Has the POCO all the capabilities to take on the rival from Realme?
The mid-range segment is where each manufacturer tries to provide a smartphone with good specifications and borrows some of the flagship specifications from a premium mid-range or flagship. This year there are many contenders from each manufacturer and out of them, the Realme 10 Pro Plus-(Review) and the POCO X5 Pro (Review) has been the newest on the block and are out to set the game.
The Realme 10 Pro Plus brings a newer design philosophy with a curved display which has been the segment first as many premium flagships have a curved display, a powerful and newer MediaTek Dimensity 1080 chipset, a 120Hz AMOLED display, a 108MP triple camera setup, a 5000mAh battery and much more.
On the other hand, there is the Poco X5 Pro which can be said one of the best offerings in the mid-range segment as it brings the powerful Snapdragon 778G chipset, a 120Hz AMOLED display, a 108MP camera setup with a 5000mAh battery. So considering all the good specifications both smartphones have, which is a better pick from the two?
Let's find out in the full comparison.
POCO X5 Pro vs Realme 10 Pro Plus Design:
In terms of design, both the Realme 10 Pro Plus and the POCO X5 Pro sport a polycarbonate back instead of glass but the design is slightly different. The Realme 10 Pro Plus has a glossy back which shines when light strikes at different angles and there is a radiating prism effect with the colour changing when viewed from top to bottom if you consider the HyperSpace colour option.
There are two camera modules at the back where the top one houses the main 108MP camera and the below module houses the ultrawide and the macro camera. Besides the cameras the LED flashlight is present. Around the sides, the back is slightly curved just like the front which makes it easier to hold in hands. On the other hand, the POCO X5 Pro has a flat back which has a boxy design with rounded corners.
The back of the POCO X5 Pro has a frosted matte finish that provides excellent grip and does not catch fingerprints. The camera module is just like all typical POCO smartphones with a rectangular camera module that consists of triple cameras with a LED flashlight alongside there is a black module which has a shiny surface that consists of the POCO branding if you consider the signature yellow colour variant.
The back of the POCO X5 Pro has an IP53 rating which makes it splash and dust resistant whereas there is no such protection on the Realme 10 Pro Plus. In terms of weight distribution, the Realme 10 Pro Plus weighs around 173 grams which makes it lighter compared to the 181 grams of weight on the POCO X5 Pro. Around the sides, both smartphones have a polycarbonate frame that houses the power button and volume buttons.
On the top, the POCO X5 Pro has a 3.5mm headphone jack which the Realme 10 Pro Plus lacks, a secondary microphone, a speaker grille that doubles up as a stereo speaker and an IR Blaster to control various devices whereas the Realme 10 Pro Plus only has a secondary noise cancelling microphone with a speaker grille that doubles as a stereo speaker on the top.
At the bottom, both smartphones have a dual SIM card slot, a primary microphone, a USB Type-C port and a primary speaker setup. Neither of them has a microSD card slot for storage expansion. On the front, both of them have a single punch-hole located on top of the display and have minimum bezels around the sides. Overall, the design looks good and is a personal preference which one you choose.
POCO X5 Pro vs Realme 10 Pro Plus Display:
On the display side, both the POCO X5 Pro and the Realme 10 Pro Plus sport almost identical displays i.e. 6.67-inch display on the POCO X5 Pro and a 6.7-inches display on the Realme 10 Pro Plus where both these displays have support for Full HD+(1080x2400 pixels) AMOLED displays and both of them have 120Hz refresh rate for smoother scrolling on the displays.
But there are some differences between both the displays. The Realme 10 Pro Plus has a curved display which looks really great as found on flagships whereas the POCO X5 Pro has a flatter display. The 120Hz refresh rate on the Realme 10 Pro Plus is a standard one as you can set the display to 60Hz or 120Hz and also it automatically switches between 60Hz and 120Hz depending on the content on the display.
On the other hand, the 120Hz refresh rate on the POCO X5 Pro is an adaptive one where it switches between 30Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz or 120Hz depending on the application being used in the display. Both of them have faster touch responses during gaming and multitasking. Both these displays have good visibility under direct sunlight.
In terms of display brightness, both these displays are brighter but the POCO X5 Pro has a slightly better peak brightness of 900 nits compared to 800 nits on the Realme 10 Pro Plus. Since both these displays are AMOLED, you get good colour reproduction and viewing angles but the colours look slightly more saturated on the POCO X5 Pro compared to the Realme 10 Pro Plus.
The Realme 10 Pro Plus has an optical in-display fingerprint scanner that works fast and accurately whereas the POCO X5 Pro uses the power button that doubles up as a fingerprint scanner and it works faster. The POCO X5 Pro has Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for protection whereas the display protection is unknown for the Realme 10 Pro Plus.
Both these displays have support for Widevine L1 so you can stream HDR content on OTT platforms but Netflix does not support HDR on Realme 10 Pro Plus whereas there is support for Dolby Vision on Netflix on the POCO X5 Pro. Both these displays are great for media consumption but if you want a curved display then the Realme 10 Pro Plus is a great option but overall, the display of the POCO X5 Pro is better.
POCO X5 Pro vs Realme 10 Pro Plus Performance:
The POCO X5 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 778G chipset whereas the Realme 10 Pro Plus is powered by the powerful MediaTek Dimensity 1080 chipset. Both these chipsets are based on the 6nm process and are very efficient. In terms of daily activities, both smartphones can handle all the light to heavy tasks easily without any lags or stutters.
In terms of gaming, both can handle all the heavy games like Apex Legends, BGMI, etc. easily. In BGMI, both smartphones can run on Smooth graphics with Extreme frame rates or HDR graphics with Ultra frame rates but after long hours of gaming on BGMI, we could notice that there were some minor frame drops noticed on the Realme 10 Pro Plus which was not the case with the POCO X5 Pro.
After 3-4 hours of continuous gaming, both smartphones did not feel warmer since both have a dedicated liquid system underneath. In benchmarks, both smartphones have almost identical scores and even in the CPU throttling test, both smartphones could achieve a sustained performance of around 85-90 per cent which is very good with no thermal throttling on the POCO X5 Pro.
In terms of network connectivity, both smartphones have support for good carrier aggregation but the Realme 10 Pro Plus has support for 9 bands of 5G compared to 7 bands of 5G on the POCO X5 Pro. Both smartphones have 6/8GB LPDDR4X RAM with 128/256GB UFS 2.2 storage. Overall, both smartphones are great for daily usage and gaming.
POCO X5 Pro vs Realme 10 Pro Plus Software:
Both these smartphones run on different software skins where the POCO X5 Pro runs on the latest MUI 14 which is based on the older Android 12 out of the box whereas the Realme 10 Pro Plus runs on the RealmeUI 4.0 based on the newer Android 13 out of the box so definitely the Realme 10 Pro Plus holds a slight advantage in terms of AndroidOS updates as it would get one extra AndroidOS update of the two.
Talking about both the user interfaces, both of them have a lot of features to offer like customizations for icon shape and size, different styles for Always-On display, Privacy Dashboard, etc are present but the look and feel of the RealmeUI are closer to Stock Android compared to MIUI which has a different look to it. Both user interfaces come with bloatware but it is minimal on the POCO X5 Pro compared to the Realme 10 Pro Plus.
On the Realme 10 Pro Plus, there are some ads in the user interface which is very annoying which is not the case on the POCO X5 Pro. However, you can uninstall bloatware on both of these smartphones. In terms of software updates, both smartphones will receive another two years of AndroidOS updates and three years of security patches but the track record of Realme is slightly better compared to POCO.
POCO X5 Pro vs Realme 10 Pro Plus Cameras:
Both the POCO X5 Pro and the Realme 10 Pro Plus have an identical camera setup that consists of a main 108MP f/1.9 main camera, an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera and a 2MP f/2.4 macro camera. On the front, both smartphones have a 16MP f/2.4 camera. However, there are some differences between both cameras.
The Realme 10 Pro Plus has a 108MP main camera that uses the newer Samsung HM6 sensor when compared to the POCO X5 Pro which uses the Samsung HM2 sensor for its 108MP camera. The images from the main camera come out with sharper details and good dynamic range on both smartphones but the POCO X5 Pro has oversaturated colours whereas colours on the Realme 10 Pro Plus look natural.
The HDR images taken from the POCO X5 Pro have slightly less noise compared to that of the Realme 10 Pro Plus and also the images look brighter on the POCO X5 Pro compared to the Realme 10 Pro Plus. But when it comes to the night, things do change slightly as the Realme 10 Pro Plus takes images with slightly sharper details, has less noise and better exposure compared to the POCO X5 Pro.
Here also the colours look oversaturated on the POCO X5 Pro compared to the Realme 10 Pro Plus. The dynamic range and contrast are equally good on both and using the Night Mode, things do change up for the POCO X5 Pro as details look sharper and noise is reduced and there is almost very little to differentiate between the images from the main camera on both smartphones using the Night Mode.
The 8MP ultrawide camera on both smartphones takes images with good details and dynamic range but there is a lot of distortion around the edges and when you zoom into the images, there is a considerable amount of noise in the background. The field of view is slightly wider on the POCO X5 Pro and the colours look oversaturated whereas the colours look slightly washed out on the Realme 10 Pro Plus.
At night, both the ultrawide cameras have average dynamic range and details look slightly softer with noise in the background but here the POCO X5 Pro gets a Night Mode for the ultrawide camera which is not present on the Realme 10 Pro Plus, so definitely the noise is less and have slightly better exposure and dynamic range on the images from the POCO X5 Pro compared to the Realme 10 Pro Plus.
The 2MP macro camera is just average on both smartphones as details look softer, noise is present on the higher side and since both lack autofocus, the dynamic range is just average. It is better to use the main camera by going closer to an object for macro images on both smartphones. In terms of portraits, both smartphones provide good edge detection and dynamic range.
But the skin tones look brighter and slightly better on the POCO X5 Pro and also it has slightly better background blur compared to the Realme 10 Pro Plus but the difference is very marginal. In terms of selfies, both smartphones take images with good dynamic range and skin tones also look natural without any oversharpening. The POCO X5 Pro has less noise compared to the Realme 10 Pro Plus though.
In terms of videos, both smartphones can record 4K videos at 30fps from their main camera and the videos from both cameras have good dynamic range and details also look sharper but the POCO X5 Pro has better stabilization as it uses EIS compared to the Realme 10 Pro Plus which has a lot of noise in the videos. The colours look oversaturated in the videos of the POCO X5 Pro.
Both smartphones can record 1080p videos at 30fps from the ultrawide camera and these videos have a decent dynamic range with a lot more noise in the background. However, with the Ultra Steady Mode on, the videos are better on the POCO X5 Pro as it has slightly less noise. On the front, the POCO X5 Pro can record 1080p videos at 60fps whereas the Realme 10 Pro Plus can record 1080p videos at 30fps only.
The video footage on the POCO X5 Pro is a lot more stable as it uses EIS and has a better dynamic range compared to the Realme 10 Pro Plus. Also, the colours look natural in the videos from the selfie camera of the POCO X5 Pro but the videos do look slightly cropped which is not the case with the Realme 10 Pro Plus.
POCO X5 Pro vs Realme 10 Pro Plus Battery Life:
Both smartphones have a 5000mAh battery which easily lasts for two days with normal usage and with heavy usage both of them easily lasted for one and a half days with some charge left. The standard screen-on time was around 5.5-6 hours on the Realme 10 Pro Plus whereas the POCO X5 Pro had slightly better 6-6.5 hours of screen-on time with normal usage and with heavy usage, both had 4-5 hours of screen-on time.
In terms of charging, the Realme 10 Pro Plus ships with an 80W fast charger inside the box whereas the POCO X5 Pro ships with a 67W fast charger but the Realme 10 Pro Plus can only charge at 65W so it takes around 45-50 minutes for a full charge from 0 to 100 per cent whereas the 67W fast charger takes around 55-60 minutes from 0 to 100 per cent on the POCO X5 Pro.
POCO X5 Pro vs Realme 10 Pro Plus Audio Quality:
Both smartphones have a dual stereo speaker setup that sounds loud and clear on both smartphones but the sound is much clear on the POCO X5 Pro at the highest loudness settings compared to the Realme 10 Pro Plus and also it has support for Dolby Atmos that provides enhanced sound output. Also, the POCO X5 Pro has a 3.5mm headphone jack which the Realme 10 Pro Plus lacks.
Verdict:
Overall, both these smartphones are very good mid-rangers as both of them have a lot to offer which includes a good design, 120Hz AMOLED display with stereo speakers for multi-media consumption, a powerful chipset for daily tasks and gaming, good battery life with support for fast charging and a good set of cameras. The software experience is also good on both smartphones.
However, there are some differences between both smartphones. The Realme 10 Pro Plus brings in a curved display which looks premium, has a 120Hz AMOLED display, and the MediaTek Dimensity 1080 chipset is great for performance and gaming, the cameras are good and provide good battery life with fast charging.
On the other hand, the POCO X5 Pro brings a 120Hz AMOLED flat display with support for Dolby Vision, a powerful Snapdragon 778G chipset, a good set of cameras, and good battery life with support for fast charging. When compared to the Realme 10 Pro Plus, it has the edge in terms of images and videos, has a slightly better display, a better software experience and slightly better battery life.
Also, it has slightly better gaming capabilities compared to the Realme 10 Pro Plus and also it is the cheaper of the two making it a value-for-money offering. On the other hand, the Realme 10 Pro Plus has a better software update track record of the two, has a curved display and comes with the latest Android version out of the box compared to the POCO X5 Pro.
So it all depends on your personal preference which you would choose but to be clear it is the POCO X5 Pro that holds the clear edge over the Realme 10 Pro Plus.
This post first appeared on OnePlus 8 Pro Vs Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra: Which Is The Better Flagship Of The Two?, please read the originial post: here
