Xiaomi Poco F5 5G Dual 256GB 8GB RAM Factory Unlocked (GSM Only | No CDMA - not Compatible with Verizon/Sprint) Global - Blue

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There’s a certain symmetry to the top and bottom bezels, which is always nice to see in a cheaper phone. You still only get an IP53 rating, however, which is inferior to the likes of the Pixel 7a and the Samsung Galaxy A54. There’s Gorilla Glass 5 around front, which beats the Pixel 7a’s GG3 for toughness. When it comes to media usage, an hour of video streaming sapped 7% of a charge, while half an hour of gaming drained around 14%. An hour of music streaming barely dropped the battery level a single percentage point. All in all, the Poco F5 Pro’s efficient processor and large battery serve it well. That’s a welcome inclusion in light of the F5 Pro’s unusually sharp and bright WQHD+ display. I cranked the resolution right up from the beginning of my time with the phone, albeit with the option active to switch to a lower resolution where appropriate. I also flipped the refresh rate to the maximum 120Hz. Presumably, this will have placed considerable strain on the battery considering this isn’t a flexible LTPO panel that can smartly drop to 1Hz when appropriate. The Poco F5 Pro’s lead component, even more than its super-sharp display, is its processor. Both the brand in general and the F-series in particular have always been about excellent performance at a price, and the Poco F5 Pro is the fastest Poco yet.

But really, you shouldn’t have to work that hard straight out of the box. Other mid-range phones, most notably the Pixel 7a and the Motorola Edge 40, don’t make you jump through so many hoops. Battery life You’ll have to activate it in the Settings menu, however, and this iteration of Xiaomi’s MIUI doesn’t always seem to be particularly well prepared for it. The default camera widget doesn’t resize properly, as you can see from the pictures. The Poco F5 has a 4,520mAh battery with support for 33W fast charging. Meanwhile the Poco F5 Pro has a slightly larger 4,870mAh battery with the same fast charging support. Overall, the Poco F5’s camera is perfectly acceptable for the money, but it lags behind mid-range rivals such as the Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus and with its impressive 200MP main camera, as well as the Redmi Note 12 Pro and the OnePlus Nord 2T with their larger Sony IMX766 image sensor. Google’s Pixel 7a and Pixel 6a, of course, remain mid-range camera stars for the same or much less money respectively. Performance The other colours, however, look much more traditional, and that’s great for options, as we actually really like the overall design and build of the Poco F5.And so we come to the part of the review where we mention the key weakness with most if not all Xiaomi phones: software. Naturally, if you keep the screen to its default FHD+/60Hz settings, you’ll get much better mileage, probably edging towards true two-day usage. But unless you’re going camping, the former scenario is more likely. Proximity Sensor, Light Sensor, Gyroscope Sensor, Accelerometer (G-Sensor), Fingerprint Sensor, Infrared Sensor A lot of smartphone photography is handled by software magic these days, but whether that’s going on here or not, pictures just look oddly processed or noisy in my view. Natural light obviously helps a lot, but you can still pinch into your shots to see textures like animal fur, rough terrain, or leaves on trees look subpar and unrealistic.

Here on the Poco F5 Pro you get MIUI 14 on top of Android 13, but there’s little meaningful difference to last year’s version. It’s fine, but you can get a cleaner and ultimately better experience for similar or less money, including the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion and any of Google’s more affordable Pixel phones. Battery life On the other hand, the Poco F5 Pro has an additional 2MP depth sensor. For selfies, both phones feature a 16MP front-facing camera. Poco battery power Game Turbo attempts to auto-detect any games you install and lets a pull-out overlay sit unassumingly at the side of the screen as you play.

Xiaomi POCO F5 5G

It doubtless helps that my test model came with a generous 12GB RAM, which is the only spec available in the UK. You’ll get 256GB of storage in that sole model, too, which is similarly generous. It would have been nice to have a lower-capacity option (perhaps 8GB/128GB) at a cheaper starting point, though. The POCO F5's battery life is so good, you'll be able to use it all day long and still have enough juice left to watch a movie before bed. That means you can finally stop worrying about your phone dying in the middle of a Netflix binge. I manage to squeeze out a respectable eight hours of screen-on time with some gaming, YouTube viewing, and social media scrolling. Not a record-breaking performance, but not a total snoozefest either. The F5 Pro gets a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, but the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 in the Poco F5 actually outperforms it in many benchmarks. In everyday use, I did not feel any difference. Both phones can smoothly run games like Real Racing 3 and PUBG Mobile at a high frame rate, and the Pro kept its cool during a monster session of Kingdom Rush Vengeance. Beyond the quirks of Xiaomi’s user interface, MIUI 14, I had no issues jumping in and out of apps, scrolling the web, or using the camera.

https://youtu.be/btU3g3MJA6E Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: POCO Launch May 2023 (https://youtu.be/btU3g3MJA6E) You can watch the launch of the new Poco F5 and Poco F5 Pro smartphones here. (Video: YouTube/POCO Global)With rapid performance, a superb screen, and a mid-range price, something had to give. In Poco F-series world, that something is invariably the camera. The day-to-day performance of the phone shows that it occupies the slot between recent flagship models and upper mid-rangers, which is to be expected of the Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2. This means that general scrolling, web browsing, and multitasking work fine, although I do notice occasional lag when returning to the home screen. That said, this does not occur often enough to be a major issue. The triple lens cameras in the F5 and F5 Pro are identical, consisting of a 64-megapixel main lens, an 8-megapixel ultrawide, and a 2-megapixel macro lens. You also get a 16-megapixel selfie camera in each phone, and while you can dig into settings to snap a full 64-megapixel shot, I don’t advise it. Likewise, for extreme close-ups, you might dig into the menu to find the macro option, but you can expect woefully inferior shots. You’re getting MIUI 14 layered on top of Android 13 with the Poco F5, just like with the Poco F5 Pro, not to mention the Xiaomi 13 and the Redmi Note 12 Pro. It’s no less cluttered or clumsy here.