In March 2022, POCO Indonesia officially launched a mid-range smartphone that broke the market price, namely the POCO M4 Pro. This smartphone carries many new specifications that have not been embedded in the M series before, including a thinner and lighter size, higher main camera resolution, and a new design that is different from the previous generation M series.

The arrival  of the POCO M4 Pro also coincides with the growth of the mobile game industry, especially esports which is getting more and more vibrant, of course, encouraging gamers to try their luck. Seeing this potential, of course, POCO Indonesia will not remain silent. So they try to answer gamers' needs for phones that can meet the needs of playing the latest mobile games.

Incidentally, the author has had the opportunity from realme Indonesia to try out POCO M4 Pro directly with the 8 GB RAM and 256 GB ROM variants. After using it for two weeks, here are the author's reviews that you might consider before buying this gaming cellphone for Rp. 3 million.

Unboxing

The POCO M4 Pro unboxing experience is not much different from the previous M series. Where the color of the box for this gaming cellphone is back in yellow with a large "POCO M4 Pro" written on it. In addition, the way to open the box is also lifted back up.

Inside the box there are several items, including the HP POCO M4 Pro unit, manual and warranty book, 33 Watt adapter, and a USB Type-C data cable. The fun thing is, the screen of this gaming cellphone has also been installed with anti-scratch so there is no need to buy additional anti-scratch. What's more, POCO also provides a free case in it.

Fresher Design

In terms of appearance, we feel that this new HP Poco carries a distinctive design from its predecessor. Especially, in terms of the rear camera frame. At first glance, the Poco M4 Pro's rear camera frame design is similar to the Poco M3 which was launched last year. This can be seen from the large rear camera frame and the Poco icon.

Incidentally, the author got the Power Black color variant. In this variant, the rear body comes with a texture that makes it not slippery and not easy to leave fingerprints. In addition, the camera frame on this smartphone "controls" 1/4 of the back area of ​​the smartphone. This large and rectangular camera design makes the Poco M4 Pro appear more unique and eye-catching than other smartphones in its class.

Moreover, the frame in this smartphone is given a glossy coating which feels more luxurious without using a case. Even so, the overall material used in the POCO M4 Pro is polycarbonate or plastic on the back panel and frame.

At the bottom, there is  a speaker and a USB Type-C port. While at the top there is a 3.5mm headphone jack, a speaker, and an IR blaster. With the IR blaster, users can control various electronic devices with this smartphone via the Mi Remote application. addition. Unfortunately, this smartphone does not support an on-screen fingerprint scanner, so Poco has included it in the power button on the side of the body along with the volume buttons. The SIM card slot is on the left side of the body.

Even so, the placement of the volume and power buttons on the left side and the power button as well as the fingerprint sensor on the right make the range just right to be pressed using the thumb. Still on the left, you will also find a sim card slot that supports two nano sim card slots and a maximum MicroSD storage media up to 1TB.

Interestingly, the POCO M4 Pro has also pocketed an IP53 rating certification which is claimed to still be able to be invited to play in the rain and get dust. As for the dimensions, this smartphone is quite compact and lightweight, because it has dimensions of 163.6 x 75.8 x 8.8 mm and weighs only 180 grams. As a result, the POCO M4 Pro feels very proportional in the hand.

Stunnign Screen with High Refresh Rate

Smartphones with a price tag of IDR 3 million now seem to have a high refresh rate. The POCO M4 Pro comes with a 6.43-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 2400 x 1080, a pixel density of 409 ppi, and supports a 90Hz refresh rate and 180Hz touch sampling rate. As a result, it can reduce lag in animation, scrolling, and provide a better experience in playing games, there is also an option to adjust the refresh rate to save battery.

By using a Super AMOLED screen, this smartphone feels a pleasure to the user's eyes, both when used indoors or outdoors. Outdoors with scorching sun conditions, content is displayed quite clearly because it has a peak brightness of 1,000 nits. The color is also claimed to be so real because it is claimed to have been certified by the DCI-P3 color gamut.

Despite using the Super AMOLED panel, the POCO M4 Pro screen does not yet have HDR10. Even so, this panel already has the Widevine L1 DRM certification. That certification allows it to display Full HD high-resolution content on the Netflix app.

Interface and Features

POCO M4 Pro has also used the MIUI version 13.0.2 and continues to use the Android 11 interface. Makes the interface look fresh and has more graphic animation effects and easy navigation.

As mentioned above, the POCO M4 Pro also features a fingerprint sensor on the right side. Even so, the performance provided is still noticeably faster than the on-display finger-print sensor. Plus also features a face scanner that makes the device more secure.

Dual speakers and NFC which are usually found in high-end smartphones are also present on the POCO M4 Pro. This certainly provides added value for the features it has. If you like playing mobile games, POCO M4 Pro also has a Game Turbo feature which is claimed to increase CPU and GPU performance when playing games, including a number of features for gameplay documentation and sharing on social media.

In this Game Turbo feature, you can also take advantage of the screen recording feature, block all notifications, and change your voice.

Reliable Camera

The POCO M4 Pro actually comes with a triple rear camera configuration -- if it looks like there are five, one is the AI ​​logo and an LED flash that looks like a camera. The main camera uses a 64MP OmniVision OV64b40 sensor with an f/1.8 lens opening which is quite sensitive to light. There is also an 8MP ultrawide camera with a Sony IMX355 sensor with a range of 118 degrees, as well as a 2MP macro camera as a complement. Up front, there is a 16MP selfie camera which is known to use the Sony IMX471 sensor.

For image capture quality, the POCO M4 Pro's main camera has excellent capabilities for taking pictures during the day and at night. This camera can capture pretty good detail and sharp colors. Moreover, there is an HDR feature in auto mode and an AI-based photo scenario adjustment feature that turns on, making the captured images feel dynamic and with good color accuracy. When taking night photos, the color reproduction is also quite firm, although there is still noise and fine lines of watercolor.

As for the ultrawide and macro modes, we call this camera a complement. The results tend to be mediocre, blurry colors and a lot of noise in low-light conditions, as well as not very good details.

The author has also tested the quality of camera captures from the POCO M4 Pro through several schemes, here are the results:

Selfie, Day Time with Bokeh and Without Bokeh 

Normal 1X Lens

Ultrawide 0.6X Lens

Zoom Digital 2X

Low Light Selfie With Flash and Without Flash

Low Light Indoor Main Lens 

Overall, the results of the POCO M4 Pro camera are actually still very reliable in taking everyday photos. Even for taking outdoor photos the results are quite sharp and have a color character that tends to be warm.

For video recording, the rear camera of the POCO M4 Pro can record up to 1080p resolution and runs at 30 FPS. As for the 720p resolution can also run up to 30 FPS. The front camera also only has two resolution options, namely 720p with 30 FPS and 1080p with 30 FPS and also has beautify and filter features.

Great Performance for Playing Mobile Games

The POCO M4 Pro variant that the author tested has the Helio G96 Gaming processor specification. This processor is indeed a relatively new processor, but with the letter "G" on the front, this processor is certainly superior for gaming needs. Moreover, this processor is also combined with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB ROM, which feels big enough for the needs of playing mobile games that are popular today. This is the highest variant released by POCO Indonesia.

But with the specifications and prices offered by the POCO X3 Pro, what about the performance it has? Now for the performance, the author himself has also tested it in a number of popular benchmark applications today. Here are the results:

POCO M4 Pro recorded a score of around 300 thousand for AnTuTu. For Geekbench get a score of 526 on single-core and 1838 on multi-core. For the GFX Benchmark, the POCO M4 Pro gets a fairly high frame in the Low-Level Test. Even so, the ability of the POCO M4 Pro can actually be relied on to play heavyweight mobile games, such as Genshin Impact, Modern Warship, Minecraft to Mobile Legends.

Testing POCO M4 Pro for Playing Mobile Games

After testing it in several uses, the performance of the Helio G96 Gaming processor in the POCO M4 Pro is already very capable of running various Android games, such as Mobile Legends, Minecraft, PPSSPP emulator, Modern Warship and even Genshin Impact.

In Mobile Legends, the author gets High graphics settings and also High refresh rates. As a result, with these graphic settings the author did not find any problems. Even when there is a war, the author does not feel a decrease in frame-rates.

For Modern Warship, the author gets High graphics settings with High framerates. For Smooth graphics settings, the Ultra frame-rate is unlocked. With these settings, again the author did not feel any disturbance during the game on the POCO M4 Pro.

As for Minecraft, the POCO M4 Pro is able to run a rendering distance of up to 8 chunks. Even with the rendering resolution, this game made by Mojang is still comfortable to play. Especially when using an additional controller.

Next is Genshin Impact, where the POCO M4 Pro can run the Hoyoverse game with the "Lowest" graphic setting so that it can be played stable. If you increase it to the "Low" setting with a 60 fps cap, it can still be played, but you will still feel a drop in frame-rates and a bit of lag when fighting. This is helped by the large capacity of RAM and ROM, making the performance on this smartphone run quite well.

Even when the author runs the PPSSPP emulator on POCO M4 Pro, some popular emulator games, such as Granturismo and Naruto Shipudden run very smoothly with 5X PSP graphics settings.

Here the screenshots of graphics setting for the test on POCO M4 Pro:

Minecraft

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

PUBG Mobile

Emulator PPSSPP

Modern Warship

Genshin Impact

Game Test Video on POCO M4 Pro

Big Battery and Fast Charging

The POXO M4 Pro has a capacity of 5000 mAh which is also supported by 33 Watt fast charging. POCO Indonesia itself had claimed that their smartphone can be fully charged in less than an hour. The author has tested the battery charging speed time using the Battery Log application, the duration it takes for one and a half hours is more than 5% to 100% power. You can see the results in the screenshots above.

As for usage, the POCO M4 Pro battery can last for a full day for normal usage schemes, such as playing games occasionally and opening social media applications and replying to messages. Even the POCO M4 Pro also has a Battery Saver feature which makes it even more power efficient.

Verdict

When it was released in March 2022, the POCO M4 Pro with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage was priced at IDR 3 million. Even so, there are lower RAM and ROM variants that are priced at a lower price and are included in the IDR 2 million smartphone category.

Broadly speaking, the POCO M4 Pro has four superior features that are displayed on the back box, including; Helio G96 Gaming processor, 90 Hz Ultra Smooth display, 33 Watt Dart Charge and a large 5000 mAh battery.

With the specifications and prices offered, the POCO M4 Pro feels value for money. How not, this gaming smartphone is already very capable of running a number of popular mobile games, photos for social media needs, and long battery life and fairly fast charging. Making this high-spec POCO smartphone an affordable gaming smartphone.

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Also Read >> [REVIEW] POCO X3 Pro, A Reliable Budget Gaming Phone