Some of the best smartphones out there currently bear the ‘POCO’ logo on their back. Since 2018, marrying high-end specifications with surprisingly affordable prices is a formula that has served well for Poco. In 2023, Poco continues that trend with the fifth generation of the ‘F series’, specifically with the F5 and F5 Pro. Both phones fall in the midrange category and offer incredible specifications and features that could make their rivals head back to the drawing board.
The Poco F5 5G is the model that is readily available across most regions, including Malaysia and India, whereas the Poco F5 Pro has only reached the European markets as of May 2023. If you are looking for a new midrange smartphone, chances are that these Poco siblings may grab your attention over their rivals from Samsung, Xiaomi, Nothing and even Apple. The newly announced Google Pixel 7a also comes in as direct competition to the Poco F5 5G.
So, given the hype they have been generating, let’s dive in for a complete overview of these midrange Poco phones.
Poco F5 5G: Flagship specs for a midrange price
Let’s take a look at the prices first. The Poco F5 5G starts at SGD 549 for the base variant with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage.
For its price rag, the Poco F5 is deliciously equipped. You get to look at a 6.67-inch AMOLED display with a pixel resolution of FHD+, a refresh rate of 120Hz and peak brightness capped at 1000 nits. The star of the show, however, is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 chipset that shares its CPU cores with the flagship-grade Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip, albeit with a lower clock speed. Hence, users will be able to play all the latest and graphically intense games at the highest settings on these Poco smartphones.
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That firepower is backed by a 5,000 mAh battery that comes along with a 67W wired charger. As far as the operating software is concerned, this phone runs on MIUI 14 based on Android 13. As for photography, there’s a rear triple camera setup. This includes a 64-megapixel main camera with an f/1.8 aperture lens that is accompanied by an 8-megapixel fixed-focus ultra-wide camera and a 2-megapixel macro camera. Selfies are handled by a 16-megapixel camera on the front, tucked inside the punch-hole cutout.
Lastly, we’ve got the design. The Poco F5 features a simple design, imitating the ‘hump-less’ camera lens islands as seen on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.
Poco F5 Pro 5G: High-end specs and features for the masses
The Poco F5 Pro 5G is a beefed-up variant of the Poco F5 5G and is loosely based on the Redmi K60 from China. It shares most of the basic features and specifications with the regular Poco F5 5G, except for a few upgrades here and there. While the Poco F5 Pro is priced at USD 449 for the base model, Poco is yet to announce its plans for a global release.
The Poco F5 Pro has the same 6.7-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with a refresh rate of 120Hz but supports Dolby Vision and a higher peak brightness of 1,400 nits. The phone has a slightly bigger 5,160 mAh battery that also gets support of 67W wired fast charging and 30W wireless charging. The phone also comes with IP53 water and dust resistance certification. Unlike the side-mounted fingerprint scanner, the Poco F5 Pro gets an optical in-display fingerprint scanner. The camera setup on the rear and front remains unchanged as well.
The biggest reason, however, to consider the Pro over the regular variant is the chipset. Poco is using the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip, which is faster and more capable than the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 chip. In simpler terms, this means that the Pro version will deliver a better gaming experience as well as a superior thermal management system. In fact, games like Genshin Impact and Call of Duty: Mobile can be enjoyed effortlessly (on the highest of settings) on the F5 Pro.
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(Hero and Featured Image Credits: Courtesy Poco)
