Poco F5 Pro review

Introduction and specs

One could argue that the Poco F5 Pro is a successor to last year's Poco F4 GT. However, there are a couple of key differences that set those two apart, and pricing is one of them. The Poco F5 Pro launches at a lower price than its supposed predecessor and offers a slightly lower tier of features. However, the goal remains the same - to deliver a near-flagship experience on the cheap.

Even though it's rocking a chipset from last year, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, it's still perfectly capable of handling everything on Play Store, and it's an improved version of the standard SD8 Gen 1. This potentially puts the F5 Pro in the affordable flagship category with an early bird price of around €480 and a regular price of €580.

Xiaomi Poco F5 Pro specs at a glance:

• Body: 162.8x75.4x8.6mm, 204g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass 5), glass back, plastic frame; IP53, dust and splash resistant.
• Display: 6.67" AMOLED, 68B colors, 120Hz, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, 500 nits (typ), 1000 nits (HBM), 1400 nits (peak), 1440x3200px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 526ppi.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SM8475 Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 (4 nm): Octa-core (1x3.0 GHz Cortex-X2 & 3x2.5 GHz Cortex-A710 & 4x1.80 GHz Cortex-A510); Adreno 730.
• Memory: 256GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 12GB RAM; UFS 3.1.
• OS/Software: Android 13, MIUI 14 for POCO.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 64 MP, f/1.8, 1/2", 0.7µm, PDAF, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.2, 120˚, 1/4", 1.12µm; Macro: 2 MP, f/2.4.
• Front camera: 16 MP, f/2.5, (wide), 1/3.06", 1.0µm.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 8K@24fps, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps, gyro-EIS; Front camera: 1080p@30/60fps.
• Battery: 5160mAh; 67W wired, PD3.0, QC3+, 50% in 15 min (advertised), 30W wireless, 50% in 32 min (advertised).
• Connectivity: 5G; Dual SIM; Wi-Fi 6; BT 5.3; NFC; Infrared port.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); stereo speakers.

But it's not just the chipset. The F5 Pro has some premium-like features that make it a balanced upper-midranger. It has a solid 5,160 mAh battery, up from 4,700 mAh on the F4 GT, and offers 67W fast wired and 30W wireless charging and an optically-stabilized main camera. The device also sells with 256GB of internal storage as a standard, albeit with no microSD card slot. And last but not least, the F5 Pro offers an upgraded 1440p+ panel with 1,000 nits of peak brightness and HDR10+/Dolby Vision certifications for a modern multimedia viewing experience.

The Poco F5 Pro takes the "flagship for the masses" role in Poco's portfolio for 2023 after last year's Poco F4 GT didn't cater to most users since its main goal was to deliver niche gaming features at a lower price. The F5 Pro just wants to appeal to the majority of users. It's a fairly simple formula, so we are eager to see how that plays out, especially with the cheaper Poco F5 on the menu, which offers similar performance with its speedy Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 SoC under the hood.

Unboxing the Poco F5 Pro

The handset comes in a standard retail box containing all the usual user manuals, the appropriate 67W fast charger and a USB-A to USB-C cable for data transfer and charging.

There's also a transparent silicone case as a bonus, so it doesn't conceal the neat paint job.