Poco M5 review

Competition

The Xiaomi Poco M5 is a pretty basic phone; there's no denying that. But it's also one of the company's most affordable smartphones in the portfolio, asking a little bit over €180. And despite the rather restricted budget, the Poco M5 has some solid selling points and fares well against the similarly priced competition.

Of course, the first alternative that comes to mind comes from the same camp - the Poco M4 5G. As we said earlier, the two phones are just 4G and 5G versions of the same smartphone. There's little to no difference in the overall user experience except that the Poco M4 5G has a 13MP primary camera instead of 50MP. At the end of the day, however, the difference is negligible. Both devices do a decent job of photography. Still, the Poco M4 5G is a tad more expensive due to the 5G modem and the supposedly higher tier Dimensity 700 SoC. However, there's no difference in performance, so unless the next-generation network isn't that big of a deal to you, we suggest that you save the extra €20-30 and get the Poco M5.

Xiaomi Poco M4 5G • Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 • Samsung Galaxy A13 • Realme 9i

A much more lucrative option from Xiaomi would be the Redmi Note 11. It undercuts the Poco M5 by about €50 while being almost as powerful (Snapdragon 680), has a brighter and much more enjoyable 90Hz OLED, Gorilla Glass 3 on the front, a slightly better camera setup and faster 33W charging. It's a no-brainer.

There's also the Realme 9i offering essentially the same hardware as the Poco M5 at a similar price. Its only advantage is the faster 33W charging, which shouldn't be overlooked. But the way we see it, it boils down to software preference. The Realme UI might not be everyone's cup of tea, or Xiaomi's MIUI for that matter. So go for whichever you prefer. Keep in mind, though, that the Realme 9i is still running Android 11, whereas the Poco M5 is on a more recent Android 12 OS.

Samsung's camp has quite a few offers in the same price bracket - Galaxy A04s, Galaxy A13 and Galaxy M13. All three are quite similar, but the latter two are probably your best bet if you are a fan of One UI. The A13 and M13 also punch a little over their class when it comes to photography. Performance is what keeps us from recommending these phones over the Poco M5. The latter has a clear advantage in day-to-day use - the Helio G99 seems to be doing pretty well under MIUI 13, whereas the Exynos 850 chipset is just too underpowered to handle even the simplified version of One UI 4.1. Not to mention the Galaxy A13 offers 3GB/32GB memory configuration as a standard which is a no-go in 2022.

Verdict

Our verdict of the Poco M5 is a tad different from the Poco M4 5G's just due to the price difference. While both devices offer largely the same user experience, the Poco M5 is definitely a more desirable alternative in the sub-€200 category. The LTE device has a decent display running at 90Hz for some smooth scrolling, an excellent loudspeaker, and adequate performance for fluent everyday operation, which isn't a given in this low-end class. It also has a proper ambient light sensor, a proximity sensor, an IR blaster and NFC. These aren't all that common among budget phones either.

The phone also offers excellent battery endurance, mature and capable MIUI 13 software and, last but not least, a design that stands out and is particularly comfortable to hold even without a case. This leaves us with just one complaint - the max screen brightness. An LCD that only goes as high as 448nits leaves a lot to be desired in outdoor use.

At the end of the day, the Poco M5 is a low-end device with a pretty basic feature set and hardware. The latter seems adequate for the asking price, but we can't help thinking of the other Xioami-branded alternatives. We strongly recommend taking a closer look at those because you may get a bit more for your money.

Pros

• Attractive splash-resistant design, cool color options.
• Pretty good speaker audio quality
• Excellent battery life.
• Dependable performance, smooth MIUI 13 experience.
• Decent daylight photo and video quality for a budget phone.
• Surprisingly, full set of sensors and I/O: 3.5mm jack, microSD slot, NFC, IR blaster, FM radio.
• Good price/performance ratio.

Cons

• The max screen brightness is inadequate for outdoor use.
• Low-light and selfie performance are unimpressive.