POCO F5 vs POCO F3: Is it time for a new KING? πŸ‘‘

So when I did my first impressions video of the POCO F5 a month ago, many of you had an appetite for drama, asking for a comparison video between the POCO F5 versus the King of POCOs – the POCO F3! So let’s find out how this two-year-old phone holds against the new POCO F5.

First, let’s talk money; as of June 2023, if you’re lucky enough to find the POCO F3, it is currently priced at RM1,169 which is about USD$253, for the 8GB of RAM and 256 GB storage variant, and the POCO F5’s price is about RM1,699 which is about USD$367 for the 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage variant. So is newer better? Well, let’s find out!

 

Hardware

Now, the POCO F3 comes with the Snapdragon 870 chipset, built on a 7nm process; then the POCO F5 has the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 chipset, a pretty new chipset that is built on a 4mm process.

In terms of the weight, it is interesting to know that the POCO F3 is heavier at 196 grams compared to 181 grams on the POCO F5. Can you feel the difference? Yes, you can but it’s like choosing between two different donuts – both delicious, but one might be a bit nuttier, only noticeable when you compare them side by side.

In terms of which feels better in the hands, my vote goes to the POCO F3’s matte finish because the POCO F5’s glossy finish is a real fingerprint and dust magnet, especially near the camera array area.

Now, because the sides of the POCO F5 have a matte finish, that was the saving grace to make the phone less slippery because of its glossier finish.

Then the buttons on both phones were nice and clicky, and there’s not much difference between the both the side-mounted fingerprint sensor was also equally as fast, so that was great to know.

Now, since we’re looking at two generations apart, the camera array has been revamped. Which one do I prefer? Well, it does come down to a personal taste but for me, I prefer the iconic camera arrays on the POCO F3.

But I wouldn’t say that I don’t like the camera arrays on the POCO F5 as it also looks really cool. And because of how both camera arrays are designed, you’ll find both phones to be slightly wobbly when you’re typing each phone on a surface.

Then the ports and buttons are β€œsame same” but POCO has decided to resurrect the headphones jack on the POCO F5, so that’s a huge plus for that.

But both phones does not come with a microSD card expansion, which is something that didn’t bother me at all but it probably might bother some. Then both phones have stereo speakers, equally sounding great and very similar too.

So overall from a hardware’s perspective, I’m leaning towards the POCO F3 because of its matte finish, feeling slightly nicer in the hands but the idea of having the headphones jack on the POCO F5 makes it a rather tough one to pick for some people who really needs that – it’s like having that long lost friend waving at you saying hello I’m back!Β 

 

Display

All right, let’s talk screens, screen and resolution wise, both are like twinsies, a good 6.67-inch each.Β 

Color reproduction on both phones looks equally as good but the POCO F5 edges the POCO F3 with this Dolby Vision certification, especially on Netflix so if you really love watching movies on your phone, you will really appreciate the better screen experience on the POCO F5.Β 

Other than that, both phones have the Always On Display where it can go up to 120Hz refresh rate and you can adjust it down to 60Hz if you really need to save on battery.

During my daily usage, besides watching movies, I have not encountered any issues with the screen but one thing to note is that the POCO F3 seems to brighten up the screen perfectly on the automatic brightness adjustments, thanks to the higher peak brightness of 1,300 nits compared to 1,000 nits on the POCO F5.

But you know what? Even though with the slightly lower peak brightness value, the POCO F5 was still great during bright daylight.

So overall, if I really had to choose between both screens, although the POCO F3 is brighter, but because of its Dolby Vision certification, I’m going to go with the POCO F5 since I watch a lot of movies on any smartphone that I use.

 

Camera

So the cameras on these two phones could essentially be your deciding factor on your purchase decision because here’s where you’ll find out if the biggest 64-megapixel camera on the POCO F5 is better than the 48-megapixel on the POCO F3.

Well as a recap of the specs, the POCO F3 has a 48MP f/1.8 Main camera and 8MP f/2.2 Ultrawide lens, and a 5MP f/2.4 Macro lens.

Then the POCO F5 has a bigger 64MP f/1.8 Main camera as mentioned, and the Ultrawide camera is the same but the Macro lens have been reduced to 2MP instead of 5MP. Yeap weird, but yeah, power to the macro lens!Β 

Then as for the front camera, here’s another shocker because the POCO F3 comes with a bigger 20MP selfie camera compared to a 16MP lens with the same aperture value of f/2.5.

 

High Megapixel Mode

Starting from the high megapixel mode, even though the POCO F5 has a higher megapixel value, looking at both images side by side, it looks very identical where the only slight difference is the color temperature, where the POCO F5 is a tad bluish compared to POCO F3.

 

Ultrawide Lens

Then the images on the POCO F3 had a bit darker shadows for the ultrawide lenses, but the POCO F5 seems to be more color accurate, as seen in this β€œBerhenti” (Stop) signage on this second ultrawide image.

 

Main Lens

As for the main lenses, I’m leaning towards the images produced on the POCO F5 since it looks great straight out of the camera, with the best saturation levels and better overall dynamic range on the darker areas of the photos.

 

Zoom

As for the zooming capabilities, both phones can zoom up to 10x maximum, and if you do zoom to that amount, you’ll get better detail on the POCO F5, probably because of its higher megapixel count.

 

Rear Portrait Mode

As for portrait mode, it is very much the same for objects, both for the subject to background blur and producing great bokeh too.

Then as for portrait mode for humans, here’s where by default, the bokeh on the POCO F3 looks better compared to the POCO F5, so I prefer the POCO F3 for portrait mode overall.

 

Macro Mode

Then as for my ultimate β€œfavorite” lens – the Macro lens! If you love taking macro mode shots, you can forget about doing so with the POCO F5 because you can barely even take specific macro mode shots compared to the POCO F3, where the macro mode does look like it’s a proper close-up shot compared to the POCO F5.

 

NIGHT

Ultrawide LensΒ 

Then as for the night shots, while both look great, the POCO F5 had more glare on the traffic lights and the street lights area, and yes, I did wipe the lens clean in case you’re wondering.

 

Main LensΒ 

However you’ll, see a similar glare on the lights if you switch to the main lenses but still no major complaints over here.

 

Selfie

Then if you love taking selfies at night, you’ll be happy to know that it looks great, even for the portrait selfies with just slightly different skin tones between the phones.

 

DAY

Switching over to the daytime shots, while the regular selfie photos looks equally as good but if you take portrait selfies, the subject-to-background edge detection was better on the POCO F3, and the dynamic range for the background area, as seen at the skies area, was also better on the POCO F3, and here’s where the POCO F3’s front camera edges out the POCO F5.

So it seems from a photography perspective, it looks like the POCO F5’s rear cameras are better than the POCO F3, but the front cameras for the F3 were better, so I guess size does matter huh?Β 

 

Video

Then as for video, both phones record up to 4K 30 frames per second (fps) for the rear, and the front camera records up to 1080p up to 60 fps.Β 

 

Note: Sample video footages are available on my YouTube video

 

Ultrawide

The quality and the stabilization for each phone were excellent, even though the ultrawide has a maximum resolution of 1080p.

 

Main

Then the video on the main lens for the POCO F3 had darker shadows compared to the POCO F5 and the image stabilization was equally as great. But sometimes the colors on the main lenses on the POCO F3 don’t look as natural as how the POCO F5. So overall, my vote would be on the POCO F5 when it comes to rear video quality.

 

Front Video

Then similar to the selfie images, the video quality for the front camera on the POCO F3 was better, especially for the overall dynamic range on the POCO F3 as well.

 

Night Video Ultrawide

Now, what’s funny is that the ultrawide video quality at night for the POCO F5 was darker than the POCO F3, with both having decent stabilization.

 

Night Video Main

But the video footage was brighter on the main lenses for the POCO F5 instead.

 

Selfie Video

Then if you plan to take selfie videos at night for sort of a vlogging situation, you’ll experience a bit noisier footage, especially on the darker areas, but still very usable indeed.

 

Battery

Now, as for the battery specs, the POCO F3 comes with a 4,520mAh of battery but the POCO F5 comes with a significantly bigger 5,000mAh.

And based on my daily test, after the latest software update, I got a better average screen-on time than before on the POCO F3 of 5 hours and 26 minutes and even though with a way bigger milliamps of battery on the POCO F5, it only gave me a little more of an average of 5 hours and 32 minutes of screen-on time.

Now, these tests are done with the β€œforced” 120Hz refresh rate and dark mode turned on on both phones. So the obvious winner over here is the POCO F5, but not too much over the POCO F3.

Then the charging performance on the POCO F5 is better at 67W compared to 33W on the POCO F3, and both does not have wireless charging. So the obvious winner over here is the POCO F5.

 

Software

So nothing can be said about this software experience, except if you are a MIUI veteran, because the POCO skin will make you feel like you’re slipping into your favorite pair of pajamas – very cozy and familiar.

Now, I said it before and I’ll say it again that it is about time that POCO and MIUI follow the footsteps of OnePlus which has continued to revamp its software as time goes by.

And just for your information, the POCO F3 has been updated to Android 13 and the MIUI version is 14.0.7 and the POCO F5 runs at the same Android 13 of course but the update is one step behind at version 14.0.6.Β 

But all in all, I didn’t find any issues using the phone daily, as there were no noticeable lags or stutters even when opening a bunch of apps and that was good news because the POCO F3 has a lower RAM compared to POCO F5.

 

GamingΒ 

So the gaming test was done based on Genshin Impact since it’s more graphic intensive.

Starting off with the POCO F3, it run well at Medium settings, 60 fps and motion blur turned off, and what’s good is that this POCO F3 still ran the game very well, considering the two-year age of the phone.

There were no battery-draining issues but in terms of the thermal management, it does become warm to the touch about 15 minutes of continued gameplay if there were any intensive animations, as that is when I encountered some micro stutters. But there was only for a while then it went back to having a smooth gameplay.

Then on the POCO F5 though, not only the game ran extremely smoothly with the exact settings, but gaming on the phone felt like I was playing the game on a flagship smartphone. And even after 20 minutes of continuous gameplay, the thermal management on the phone was really great as the phone didn’t get any warmer. Then just for fun, I turned the motion blur on and the good news is that to my surprise, it also ran smoothly as well!Β 

So in terms of which is better, the obvious answer is the POCO F5 but for longer hours of gaming the POCO F3 felt way much more comfortable to game because of its overall build quality, but my money is still on the POCO F5 for its overall better performance, because I just love how smooth and less warm that the phone gets during my gameplay sessions.

 

Conclusion

So in conclusion, which should you get? Well, I personally feel that with the current price, the POCO F3 is a huge steal of a price! But in terms of the overall rear camera performance, gaming battery life, and daily usage, the POCO F5 might be the one to take over the throne of being the new King of POCOs compared to the POCO F4 when I compared that previously on the POCO F3.

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