The POCO X5 Pro 5G is the latest smartphone in the POCO X5 Series launched alongside the POCO X5 5G. The POCO X5 Pro 5G is an upper variant in the series with a 120 Hz Xfinity 10-bit AMOLED display, 108 MP HM2 main camera, a 6nm Snapdragon 778G SoC, and offers a fast 67W Turbo Charging. Here’s more about the smartphone in our POCO X5 Pro 5G review
POCO X5 Pro 5G Specifications
- Display & Design: 6.67-inch Xfinity AMOLED DotDisplay, Full HD+ resolution (2400 x 1080 pixels, 395 ppi pixel density), 10-bit color depth (1.07B colors), 120 Hz adaptive refresh rate, 240 Hz touch sampling rate, 1,920 Hz high-frequency PWM dimming, 900 nits peak brightness, HDR 10+, Dolby Vision, 5,000,000:1 contrast ratio, DCI-P3 wide color gamut, Sunlight display, and Reading mode, classic stylish flat frame & bezel-less design with black bezel & yellow buttons and a 2.9mm ultra-narrow bottom bezel, IP53 rating, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection, 7.9mm thin, 181 grams weight
- Software: MIUI 14.0.8 for POCO, Android 12 operating system
- CPU: 6nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G octa-core SoC clocked up to 2.4 GHz (1x 2.4 GHz Cortex-A78 cores + 3x 2.2 GHz Cortex-A78 cores + 4x 1.8 GHz Cortex-A55 Kryo 670 cores)
- GPU: Adreno 642L Graphics
- Memory: 6 GB OR 8 GB RAM, LPDDR4X, +5 GB Dynamic RAM expansion 3.0
- Storage: 128 GB OR 256 GB UFS 2.2 internal storage, no microSD card support
- Main Camera: Triple cameras (108 MP f/1.9 Samsung HM2 sensor 1/1.52″ + 8 MP f/2.2 ultra-wide-angle 120° FOV + 2 MP f/2.4 macro 4cm), 9-in-1 pixel-binning technology, VLOG mode, up to 4K@30fps video recording, LED flash
- Selfie Camera: 16 MP f/2.45, up to 1080p@60fps video recording
- Others: Side-mounted fingerprint scanner, Face Unlock, stereo speakers, Dolby Atmos, Hi-Res Audio (Wired & Wireless), X-axis linear motor
- Connectivity: USB Type-C, 3.5mm jack, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, IR Blaster, GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS
- Cellular: 5G network, dual SIMs, dual standby, VoLTE support
- Battery & Charging: 5,000 mAh battery, 67W Sonic Charging (50% in 15 minutes, 100% in 46 minutes)
- Colors: Astral Black, Horizon Blue, POCO Yellow
- Price: ₹22,999 (6 GB RAM & 128 GB storage), ₹24,999 (8 GB RAM & 256 GB storage)
- Availability: 13th February 2023 at 12 PM on Flipkart.
- Offers: Flat ₹2,000 instant discount on ICICI bank or an exchange bonus of ₹2,000, no-cost EMI starting at ₹3,645, exchange offers up to ₹20,000 off.
Design, Display, & Build Quality
On the design front, the POCO X5 Pro 5G offers a sleek and classic stylish flat frame matte-finish design. You don’t get a glass back and 3D curved designs (like the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G), but the design feels solid and light in weight. It has IP53 certification and is about 7.9mm thin with 181 grams weight.
The POCO Yellow variant has a black bezel and yellow buttons, we got the Horizon Blue color as you can see in the images. The POCO X5 Pro 5G comes in three color variants – Astral Black, Horizon Blue, and POCO Yellow.
The front side has a stunning bezel-less design with a 2.9mm ultra-narrow bottom bezel protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The POCO X5 Pro 5G equips a 6.67-inch Xfinity AMOLED DotDisplay with Full HD+ resolution (2460 x 1080 pixels, 395 ppi pixel density), 10-bit color depth (1.07B colors), and 120 Hz adaptive refresh rate.
Other display features include Dolby Vision, a 240 Hz touch sampling rate, 1920 Hz high-frequency PWM dimming, 900 nits peak brightness, 5,000,000:1 contrast ratio, DCI-P3 wide color gamut, Sunlight display, and Reading mode. The display is crisp and bright and the quality is impressive.
The backside has a triple camera setup that looks similar to what we saw on the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G. The fingerprint scanner is outside embedded in the power button. The phone offers stereo speakers, Dolby Atmos, and Hi-Res Audio support (Wired & Wireless), and has an X-axis linear motor.
Moving to the sides, the right side has a power button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner, and volume controls are just above it while the left side area is empty. The top has a 3.5 mm audio jack, a loudspeaker (stereo), IR Blaster, and a microphone. The bottom side offers another loudspeaker making dual speakers, a USB Type-C, another microphone, and a dual SIM tray that supports dual SIMs and 5G connectivity, however, no microSD slot.
Software, User Interface, & Features
The POCO X5 Pro runs on MIUI 14.0.8 for POCO based on the Android 12 operating system. The security patch available on the phone is dated 1st December 2022. POCO India has confirmed that the POCO X5 Pro 5G will receive 2 years of OS upgrades and 3 years of security updates.
The MIUI 14 is currently the latest version from Xiaomi and has been recently announced in India, the new MIUI 14 is built on Android 13. We expect POCO India to bring the Android 13-based MIUI 14 soon in the OTA updates.
The MIUI 14 offers all the native features of Android 12 in addition to the new features seen in the MIUI 14 (Android 12). About the MIUI 14 interface, you will see a bunch of new features which include upgrades in design, better background efficiency, faster processing, as well as longer battery life. Some features you see are added live wallpapers, themes, a new sidebar, and more.
The UI performance is fast and smooth and no lags were found while using the interface in our initial usage. The 120 Hz display offers a smoother UI experience and UI responsiveness. Please note that the display supports an adaptive refresh rate which can switch automatically from 60 Hz to 120 Hz and vice versa depending on the scenario such as low battery life. you might want to switch to a ‘120 Hz’ refresh rate from ‘Auto’ in the display settings to get the maximum smoothness at any screen at a cost of battery life.
You get apps installed on the phone, you can get rid of the bloatware if you want if not required. Apps like Amazon, Facebook, Zili, Spotify, Prime Video, LinkedIn, Bubble Shooter Relaxing, Snapchat, Moj, and Netflix, aside from the apps from Google and Xiaomi come pre-installed on the phone.
Hardware, Performance, & Gaming
The POCO X5 Pro 5G is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G paired with up to 8 GB RAM and 256 GB storage. The GPU on the SoC is an Adreno 642L for gaming and graphics-related tasks, a 12-layer graphite cooling, and offers Qualcomm Spectra 570L ISP.
About the CPU, it is manufactured in a 6nm TSMC process consisting of 4+4 Kryo 670 core configurations, four performance Kryo 670 cores (ARM Cortex-A78 based) clocked at 2.4 GHz, and four power-efficient Kryo 670 cores (ARM Cortex-A55 based) clocked at 1.8 GHz.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G is a performer and offers a seamless performance. The chip is equivalent to the upper midrange SoCs in this segment and is slightly better than the new MediaTek Dimensity 1080 5G overall.
Based on our benchmark tests, we can say it’s quite a noteworthy performer. One of our Geekbench 6 benchmarks scored 852 points in a single-core CPU benchmark and 2,562 points in a multi-core CPU benchmark while the GPU scored 1,854 points. You can expect the AnTuTu benchmark scores between ~525,000 points and ~550,000 points.
There are two RAM and storage variants of the POCO X5 Pro 5G – 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage as the base variant and 8 GB RAM and 256 GB storage as the top-most variant. The RAM is an LPDDR4X type and the storage is a UFS 2.2 type. The 6 GB RAM + 128 GB storage variant is available at ₹22,999 while the top variant with 8 GB RAM + 256 GB storage is available at ₹24,999.
The POCO X5 Pro 5G has a +5 GB Dynamic RAM expansion 3.0 feature making 13 GB total RAM on the phone, no microSD card support for storage expansion is available. The About section currently shows us a 3 GB Dynamic RAM expansion on the 8 GB + 256 GB model.
Other features include a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, face unlock, stereo speakers, Dolby Atmos, Hi-Res Audio (Wired & Wireless), X-axis linear motor, USB Type-C, 3.5mm jack, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, IR Blaster, GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, and a 5G network support with dual SIMs & dual standby with VoLTE.
Cameras
Moving to the cameras, the POCO X5 Pro 5G has a triple camera setup on the rear side with 108 MP f/1.9 as the primary camera utilizing the Samsung ISOCELL HM2 sensor sized at 1/1.52 inches. The ISOCELL HM2 is one of the best camera sensors out there, the 9-in-1 pixel binning technology combines nine small 0.7μm pixels into one large 2.1μm pixel to absorb more light delivering brighter and clearer photos.
The secondary cameras include an 8 MP f/2.2 ultra-wide-angle 120-degree and a 2 MP f/2.4 macro. The front side has a 16 MP f/2.45 selfie camera for selfie and video calling needs. No OIS support and telephoto lens are available in the camera setup.
The camera app offers a bunch of modes and features such as 108MP mode, VLOG, Night, Portrait, Macro, Pro, HDR, AI, VLOG, Long exposure, Movie frame, Voice shutter, Time-lapse, Short video, Tilt-shift, Time burst, Panorama, AI watermark, Documents, and more. The camera offers new VLOG modes (MIUI 14), 9-in-1 pixel-binning technology, and records up to 4K@30fps videos.
The photos we took from the 108 MP camera are stunning, you get impressive photo quality. The camera focuses nicely and offers a great bokeh effect, you can expect excellent performance in bright daylight for this price. The low-light performance is fairly well for the spec, it has a night mode which optimizes the image for a brighter look in the low-light.
Take a look at some shots we captured using the POCO X5 Pro 5G cameras.
POCO X5 Pro 5G Camera Samples
Battery Runtime & Charging
Moving to its battery and charging, the POCO X5 Pro packs a 5,000 mAh battery with support for 67W fast charging with the MMT technology. According to POCO, the MMT (Middle Middle Tab) Technology starts charging from the center, this allows the energy to split into two directions, instead of traveling from the bottom all the way to the top, the same amount of charge, at half the distance.
The 67W Sonic charger can charge the phone up to 50% in just 15 minutes and up to 100% in 46 minutes. The battery can last up to 28 hours on voice calls, up to 21 hours of reading, up to 20 hours of video playback, and up to 14 days of standby. You can expect a battery life of as much as 2 days or slightly more depending upon your usage.
Verdict – POCO X5 Pro 5G Review
The POCO X5 Pro 5G is more of an all-rounder, everything on the phone is just as good for this budget. You can’t deny its performance, it’s a great performer in its segment, the Snapdragon 778G delivers fast and smooth performance. The 10-bit 120 Hz AMOLED screen with tiny bezels offers stunning display quality and multimedia experience paired with the stereo speakers.
For its cameras, the 108 MP camera is just impressive, packed with a set of features and modes inside. You also get plenty of storage space (256 GB), a fast 67W charging speed, and a host of customizations from the latest MIUI 14 interface.
The POCO X5 Pro 5G is overall an excellent choice for its price and is recommended for those with a budget under ₹25,000, and those who seek fast performance, excellent display, and a decent camera.
