Poco F5 Pro review

MIUI 14 for Poco and Android 13

The Poco F5 Pro launches with the latest software from Google and Xiaomi. That combo would be MIUI 14 + Android 13. The former, however, isn't pure MIUI but as Poco labels it - MIUI 14 for Poco. There's not a lot of difference between the standard MIUI and the iteration for Poco, so we suggest taking a closer look at our MIUI 14 walkthrough. You will find all the information needed there.

It's important to note, however, that MIUI for Poco (or at least the iteration installed on the Poco F5 family) has a couple of things missing. For instance, you can't set up a proper Always-on display as it's limited to just 10 seconds. Also, there are no Large folders, and you can't disable the app drawer. On the other hand, you can double-tap on an empty spot on the Home screen to lock the device, which isn't a feature you can enable on the standard MIUI. Lastly, the default icon pack seems to be more in line with vanilla Android rather than MIUI's square-ish icons.

In terms of overall performance and feel, MIUI 14 on Poco F5 Pro felt smooth and snappy. No issues here.

Benchmark performance

The Poco F5 Pro features a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, but that's not your ordinary SD8+ Gen 1 SoC. It's a toned-down version of the original chipset with lower clock speeds on all three core clusters. The main Cortex-X2 core is clocked at 3.0 GHz (instead of 3.2 GHz), the 3x Cortex-A710 cluster runs at 2.5 GHz (instead of 2.75 GHz), and the energy-efficient 4x Cortex-A510 cores are ticking at 1.8 GHz (instead of 2.0 GHz). This should bring down the overall energy demand.

The chipset is still based on TSMC's 4nm manufacturing node, however, and relies on the Adreno 730 GPU for the graphically-intensive tasks.

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Poco F5 Pro
  1275
• Poco F4 GT
  1244
• Xiaomi 12T Pro
  1238
• Poco F5
  1216
• Galaxy S22
  1171
• Google Pixel 7
  1051
• OnePlus 10T
  1043
• Poco F4
  975
• Realme GT Neo3
  968

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi 12T Pro
  4081
• Realme GT Neo3
  4079
• Poco F5 Pro
  4001
• Poco F5
  3939
• Galaxy S22
  3682
• Poco F4 GT
  3637
• OnePlus 10T
  3401
• Google Pixel 7
  3288
• Poco F4
  3190

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Poco F5 Pro
  1057977
• Xiaomi 12T Pro
  1032185
• Poco F4 GT
  952124
• Poco F5
  931174
• Galaxy S22
  881428
• Realme GT Neo3
  819348
• Google Pixel 7
  813114
• OnePlus 10T
  786238
• Poco F4
  698586

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 10T
  60
• Galaxy S22
  53
• Xiaomi 12T Pro
  50
• Google Pixel 7
  49
• Poco F5
  48
• Realme GT Neo3
  42
• Poco F5 Pro
  39

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 10T
  60
• Xiaomi 12T Pro
  58
• Poco F5
  48
• Google Pixel 7
  46
• Galaxy S22
  44
• Realme GT Neo3
  43
• Poco F5 Pro
  41

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Poco F5 Pro
  52
• OnePlus 10T
  51
• Xiaomi 12T Pro
  50
• Poco F5
  36
• Google Pixel 7
  31
• Galaxy S22
  29
• Realme GT Neo3
  28

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Poco F5 Pro
  103
• OnePlus 10T
  103
• Xiaomi 12T Pro
  100
• Poco F5
  77
• Galaxy S22
  74
• Google Pixel 7
  66
• Realme GT Neo3
  60
• Poco F4
  59

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Galaxy S22
  69
• Poco F5
  66
• Xiaomi 12T Pro
  65
• OnePlus 10T
  60
• Google Pixel 7
  59
• Realme GT Neo3
  53
• Poco F5 Pro
  50
• Poco F4
  49

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Poco F5 Pro
  46
• OnePlus 10T
  46
• Xiaomi 12T Pro
  45
• Poco F5
  33
• Google Pixel 7
  31
• Galaxy S22
  31
• Realme GT Neo3
  27

Despite the lower clock speeds, the SD8+ Gen 1 inside the Poco F5 Pro matches the performance of the original SoC. In some cases, it outperforms them even. Either way, Xiaomi implemented the chipset successfully and chose a capable chipset, rarely rivaled in the given price bracket. It's also important to note that the Poco F5's SD7+ Gen 2 is coming pretty close in all testing scenarios, closing the gap between the F5 and F5 Pro.

And as for the GPU benchmarks, the Poco F5 Pro scored lower than the rest because of its high-resolution 1440p+ display. Refer to the offscreen tests for more relevant comparisons.

Sustained performance

Just like the vanilla Poco F5, the Pro version also features the so-called LiquidCool Technology 2.0 for better heat management. It boasts a 5,000 mm2 cooling area with stainless steel vapor chamber and a multi-layer design that also incorporates a 6,933 mm2 surface area of graphite. But while we weren't impressed with the F5's sustained performance, the F5 Pro did noticeably better. At least for the first half an hour.

In the first 30 minutes, the system maintained good performance (above 80% of the CPU's theoretical performance), despite the rather inconsistent graph and the overheating warning we got at the 28-minute mark. Shortly after, we experienced heavy CPU throttling with various dips close to 0% of the theoretical performance. On average, the system maintained about 60% of its clock speeds.

CPU throttle test: 28 min • 30 min • 60 min

All in all, not the best-sustained performance out there, but we've seen way worse too.