POCO F5 256GB

Up front, the POCO F5 sports pretty much the same punch-hole 6.7-inch AMOLED display with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection as its predecessor, the POCO F4. The display boasts an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate, FHD+ (2,400x1,080p) resolution, and support for Dolby Vision HDR10+ playback. However, aspects like brightness, screen-to-body ratio, and colour count have been bumped up a little for a better viewing experience. The POCO F5 boasts a 12-bit display which can produce up to 68 billion colours as opposed to the 1 billion colours on the F4. The increase in colour depth, along with 1,000 nits brightness, results in an immersive viewing experience whether you are indoors or outdoors playing games or streaming a movie or show.The display is quite responsive to the touch too and you will find the bezels symmetrical on all sides. Speaking of which, the handset has narrow bezels and a chin that measures just 2.22mm, contributing to an impressive 93.4 percent screen-to-body ratio. What's more, the device supports HDR content from Netflix and other streaming platforms. The handset also incorporates adaptive HDR technology, which adjusts the highlights and shadows based on ambient light conditions, delivering optimal visual quality. As for the adaptive 120Hz refresh rate, it works well across UI and supported apps. The POCO F5 also takes care of users with sensitive eyes with the 1920Hz PW dimming technology that reduces eye strain and headaches. Overall, the POCO F5 sports a stellar display that is fun to use. The experience is further elevated by the handset's audio quality, which delivers a stereo output with Dolby Atmos. The audio sounds excellent and maintains clarity even at maximum volume, with minimum crackling. Additionally, the presence of a 3.5mm headphone jack with high-res audio support, makes the device great for multimedia consumption.

The POCO F5's rear camera setup and performance look the same as its predecessor, the POCO F4. The handset features a 64MP primary sensor paired with 8MP ultra-wide sensor and a 2MP macro unit. The 64MP primary sensor, equipped with OIS, excels at capturing impressive images in well-lit areas or during daylight. The resulting images showcase sharp and crisp details, with well-balanced colours. As for HDR on POCO F5, it exhibits improved exposure and enhanced contrast compared to non-HDR images.

The POCO F5 is powered by the Snapdragon 7+ Gen2 chipset, which is the latest mid-range chipset from Qualcomm. Be that as it may, the chipset shares a lot of its traits with the company's 2022 flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC, such as the nanometer process, cores, and GPU. The 8 Gen 1 still remains powerful in a few areas, but the new Snapdragon 7+ Gen2 chipset delivers exceptional performance that is hard to beat in its price range. This is reflected in the handset's benchmark scores. The POCO F5 scores over 8,00,847 points on AnTuTu and 3,841 points on Geekbench's multi-core test. The scores are significantly better than its competitor Nothing Phone 1 and on par with iQOO Neo 7, which rocks MediaTek Dimensity 8200 chipset.In real-world usage, the POCO F5 handles everything effortlessly. It does not stutter or slow down, regardless of any task thrown at it. The gaming performance on the handset is commendable. It can smoothly run graphically-demanding games such as Call of Duty and Asphalt 9 with high graphics settings and frame rates. Even though the CPU Throttle test shows that the phone's performance throttles under intense load, I personally did not encounter any issues while playing games on the device for half an hour or so. Additionally, the phone's thermals always remained in check, thanks to the inclusion of a vapour chamber and graphite cooling technology. It is safe to say that the POCO F5 is one of the top choices for users seeking impressive performance within the mid-range smartphone segment.

The POCO F5 houses a 5,000mAh battery and supports 67W fast charging. The latter takes approximately 45-50 minutes to fully charge the device from nothing. Once the battery level reaches 100 percent, it provides an all-day battery life even with heavy usage. I was hitting the bed with 20 percent juice still left in the tank after using the device through the day. The handset offers a screen-on-time of close to seven hours, and it performed impressively on the PCMark Battery test, with a score of 14 hours and 36 minutes.

Reasons to buyThe POCO F5 performs exceptionally well in synthetic test apps as well as in the real world.The handset has a stellar display that is fun to watch.The smartphone offers an impressive battery life that can last you at least a day even with heavy usage.The phone rocks one of the best stereo speakers that get sufficiently loud and produce clear and crisp audio.Reasons not to buyThe software is riddled with bloatware and ads.There is no microSD card slot to further expand the phone's storage. The POCO F5's ultra-wide camera delivers average results with a lot of edge distortion.