Poco F5 review: Makes good on many promises

Poco F5 is the latest entrant into the Indian premium smartphone space, but what makes this smartphone unique is its competitive pricing given the specs. Known for its disruptive offerings, Poco has once again made a splash, but does it live up to the expectations and more importantly the competition. Though the phone looks good on paper, the main question is if it lives up to the expectations in real world.

Before we jump to the review, here's a quick look at the Poco F5 key specifications:

1. Display: 6.67-inch FHD+ AMOLED panel with 120Hz refresh rate
2. CPU: Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 octa-core SOC
3. RAM: 8/12GB RAM
4. Storage: 256GB storage
5. Camera: 64MP + 8MP (ultrawide) + 2MP (macro) ; 16MP front-facing camera
6. Battery: 5000mAh with 67W wired charging
7. OS: Android 13 with MIUI 14
8. Dimensions: 163mm x 75mm x 9mm
9. Weight: 204g
10. Colours: Carbon Black, Electric Blue, Snowstorm White

Price: Rs 29,999 / Rs 33,999

Poco sent us the F5 unit for review purposes. The model we tested packs 12GB RAM and 256GB storage and ran Android 13-based MIUI 14. Of the three available colours, Poco F5 we received was Carbon Black.

Design and display

Poco F5 is designed to impress, at least by the way of looks. Taking it fresh out of the box gives a sense of premium-ness, complete with its flat sides and carbon-fibre finish back, floating camera lenses and a flat edge-to-edge display.

Poco F5 feels good in hand, solely for its form-factor and weight distribution. It feels light and fits snuggly in the hand. The fingerprint scanner is on the right, integrated into the power button, making it easier to unlock without having to awkwardly stretch out the thumb. The sensor also worked perfectly every time and in an instant. The volume controls are placed just above, easily reachable in landscape mode while gaming or watching movies.

At the bottom, you'll find the speaker, USB Type-C port and the SIM card tray. Surprisingly, Poco also packed a 3.5mm hack and another speaker on the top alongside the IR blaster.

Everything in the Poco F5 is well-thought-out. But it loses on the feel factor, as the use of plastic is hard to ignore. The plastic frame as well as the back is just ample plastic to go unnoticed. But the Carbon Black looks better than the other two, by being able to conceal the plastic finish at least visually.

Coming to the display, there's a 6.67-inch AMOLED panel with Full HD resolution and max refresh rate of 120Hz. The display can get really bright, suitable for outdoor use without having to block the screen with your hand. Media streamers would love the HDR10 certification in addition to the Dolby Vision Netflix certification, which means you get a lot of content in that crisp motion. The display is rich and vibrant, suitable for both streaming as well as games, both of which we enjoyed thoroughly.

All in all, the design is great, and so is the display. If only the feel of the phone matched the looks, we'd have an all-around winner.

Camera

Poco F5 has a triple camera setup, but it's not the phone's best feature. Sure, given the ideal lighting conditions, the phone can perform, but challenging situations are hard to adjust for the F5. Let's take the main 64MP camera for instance. It works so well in the daylight, capturing good amount of details and depth. The colours and dynamic range are also respectable. But as the sun goes down, the quality takes a dip. The main sensor still tries to live up to some expectations, but a half-an-inch sensor can only perform so much in low-light conditions.

Then there are ultra-wide and macro sensors accompanying the main one. The macro is unusable in low light, and even with good light, the result is just average. The ultra-wide can still be of use in daylight. But you do not get desired results in low light. In portraits, the main sensor adds a nice depth to the photos, and does that even in ambient lighting.

The selfies are decent. The depth effect is good in portrait selfies and takes a bit of a saturated tone compared to non-portrait. Shooting against a lit-up background can make the image a bit hazy, losing out on some essential details.

Overall, we'd rely primarily on the main sensor. The ultra-wide does come in handy and the portraits are good. The night mode does little to help and the rest could use improvement. 

Camera samples:

Performance

Poco went with Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 chip for the F5. This is the first phone to run this version of Snapdragon chipset and it delivers. The 4nm architecture is built using the same 1+3+4 core model, similar to the SD 8+ Gen 1 chip. In the real world, the phone can handle its graphics quite well, even in demanding situations.

The heat dissipation is also remarkably good, thanks to the vapour chamber cooling. This is perhaps the only time we didn't regret the plastic construction. Even with extended gaming sessions, the phone only did get warm, and not unbearably hot. We were on a Free Fire marathon on this one.

As much as the F5 caters to gamers, average users can also get the most out of the phone. Day-to-day activities are handled well, with no issues of lags, freezing apps or unexpected shutdowns. The software, which is MIUI 14, comes with its usual abundance of bloatware. Though most of it is deletable, Poco went all out on this front. But the software itself gives a lot of room for customisation and some nifty features, such as increasing the RAM space virtually. The app icons are familiar to those who use Xiaomi or other MIUI-powered phones. If you're coming from Samsung or better yet, an iPhone, the struggle of finding apps as simple as Notes is a task. But there's a search bar within the menu for you to quickly bring up any app you want, which is a saver. Another good thing about the software is that it gets two years of major OS updates and three years of security updates.

One of the issues we faced with the F5 was related to connectivity. It paired easily with Bluetooth devices, but Wi-Fi was inconsistent. Even though a Wi-Fi network was saved, it wouldn't automatically connect when in range. There were no issues with cellular connectivity and both 4G and 5G worked just fine.

Battery

Holding the phone feels light, but it packs a 5,000mAh battery. We'd easily make it through the day. On a busy day with heavy usage, the phone was left with just about enough to put it back on charge. On days we'd indulge in gaming, the phone would be put to charge early. If your daily usage revolves around calls, IMs, emails and internet browsing, the phone can easily last a whole day and still have a quarter of it left.

But that's not the best part. The phone comes with 67W fast charging support and an adaptor in the box. The phone can be charged to full in under one hour, but if you need an instant recharge, give it 15 minutes and you'll get 45 percent charge.

On the battery front, Poco F5 has an edge.

Motherboard worries and warranty

Poco is offering a one-year additional warranty for its F5 smartphone, which is a total of 2 years. In addition, there's a 6-month warranty for accessories that come with the phone. Poco has also addressed some motherboard issues some of its earlier models had faced, causing serious concern among customers, Poco tells us that the F5 won't have any such issues. The extended warranty is reassuring.

Verdict

Poco F5 is priced competitively, which is a strong USP for the phone. But then, the phone also delivers on many fronts. It has a modern design, which appeals to the youth. It is a gaming-centric phone on a budget, which also offers a strong battery. The display is excellent for the price. Except for the cameras, we find the phone compelling overall. The plastic construction feels a bit off, but it makes up for it with good heat dissipation.

On top of it all, the phone comes with two years warranty and has some nifty tidbits such as 3.5mm jack (another gamer's favourite who wouldn't want to invest in wireless earpieces), good stereos, Dolby Atmos and the likes of it.

Poco F5 has many things going its way and has few disadvantages for a phone in its price category.