POCO X5 Review – Nice Mid-Range Flagship

The POCO X5 has been launched globally in two storage variants. The phone costs Rs. 18,999 for 6GB RAM and 128GB storage variant and Rs 20,999 for 8GB RAM and 256GB storage.

The phone is available in three different colour options: Black, Green and Blue. The price and availability in India are yet to be confirmed.

The POCO X5 packs the following items inside the box:

• POCO X5 5G
• 33W Adapter
• USB Type-C Cable
• SIM Eject Tool
• Protective Case
• Quick Start Guide
• Warranty Card

Before we talk in detail about the POCO X5, let’s see what the on-paper specs look like:

• Display: 6.67 inches AMOLED
• Chipset: Snapdragon 695
• RAM & ROM: 6GB 128GB, 8GB 256GB
• Software: Android v12
• Rear camera: 48MP + 8MP + 2MP
• Selfie camera: 13MP
• Battery: 5000 mAh
• Weight: 189 grams
• Dimensions: 165.8 x 76.2 x 7.9 mm

POCO X5 comes in a modern but sleek design with the iconic big camera island on the back. The phone comes in three colour options: black, green and blue. I have the latter for the review and it looks really good.

The plastic back panel has a matte finish which gives out a metallic look. It makes the phone look quite premium and definitely way above its asking price. Similar to the back panel, the plastic frames also match the vibe of the phone.

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It’s pretty slim at just 7.98mm thickness and weighs around 189g, making it lightweight as well. Thanks to it, the phone feels compact and easy to carry around. It also has an IP53 rating, which protects it from water and dust to some extent.

The right side of the phone has a power button that doubles as the fingerprint scanner and volume buttons. The left side has the SIM card slot, while the top has a 3.5mm audio jack along with an IR blaster. The bottom has the type-C port, primary mic, and speaker.

POCO X5 features a triple camera setup at the back. This includes a 48MP main camera, an 8MP ultra-wide lens and a 2MP macro sensor. The front side has a 13MP camera for taking selfies.

The main camera takes some really good photos in daylight conditions. The photos came out sharp and detailed. The colours looked nice and the dynamic range was wide as well. The portrait shots were also pretty good. Edge detection, background blur and the detail level, everything was handled properly.

However, the same can’t be said for low-light images. Low-light shots were fizzy and had a lot of noise in them. You do get a night mode but that doesn’t help much except for boosting colours.

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The 8MP ultra-wide lens is just okay. The images were not detailed but decent for the price. Low-light shots were just not up to the mark. And the 2MP macro lens is just bad. The low-resolution camera fails to take clear and detailed images.

Coming over to the front, the 13MP camera takes nice selfies in proper lighting. The selfies were crisp for most of the time but still had some level of noise in them. Portrait selfies were okay and the bokeh effect struggled around the edges.

POCO X5 packs a big 5000mAh battery which is paired with 33W fast charging support. A heavy user can use the phone for a whole day without needing the charger. But if you are a light user, POCO X5 can survive two days easily offering a solid battery backup.

I got more than 6 hours of screen on time which is good. My usage involved some Instagram scrolling, watching videos on YouTube, and some intense gaming. Even with all that, the POCO X5 holds up really well.

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The phone can fast charge at 33W which takes a little more than an hour to fully charge the phone. A quick charge of just 15 minutes will juice the battery around 35 per cent. There is no support for wireless charging which is no surprise at this price.

POCO X5 features a big FHD+ 6.67-inch OLED display which offers a stunning viewing experience. It comes with a 120Hz refresh rate with a peak brightness of 1200 nits. Those are pretty nice specs for this price.

The display gets bright enough for outdoor use. I did not face any issues while using the phone under direct sunlight. The 120Hz refresh rate makes everything super smooth, be it scrolling of playing games.

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The display quality is solid. The colours look punchy and vibrant. It’s a crisp display with good viewing angles. I watched a couple of videos on YouTube and my experience was really good. Well, of course, you can adjust the refresh rate and colour temperature in the settings as per your liking.

While you get the Widevine L1 certification to watch high-quality content on OTT platforms, there is no HDR support. Which means you cannot watch HDR content. Lastly, you get the protection of Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on the front, which will protect it from minor scratches and drops.

POCO X5 is powered by the Snapdragon 695 chipset which is paired with up to 8GB RAM and 256GB internal storage. The phone ran pretty well during my usage. I had a couple of apps open in the background and I can tell that it can handle multitasking to some extent.

Switching between apps as well as the animations was also smooth, thanks to the 120Hz refresh rate. Heavier apps like Instagram and Snapchat ran without any shutters or lags. So it can handle heavy use as well.

But can you run graphic intensive games on it? I tried playing Apex Legends and Asphalt 9 on it. While Asphalt 9 gave me no trouble and ran smoothly on high settings, Apex Legends was only playable at medium settings. Don’t get me wrong, it can run at high settings as well but then you will notice some frame drops and lags during intense fighting.

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The Poco X5 runs on MIUI 13 skin which is based on Android 12. It’s not the latest MIUI 14 which we see on the Pro variant. Nonetheless, it’s pretty much the standard MIUI interface. You get a bunch of customisation and personalisation features.

Along with that, you get a couple of pre-installed apps as bloatware which you can uninstall from the settings. You get features like AoD, split screen, RAM Extension, Extended Battery Saver and many more.