POCO X5 Pro 5G Review – 1 Missing Ingredient

POCO has launched many value-for-money devices in India and the same can be said for the POCO X5 Pro 5G but the only problem is the quality of the component they use in their devices.

We have seen motherboards issue in lots of POCO devices, now, I can’t tell whether that issue will occur in POCO X5 Pro 5G, only time will tell but as of now, let’s find out in this POCO X5 Pro 5G review whether it’s worth the Rs 22,999 price tag or not.

POCO X5 Pro 5G Price in India

The POCO X5 Pro 5G price in India starts from Rs 22,999 for 6GB of Ram and 128GB storage while another 8GB of Ram and 256GB storage variant is priced at Rs 24,999.

The device is available in Astral Black, Horizon Blue, and Poco Yellow color options and it will go for sale on 13th February 2023 via Flipkart.

POCO X5 Pro 5G Review

Yes, the POCO X5 Pro 5G is worth buying because the phone has a well-optimized Snapdragon 778G SoC along with good cameras for the Rs 22999 price tag, however, POCO devices are facing a hardware issue, so think twice before buying POCO X5 Pro 5G.

To make it simple, POCO X5 Pro 5G has the best specs for a 23k smartphone, the problem is the hardware because lots of POCO users have noticed the motherboard issues.

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Now, I feel, POCO will have fixed that issue but still, users are a bit skeptical about POCO smartphones especially in India, so that’s the only downside or issue with POCO X5 Pro 5G, other than that, its solid device for the price it comes.

POCO X5 Pro 5G Pros and Cons

PROS	CONS
Improved Rear Cameras	Plastic Build
Superfast 67W fast charging	Still runs on Android 12
120Hz AMOLED 10bit Display	No SD-card Slot
7 5G Bands	MIUI 14 needs a bit of Improvement
Well-Optimized Snapdragon 778G SoC	No NFC
3.5mm Audio Jack	Side-Mounted Fingerprint Sensor
Super Loud Stereo Speakers	Missing n77 5G Bands
Longer Battery Life

Display

The POCO X5 Pro 5G comes with a 6.67-inches 120Hz AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels and pick a brightness of 900 bits and this is a 10-bit panel.

It also has widevine L1 and HDR10+ support which means, you can watch FHD+ and HDR content on almost all the OTT platforms including Netflix.

The 900 nits brightness is good enough to use the smartphone outdoors whether you want to watch a movie or even play games, you will able to see everything on the screen without any problems.

On the front, the POCO has used Corning Gorilla Glass 5 to protect the display while the back and frames are made from plastic.

Used Plastic is good but it does feel cheap when you hold the device for the first time, now, this will happen, if you have a used smartphone with a metal frame and glass back.

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There is also an IP53 dust and splash-resistant rating which means a little bit of water splashes won’t harm the device but don’t use the device underwater.

Overall, the POCO X5 Pro 5G has the best display under Rs 25,000 but the same can’t be said for its build quality as the device has a plastic back and frames, nonetheless, it’s not a deal breaker.

Performance

The Snapdragon 778G is the best processor Qualcomm has made, so there is nothing to worry about the performance. However, if you’re a very heavy gamer then kindly find a smartphone with Snapdragon 8 Series processor for a better gaming experience.

The cache is,

The POCO X5 Pro 5G runs on MIUI 14 based on Android 12, POCO has also promised 2 years of OS updates and 3 years of security updates.

Keep in mind, POCO doesn’t have a good history of software updates, their last year’s flagship smartphone is still, running on Android 12.

Also, as the POCO X5 Pro 5G runs on Android 12, this means, the phone will only get OS updates up to Android 14.

The phone should have been released with Android 13, so we could have gotten the update up to Android 15, so you can see, what is the cache…

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By the way, the POCO X5 Pro 5G supports 60fps gaming.

Overall, there won’t be any kind of problems with the performance at all, Snapdragon 778G is a capable processor and it can handle almost all kinds of tasks without any kind of problem.

5G Bands Problem

POCO has also added 7 5G Bands but they forgot to add N77 5G band.

You may ask why does n77 5G Band is important, the reason is very simple,

The n77 is a high-frequency band which is 3300 to 4200MHz, so most of the SIM card providers will use the n77, and if the most used 5g band is not included then it might get hard to get strong 5G singles in metro cities.

Now, POCO has provided the N78 5G Bands which have 3300 – 3800MHz frequency which will be enough to use 5G but still, having both n77 and n78 5G bands makes more sense, especially in India.

For reference, see the given below data,

FREQUENCY	BANDS	OPERATOR
700MHz	n28	Jio
800MHz	n5	Jio
900MHz	n8	Airtel
1800MHz	n3	Airtel, Jio, and Vi
2100MHZ	n1	Airtel and Vi
2500MHZ	n41	Vi
3300 – 3800MHz	n78	Airtel, Jio, and Vi
3300 – 4200MHz	n77	Airtel, Jio, and Vi

Cameras

The POCO X5 Pro 5G comes with 108MP primary sensor, 8MP ultra-wide lens, and 2MP macro sensor while there is a 16MP selfie shooter present on the front.

The rear cameras can shoot videos at 4k@30fps and 1080p@30/60fps while the front camera can shoot at 1080p@30/60fps. None of the cameras have OIS support, they solely rely on EIS.

Missing OIS does hurt a little bit while shooting videos while walking or running, however, POCO has worked on the cameras, so the EIS does help a lot in only 1080p.

Now, if you’re shooting videos at night then the sensor adds a bit of softness but the same doesn’t reflect under sunlight.

In short, POCO needs to work on the night videos a little bit. Also, there is NO OIS, so don’t expect smooth videos.

The 108MP sensor does its job, it takes fantastic images under good lighting conditions but as this is POCO’s phone, you will see a bit of extra saturation and softness here and there.

What I’m saying is, you won’t get close to natural images like Nothing Phone 1 or Pixel 6A.

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Again, the night photos come out good but if you’re taking photos under extremely low light then you will see noise all over the frame.

The 8MP ultra-wide lens needs to be updated big time, it can get better with the OTA update but as of now, the sensor doesn’t take useable images under low light. When it comes to daylight, it does take useable images, nothing extraordinary but useable images.

Also, the 2MP sensor is added for showcase, so don’t expect anything.

Talking about the 16MP selfie shooter, again, No OIS.

Just like any other Xiaomi smartphone, this too takes whiter images, so you can say, the POCO X5 Pro 5G takes social media-ready images.

In short, if you have a few pimples on your face then don’t worry, the selfie camera will soften the pimples and you will look as beautiful as you wanted.

Now, if you ask me, I don’t like this much softness, I’m happy with my face, so I rather want a more natural image but this is not the case with most of the Mobiles Users in India.

Concluding everything from price to cameras, for the first time looks like POCO has worked on cameras that do reflect real-life usage, so yes, you will be more than happy with the POCO X5 Pro 5G Cameras.

Check out the Raw Camera Samples of POCO X5 Pro 5G (g-drive)

Audio

POCO has added dual speakers and they sound perfectly good but the bass is not that high. It also has Carrier Aggregation which means if the phone is not getting a strong network then it will try to find a way to provide a network.

There is also a 3.5mm Audio jack which is always good to have in a smartphone.

Overall, the stereo speakers are good, however, the bass could have been better.

Battery Life

The POCO X5 Pro 5G has a 5,000mAh battery with 67W fast charging support, POCO has also provided the 67W charger in the box.

The charger will take about 44 minutes to charge from 0% to 100%.

The battery will easily last for the day because of the Snapdragon 778G SoC, so expect the battery to last for a day but again if you’re a heavy user then you will have to charge the device twice.

POCO X5 Pro 5G FAQs

Verdict

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POCO X5 Pro 5G Full Specifications

Price	6GB Ram + 128GB storage: Rs 22,999 8GB Ram + 256GB storage: Rs 24,999
Display	6.67-inches FHD+ AMOLED Dolby Vision Panel 10-bit Colors 120Hz Screen Refresh Rate 900 nits pick the brightness 395PPI density 89.80% screen-to-body ratio
Resolution	1080 x 2400 pixels resolution
Dimensions	162.9 x 76 x 7.9 mm
Build	Glass front (Corning Gorilla Glass 5) Plastic Frame Plastic back IP53, dust and splash resistant
OS	Android 12 – MIUI 14 2 Years of OS Updates 3 Years of Security Updates
Chipset	Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G5G (6 nm) GPU: Adreno 642L CPU: Octa-core (1×2.4 GHz Cortex-A78 & 3×2.2 GHz Cortex-A78 & 4×1.9 GHz Cortex-A55)
Storage Options	6GB Ram + 128GB Storage 8GB Ram + 256GB Storage LPDDR4x Ram UFS 2.2 Storage
SD-Card Slot	No, only 2 SIM
Rear Cameras	108MP Primary Sensor (f/1.9) 8MP Depth (f/2.2) 2MP Macro (f/2.4) Video 4k@30fps 1080p@30/60fps Camera Samples
Front Camera	16MP Selfie Shooter (f/2.4) Video 1080p@30/60fps
3.5mm Jack	Yes
Stereo Speakers	Yes
Carrier Aggregation	Yes, 4 x 4 MIMO.
Bluetooth Version	5.1
FM Radio	No
NFC	No (available in global variant)
5G Support	Yes, 7 5G Bands SA: N1, N3, N5, N8, N28, N40, N78, NSA: N1, N3, N5, N8, N28, N40, N78
Sensors	Fingerprint (side), Ambient Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Accelerometer, Gyroscope
Fingerprint Sensor	Side-Mounted Fingerprint Sensor
Battery	5,000mAh (non-removable) 67W Wired Fast Charging 0% to 100% in 44 Minutes
Colors	Astral Black, Horizon Blue, and Poco Yellow.
Weight	181 Gram
Performance Score	AnTuTu: 531398 (v9) GeekBench: 2930 (v5.1) GFXBench: 28fps (ES 3.1 onscreen)
Model Number	MZB0CXXIN
SAR Value	SAR Limit: 1.6 W/kg, Head SAR: 0.862 W/kg, Body SAR: 0.868 W/kg,
In the box	POCO X5 Pro 5G Protective Case Sim Ejector Tool 67W Charger Documentation Type-C Cable

*Image Credit: Technolobe