Small upgrades over the POCO X4 Pro make it a worthy mid-ranger!!
POCO has been a very strong contender in the mid-range and premium mid-range segment with its X-series of lineup where last year we saw the POCO X4 Pro (Review) which was a solid smartphone but there were few compromises when it came to performance which was not expected from a POCO smartphone that also focuses on performance and gaming mainly.
However, with the POCO X5 Pro, POCO has made some minor improvements when it comes to cameras and performance where now you get the newer 108MP Samsung HM2 sensor for the main Camera and under the hood is now the powerful Snapdragon 778G chipset which has been used in some of the premium mid-range smartphones of 2022.
So how good is the POCO X5 Pro and with other minor improvements is it worth the upgrade over the POCO X4 Pro? Let's find out in the full review.
POCO X5 Pro Design:
The POCO X5 Pro sports a typical POCO design where you get back that has a larger rectangular module like all POCO devices where there is the rectangular camera module that houses the triple cameras with a LED flashlight and the POCO branding is present on the shiny surface of the module which is black in colour. At the back, the panel is flat instead of curved but the edges are curved.
The POCO X5 Pro is available in three different colours - Black, Blue and Yellow where Yellow is the signature colour of most POCO devices the back here has a frosted finish instead of glossy which means it provides a solid grip and does not catch many fingerprints. The back carries the IP52 rating which makes it splash-resistant up to some extent.
The camera module is slightly protruded, making it wobble on a flat surface. However, the back is made up of polycarbonate instead of glass so it feels lightweight as it weighs around 181 grams and is thicker at 7.9mm around the sides which makes it quite slimmer. Around the sides, there is a polycarbonate frame that houses the power button and volume buttons on the right side whereas the left side remains clean.
The power button has a nice yellow accent to it which looks good and this one also doubles up as a fingerprint scanner that works either by touch or pressing it gently. At the bottom, there is a secondary speaker grille, a primary microphone, a dual SIM card slot and a USB Type-C port. There is no dedicated slot for a microSD card.
On the top, there is a secondary noise cancelling microphone, primary speakers, a 3.5mm headphone jack and an IR Blaster. On the front, there is a single punch-hole display with the punch-hole located on the top in the middle and around the sides, the bezels are the bare minimum. Overall, the design looks good but if POCO could have provided a glass back instead of polycarbonate it would have been better.
POCO X5 Pro Display:
The POCO X5 Pro houses a 6.7-inch Full HD+(1080x2400 pixels) AMOLED display with a screen-to-body ratio of 20:9. Since here you get an AMOLED display, the colours look punchier and viewing angles are also great. This is a 10-bit display so it produces 1 billion colours when compared to an 8-bit display. In terms of protection, the display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5.
The display on the POCO X5 Pro has support for a 120Hz refresh rate which is an adaptive one and has two different modes to choose from - Custom and Default where Custom mode allows one to switch the refresh rate between 60Hz or 120Hz only whereas setting the Default mode allows the display to switch adaptively either between 30Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz or 120Hz depending on the application in usage.
Combined with the 120Hz refresh rate, you get a 240Hz touch sampling rate which provides faster touch responses. In terms of brightness, the display of the POCO X5 Pro has a typical brightness of 500nits when used under direct sunlight or in a normal darker environment. The display can reach a peak brightness of 900nits while watching content in HDR.
The display of the POCO X5 Pro has three different colour settings to choose from - Vivid, Saturated and Standard. Setting the Standard mode provides slightly white and grey colours and covers the sRGB colour content whereas the Default mode and the Saturated mode cover the DCI-P3 gamut scale and Saturated provides more realistic colours that look punchier.
The display on the POCO X4 Pro has support for HDR10 on YouTube and also Widevine L1 so you can stream HD content on OTT platforms like Netflix, Prime, etc. Netflix also supports HDR10 and you also get Dolby Vision which is really good. Overall, the display is great for multimedia consumption.
POCO X5 Pro Performance:
The POCO X5 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 778G chipset which has been a very strong mid-range chipset that provides good performance as well as gaming. In terms of real-time performance, the smartphone could easily handle all the tasks without breaking a sweat. The gaming performance is also very good as many games like Call Of Duty Mobile, Apex Legends, etc. run without any frame drops.
In BGMI, the smartphone could easily run at Smooth graphics with Extreme frame rates and also HD graphics with Ultra frame rates. There were no frame drops or stutters noticed and after long hours of gaming, the back did not feel warmer much as POCO equipped a vapour cooling system underneath which can dissipate heat faster.
In the CPU throttling test, the smartphone could maintain a sustained performance of around 85-90 per cent which is very good and there was no thermal throttling noticed. In benchmarks, scores came out very good. In terms of network connectivity, you get support for good carrier aggregation and have support for 7 bands of 5G but still more bands would have made better sense.
The POCO X5 Pro is available in two different variants - 6/8GB LPDDR4X RAM with 128/256GB storage with UFS 2.2 speeds. Overall, the performance and gaming are a good upgrade over the POCO X4 Pro.
POCO X5 Pro Software:
The POCO X5 Pro runs on the latest MIUI 14 based on Android 12. This seems slightly disappointing as many other smartphones launched in 2023 are coming with Android 13 out of the box. MIUI 14 on the POCO X5 Pro feels smooth for daily usage and comes with a lot of features. Some of the features include customizable folders for big icons and the Smart Toggle feature.
Other than that you get a lot of options/different themes for the Always-On display, Notification Light is present which lights up the edges of the display when a new notification comes, etc. Since there is the POCO launcher, all the applications are organized into different categories. Just like MIUI 13, you get both the Control Center and the Notification shade when swiping from the right and left respectively.
All Android 12 features are present like Digital Wellbeing, enhanced Dark Mode, etc are present but with MIUI 14, there are some newer wallpapers. Since there is the POCO launcher present, you get less amount of bloatware that can be uninstalled. In terms of software updates, the POCO X5 Pro will receive another two years of AndroidOS updates and three years of security updates.
POCO X5 Pro Cameras:
The POCO X5 Pro houses a triple camera setup that consists of a 108MP f/1.9 Samsung HM2 sensor for the
Main Camera, an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera and a 2MP f/2.4 macro camera. The main camera seems to be an upgrade over the 64MP main camera on the POCO X4 Pro. There is a 16MP f/2.4 camera on the front.
The images from the main camera come out with good details that look sharper and the colours look natural without any overprocessing. The dynamic range and contrast come out well with very less noise in the background. Using the dedicated 108MP camera mode, you get slightly overprocessed colours with more sharpness in order to reduce the noise.
During the night, the images come out with a good dynamic range and the details look great with a good amount of sharpness also the colours look natural but there is a slight delay in exposure time while taking images. The Auto Night Mode triggers automatically and if you turn off the Auto Night Mode, the colours look good but there is some amount of softness in details and the dynamic range is decent.
The 8MP ultrawide camera does a good job in terms of details that look good but are a tad softer and have slightly more noise in the background. Around the edges, there is some amount of distortion but you get good dynamic range and colours also look natural without any oversharpening. The images from the ultrawide camera come out with good dynamic range but the details look slightly softer.
However, here the Auto Night Mode triggers automatically and you get some amount of noise in the background but the colours look natural and the contrast is also good. It is one of the few ultrawide cameras that does take some good images. The third camera is a 2MP macro camera which is a fixed-focus camera and it takes images with slightly washed-out colours, details are slightly softer and also noise is present.
In terms of portraits, the main camera does a good job in terms of dynamic range and details also look sharper with almost no noise in the background. The subjects have good edge detection and background blur is well implemented with good exposure in the background. The POCO X5 Pro takes some very good selfies as you get natural skin tones, the dynamic range is good but the details do look a tad bit softer.
In terms of videos, the main camera can record 4K videos at 30fps which is a good upgrade over the POCO X4 Pro's main camera which can only record 1080p videos at 30fps. The videos from the main camera come out with a good amount of details and good dynamic range with almost less noise as it uses EIS and the contrast is very good.
The 1080p videos at 60fps have much better exposure and white balance compared to the 4K videos from the main camera. The ultrawide camera can record 1080p videos at 30fps and the videos have a decent dynamic range with a slightly higher amount of noise in the background but the colours look natural and you get good contrast and dynamic range.
The front camera can record 1080p videos at 30fps and the videos have good contrast and dynamic range but details look slightly softer. Overall, the cameras are good and the main camera is a good upgrade over the main camera of the POCO X4 Pro.
POCO X5 Pro Battery Life:
The POCO X5 Pro sports a larger 5000mAh battery which provides good battery life with normal usage that includes streaming social media, browsing webpages, playing casual games, etc. the smartphone easily lasted for two days or sometimes two and half days with the display set to both Custom and Default modes since the Snapdragon 778G is an efficient chipset.
With heavy usage that includes gaming for longer hours, rendering videos, attending calls, etc. the smartphone easily lasted for one day and a half with some charge left. The standard screen-on time with heavy usage was around 4-5 hours and with normal usage, the standard screen-on time was around 7-8 hours which is very good.
In terms of charging like the POCO X4 Pro, here also you get a 67W fast charger bundled inside the box which takes the smartphone from 0 to 100 per cent within an hour which is not the fastest but still good for the long run. The first 20-minute charge takes from 0 to 50 per cent which is good. Overall, the battery life and charging speeds are good on the POCO X5 Pro.
POCO X5 Pro Audio Quality:
The POCO X5 Pro sports a dual stereo speaker setup that sounds quite loud and clear with a good amount of loudness even at the highest settings. There is support for Dolby Atmos which provides an even richer sound experience and also you get a 3.5mm headphone jack which supports good audio quality.
Verdict:
The POCO X5 Pro is a good all-rounder package from POCO which brings some very good improvements over its predecessor. First of all the design is good looking, the 120Hz AMOLED display with support for Dolby Vision support is great for media consumption, the Snapdragon 778G chipset provides excellent performance and gaming, the battery life is very good and fast charging is an added advantage.
However, there are some areas where the POCO X5 Pro could have been better as the design is polycarbonate instead of glass, the number of 5G bands is slightly lesser and still it is running on the older Android 12 compared to other smartphones priced lower are coming with Android 13 out of the box and provide better software experience.
But if you look past the design and do not care about the latest Android updates, then the POCO X5 Pro is an excellent buy in the premium mid-range segment and is a good upgrade over the POCO X4 Pro which makes it worth buying.
