Review of Xiaomi Poco F5 Pro phone, price and specifications
Introduction
It could be argued that the Poco F5 Pro is the successor to last year’s Poco F4 GT. However, there are a few key differences that set the two apart, and price is one of them. The Poco F5 Pro is priced lower than its predecessor and offers a slightly lower level of features. However, the goal is the same – to provide an almost flagship experience at a cheap price.
Even though it has last year’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, it’s still quite capable of taking on everything in the Play Store and is an improved version of the standard SD8 Gen 1. This potentially puts the F5 Pro in the budget flagship.
Specifications of Xiaomi Poco F5 Pro at a glance
Unboxing Poco F5 Pro
Xiaomi Poco F5 Pro design review
Xiaomi Poco F5 Pro screen review
Color accuracy
HRR control
Poco F5 Pro battery life review
Checking the charging speed of Xiaomi Poco F5 Pro
The Poco F5 Pro uses the included 67W wired fast charger, but can be charged wirelessly at 30W. And while 67W charging is adequate for the Poco F5’s class, it doesn’t seem competitive enough in the Poco F5 Pro’s price range, even if we don’t consider the Realme GT Neo3 150W as an outlier. As is usually the case, only competitors Samsung and Google are at the bottom of the table.
Checking the speakers of Xiaomi Poco F5 Pro
The Poco F5 has stereo speakers with the usual downward-facing bezel, while on the left side there are two openings – one for the phone and the other at the top of the bezel. The sound seems to be coming out of both laces.
Surprisingly, the Poco F5 Pro’s speakers aren’t as loud as the Poco F5, earning a “good” score of -26.2 LUFS. Sound quality isn’t impressive either, but you do get more bass from the F5 Pro compared to the F5. Voices and highs are clean enough, even at higher volumes. But when it comes to competition, there are much better options.
Review of the software and performance of the Xiaomi Poco F5 Pro phone
Poco F5 Pro was launched with the latest Google and Xiaomi software. This combination will be MIUI 14 + Android 13. However, the first is not pure MIUI, but as Poco labels it – MIUI 14 for Poco. There isn’t much difference between the standard MIUI and the iteration for Poco, so we suggest you take a closer look at your MIUI 14. You will find all the information you need there.
Benchmark performance
Stable performance
Overall, the best performance isn’t sustainable, but we’ve seen worse.
Xiaomi Poco F5 Pro camera review
Camera menus
The hamburger menu at the bottom is where you’ll find additional options, including macro mode, which apparently still doesn’t deserve a place in the main modes carousel. Next to that hamburger menu, you have a flash mode switch, an HDR switch, an AI key, and a shortcut for Google Lens.
At the near end, you have the camera’s zoom switch, which operates in one of two modes. The first is as simple as tapping on one of the three dots that show the ultrawide, prime, and digital double options. Or you can tap and drag the active zoom to reveal zoom levels of even 2x and 10x, plus a slider for medium magnifications. There is also a magic wand around with beauty effects and filters.
There is a well-featured professional mode where you can change the shooting parameters yourself. Here you can use primary and ultra-wide cameras. You can choose from 4 white balance presets or dial in the light temperature with a slider, a manual focus slider and shutter speed (1/4000s to 30s/0.8s for prime/ultra wide ) and there is ISO control with a range depending on it.
As expected, there are additional modes, including Long Exposure with a selection of different presets – Moving Crowd, Neon Trails, Oil Painting, Light Painting, Starry Sky, and Star Trails.
Night mode is available on the main and ultra-wide cameras. Also, Auto Night mode is enabled by default in the settings.
Photos taken during the day
Main camera
Given that the two Poco F5s share the same camera hardware and ISP (the SD7+ Gen 2 and SD8+ Gen 1 apparently share the same 18-bit Spectra Triple ISP), it’s no surprise that photos look almost identical. Some samples may seem smoother on the F5 Pro, but not by much.
The overall quality is really good – adequate sharpness and detail, good dynamic range and sharp colors. The colors look juicy, especially the grass and foliage. The only gripe we have is that we see highlights here and there, but the contrast of the image is quite normal.
Double zoom
For cropping at 2x zoom, photos look very solid. Sure, they’re a little softer, but they share the same post-processing as 1x photos without adding as much noise.
Ultra wide camera
and lack fine detail.
Photos taken at night
Main camera
The Poco X5 and X5 Pro’s camera processing similarities end with daylight photos. At night, the Poco F5 is the clear winner. For some reason, the F5 Pro isn’t as consistent as the F5, often producing softer, noisier images with darker colors and less detail. And against phones in its price range, the Pro falls further behind.
The good news is that the night mode fixes most of the issues we mentioned, in stark contrast to the F5’s night mode, which was poor. The samples below are noticeably cleaner, with much more detail in darker colors and a bit more wateriness. It’s hard to miss the artificial sharpening, and it makes everything look a little plasticky. We believe this is due to the limitations of the sensor – it is a small sensor after all. So Xiaomi had to be a little more aggressive in dealing with its softness. The end result is pretty good, though it’s still far from the competition.
Double zoom
The 2x zoom mode is quite smooth at night, and the noise suppression algorithm erases the remaining small details. Night mode adds a bit of clarity and improves dynamic range, but it’s still not enough to recommend shooting at 2x zoom after dusk.
Ultra wide camera
Unsurprisingly, the tiny 8MP sensor struggles at night, especially since daylight photos weren’t great either. Night mode makes ultra-wide images a little more tolerable, but still not enough.
Poco F5 Pro vs. Samsung Galaxy S22 and the Google Pixel 7 in our Photo comparison tool
Macro camera
The macro camera delivers poor quality images, as is often the case with this old 2MP camera. Photos look lifeless, lack contrast, and don’t get a lot of detail out of the tiny 2MP sensor.
portrait camera
selfie camera
The selfies are very good, the skin color is completely natural. Otherwise, photos are rich in color, with good detail even in less-than-ideal lighting, and noise is kept to a minimum.
Filming
Having a 1st generation Snapdragon 8+ behind the wheel allows the F5 Pro to record 8K videos at 24fps and 4K videos at up to 60fps. Videos are stabilized at 2160p, but there’s an additional Steady Video mode that limits the resolution to 1080p and mimics action camera-like stabilization.
Let’s start with the most commonly used mode – 2160p@30fps. We were once again delighted with the video quality and impressed with the results, even in these unfavorable overcast weather conditions. Clarity and detail are excellent, dynamic range is impressive and there is no noise. The colors are sharp and make the scene much more vivid than reality. There’s also a warm feel, which probably comes from the warmer-than-usual color temperature. In this particular case it got better
It’s hard to recommend ultrawide video. Its maximum speed is 1080p@30fps, the dynamic range is very poor with crushed shadows, there is noise in some areas, it lacks fine details and it is very soft.
2160p: Poco F5 Pro vs. Samsung Galaxy S22 and the Google Pixel 7 in our Video comparison tool
Review of competitors of Xiaomi Poco F5 Pro
Samsung Galaxy S22 5G • OnePlus 10T • Google Pixel 7
The OnePlus 10T is another 2022 competitor with the same silicon and is significantly cheaper. It also has a better main camera, faster charging and nicer speakers. Aside from the various Android overlays, the two devices are quite similar and offer a somewhat comparable user experience. So, in a way, competitor OnePlus has the upper hand thanks to its lower price and extensive software support (OnePlus commits to 3 years of major updates and 4 years of security patches).
The Pixel 7 is another good example of a relevant flagship a year later. It’s smaller, but excels in the camera department, gets fast and extensive software support directly from Google, offers better battery life on-screen, and packs nicer speakers. However, this device is weak in the charging competition and has a lower display.
Realme GT Neo 3 150W • Xiaomi Poco F4 GT
Summary
Why should we buy Xiaomi Poco F5 Pro?
- AMOLED with excellent resolution, 120 Hz refresh, Dolby Vision, HDR10+.
- Great daylight performance from the main camera, great videos.
- 256 GB basic memory
- Excellent battery life for the class.
- Feature-rich MIUI 14 on top of Android 13.
Why should we not buy Xiaomi Poco F5 Pro?
- The camera performance is only good in low light and ultra wide is not good in any light.
- The phone gets hot under heavy loads .
Source GSMARENA.COM