POCO F4 GT is here, promising key upgrades for mobile gamers

It goes without saying that gaming phones are a very tight niche. That being said, in the last few years, they have solidified their place in the market and stand as one of the most innovative and imaginative examples of the modern-day smartphone.

POCO, a company formerly owned by Xiaomi, is no stranger when it comes to gaming phones and it just announced the latest it has to offer—the POCO F4 GT. The F4 GT is the successor of the POCO F3 GT, which last year showed that you can have a high-end gaming experience without the need to empty your pockets.

With the POCO F4 GT, the company seems to have focused on improving the phone’s best aspects, making them even better. In this case, that includes the charging speeds, CPU and GPU performance, RAM, and storage. But enough beating around the bush, let us get into the nitty-gritty and get our nerdy hands dirty with some specs.

During its announcement, POCO also debuted its first ever true wireless earbuds and smartwatch devices: the POCO Buds Pro Genshin Impact Edition and the POCO Watch.

POCO F4 GT specs: what’s new?

Performance and storage At the front and center of the POCO F4 GT’s upgrades lies Qualcomm’s high-end flagship chipset built on the 4nm process—the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Thanks to this new addition, the F4 GT has an increase of 20% CPU and up to a whopping 50% GPU performance, and joins other flagships like Samsung’s Galaxy S22 series and the OnePlus 10 Pro.

To spice it all up, there is now LPDDR5 RAM (the F3 GT had LPDDR4) and UFS 3.1 storage. Now, understandably, to some of you, these numbers are simply some mumbo jumbo. In simple terms, the POCO F4 GT should have shorter load times compared to its predecessor. Speaking of the RAM and storage, the F4 GT will come in 8/128GB and 12/256GB combos.

None of these upgrades in power and speed would matter, though, if the phone did not have a proper cooling solution to keep the parts inside at an optimal temperature. This is where the influence from POCO’s former parent company, Xiaomi, comes in.

The POCO F4 GT comes with Xioami’s patented LiquidCool Technology 3.0, although, from what we have seen with the Xiaomi 12 Pro, this cooling system does not guarantee a cool phone and a throttle-free experience. The POCO F3 didn’t have any overheating issues with the Dimensity 1200, so we will see how the F4 handles the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in that regard.

Battery and charging

Another major upgrade in the POCO F4 GT is its jump in battery charging speeds thanks to its 120W HyperCharge, which is another feature from Xiaomi that has trickled down to POCO phones. Hopefully, POCO will include a 120W charger in the box so buyers will be able to immediately make use of the fast-charging capabilities.

POCO claims that if the F4 GT is not being used for gaming, it can be fully juiced up and reach a 100% charge for just 17 minutes. Gaming will increase the charging time up to 27 minutes.

Now, charging speeds of this degree can sound alarming when it comes to the phone’s battery health. However, the phone has adaptive charging, which prevents the battery from overcharging in the critical 80% to 100% charge range throughout the night.

Pricing and availability

The POCO F4 GT will be available in three colors:

• Stealth Black

• Cyber Yellow

• Knight Silver

POCO F4 GT prices and RAM/storage options:

• 8GB + 128GB: $639

• 12GB + 256GB: $745

If you are super eager to get your hands on the F4 GT, it will be first available at an early bird pricing of $639 and $745 starting April 28. We would advise, however, to wait for official reviews to come out before hitting that purchase button.