Poco X5 Pro review

The competition

The Poco X5 Pro turned out to be an excellent sequel to the Poco X4 Pro and it easily wins you with its specs sheet. But the Poco X5 Pro isn't just great on paper, it delivers on every promise - display, battery life, charging speed, performance, camera quality.

The Poco X5 Pro's regular price starts at €300 (€250 early bird) and that's quite a reasonable price for 2023 year, a very competitive, too.

The first smartphone that comes to mind is the Galaxy A53 - it costs the same, but offers IP67-rated design, OIS for its main camera and more megapixels on the other cameras. There is no Dolby Vision or Dolby Atmos, so if you are after the ultimate streaming experience, the Poco will probably do better.

The Moto G82 can be found at an even cheaper price and it's a great alternative. It doesn't have Dolby goodies and its hardware is a bit slower, but it offers optical stabilization for the primary camera, microSD expansion, and no-nonsense Android interface.

The Realme 10 Pro+, where available, is a fast smartphone with a great AMOLED screen even if just HDR10+ certified. Its speaker, camera and charging capabilities are a match to the Poco, while its battery life turned out even better. The Realme's curved design is also a nice touch, if you fancy such shapes.

The Poco F4 is what the Poco X5 Pro could have been if it wasn't for the ongoing global hurdles - it is literally the Poco X5 Pro with a flagship-grade Snapdragon 870 5G chipset and OIS for the primary camera. These two upgrades will cost you about €100 on top of the X5 Pro price and we'd say they are worth it.

Samsung Galaxy A53 5G • Motorola Moto G82 • Realme 10 Pro+ • Xiaomi Poco F4

Our verdict

We are glad that the Poco X series is back on track after the major downgrade the Poco X4 Pro was last year. The new Poco X5 Pro 5G improves almost everything - design, screen, performance, camera, battery life.

Indeed, the yellow Poco X5 Pro 5G is an eye-catcher, but not as flashy as the previous models. It offers one excellent OLED with fast 120Hz refresh rate, up to 900nits brightness, and HDR10 and Dolby Vision certifications.

Then come the excellent Dolby Atmos speakers, which are a nice complement to the Dolby screen. And we did appreciate the long battery life and the fast charging.

The most welcome upgrade is the new chipset, of course. The Snapdragon 778G is one of the reasons why the Galaxy A52s became so popular in our conclusions and we suspect that the Poco X5 Pro is going on the same path. If only the Pocos were IP67-rated like the Galaxy, but we guess it'll still do alright with the unofficial IP53 rating.

The camera department stays the same as on the Poco X4 Pro, and so is the photo quality. But the new chipset allows for 4K video recording, and it's rather great. Another good news here.

There were a few things that bothered us, though none of them is really a deal-breaker, at least for us. First, the microSD slot has been retired, though the base model now has doubled storage capacity at 128GB. Then there is the gone FM radio.

Finally, MIUI 14 on top of Android 12 looks just like MIUI 13 and none of the new obvious features are here. Maybe the under-the-hood optimizations did make it, maybe not. But it seems once again most of the new MIUI goodies are reserved for the Chinese MIUI ROM.

The Poco X5 Pro 5G is a properly good sequel with minor shortcomings and that's why it gets our recommendation. It's one of the best phones in its price bracket and its specs sheet and the consistently good real-life performance will easily sway most of the potential buyers.

Pros

• Beautiful no-nonsense design, grippy enough.
• Excellent Dolby Vision OLED, bright, 120Hz refresh.
• Superb battery life, fast charging.
• Powerful stereo speakers, great audio.
• Excellent performance, gaming-friendly, 5G.
• Very good all-round photo and video quality.
• Dual SIM 5G, Wi-Fi 6, NFC, 3.5mm jack, IR port.
• MIUI 14 right out of the box.

Cons

• The microSD slot is gone, FM radio as well.
• The macro cam quality is poor.
• Quad-Bayer selfie camera.