For prompt adherence it still fails on tasks that Gemma2 27b nails every time. I haven't been impressed with any of the Phi family of models. The large context is very nice, though Gemma2 plays very well with self-extend.
I think the point is more the demonstration that such a small model can have such good performance than any actual usefulness.
I've just assumed it's down to how it was trained, but no expert.
> While phi-4 demonstrates relatively strong performance in answering questions and performing reasoning tasks, it is less proficient at rigorously following detailed instructions, particularly those involving specific formatting requirements.