in our full review.
I did manage to test out the camera a bit and so far, the images look striking. The colours are vibrant– at least on the phone’s AMOLED screen– and the photos are accurate when it comes to details and colours. This camera should keep most users very happy. I’ve not fully tested out the night mode, so we will have to see how it fares under poor lighting conditions. Check out some samples below.
The Poco F4 5G takes vibrant pictures as you can see. (Image Source: The Indian Express/ Shruti Dhapola)
The pictures shot the phone also retain a good amount of detail. (Image Source: The Indian Express/ Shruti Dhapola)
What does concern about the Poco F4 5G is the 4500 mAh battery size. This might end up being a compromise for some heavy duty users, though Poco is bundling a 67W fast charger here.
To conclude, the Poco F4 5G looks promising thanks to the design and camera. Performance should live up to claims, given the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 is a tried and test chipset. Wait for our full review to know how the phone performs once we put it through more intensive tasks.