POCO F5

The POCO F5 is a fast smartphone without costing a lot. That, combined with a good screen and excellent heat dissipation, makes it the ideal gaming phone. But the F5 5G also comes in handy for more serious moments—which you can read here.

LiquidCool 2.0 technology

For a very reasonable price, you can already be the proud owner of a 6.67-inch smartphone with a 120Hz smooth screen. Colours look bright and vivid thanks to the AMOLED panel with a maximum brightness of 1000 nits. More than enough to read even outdoors in full day-light. That screen comes in handy for prolonged gaming. The Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 processor is perfectly capable of this. Especially since much attention has been paid to dissipating heat efficiently. LiquidCool 2.0 of copper and graphite has a 35% improved efficiency to dissipate heat. This allows the processor to perform longer at higher clock speeds without throttling. Something that is killing in gaming.

Triple camera system with OIS

Of course, you can also use the Poco F5 5G for more serious things. To take photos, for example. You do that with the triple camera system on the back. The primary camera features optical image stabilisation (OIS) and a decent 64MP sensor that does pixel binning. This merges four pixels into one, resulting in better-exposed photos with more detail and sharpness. So much so that digital zooming does not immediately result in a loss of quality, which is usually the case; other cameras include an 8MP ultra-wide-angle with a 119° wide lens and a 2MP macro camera for close-ups from 4 centimetres up close. The latter serves more as padding because its low resolution does not provide valuable results.

Main POCO F5 specifications

• 6.67-inch screen with colourful AMOLED panel with smooth 120Hz playback
• 64+8+2MP camera with OIS and 4K video
• 16MP selfie camera with f/2.45 lens
• Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 processor with 8 or 12GB of RAM
• Improved heat dissipation makes it suitable for gaming
• 256GB of built-in UFS 3.1 storage (not expandable)
• Dual SIM support (Dual Active so both SIM cards can be active)
• Large 5000 mAh battery with 67W wired charging

Enjoyment in the long-term

To enjoy the F5 for a long time, there is a large 5000mAh battery, enough for a day's intensive use. And if not, there's always fast charging up to 67W. You do have to plug a cable into the USB-C port because the F5 does not do wireless charging. Neat is also that the device is equipped with dual speakers with spacious Dolby Atmos sound and infra-red to control your TV. The device runs MIUI 14 for POCO, which is really for connoisseurs. It is packed with functions, and that makes it a bit cluttered at times. Parent company Xiaomi promises two years of Android upgrades and three years of security updates. Remember this if you want to do more than three years with your phone.