It comes in two capacities, a 64GB model with 4GB of RAM and a 128GB model with 6GB of RAM. That’s not too shabby for a low-cost phone, and those needing more storage have the option of using a microSD card. Triple Camera Setup: 64MP Main Camera (f/1.8 Aperture, Pixel Size: 0.7um, (4-in-1: 16MP, 1.4um)) + 8MP Ultra Wide Camera (f/2.2 Aperture, Pixel Size: 1.0um, FOV: 118 Degree) + 2MP Macro Camera, Phase Detection Auto Focus, Camera Feature: HDR, AI Portrait Mode, Pro Mode, AI Scene Detection, Night Mode, Short Video, Slow Motion, Time Lapse, Panorama, AI Watermark, Pro Color, Timed Burst, Ultra Wide Mode, Macro Mode Xiaomi has kept things nice and simple on the camera front, whittling things down to a dual-sensor system. You get a 50MP wide sensor and an 8MP ultra-wide, with none of the depth or macro sensor nonsense that often serve as padding in most cheaper phones. That’s not to say that the image quality is anything to write home about, but we’ll get to that in due course. The Poco M4 Pro 5G comes running Android 11, thankfully avoiding running too dated an OS. It comes with MIUI, which doesn’t feel like an overbearing interface or one that tries to reinvent Android. For most of the days during our testing, the battery level was still above 50% in the evening after a full charge in the morning.

Driven by a MediaTek Dimensity 810 5G processor and either 4GB or 6GB of RAM, it’s a solid lower-mid-range runner that should handle all of the day-to-day stuff without issue. Elsewhere, a 6.6in LCD display with a 90Hz refresh rate offers a decent, if somewhat underwhelming, viewing experience. The same is true of the phone’s storage capacities, which offer either 64GB or 128GB of internal space, though a microSD slot enables you to expand should you need to. It seemed particularly strong when shooting food and drink shots in well-lit restaurants, cafes and bars. It was less assured when shooting landscape shots on murky winter afternoons, where subjects failed to pop and everything looked a little flat. The benefit of that smooth operation is more readily realized thanks to the 90Hz display. One thing not helping out as much as the more dated UFS 2.2 storage. While I didn’t find myself waiting forever to launch apps or large games in particular, I’ve definitely experienced faster.

Gaming - Up to 90 FPS, but with limitations

If you're shopping for the best budget phone, then the Xiaomi Poco M4 Pro 5G has to be in the conversation at some point. However, with middling performance and only satisfactory camera quality, it's really the low price of the phone, the display, and the battery life that sells it the most. The ultra-wide camera is far less impressive. It does provide a lot more coverage of a scene, but the amount of noise and blurry details it captures make for a far worse image in every instance. That said, this is typical of secondary cameras on phones at this price. Fortunately, selfies will come out looking good, as the front-facing camera snaps with clarity more akin to the primary sensor on the rear

Both sensors seemed prone to overexposing brighter areas of an image. I also experienced several focus fails, both with the wide sensor and the 8MP ultra-wide. However, you don't have to spend all that much more cash to get improvements like an OLED screen and a superior camera setup. Xiaomi Poco M4 Pro 5G price and availability One down side is that the phone came with a fair amount of pre-installed software, including a handful of games, social media apps, and online marketplaces. Opening two pre-made app folders also brought up an officious list of “Promoted apps,” seeing advertising effectively work its way right onto the home screen. By offering well-balanced performance for everyday utility, the Poco M4 Pro 5G succeeds. Opening, running, and switching between apps proves smooth as I’d want from any phone. It’s not that everything opens in the blink of an eye, but I don’t find myself waiting overly long nor is there frequent lagging out as I switch between tasks. In benchmarks, the chipset lagged a little behind the Snapdragon 765G, but it steps out well ahead of Snapdragon 662 powering the Moto G Power (2021). Don’t count on this phone for quality video though. In my testing, it frequently stuttered while recording, and the resulting videos often displayed this stutter as well. This was less of an issue while recording in 720p at 30fps, but that’s a disappointing concession to make for a camera that “can” record in 1080p at 60fps.The Poco M4 Pro 5G has a sizable camera bump in keeping with the more recent trend, but it’s largely wasted space. The main 50MP has a large space that is actually raised further above the larger camera bump. The ultra-wide sensor is situated below that in what might look like a four-sensor array at first glance, but it’s actually just flanked by the flash, and then two filler spaces, one with a red dot (symbolizing a recording light, perhaps?) and a space that just says “AI.” On the plus side, some cheaper brands have filled spaces like that with fake sensors, and Poco hasn’t. Not that the resulting images are particularly impressive. On the plus side, Xiaomi’s AI assistant is capable of imbuing scenes with warm, vibrant colours, and detail is adequate in strong lighting, courtesy of a 50MP main sensor. It’s powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 810 5G chip, which is a fairly modest upgrade on the Dimensity 700 5G chip of the Poco M3 Pro 5G. Indeed, an average Geekbench 5 multicore score of 1,798 is pretty much the same as its predecessor, and is also identical to the score we got for the Poco X3 NFC with its Snapdragon 732G. With the Poco M4 Pro 5G we have a perfectly serviceable 6.6-inch IPS LCD screen, running at a resolution of 1080 x 2400 (making for a 20:9 aspect ratio). The 90Hz refresh rate is now the new baseline for smartphones, even ones down at the budget end of the market, and the scrolling and motion is pleasingly fluid. READ NEXT: Save money and the planet by buying a top refurbished smartphone Xiaomi Poco M4 Pro 5G review: Price and competition

Refreshingly for a modern affordable phone, Xiaomi has dropped the pointless sensor spam. There are just two camera sensors here, covering the main wide and ultra-wide angles. That means no pointless depth or macro sensors, which are invariably implemented to pad out a phone’s spec sheet. In bright conditions, the primary camera can get a good photo, but as it gets darker, the noise in photos ramps up dramatically. Colors feel a little bland and undersaturated but not to the point of feeling unrealistic.The 5,000mAh battery in the Xiaomi Poco M4 Pro 5G reaches the standard one day of use with ease, and if you're not constantly streaming videos, playing games and using GPS navigation then a couple of days of use is possible. You get an ultra-wide lens, which can come in handy for spectacular landscape shots, but there's no optical zoom here, and the digital zoom is predictably rough around the edges. On the front, there's a fairly standard 16MP snapper, which gets okay pictures but not much more than that. Using a colorimeter, I recorded an sRGB colour gamut coverage of 99.3% sRGB, and the screen is nice and accurate, especially for a budget LCD panel. I also measured a maximum brightness (with auto-brightness switched off) of 447 cd/m², which again is perfectly decent at this price. Xiaomi Poco M4 Pro 5G review: Performance and battery life However, start to scrutinize photos taken by the phone more closely, and finer details become fuzzy, with colors occasionally washed out. At lower light levels, there's a substantial amount of noise, although the built-in night mode can make a difference. You can still get some usable snaps, but smartphone cameras a little higher up the price spectrum can do a significantly better job in the dark. Camera Setup: (f/2.45 Aperture, Pixel Size: 1.0um), Camera Feature: HDR, AI Portrait Mode, Screen Flash, Selfie Timer, Portrait Selfies, Palm shutter

I could do without the large Poco logo to the right of the camera module, but other than that the phone is an exercise in elegance. The rear of the phone is all plastic, but its shimmering satin finish feels as good as it looks.