Verdict
The budget - favorable Poco X5 5 G offers a flagship - grade display and a great design , though execution and television camera prowess leaves much to be desired .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Poco ’s chintzy air - up of budget and mid - range phones usually extend pretty serious bang for your long horse , but I always seem to be left want that small bit extra from the equipment . Some extra megapixels , a boastful battery , or a needlelike display .
The stain ’s fresh Poco X5 5 yard draw a bead on to achieve this with a rather impressive overhaul .
You ’ll discover a tasteful pattern on this budget - friendly pocket roquette , plus some feature excrescence to fit . The Poco X5 packs a 6.7 - column inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate , a triple tv camera organisation on the fundament , and a whopping 5,000mAh shelling .
It certainly sound like Poco is ramping things up with its latest smartphone , but how does it stack up ?
Design and screen
As I touch to , Poco has convey the chance to down the blueprint of its late budget smartphone . The old X4 was n’t my favourite design , with the camera system on the tooshie standing out like a sore thumb . With the X5 , Poco has simplified things .
On the left-hand - hired hand side of the arse , you ’ll discover the television camera bump with all three sensing element . On the right - hand side , you ’ll find Poco ’s signature seal of possession . This class , the steel name is crabwise in blockage Washington . It looks rather sleek – well , as sleek as a firebrand name can count on the back of a telephone .
Moving down to the residue of the rear venire , things only begin to look expert . The matte stuff on the back collar the ignitor to give off a metallic effect . It looks really rather convincing , making the phone look more insurance premium than it really is . I looked at the model in blue , but green and black are also available .
Rather than the more square - off designs I ’ve seen in the smartphone Earth recently , the X5 keeps thing sonsy . The back control board curvature on the sharpness for a more comfortable in - hand scene . I actually choose this design over the boxy look of the more premium Poco X5 Pro .
Looking at the side of the equipment , Poco is keep things elementary here as well . On the left side , you ’ll find a SIM slot up top , with room for expandable computer storage via microSD . Down at the bottom are a mic , USB - C charging larboard , and a little speaker unit grill . Over on the right are the loudness dominance and a power push button with a fingermark sensing element built - in . And up top , you ’ll notice a 3.5 millimetre headphone seafarer ( few and far between , these day ) alongside an IR blaster .
Despite the budget cost tag , the Poco X5 5 g-force features a flagship - quality display . It ’s a 6.7 - inch AMOLED panel with FHD+ resolution . What it might miss in resolution , it make up for with a 120Hz refresh rate for super bland vivification on the screen . The X5 can also crank up up the brightness really gamey – I ’m blab 1200 nits of brightness at its peak .
Like most Android devices , you ’ll find an always - on display for light access code to notifications and the team . Here , the refresh pace drops right down to economise battery life . While you wo n’t witness more premium showing standards such asDolby Vision , the panel does boast full DCI - P3 colour support ( which is essentially 16.7 million colours ) , and a 4,500,000:1 contrast ratio . And as an redundant fillip , there ’s a downcast - spark confine feature of speech that ’s easy on the optic .
It ’s not a display that ’ll blow you away , but it can equalize importantly more expensive flagship . And on a phone at this price , I ’m passing impressed .
Cameras
Poco ’s cameras have always got the job done , but have never particularly excelled in performance . In fact , they often lease the brand ’s phones down – fully cement their budget status .
Does the television camera on the new X5 improve things ? Well , not really . But Poco has put a lot more exertion into the features around the camera .
channelize into the television camera app and you ’ll regain a crew of unlike extra modal value to pick out from ( in accession to your standard Video and Photo ) . There ’s Pro for ascendancy over the camera , a document scanning pecker , Portrait Mode , Night Mode , and some other software - controlled feature .
Unfortunately , these features ca n’t fly the coop the lustreless performance of the sensor on the Poco X5 . The main 48MP sensor is n’t very large , coming in at 1/2.76 - inch . Poco attempt to rectify this with a wide f/1.8 aperture to let in more light , but regrettably does n’t fare very well .
Images from the chief snapper are noticeably gloomy , even when consume outside during the 24-hour interval . The result motion picture are n’t just dark overall , but colours are also pretty quiet compared to much of the budget competition , though there is a decent amount of item on offer . It ’s a photographic camera that can get the business done , but does n’t produce photo that you ’ll be unrestrained to look back at .
Video from the main sensor is n’t great , either . The X5 captivate video up to 1080p at 30fps . It hurt the same destiny as pictures from this television camera – a deficiency of detail and dull tones . Without OIS , there ’s not much in the way of stabilization either , so you may wind up with fairly wobbly footage .
If you ’re planning on zooming in on photos you ’ve taken , you may draw a blank that idea . As soon as you start to zoom , the item in the X5 ’s simulacrum come down asunder and things become passably pixelated . It ’s not the high resolution I ’d anticipate from a 48MP camera , so perhaps some details are getting lost in the AI processing .
The ultra - wide sensor works well , zoom out to the usual 0.6x zoom . Images are noticeably lower character than those from the independent cracker , but that ’s to be carry from an 8MP sensing element on a budget smartphone . The 118 - degree FOV makes for a passably wide image , without a fish - eye effect that hurt your head .
And while the macro camera is a gracious idea , it does n’t produce usable picture . thing are simply far too blurry – there ’s not enough get by the 2MP sensing element Poco uses . It ’s simply there to bump up the camera tally and make it count more beguiling .
Portrait Mode really struggles with edge spotting too . The X5 can just about deal simple subject such as another phone , but freaks out at the sight of anything more complicated . apart from boundary espial , the resulting photos are very low resolution due to the digital zoom on the images .
dark modality is a nice idea , but is n’t a lineament I ’d notice myself using on the Poco on a regular base . It for certain make image brighter ( if not a little too warm ) , but lacks any detail whatsoever due to the sensors Poco uses . You ’re more likely to seize a better photo using the flash .
Despite trying to admit some extra tv camera features , the Poco X5 fall flat when it comes to photos and videos . There ’s just no escaping the low - quality sensors within the smartphone .
Performance
Within the budget - concenter Poco X5 you ’ll find the Snapdragon 695 processor , a crisp first revealed in 2021 . It blow an octa - gist CPU , but sure as shooting is n’t the fastest chipset around by any means . While it can wield some things pretty easily , it ’s not quite up to scratch for most tasks – even for a speech sound at this price .
You ’ve got Netflix open , fill up it from the multitasking windowpane , and then attract up the app spotter from your home page . sound pretty simple , correct ? Unfortunately , not for the Poco X5 . It starts to stammer when pulling up the app discoverer , hanging for a second or two . It ’s not the biggest deal , the speech sound ’s still useable – but it ’s noticeable enough that it ’ll get down to gall over time .
That ’s backed up by benchmark too . Running a Geekbench 5 benchmark on the phone , I got a 684 single - effect score and a 2079 multi - core score . For reference , that ’s almost one-half of that score by flagship like theOnePlus 11 in 2023 . These machine are much more agiotage , of course , but it gives you an idea of what to expect .
The smartphone can manage scant gambling without any hiccups , but begin to stammer again with punishing gaming . When playing Asphalt 9 , push presses in the game would often be somewhat detain , and frame rates drop during gameplay . Sure , you in all probability would n’t utilize this phone for gaming – but you could n’t really if you did require to .
Poco ’s software experience continues to disappoint with MIUI 13 . Based on Android 12 , the custom pelt really complicate the Android experience . It ’s clunky and unorganized , with distinctive actions buried deep beneath multiple buttons and swipes .
There ’s also a ton of bloatware pre - installed on the twist – everything from Booking.com to Netflix , and even some mobile games ! It ’s not what you want on a Modern speech sound out of the boxful , regardless of what you paid for it .
When it comes to audio , it ’s safe to say that the Poco X5 does n’t precisely excel . With one , small talker grill on the bottom , audio frequency is still and tinny . It ’s not something you particularly want to listen to , whether you ’re playing euphony or watching the tv . A good set of earbuds will be your champion with this smartphone !
And connectivity - wise , the X5 packs everything you ’d expect from a smartphone in 2023 . It boasts 5 G for the latest in roving connectivity . , and you ’ll find Wi - Fi 5 , Bluetooth 5.1 , and NFC .
Battery life
The Poco X5 squelch in a 5000mAh battery that , on paper , should pitch all - day barrage fire living without issue . free-base on my testing , You ’ll be able to last all daytime on the battery without disregardless of what you ’re up to , but stimulate to a second day might be quite the struggle . Poco touts 20 hours of call meter , which seems a little in high spirits compare to my findings .
You ’ll find 33W fast(ish ) charge on the X5 5 G , though regrettably I could n’t test the charger that comes in the box as my sample distribution had a European charger bundled . Those buy from UK retailer should have a UK plug though .
I found a similarly fit charging brick to juice up the Poco X5 for testing . It took just over half an hour to charge from 0 % to 50 % , but just over two hours to go all the way . You might be able to apace boost up in a unforesightful amount of clock time , but you ’ll find oneself yourself looking for a charger again soon after .
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
with a 6.8 - in 120Hz display , the Poco X5 offer one of the good viewing experiences at less than £ 280 .
Despite the inclusion of three lens on the buttocks , including a 48 - megapixel main tv camera , photos are n’t that impressive overall .
Final Thoughts
The Poco X5 5 G is a budget smartphone that tries to allow the experience of a mid - commando , but it falls unforesightful . It ’s a okay phone , for certain – especially when you consider the price and that high - oddment 6.8 - in 120Hz display . If you ’re after something primarily for watch over videos at a tinny price , this is it .
But if you ’re looking to squeeze as much functioning as you could out of a budget telephone , you ’d be better off looking elsewhere . Everyday execution and the tv camera are what allow down the Poco X5 . And they ’re passably bighearted batch as far as smartphones are concerned . It ’s analrightbudget phone with a great show , but you may line up better .
Trusted Score
How we test
We test every fluid phone we review soundly . We use industry - standard tests to compare features properly and we apply the telephone set as our main gadget over the review menstruation . We ’ll always evidence you what we rule and we never , ever , accept money to review a product .
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