POCO X5 Pro Review: An Affordable Smartphone With Legendary Chipset

Content

Video review
Equipment and design
Software
Cameras
Performance and Benchmarks
findings

In 2021, Qualcomm released a very successfulmid-high-end chipset - Snapdragon 778G. Over the past year and a half, it has become the basis for more than forty smartphone models. Seven-seven-eight did not lose popularity last year either, despite the appearance of Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 and excellent MediaTek chips in the same segment. The assortment is also replenished in 2023 - for example, with the POCO X5 Pro model. This is the global version of the previously released Redmi Note 12 Pro Speed Edition in China. Is the novelty so fast? And what else is interesting? Exploring POCO X5 Pro!

	POCO X5 Pro Specifications
Network	2G, 3G, 4G, 5G
Firmware	Android 12 with MIUI 14
Screen	6.67″, 2400×1080 pixels, 20:9, 395 ppi, 120 Hz, 240 Hz touch, AMOLED, 900 nits (HBM), 10 bit
Chipset	Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G, 6 nm CPU: 1 x A78 x 2.4GHz + 3 x A78 x 2.2GHz + 4 x A55 x 1.9GHz GPU: Adreno 642L
Ram	6/8 GB
ROM	128/256 GB UFS 2.2
SIM and memory card	Two nano-SIM slots
Camera	Main: 108MP, Samsung HM2, 1/1.52″, 0.7µm, f/1.9, PDAF, 2160p@30fps video recording wide angle: 8MP, Samsung 4H7, 1/4″, 1.12µm, f/2.2, fixed focus, 1080p@30fps video recording Macro: 2MP, OV02B, 1/5″, 1.75µm, f/2.4, fixed focus, 720p@30fps video recording
Selfie	hole in the center, 16MP, OV16Q, 1/3.06″, 1µm, f/2.4, fixed focus, 1080p@60fps video recording
Battery	5000 mAh
Charging	67 W
Wireless interfaces	Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5.2 GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou Infrared port
NFC	there is
Biometrics	Fingerprint scanner (side)
Sound	Stereo speakers 3.5mm headphone jack
Water protection	IP53
Dimensions and weight	162.9 x 76 x 7.9mm 181 g

Video review

Equipment and design

The box and equipment are as standard as possible:black cardboard, yellow cardboard, charger, USB cable, transparent silicone case, documentation (many!!!) and SIM needle. Well, except that the charger pleases with its power: 67 watts. How fast it charges, I'll tell you at the end of the review.

The body of POCO X5 Pro is entirely made of plastic.There are several colors, but we got the most standard black and signature yellow for testing. The designers gave her a cool accent in the form of a yellow key on a black frame, it looks cool. The design is made in accordance with the latest trends, that is, there are flat ends. Because of them, using a smartphone is not as convenient as it would be with a more sloping body, but still great. In other aspects, the ergonomics are good - the buttons are where necessary, the weight distribution is adequate.

The screen is made using AMOLED technology, resolutionis 2400x1080 pixels (Full HD +), and the refresh rate is 120 Hz. In terms of brightness and color reproduction, the panel is quite pleasant, the PWM level is also low (up to 20% at a frequency of 1920 Hz). There are three modes for hertz: 60 / auto / 120. But even in auto, almost all applications and games work at 120 Hz, I did not feel any difference with the forced mode. Only YouTube at 60 Hz, but this is not critical. Touch - always 240 Hz, quite frisky.

In a narrow strip above the screen with difficulty, butfit the earpiece and a real proximity sensor. No more guessing by the accelerometer, whether you brought the phone to your ear or not. As for the speaker, it has an additional hole at the top, providing a better stereo effect. But with him some problems, to be honest. If many phones clearly play one track in one speaker and another in another, then POCO X5 Pro plays 80% of one track and 20% of the other from above, and vice versa from below. The immersion from this is not what it could be.

For better immersion, as well as not toannoying others, there is a 3.5 mm audio jack next to the speaker holes. From other technologies of the 20th century, an infrared port for controlling home appliances is presented on the upper end; despite my irony, I fully welcome the embedding of this feature in phones. Another nice bonus is a luxurious vibration motor, which, in combination with MIUI, provides excellent vibration feedback. Unfortunately, global Xiaomi smartphones are still inferior to the Chinese in this aspect, but even so it is much better than the competition.

Despite the AMOLED panel, the fingerprint scannerfingers are not hidden under the screen, but combined with the lock button on the right panel. It works quickly, but not always the first time, so I advise you to enter your finger twice during the first setup. So the accuracy of operation becomes very good.

Software

For reasons I don't fully understand, POCO X5 Proin February 2023 enters the market with Android 12 out of the box. But things with updates, even for inexpensive Xiaomi smartphones, are usually not bad, so there is no doubt about the imminent update to the “trinashki”. And the rest is a typical POCO on MIUI, nothing new. Show screenshots and move on.

Cameras

POCO X5 Pro received a triple main camera -the main 108-megapixel module uses a Samsung HM2 sensor (1 / 1.52 ″, i.e. a little larger than the Sony IMX766) and is equipped with f / 1.9 optics; 8-megapixel wide based on Samsung 4H7 sensor (1/4″, the same sensor was wide in Xiaomi Mi A3) under f/2.2 optics; The 2MP macro camera uses an OV02B sensor and an f/2.4 lens. Only the main camera has autofocus, and there is no opto-stub anywhere.

But, judging by the photo examples, neither autofocus, nor evensensor size is not a guarantee of a good result. And if your algorithms are crooked and pour blue paint over each photo on the main module, then nothing can be done about it. The width and even the plug for the macro are capable of correct color reproduction, but the main camera is not. I hope they will fix it with updates, because this is clearly a software bug. In daylight conditions, apart from the white balance, the camera shoots well; at night, slow shutter turns on automatically despite the lack of OIS, and frames often turn out blurry. You can see for yourself, though. In general, the camera is clearly not the strong point of POCO X5 Pro.

Although the front (16 MP, OV16Q, f / 2.4) seems to be nothing. Only she would also have normal algorithms - in terms of HDR. And sometimes it turns out too hard.

Curiously, all four cameras can writevideo! Main - in 2160p@30fps and 1080p@60fps, selfie - in 1080p@60fps, wide - in 1080p@30fps, macro module - in 720p@30fps. You can even switch between base and wide as you shoot! However, weak cameras without OIS, as expected, did not become powerful video recording tools.

Performance and Benchmarks

So we got to the main feature of POCO X5 ProPowerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G chipset. But, unfortunately, we studied the smartphone on a rather early firmware, so we cannot fully show you the results of performance tests. Access to 3DMark servers is blocked in the firmware, and the CPU Throttling Test shows unusually weak results - perhaps also due to artificial restrictions.

auto - productive

So instead of looking at graphsfrom benchmarks, let's play. What? Of course, in Genshin Impact! And you know... I don't have much to say again. I left the phone for 15 minutes to "warm up" with high settings, 60 fps and game acceleration enabled. By the time I returned, the phone confidently wrote 50-52 fps on the built-in counter, but with my eyes I saw 30 frames per second at best. What kind of magic - I do not know. But at the start, both Genshin Impact and SuperTuxKart are doing great. Heating in games is minimal, there is nothing to even talk about.

The capacity of the built-in battery is 5000mAh, which is the gold standard for modern smartphones. Autonomy indicators correspond to this standard: in YouTube - minus 6% per hour, in the game - minus 15% per hour. In general, for 4 hours of tests (there were also benchmarks, a camera, poking at the interface), the battery was discharged by 62%. That is, even in rather harsh conditions, it would be enough for 6 hours of active use, but in real life you can count on 7-8. This is a day and a half without an outlet for the most passionate users, and a sure two for those who do not use their smartphone so often.

Well, nowhere without fast charging, of course:67W fully charges the battery for 50 minutes, with half being reached in 20 minutes and 75% in 30 minutes. A decrease in the charging rate is observed only towards the end of the process in order to keep the battery longer. Wireless charging is not supported.

findings

POCO smartphones are true to their formulaeven in the very first model. Compromise cameras, simple body materials and good specifications at a nice price. Given the exchange rate fluctuations, of course, the price turned out this time a little less pleasant than we would like (27-30 thousand rubles in retail). But even for this money, the X5 Pro does not disappoint - after all, it is exactly what we are used to seeing smartphones from this company. A workhorse with features, but without overpaying for something you'll never need.