Oh yes, the most anticipated midrange smartphone is here – the POCO F5 and the POCO F5 Pro!

And as expected, they come with some very impressive specs, so here are the key differences you that should know BEFORE deciding which one is right for you, because it is NOT an easy decision as you think!

 

Unboxing

Let’s begin with what comes inside of the box; the interesting thing about it is that both come with the same items inside of the box, which are the clear TPU case, a USB-A to USB-C cable, and the 67W charger.

 

Build Quality 

In terms of build quality and design, before going into the numbers, from an aesthetics point of view, you can immediately tell the difference between both phones.

The POCO F5 comes with a 3 circular design to separate each of the camera modules, and the POCO F5 Pro has a more streamlined squared camera array design. Now, this would be a personal preference on which looks better, in my humble opinion, I prefer how the Pro looks because I do like how it looks more professional and clean.

And because of the differences of these camera arrays, when it comes to “wobble-ability” (yes, I just made that word up…), the POCO F5’s got some moves while typing on a surface, but the POCO F5 Pro is as steady as a rock… except when you’re tap dancing towards the left side of the phones, on those Qs, As, and Shift keys on the virtual keyboard.

When it comes to the POCO F5’s finish, this Black variant has a carbon fiber style that even extends around the camera module. But this glossy finish is a magnet for fingerprints – so if you’re into creating modern art with your smudges, then this one’s for you!

Moving on to the POCO F5 Pro, its finish is like the long-lost twin of the Xiaomi 13 that I reviewed recently – glossy white and very sleek! Now, it will also attract fingerprints, but it’s not as obvious as the black color variant of the POCO F5, and it keeps the more curved edges at the sides, very similar to the previous generation smartphones.

I have to admit that I do prefer the squared frame design of the Non-Pro variant more since I am not usually a fan of a curved design. And speaking of the frames of the phones, each of the phones has a matte finish, keeping the phone balanced in terms of having a better grip of the phone, where the POCO F5 has the same black finish, whereas the POCO F5 Pro has a silver finish instead.

Overall,  POCO F5 is slightly slimmer and also lighter, weighing at 181g. It’s available in White, Blue, and Black. 

 

On the other hand, the F5 Pro weighs 204g and comes in Black and White, and the good news is that both phones do feel good and grippy in the hands. 

Then both the POCO F5 and the POCO F5 Pro are IP53 splash-proof protected, offering you peace of mind when it comes to accidental water exposure. It has Dual speakers, an IR blaster, and support for NFC. 

And the final face-off is that the POCO F5 has a side fingerprint sensor and also the trusty 3.5mm headphone jack, while the F5 Pro opts for an in-display fingerprint sensor – but sorry, headphone jack fans, because the Pro variant does not have a headphone jack!

So overall, which do I prefer? If you’re a long-time viewer, you know I’m all about that squared shape on the POCO F5. But, the F5 Pro’s camera array and that amazing stunning white finish? It’s like a match made in heaven! So, it is the Pro for me!

 

Display

Let’s move on to the displays. Both have the same display size of 6.67” Flow AMOLED DotDisplay, where the POCO F5 has a resolution of FHD+ 2400 x 1080 pixels, while the F5 Pro features a higher WQHD+ resolution of 3200 x 1440 pixels. 

Both phones offer up to a 120Hz refresh rate, but the F5 Pro has a higher touch sampling rate of up to 480Hz compared to the 240Hz of the F5. Now, to be honest, that is something that I didn’t find very noticeable, so this would be more of a number than actual usage, and both screens have Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection.

Then while both phones have Widevine L1 high-quality playback specifications on Netflix, with Full HD+ playback resolution and HDR 10 as well. I find it extremely weird that the non-Pro has Dolby Vision support but the Pro does not. Hmm, hopefully, a software update could fix this, as I don’t think it is a chipset limitation, which I will dive deeper into the chipsets used for both phones later on.

 

Cameras

Next, in the camera department, both phones have similar camera setups, featuring a 64MP f/1.79 main camera with OIS, an 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera, and a 2MP f/2.4 macro camera (yay, macro camera…)

Now, even though both phones had the exact cameras, I still decided to take pictures on both phones, just to see if there were any differences that I could see.

And to my surprise, there were some differences; looking at these two ultra-wide shots, I prefer how the image looked on the POCO F5, where the skies were more natural in color, and the red “Berhenti” signage on the Non-Pro was more color accurate compared to the image on the POCO F5 Pro. Even the grey painting on the building was also more accurate as well on the POCO F5.

However, when it comes to the main lenses, they were close to each other but then again, with more saturation in the skies area, and so was the 2x zoom image.

Speaking of Zoom, you can zoom digitally up to 10x on both phones.

Portrait Mode on both looked great at a glance, with a very good subject-to-background blur but if you zoom in close, you will find that the edge detection on the POCO F5 was just a tad bit better.

Okay, so I noticed something funky with the front cameras’ image processing. In selfie portrait mode, I set the aperture to f/2.5 on both, but the non-Pro’s background blur went a little overboard compared to the Pro. 

Now, as someone who’s practically married to a manual lens when I shoot all of my YouTube videos, I can tell you that the Pro’s bokeh is spot-on. Looks like the non-Pro’s front camera needs some tuning on the image processing. So, in the battle of skin tones and overall selfies, the POCO F5 Pro takes the win!

Another area where there was quite a difference is the video recording resolutions as the F5 Pro has the advantage of supporting both 4K 60 fps and 8K 24 fps video recording while the F5 only supports up to 4K video recording 30 fps.

Now, keep in mind that all of the high resolutions as mentioned are only for the main rear lens, as mentioned as the video recording on the ultrawide cameras is still limited to 1080p 30 fps for the non-Pro and up to 60 fps on the Pro.

And another quirk that I found on the Pro variant is that, while it does has HDR that you can toggle it on while on video mode, but you are only limited to the main lens, so keep in mind if you really need to record in the HDR mode, then you can only use the main lens.

Then, as usual, the front camera can only record up to 1080p 60fps, where the image stabilization was really good, but the dynamic range wasn’t as good with the brightly exposed skies. 

So it does seem that as of this moment, if you love taking photos, the POCO F5 is better, but if you love shooting videos, the POCO F5 Pro should be your pick and of course, stay tuned for my in-depth camera review during my full video review on the phone.

 

Chipset

Under the hood, the POCO F5 is powered by a Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 chipset, while the POCO F5 Pro features the more powerful Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset. This means the F5 Pro will provide more processing power for gaming and other demanding tasks.

So, in a nutshell, to help you in your purchase decision, let me explain the differences between both of the chipsets as there are two main areas to consider: performance and efficiency.

 

Performance: 

The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 packs a bigger punch than the 7+ Gen 2, so if you’re all about gaming, video editing, or even multitasking like a pro, then this one is your winner.

But, if you’re after a balance between performance and cost efficiency without needing the top dog, then yes, the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 is still a very solid choice.

 

Efficiency: 

Now, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, being the powerhouse it is, might be a little more power-hungry, potentially leading to shorter battery life compared to the 7+ Gen 2.

So if battery life and efficiency are what you need, the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 is your go-to.

 

RAM & Storage

So the good news is that both devices come with LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage. Both phones also feature Dynamic RAM Expansion 3.0, to ensure smooth multitasking and app performance. And once again, stay tuned for the exact RAM and storage available here in Malaysia and also globally as well.

 

Battery

As for battery life, the POCO F5 has a 5000mAh battery, while the F5 Pro comes with a slightly larger 5160mAh battery. I would love to find out how much more battery life that I would actually get with that slightly 160 milliamps of battery, which you will find out in my full video review of the phones.

However, if you prefer wireless charging, the bad news is that the regular POCO F5 does NOT have one, but the POCO F5 Pro has wireless charging up to 30W.

 

Software

Then as for software, both phones run on MIUI 14 for POCO on Android 13, and as of the timing of this review, the POCO F5 is at MIUI version 14.0.2, and the POCO F5 Pro is at version 14.0.4

Price

The price of these two phones was not announced yet, as of the timing of this review. And with this, do let me know which one of these phones you would like for me to review first, or shall I do a comparison between the previous “King of POCOs” – the POCO F3?