POCO F4 GT Hands-On: Real shoulder buttons, great speaker and thermals make

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POCO F4 GT Hands-On: Real shoulder buttons, great speaker and thermals make for excellent gaming phone



I used to think gaming phones were gimmicks. I’m not talking about the initial batch of pre-iPhone era devices like the Nokia N-Gage or Gizmondo, nor early 2010s-era devices from Sony and Samsung with slide-out controllers. Those devices actually brought something new and different to the mobile market. I am instead referring to the recent gaming phone resurgence that began four, five years ago led by the likes of Razer, ASUS, Honor, and Nubia, to name a few.

My main gripe was that, other than adding an LED light strip on the back of the phone and supposedly superior copper cooling in the internals, those first batch of gaming phones mostly operated just like any other Android phone on the market. I still remember testing the Honor Play in 2018 and having to ask the company exactly how the phone differed from the six other Huawei/Honor devices I had tested that year.

But gaming phones began justifying their existence in the past couple of years with actual meaningful additions like a physical fan, controller accessories, or my favorite, shoulder buttons, which instantly made a phone more suitable for gaming. Most of these shoulder buttons have been in the capacitive sensor variety, but Xiaomi has offered actual pop-up buttons that provide real tactile, clicky feedback in a few devices now. The latest one is the POCO F4 GT.

The POCO F4 GT is not exactly an all-new device. If you follow the Chinese smartphone scene closely, or if you’re just familiar with Xiaomi’s tendency to rebrand an existing mid-tier phone for another market, you will know that the POCO F4 GT is the exact same device as the Redmi K50G (the G stands for gaming) that launched in China two months ago. I don’t think most people would mind the rebrand, because you’re getting a lot of flagship components at a very reasonable price.

• POCO F4 GT
  
  

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• The POCO F4 GT's pop-up shoulder buttons and excellent speakers truly add to the mobile gaming experience. Even if you don't game, the F4 GT is still a solid all around phone.

• View at AliExpress

POCO F4 GT: Pricing and Availability

The POCO F4 GT comes in two configurations: 8GB RAM+128GB ROM and 12GB RAM + 256GB ROM, priced respectively at ?599 ($639) and ?699 ($746) in Europe, and roughly equivalent in Asian regions like Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. But if you order the phone between April 27 to May 7, POCO is offering an early bird discount that shaves ?100 off each price, meaning the base 8GB+128GB variant can be had for ?499 ($532).

The POCO F4 GT will be on sale at POCO’s online store, as well as online retailers such as Amazon, Lazada, AliExpress, Shopee, among others.

POCO F4 GT: Specifications

Specification POCO F4 GT Build

• Corning Gorilla Glass Victus on display
• Metal frame
• Glass back

Dimensions & Weight

• 162.5 x 76.7 x 8.5mm
• 210g

Display

• 6.67-inch FHD+ AMOLED
• 2400 x 1080 resolution
• 120Hz refresh rate
• 480Hz touch sampling rate
• 800nits typical brightness
• DCI-P3 wide color gamut support
• HDR10+
• 1920Hz high frequency PWM dimming

SoC

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
• Adreno 730

RAM & Storage

• 8GB LPDDR5 RAM + 128GB UFS 3.1 storage
• 12GB + 256GB

Battery & Charging

• 4,700mAh
• 120W wired fast charging support

Security

• Side-mounted fingerprint scanner
• AI Face Unlock

Rear Camera(s)

• Primary: 64MP Sony IMX686, f/1.9
• Ultra-wide: 8MP, f/2.2, 120? FOV
• Macro: 2MP, f/2.4

Front Camera(s) 20MP, f/2.4 Port(s) USB Type-C Audio

• Symmetrical quad speakers
• Dolby Atmos certification
• Hi-Res Audio certification
• Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification

Connectivity

• 5G (SA+NSA)
  • Supported bands: n1/3/5/7/8/20/28/38/40/41/77/78
• 4G LTE
• Wi-Fi 6E (2.4GHz/5GHz/6GHz)
• Bluetooth 5.2
• NFC

Software MIUI 13 for POCO based on Android 12 Other Features

• CyberEngine super wideband X-axis linear motor
• LiquidCool Technology 3.0
• Colors:
  • Stealth Black
  • Knight Silver
  • Cyber Yellow
• Magnetic pop-up triggers

About this hands-On: Xiaomi Global provided me with a review unit of the POCO F4 GT for testing. Xiaomi did not have any input in this article.

POCO F4 GT: Hardware and Design

If you’ve seen the Redmi K50G, then the POCO F4 GT won’t bring any surprises. The design is identical, with the only visual difference being the branding that has changed from Redmi to POCO in the lower-left corner of the device. My unit is the “Knight Silver” color and I quite like how it looks and feels (I prefer it over the yellow and black colorways). The glass back is a bit reflective and not entirely matte, however, and it can attract subtle fingerprints.


There’s a bit of texture in the two inward-pointing arrows (“>

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