Poco F5 Pro review

Triple-camera setup with 64MP OIS main camera

The Poco F5 Pro uses the same camera hardware as the Poco F5. The main camera employs a 64MP OmniVision OV64B40 sensor, 1/2.0" in size and with 0.7µm pixels. The sensor is paired with a f/1.8 aperture and a lens with optical stabilization. In our opinion, this sensor is a bit outdated, particularly for the given price range. We've seen bigger sensors in the same price category.

The ultrawide camera is still 8MP and the phone reports using the Omnivision OV08D10 sensor, which is pretty small in size - 1/4.0", 1.12µm and is paired with f/2.2 aperture. For the macro shots, the phone is equipped with the usual 2MP f/2.4 shooter.

The selfie camera has changed this time around. The new setup uses Samsung's S5K3P9SP04 16MP camera with f/2.5 aperture. Last year's F4 had a 20MP unit.

Camera menus

The camera app is a rather straightforward implementation, though it does have its quirks. First, basic operation for changing modes works with side swipes (on the black bezel!), and you can also tap on the modes you can see to switch to those directly.

Up and down swipes don't work for switching between the front and rear cameras; only the toggle next to the shutter release does that.

You can add, remove, and rearrange modes in the main rolodex by going to the More tab and navigating to the edit button, and you can access that from the settings menu as well. The unused modes will still be in that More tab, but you can switch to a (less intuitive) pull-out pane that's summoned from a line next to the shutter release.

Camera modes

The hamburger menu at the far end is where you'll find additional options, including the Macro mode, which apparently still doesn't deserve a place in the main carousel with modes. Next to that hamburger menu, you have a flash mode switch, an HDR switch, an AI toggle, and a shortcut to Google Lens.

At the near end, you have the camera zoom switch that operates in one of two fashions. The first one is simply tapping on one of the three dots that represent the ultra-wide, primary, and 2x digital options. Or you can tap on the active magnification and slide sideways to reveal even more zoom levels - 2x and 10x, plus a slider for intermediate magnifications. Also around is a magic wand with beauty effects and filters.

There's a nicely capable Pro mode, where you can tweak the shooting parameters yourself. You can use the primary and the ultrawide cameras here. You get to pick one of 4 white balance presets or dial in the light temperature with a slider, there's a manual focusing slider, and shutter speed (1/4000s to 30s/0.8s for main/ultrawide) and ISO control with the range depending on which camera you're using. A tiny live histogram is available, and a toggle for zebras can be found next to the hamburger menu.

General camera settings

As expected, there's a host of extra modes, including Long Exposure with its own set of different presets - moving crowd, neon trails, oil painting, light painting, starry sky, and star trails.

Night mode is available on the main and ultrawide cameras. There is also Auto Night mode enabled by default in settings.

Daylight photos

Main camera

Given that the two Poco F5s share the same camera hardware and ISP (the SD7+ Gen 2 and SD8+ Gen 1 supposedly have the same 18-bit Spectra Triple ISP), it's no surprise that the stills look almost identical. Some samples may appear softer on the F5 Pro but not by much.

The overall quality is really nice - sufficient sharpness and fine detail, good dynamic range and punchy colors. The colors look juicy, especially the grass and foliage. The only remark we have is that we see clipped highlights here and there, but the image contrast comes through quite natural-looking.

Main camera daylight samples

Noise suppression remains consistent even in more challenging environments. There's really nothing major to complain about. Maybe Xiaomi's typical contrast-y rendition isn't the best approach for overcast weather conditions, as it makes the scenes even grittier.

Main camera daylight samples

The 64MP samples aren't too bad and offer plenty of detail, but they are considerably noisier and softer.

64MP daylight samples

2x zoom

For a 2x zoom crop, the stills look pretty solid. Sure, they are slightly softer but share the same post-processing as the 1x photos, without introducing more noise.

Daylight 2x zoom samples

Ultrawide camera

The ultrawide quality is slightly above average for other 8MP ultrawide solutions, but it's far from competitive in the price bracket. There are a couple of direct competitors with proper ultrawide cameras, namely the Pixel 7a and the vanilla Galaxy S22. So in that context, the ultrawide quality is unimpressive. Samples are soft, with crushed shadows, plenty of noise and lack fine detail.

Ultrawide camera daylight samples

Low-light photos

Main camera

The similarities between the Poco X5 and X5 Pro's camera processing end with the daylight photos. At night, the Poco F5 is the clear winner. For some reason the F5 Pro isn't as consistent as the F5 and more often than not produces softer and noisier images with bleaker colors and no fine detail. And against phones in its own price bracket, the Pro is dragging behind even more.

Main camera low-light samples

The good news is that the Night mode addresses most of the issues we outlined and is in stark contrast to the F5's Night mode, which was lackluster. The samples below are considerably cleaner, with a lot more detail in the dark and slightly juicier colors. The artificial sharpening is hard to miss, though, making everyhing look a bit plasticky. We believe that this is due to sensor limitations - it's a small sensor after all. So Xiaomi had to tackle the softness a bit more aggressively. The end result is pretty good, albeit still far from the competition.

Main camera Night mode samples

2x zoom

The 2x zoom mode is quite soft at night and the noise suppression algorithm wipes away the little detail left. The Night mode adds a little bit of sharpening and improves dynamic range, but still not enough to recommend shooting in 2x zoom mode after dusk.

Low-light 2x zoom: Normal • Night mode

Ultrawide camera

It's no surprise that the tiny 8MP sensor struggles at night, especially since the daylight shots weren't great either. The Night mode does make the ultrawide images a bit more tolerable, yet still not up to the snuff.

Low-light ultrawide: Normal • Night mode

Here's how the primary camera on the Poco F5 Pro stacks against the rest of the competition in the controlled environment of our Photo Compare Tool.

Poco F5 Pro vs. Samsung Galaxy S22 and the Google Pixel 7 in our Photo compare tool

Macro

The macro camera delivers subpar images, as it's usually the case with this outdated 2MP shooter. Photos look lifeless, lack contrast and there's not much detail coming out of the tiny 2MP sensor.

Macro samples

Portraits

The portraits aren't the sharpest we've seen and often lack fine detail when ambient light isn't sufficient, turning the subject's skin into porcelain. It also tends to brighten up the skin tone. However, we do like the color reproduction, the lack of noise and the competent edge detection. Even with complex backgrounds and objects in the foreground, the software produces believable bokeh effect.

Portraits

Selfies

The selfies are quite good. Skin tones come through quite natural-looking. The photos are otherwise rich in color, with a good amount of detail even in less-than-ideal light, and noise is kept to a minimum.

Selfies

Video recording

Having a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 behind the wheel allows the F5 Pro to record 8K videos at 24fps and 4K videos up to 60fps. The 2160p videos are stabilized, but there's an additional Steady Video mode that limits the resolution to 1080p and mimics an action camera-like stabilization.

Let's begin with the most commonly used mode - 2160p@30fps. We are once again delighted by the video quality and are impressed with the results, even in these unfavorable overcast weather conditions. Sharpness and detail are great, dynamic range is impressive, and there's no noise. Colors are punchy and make the scene a lot more lively than in reality. There's also some sort of warm vibe, which probably comes from the somewhat warmer-than-usual color temperature. It turned out better in this particular case.

The 8K video is the same but crispier.

The ultrawide video is hard to recommend. It's capped at 1080p@30fps, dynamic range is abysmal with crushed shadows, there's noise in some areas, lacks fine detail and it's extremely soft.

The difference between the standard 4K stabilized video and the Full HD Steady video isn't profound since the 2160p video's stabilization is pretty good on its own. And there's no extreme jello effect, either. Switching to the Steady video mode, naturally trims the field of view, but surprisingly enough, it appears more bouncy than the standard 4K footage. It's also hard to justify the loss in resolution. Maybe the 4K stabilization is good enough for the majority of cases.

Once you are done with the real-life scenarios, take a look at our video compare tool to see how the Poco F5 Pro stacks against the other phones we've reviewed.

2160p: Poco F5 Pro vs. Samsung Galaxy S22 and the Google Pixel 7 in our Video compare tool