Introduction

Poco is a sub-brand of Xiaomi focused on catering to young gaming generation. Poco smartphones are a perfect package of high-end specs at mid-range prices. Poco shook the smartphone industry in 2018 by launching their first ever smartphone Poco F1 which was launched with a Qualcomm flagship processor Snapdragon 845 at a groundbreaking price of USD$300. Xiaomi Poco F1 was given the title of real flagship killer as at that time it was directly competing with OnePlus 6 as the Oneplus handset was launched with the same chipset but at a whopping price of $529 USD. But the journey of Poco smartphones wasn’t as grand as the launch of Poco F1. Poco launched many smartphones in between but they weren’t able to cast their impact due to high competition with other brands. Now in 2023, Poco is striving again with Poco F5 as this smartphone is the first ever smartphone that is launched with a snapdragon 7+ gen 2 processor with other flagship-level specs.

Poco F5 Specs - Midrange Smartphone with Flagship Level Specs

Poco smartphones are known for their flagship-level specs and Poco F5 Specs proves that Poco F5 is the real successor after F1 as it is packed with features no other brand is close to offering. Poco F5 specifications are as follows - Poco F5 boasts a 6.67 AMOLED display, Qualcomm snapdragon 7 plus gen 2 chipset, triple 64+8+2 MP Camera set up,5000 mAh non-removable battery and along with all major sensors like Fingerprint (side-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass etc.

Poco F5 Display - First Ever 12 Bit display is here

Poco smartphones are made for intense performance, whether you like playing never ending games or you like watching your favourite show, one thing that is need to be top-notch is smartphone display. Xiaomi Poco F5 comes with a 6.67-inch AMOLED Display with a 120 Hz refresh rate. The resolution of the Poco F5 display is 1080 x 2400 pixels which make the smartphone a must-buy if you love to watch content on your smartphone. Most smartphones come with 8-bit display or a 10-bit display but with Poco F5 the brand states that their new handset F5 comes with a 12 Bit display that is capable of casting more than 68 Billion colours. The colour output of the Poco F5 display is quite vibrant and a perfect match for those who love to watch high-resolution content on their smartphones as Poco F5 supports Widevine l1 which can help you to consume your favourite Netflix and prime video content in hdr and let you enjoy 4k Videos on youtube. The peak brightness of Poco F5 is 1000 nits which enhance the smartphone's outdoor visibility.

Xiaomi Poco F5 Design and build quality

Poco F5 follows the simple design language which showcases a glastic (Plastic that looks like glass) material at the back with a flat plastic frame that gives an interesting look to the smartphone. Poco F5 5G comes in three colour options snowstorm white, electric blue and carbon black all three colours have a different pattern on the back that gives the smartphone an aesthetic look. With a flat frame and a weight of 182 grams, the poco f5 feels premium to hold. From the front, screen to body ratio of the smartphone is 93.9% with uniform minimal bezels. Poco F5 display is well protected by corning gorilla glass 5 and the handset also comes with IP53 rating which ensures dust and splash resistance. Poco F5 follows the simplistic design approach like other Xiaomi phones with an IR blaster,3.5mm headphone jack on the top, a type c charging port at the bottom and a fingerprint embedded in the lock button. Smartphones like Nothing phone 1 are direct competitors of Poco F5 feature a more futuristic design, tough build and an in-display fingerprint scanner which gives an upper hand to Nothing phone 1 in the design and built department but Poco F5 is a performance-centric smartphone that can outperform any smartphone in the same price range.

Xiaomi Poco F5 Camera Specifications

Now comes the camera specification of Poco F5, This handset boasts a triple camera set-up in which the main camera sensor is a wide sensor of 64MP with F1.8 aperture, 8MP ultra-wide sensor and 2MP macro lens for macro photography. The 64MP wide sensor has OIS which can help you to take more stable pictures and more stabilised videos, getting OIS in this price range is quite impressive. The camera manages to click good pictures in daylight conditions with the right skin tone management. The details in the photos are good considering the price of the smartphone but still, there are other smartphones with better camera performance than poco f5, like nothing phone 1, and google pixel 7a in the same price range. The back camera of the Poco F5 can record up to 4k at 30 FPS and the front camera of 16MP can record up to 1080 at 60 fps.

Battery Performance and Charging Capabilities of Poco F5

Flagship smartphones are one step behind midrange smartphones when it comes to the battery capacity and charging speed. Xiaomi Poco F5 is bundled with 5,000 mAh battery with 67 Watt charger in the box that can charge up the full device from 0 to 100 in 47 minutes. Snapdragon 7 plus gen 1 is a power-efficient processor that provides high-end performance with power efficiency along with 7 plus gen 1, poco has also packed 14 layers of graphite sheets and a 3725mm2 vapor chamber that protects the smartphone from overheating thus saving a lot of battery consumption.

Xiaomi Poco F5 introducing 7 Plus Gen 2 - The Performance Beast

The main reason to choose Poco F5 is its performance as Poco F5 is the first ever smartphone launched with Snapdragon 7 plus Gen 2 chipset which is based on 4NM Tsmc chipset and it has cortex X2 Prime core up to 2.91 GHz and Adreno 725 GPU which is quite close to Snapdragon 8 gen 1. Snapdragon 8 gen 1 is a flagship chipset that is also based on a 4NM Samsung chipset the only advancement of Snapdragon 8 plus gen 1 over Snapdragon 7 plus gen 2 is having a slightly better clock speed and better GPU performance but Snapdragon 8 gen 1 was known for its throttling issues all thanks to the 4NM chipset made by Samsung but in the case of 7 plus gen 2 the chipset is made by TSMC which means it can handle thermals better than its big brother. The benchmark score of Poco F5 is crazy high the smartphone scores more than 9 lacs which is way higher than Nothing phone 1 which scored half a million in antutu benchmarking, It also leaves behind the Snapdragon another flagship chipset that is the snapdragon 888. The antutu benchmarking score is even closer to Snapdragon 8 gen 1 but 8gen 1 scores more because of better GPU performance. Poco F5 is made for intense gaming, it can handle heavy games with ease. In our tests, we haven’t noticed any frame drops in high-end games like Call of Duty mobile, asphalt 9 Legends and the heat management of the device was also quite magnificent owing to TSMC chipset and vapour chamber cooling system of the smartphone. The Poco also provides a gaming mode that boosts its gaming performance. As per multi-tasking is concerned, poco F5 can handle multiple tabs without any problems as it is packed with the latest LPDDRX5 12 GB Ram with fast UFS 3.1 storage.No other smartphones can provide Poco F5 equivalent performance at this price range.

Will Xiaomi launch Poco F5 in Australia?

Poco phones aren’t that popular in Australia as the major market is occupied by the brands like Apple, Samsung and OnePlus. Xiaomi Poco F5 has been launched in China and India but there are some chances that this smartphone will get a global launch otherwise BuyMobile Australia will definitely get this handset for the Poco fanbase in Australia as BuyMobile has a wide range of Xiaomi and Poco phones that weren’t officially launched in the pacific region.

Conclusion

Xiaomi Poco F5 is a balanced smartphone that is made for high-end performance. With a 12 Bit display, snapdragon 7 plus gen 2 powerful chipset, fast 67-watt charging and a decent camera set up, this smartphone is a perfect contender for best performance budget smartphone, but every smartphone has its pros and cons, for instance, Poco F5 runs Miui 14 which does offer some bloatware and bugs, there are options like nothing phone 1 and google pixel 6a that has a better camera than Poco F5 but in the end, Xiaomi Poco F5 is a performance beast that is made strictly for smartphone gaming enthusiasts that are looking for a powerful smartphone at a mid-range price.