In Spyder, plot using Matplotlib with interactive zoom, etc

Select from the menu Tools > Preferences, then IPython console in the list of categories on the left, then the tab Graphics at the top, and change the Graphics backend from Inline to e.g. Qt.
For me though, the figures then always pop up in the background.
(I use Spyder 3.0.0dev bundled with WinPython 3.4.)

Even though it's an old question, my solution to the same issue without using the GUI.

Plot only in console:

%matplotlib inline 
plt.plot([1, 2, 3, 4])
plt.ylabel('some numbers')

Going back to plot outside console:

%matplotlib qt5
plt.plot([1, 2, 3, 4])
plt.ylabel('some numbers')

There was no need to restart my spyder or kernal. Session info:

spyder 3.3.2
python 3.6.8
windows 10.