POCO M4 PRO 5G

A sequel to the M3 Pro 5G that stuffs in even more fancy features, the latest Poco aims to stand out from its budget rivals… and not just for its bold looks

£249 / stuff.tv/M4Pro

Poco might sound more like a drippy Hollywood lifestyle brand than a smartphone company, but what began as a cost-cutting offshoot of Xiaomi is now a big deal among bargain-hunters. Its latest effort, the M4 Pro 5G, follows a familiar recipe: good looks, sensible hardware and plenty of features, at a price that won’t make you wince.

By taking an existing model from the Chinese market (in this case the Redmi Note 11) and rebranding it for us Brits, Poco is able to undercut not just big-name rivals like Samsung, but also budget darlings OnePlus, Motorola and Nokia.

It looks smart in black, but Poco also has this ostentatious yellow option plus a blue that’s only slightly less shouty. All get IP53 splash-resistance, which isn’t too shabby for a sub-£250 phone, along with welcome additions like expandable storage, NFC and even an IR blaster –a real rarity at any price nowadays.

Black in back There’s no missing the rear camera panel with its gigantic Poco logo. But the glassy finish pulls off the look of a far pricier handset.

[ Words Tom Morgan-Freelander ]

Boom-plastic

This phone’s plastic exterior is a real fingerprint magnet, so you’ll want to keep it clean to maintain the flagship illusion (1). And don’t look too closely at the camera bump: there might be five ‘lenses’, but only two of them actually have sensors behind them. There’s a fingerprint sensor on the side.

Driving home the crispness

The 1080p-and-a-bit resolution of the 6.6in display (2) is a major improvement over the rival Moto G50, which makes do with 720p, and it supports the DCI-P3 colour space – something the old M3 Pro lacked. It also has a dynamic refresh rate, switching between 50Hz, 60Hz and 90Hz.

You octa know

Snapdragon snobs might insist you need a Qualcomm CPU to have a good Android experience, but don’t listen: MediaTek’s Dimensity 810 is an eight-core slab of silicon that gets the job done perfectly well (4). It’s fully 5G-ready, which isn’t the big news it might have been a year ago.

Return of the jack

It hasn’t seen much use lately, but the M4 Pro has given us reason to sound the “It’s got a headphone port!” horn (3) once again: there’s no dongle needed here. But you can probably go without headphones for quick YouTube catch-ups anyway, as there’s stereo sound onboard.

Smooth liminal

With 6GB of RAM, this handset proves perfectly adept at simple multitasking – performance is largely on a par with close rivals. Apps open quickly enough, and the home screen feels fluid. There is bloatware, though, and you’ll want to tweak the MIUI interface to make it less in-yer-face.

Tech specs

Screen 6.6in 2400x1080 90Hz LCD Processor Dimensity 810 RAM 6GB Storage 128GB (plus microSD) OS Android 11 with MIUI 12.5 Cameras 50+8MP rear, 16MP front Battery 5000mAh (USB-C) Dimensions 164x76x8.8mm, 215g

The best is yet two-cam

There’s plenty to like about the M4 Pro 5G’s dual camera setup, but keep an eye on those light levels

■ Here cams the sun The M4 Pro 5G gets a big thumbs-up for ditching the pointless depth and macro lenses of the M3 Pro in favour of a far more useful 8MP ultrawide. It’s paired with a 50MP main sensor, and both can produce decent photos.

■ Here cams the flood Even with that high pixel count, detail really isn’t a strong point, with complex patterns often starting to look smeared as you zoom in. The ultrawide sensor captures even less detail, but the 119° field of view lets you squeeze in a lot.

■ Here cams your man There’s a 2x zoom in the camera app – and though it’s digital, the processing is handled extremely well. Shrunk down for social media, the results are perfectly usable as long as you’re shooting in strong light.

■ Here cams the night Let the sun go down and the phone’s limitations are clear. Even with the main camera’s dedicated night mode, there’s a lot more noise and a lot less detail. But the software-only portrait mode works pretty well.

If you’ve got a tight budget but still demand a lengthy feature list, the Poco M4 Pro 5G won’t disappoint. A capable CPU, rapid battery charging and a sensible camera selection make it a step up from the M3 Pro (albeit a fairly minor one), and it hasn’t sacrificed useful additions like expandable storage in order to keep the cost in check. @TomMorgan3

STUFF SAYS ★★★★✩

Not a true bargain like previous Poco phones, but this is a thrifty option that doesn’t take too many shortcuts