Introduction

This is the Redmi Turbo 4. This one went on to launch globally as the Poco X7 Pro with a few cosmetic changes of course. And this is its pro version, the Redmi Turbo 4 Pro. And this one’s expected to launch globally as the Poco F7.
So, what’s different this time? What’s so pro about this one? Let’s find out in today’s article.

Unboxing and Box Contents

So, this is the box for the Redmi Turbo 4 Pro. It is similar to the OPPO style box we got with the Redmi Turbo 4.
Note that I picked up the 16 256 though 1256 happens to be the base.
Now, inside we’ve got a SIM tool, a quick start guide, a black soft case, the Redmi Turbo 4 itself, obviously,
then there’s a USB type A to type-C cable with orange accents, followed by a 90W Xiaomi charger.

Design and Build Quality

So, the box contents, they’ve not really changed this time. And even looks wise, not a lots really changed. In fact, at first glance, I thought they were built identically. But upon a closer look, I did notice a few differences. Like, for example, the frame. It’s now metal and the Pro model, it’s also slightly larger and heavier.

Now, Redmi are still using frosted glass for the back, and it is very resistant to fingerprints, especially on this white version that I picked up.

Now, Redmi also offers this phone in green and black. Apart from that, there’s even a special Harry Potter edition, and that looked really interesting.

Camera Design and IP Rating

Now, regardless of which colour you choose, the camera array remains mostly unchanged. The metal surrounding it is slightly wider, but that’s it. It still has those cool LED circles around the cameras.
But remember, these LEDs were the one thing that were cut from the Redmi Turbo 4 when it launched globally. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Poco F7 did not actually have these LED rings. Anyways, we still get an IP68 rating.

Ergonomics and Display

The front and back are both flat, but the rounded off edges, they kind of make it a little easy on the hands. That said, ergonomically, I still wouldn’t call this great given how wide the screen is.

Now, the reason for that is because the screen is larger this time. This is a crispy 6.83 in AMOLED panel. It’s got a 1.5K resolution, 120 Hz refresh, so it’s pretty fluid. Redmi advertises a brightness peak of 3200 nits. Well, that’s for HDR.

It outputs 1,800 nits under auto mode, making this display very easy to see when you’re outdoors in the day. Now, under low light, if you’re one of those people who are sensitive to OLED flicker, there’s 3840 Hz highrequency PWM dimming.

Battery and Charging

Now the weight increased that’s because of well three reasons.
Number one being again that larger screen. Number two is that metal frame and finally number three the increased battery capacity.

This phone sports one of the largest capacity batteries I’ve seen on a phone 7550 mAh.
And that’s pretty awesome. I really love how battery capacities on phones these days are getting larger and larger thanks to silicon carbon.

I mean it would be super cool if 7,000 8000 mAh started to become the norm.
Anyways, the charging speeds, they aren’t affected, the charging times rather, because with this included 90 watt charger, you can get a full charge in just 50 minutes.
And that’s pretty awesome.

And here’s another interesting thing. This phone, it can reverse charge at 22 1/2 W. Let that sink in. What that means is you could technically use this as a power bank and charge an iPhone at the full speed that it actually supports.
Neat, right?

Processor and Performance

The biggest upgrade here, what I feel really justifies that pro moniker, it’s got to be the SoC on the inside, cuz this is the first phone to sport the new Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chip.
And that brings us to the question of what actually is the 8S Gen 4? Where does that chip slot in Qualcomm’s hierarchy?

Now, the simple answer is it slots in exactly where the 8S Gen 3 did last year.
It’s close to the previous year’s flagship chip with respect to CPU, slightly behind it with respect to GPU.

vivo X200 Pro – Full phone specifications

Chipset Architecture Details

Now, the more complex answer, well, the 8 G3 and the 8S gen 3, they were both 4 nanometre SOC’s that shared a very similar core split up.A prime X4 core paired with a bunch of A720s and A520s.

While the number of A720s and A520s or their clock speeds might have been different, the actual cores were pretty much the same. This meant the ADS Gen 3 was able to match the previous flagship SOC the 8 Gen 2 for CPU performance.

Though it did lag behind with GPU. There is a reason why this chip is called the 8S Gen 4 and not the 8S Elite. That’s because unlike last year, this chip, it does not share a lot in common with the current flagship SOC.

It doesn’t have the same custom cores as the 8 Elite. It’s not built on the 3nome process. This is still a 4nm chip, but the CPU performance is still very close to that of the 8 Gen 3. And that’s because Qualcomm have swapped out these A520 cores on the A gen 3 with more A720 cores.

And so despite the lower clocks, it’s still able to deliver CPU performance that’s on par with the A Gen 3. And with GPU, the new Adreno 825 this time, as you can see with the 3D Mark numbers, it gets much closer to last year’s flagship GPU.
So, seems like the ADUs Gen 4 is a solid step up from the ADS Gen 3.

Thermal Management and Heating Issues

But Redmi’s once again kind of messed up the cooling cuz on a 20 minutes stress test after about 15 minutes, the phone overheated. It killed the app and threw up this message. And the temps at this point, they were very high, 48°. And this situation is worsened by the fact that the frame is metal.

So, it passes on the heat onto your palm very easily. And the areas that got really hot are exactly the areas where you’d rest your fingers on if you’re gaming. That said, games are going to run well on this phone.
It has the sheer horsepower for that. And also, outside of stress tests, I’ve not had a game force quit on me midway through a session either. But this phone, it does run hot.
And the metal frame makes it quite uncomfortable to hold for long periods. So, if you’re considering this phone for its performance as something to game on, then something like this is going to be mandatory.

Now, what makes this whole situation all the more disappointing for me is the fact that on the vanilla Turbo 4 with a MediaTek chip, everything was cool. Redmi managed it very well. It barely broke the 40° mark and it also maintained an 80% stability.
The fact that they’ve dropped the ball with a new Qualcomm chip of all things, it’s just frustrating.

Camera Performance

Moving on, the cameras remain unchanged from the Turbo 4. And optics, they were not a strength on that phone, and they aren’t a strength on this one either. The primary light 600, it’s pretty good as long as there’s enough light. There is a good amount of detail.
The dynamic range is reasonable.

Colours tend to be off once in a while, but for the most part, it’s okay. Under low light, I’d still call it usable. I’m not going to call it bad or anything, but let me just leave it at this.
There are definitely other phones in this segment that are going to give you better results.

The secondary is a 8 megap ultra wide with a fixed focus. Nothing to write home about.
It’s not good with detail. It isn’t even color matched to the primary.

Now, this phone can shoot 4K 60 via the primary. And the EIS jitter issue that we saw on the Turbo 4, it’s slightly reduced, but still noticeable. I’m not a fan of this footage.

Now, the selfie camera here, it lets you shoot 1080. And surprisingly, this footage was free of EIS jitter. But still, the performance was okay for the most part. I’d call it slightly above average.

So, overall, while I find the optics here serviceable, I wouldn’t recommend this to anybody who gives a high priority to cameras.

Pricing and Final Verdict

Now, with respect to pricing in China, the Redmi Turbo 4 Pro starts at 2199 renminbi.
So, that’s a 10% hike over the Redmi Turbo 4’s launch price. And this should give you a rough idea of what this phone will be priced at when it goes global.

If the Poco X7 Pro is selling in your market, take its launch price, add 10% to it, and that should be the logical price at which the PO S7 should launch in your market. And at this price, on paper, the Turbo 4 Pro seems like great value.

It’s got a metal frame, an improved SoC, a larger display, and a much higher capacity battery. But that heating issue, that is what stops me from really liking this phone. And given the camera system hasn’t been changed since the Turbo 4, which came out 4 months ago, and yet the EIS jitter issues still remain, heating issues with an update.
So, as things stand, I like the on paper specs. I like what Redmi’s tried to do, but that one glaring issue kind of stops me from or rather makes me feel disappointed about this launch.

But that’s just me. What do you think about the Redmi Turbo 4 Pro or the Poco F7 once it launches as that?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.