POCO F5 Pro Review! – A Hyperpowered Beast?

When this writer here opened up his Pocophone F1 years ago, it was all pure magic. Never in the history of smartphone tech has such a powerful phone as the F1; even OnePlus couldn’t get close to that greatness during that time.

Today, it’s the same feeling all over again for us. The POCO F5 Pro steals the show with a surefire balancing act consisting of specs, design, and pricing.

But it would be best if you didn’t take our word for that easily; that’s why we are guiding you here in our full review of the swag that is the POCO F5 Pro.

We already published its unboxing article, so for that, click this link first, and once you’re done, go back here to get in through the details: 

The return of (talking about) the display

We talked about the POCO F5 Pro’s display during the unboxing/first impressions article, but not on a detailed level, so here it goes.

The POCO F5 Pro has a 6.67-inch screen with 1440p resolution and 120Hz refresh rate… which you already knew about during the first article. Still, you don’t realize it has Dolby Vision certification and HDR10+ support. It just means that it can support playing near 4K videos, play games in a much more fluid and vibrant way because of its 120Hz rate, and near-accurate color reproduction every time you watch those wildlife documentaries from Sir Richard Attenborough. The bezels are thin enough that it isn’t a distraction (apart from the punch-hole, which is not that big).

Deep blacks, clear whites, and everything in between, the Flow AMOLED display the POCO F5 Pro has is a hit for us.

Is the camera as razor-sharp as the camera bump design?

POCO isn’t known for great cameras, and that’s for a reason. More likely, those who want this phone aren’t stoked about taking pictures and recording videos. But to those who are, the POCO F5 Pro is a decent affair regarding photo and video quality.

For starters, the POCO F5 Pro is equipped with a triple-camera setup consisting of a 64MP wide sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide one, and the usual 2MP macro that we are not that excited to find here but since it has one, we will still test its abilities.

The 64MP primary sensor has a formidable f/1.79 aperture that is enough to capture most moments in precise detail, and so is the ultra-wide one with an f/2.2 aperture to easily fit in more subjects, genuinely preferable for landscape or panorama shots. The macro, however, is just your regular plain’ ol macro, with a standard f/2.4 aperture that’s pretty much effective for anything close subject and, maybe, acts as a depth sensor.

When exposed to well-lit conditions, such as a bright sunny morning with minimal to no clouds, it produces good pictures and videos. The images are sharp enough, and we also notice that the color reproduction is more on the Xperia side of things (Xperia being Sony’s flagship phone lineup with views favoring true-to-life colors instead of oversaturating its photos like the iPhone, for example). It will surely be a delight amongst photographers, image editors, graphic designers, and the like.

Portrait shots produced similar results, but the blurring is tastefully done. While inconsistent, it hits more than it misses most of the time. 

The ultra-wide, however, is a whole different story. The ultra-wide camera struggles a bit with the subject and, depending on our shots (which, by the way, are taken at the same position, height, length, and weather conditions), produces a whole slew of bright and beautiful photos on top of questionably dark ones. A software issue, perhaps.

The macro camera is just a macro camera, it does the job, and we have nothing new to say about it, so moving on.

The 16MP selfie camera is really good, and might be our favorite aspect of the device. It improved over last year’s model, and the photos taken with it appear clean, true-to-life and vibrant.

The selfie camera is just alright; nothing to write home about. Shooting through the night produced mixed results. While the primary rear sensor made stunning low-light videos on our test, the same can’t be said with the selfie camera, which is grainy and has some problems regulating light at some moments. Still, we cannot reproduce the effect, so we would not treat that situation as a minus for the POCO F5 Pro.

Night mode

Night mode is where the POCO F5 Pro’s gang of cameras stumble apart. While the 64MP primary sensor appears to produce decent images throughout our session, the same can’t be said with the ultra-wide and macro lenses. Even with the flash assist, the photos appear inconsistent and sometimes noisy. Although we produced good enough images (with the help of our expert photographers), all sensors have some flaws. 

There’s also a minimal bluish tinge coming from the photos (wide, ultrawide, and selfie), but we still need to document these findings. The screen illumination for the selfie camera also helped a bit.

Videodrome

Surprisingly, the POCO F5 Pro redeemed itself during our video quality test. On well-lit conditions, it can rival some of the flagship offerings released earlier this year with the quality it churned out. The 8K and 4K options are our favorite so far because, with the OIS function enabled, this can be an action cam in no time.

Video test:

Film Filter

The smartphone’s “Film Filter” is actually rather good; they just added some film borders, details, and a grainy appearance to simulate a cinema atmosphere. However, there is nothing noteworthy here, but Xiaomi gets credit for trying.

PERFORMANCE

Now, unto the performance. The most coveted feature of a POCO smartphone is a flagship-level performance on a mid-range smartphone, can the POCO F5 Pro live up to its name?

The smartphone’s processor is a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 – a 4 nm chip with a single 3.19 GHz Cortex-X2 core & 3×2.75 GHz Cortex-A710 cores alongside 4×1.80 GHz Cortex-A510, plus an Adreno 730 for its GPU, a relevant upgrade over POCO F4 Pro’s previous Snapdragon 870 5G chip. The noticeable difference between the two chips is that this one is significantly faster and the smartphone utilizes it well for its system and camera performance. The smartphone can reach an AnTuTu score of 1 million – which is extremely high, perfect for heavy mobile gaming.

Gaming

With regards to its gaming performance, here are the deets(please check the video below for the gameplay): 

GamesSettingsVerdict
Mobile Legends: Bang BangHigh graphics, super refresh rateOptimized, playable
Call of Duty: MobileHighest graphics, high refresh ratePlayable, smooth
Genshin ImpactHighest graphics, 60 fpsPlayable, smooth

Gaming test:

Battery and Charging

The smartphone is also equipped with a 5160mAh battery. The supplied charger outputs 67W (7.5V at 2.4A). The smartphone took less than an hour to charge using the supplied adapter. You can easily last a day or two with this phone under normal use. When doing heavy tasks such as gaming, it’s still pretty solid, ranging from 5-7 hours of screen time. 

The huge Li-Po 5160mAh battery and the software added by Xiaomi are excellent – it provides two days of light usage or one day of medium usage (no gaming). SOT is about 8-9 hours which is a top performance.

SOUND

The stereo speakers on the POCO F5 Pro are of excellent quality and are powerful enough to be readily heard across a room. In comparison to comparable phones with loudspeakers, the immersive sound quality is also very obvious. It’s unquestionably among the best mid-range smartphones with great audio quality.

Gaming and watching your favorite series will be an extremely pleasing experience because of the great audio quality.

USER EXPERIENCE

The phone runs on MIUI 14, on top of Android 13. It brings all the functions and abilities ROMs have these days. We have to mention that there’s some bloatware and advertisement as we see in other Xiaomi smartphones. There is an option in the settings to turn the advertisements off but, some ads may still appear.

There were no major bugs or limitations – MIUI 14 is a great firmware for a smartphone, allowing the smartphone to be more efficient alongside with decent customization options. The customization is rich with many features, including a theme shop, dark mode, cleaning app, and others. We can find a memory boost app, a gaming boost app, music apps, a data sharing app, and other extra apps.

The UI smart battery saver makes sure that unneeded background programs are eliminated and there is bloatware, but the good news is that we can order them to stop or erase them.

What we like:

  • Selfie camera
  • Razorblade camera island design
  • Splendid gaming performance
  • 5160 mAh Battery with 67W fast charging
  • Great software update support
  • OIS-enabled
  • Great audio quality
  • Superb display

What we don’t like:

  • Some Bloatware
  • Subpar Night mode experience
  • MIUI is well-known for advertisements within its apps(a user can turn them off but not all of them will be removed)
  • Subpar packaging

Conclusion:

The design is exquisite and beautiful. The smartphone is not for photography enthusiasts but it has a decent affinity with it. The addition of OIS is already a huge plus for its camera performance.

The SoC is cool, reliable, energy-efficient, and a huge friggin beast! With its processor, playing high-quality games with the POCO F5 Pro is a breeze. The software is just decent and we advise users to remove bloatware as soon as possible. There are adverts as well, but users may manually turn them off, however, some ads may still appear. The 5160 mAh battery has excellent standby durations, and the 67W charger can charge it quickly enough. 

The POCO F5 Pro is certainly a wonderful smartphone, despite certain drawbacks. It offers great performance, respectable camera quality, and an immersive audio-visual experience at a reasonable price.

Here are POCO F5 and POCO F5 Pro’s pricelist!

POCO F5 Pro

PriceRAMROM
₱30,99912GB512GB
₱28,99912GB256GB
₱26,9998GB256GB

POCO F5

PriceRAMROM
₱22,99912GB256GB
₱20,9998GB256GB

For the unboxing and first impressions article, click below!

https://unboxdiaries.com/poco-f5-pro-unboxing-and-first-impressions/

And if you want more information about the smartphone specs, click below for its specs page!

LATEST NEWS

img_v3_029c_5543840f-8c1e-4bd1-baa7-4b4bdb6541hu
vivo Pad3 Pro launches with MediaTek Dimensity 9300, 13” display, 144Hz refresh rate, stylus, and keyboard
First tablet powered by MediaTek Dimensity 9300 is launched in China! vivo is on the roll! The brand...
Read More
img_v3_029c_62a72657-8ea6-4722-bddb-54f36d6277hu
Samsung may exclusively use Exynos processors for the Galaxy S25 series
Smartphones are inching closer to luxury territory, with top-of-the-line models routinely exceeding $800(~₱45,026.00)....
Read More
img_v3_029c_97b71168-4e64-4d8f-a8cc-85ffd5f3cfhu
Sony Xperia 1 VI 3mm shorter, 3mm wider than Xperia 1 V
Sony adjusted the overall body of Xperia 1 VI. Viewing experience may be better with its wider screen....
Read More

Your compare list

Compare
REMOVE ALL
COMPARE
0