Xiaomi Poco M5 review: treading water

If there is a template for Xiaomi’s Poco sub-brand, it is a combination of multimedia-friendly performance with a temptingly low price. The Poco M5 sticks firmly to that script, offering competent all-round performance for under £200.

Despite the lack of ‘Pro’ in the name, this is essentially a direct follow-up to the Poco M4 Pro from earlier in the year. But has it advanced enough over the previous model, or at all, for that matter?

Construction design

• All plastic design
• Original faux leather finish.
• big and heavy

Xiaomi’s Poco team has really leaned towards the dominant aspect of the camera module of the Little M4 Pro Y Bit M4 Pro 5G. This component spans the entire width of the back cover of the Poco M5, something like the pixel 6aonly much higher.

Another point of interest here is Xiaomi’s choice of finish. While the back panel (like the entire frame of the phone) is made of plastic, it adopts a faux leather effect.

It’s a blossoming of love or hate, but the Poco brand has never been shy about making bold design decisions. For my part, I applaud it for trying to do something slightly different, and it’s certainly more resistant to fingerprints than its brilliant predecessor.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Less laudable is the sheer size of the phone. It’s quite thick at 8.9mm, while 201g feels too heavy for such a cheap plastic phone.

The decision to move away from the hole-punch notch of the Poco M4 range in favor of a teardrop-shaped alternative is quite unfortunate. It makes the Poco M5 look like an older, cheaper phone than its predecessors. Perhaps that’s why it no longer deserves the ‘Pro’ moniker, despite what the shared price tag might suggest.

Once again, there are three colors to choose from: black, green, and that old Poco favourite, yellow.

screen and speakers

• 6.58-inch FHD+ LCD screen
• 90Hz refresh rate
• No stereo speakers

Xiaomi seems to have brought the screen from the Poco M4 Pro 5G instead of the Poco M4 Pro. That may sound like a small distinction, but it actually represents a sneaky downgrade.

While the Poco M4 Pro was notable for having the first AMOLED display in the M range, the Poco M5 goes back to a regular 6.58-inch IPS LCD screen. It’s not a bad component at all in sub-£200 smartphones, with a decent 2400×1080 (FHD+) resolution and a maximum 90Hz refresh rate – although you’ll need to turn the latter on in the settings menu.

It hits a claimed 500 nits in HBM (high brightness mode), while with auto-brightness off I recorded a maximum brightness of around 350 nits. That’s not very bright, and the screen can look quite washed out in outdoor lighting.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Ultimately, it’s that reversion to LCD that stands out here. The Poco M5’s screen just isn’t as vibrant or attractive as its predecessor’s.

However, it is reasonably color accurate. Switching from the default Vivid to Standard mode, I recorded sRGB gamut coverage of 92.4% and gamut volume of 94.7, with a strong Delta E average of 1.13.

Another disappointment here is the decision to strip the Poco M5 of proper stereo speakers in favor of a mono one. This could be counted on as a Poco signature feature, so its absence in favor of a weedy mono speaker is sorely felt.

Specifications and performance

• MediaTek Helio G99
• 4GB RAM
• 64/128GB storage

The provision of a MediaTek Helio G99 chip in the Poco M5 is a subtle improvement over the MediaTek Helio G96 in the Poco M4 Pro. Perhaps the biggest difference is that the chip in the M5 is based on a smaller, more efficient 6nm process. comparison to the 12nm M4 Pro component.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

It may run cooler and more efficiently, but there’s not a huge difference in terms of raw performance. An average Geekbench 5 multi-core score of 1895 for the Poco M5 is very similar to the previous Poco M4 Pro. Its GPU is a bit more impressive than before, with many of our usual GFXBench tests throwing in an extra frame per second.

Game performance is solid, if not spectacular. I was able to crank up Genshin Impact to medium graphics settings and a 60fps target with eminently playable (if not exactly silky-smooth) results. That’s not bad given the meager provision of 4GB of RAM, which is a downgrade from the Poco M4 Pro’s choice of 6 or 8GB.

Equally low is the entry-level provision of 64 GB of internal storage. With many £200 phones now moving to 128GB as a minimum spec, it feels a bit dated. Still, it does at least have a microSDXC slot for expansion purposes.

cameras

• 50Mp wide sensor
• 2Mp depth and macro sensors
• 5 megapixel selfie

So far, we’ve seen signs of the Poco M4 Pro regressing, and that continues with the Poco M5’s camera layout. Notably, there is no ultra-wide camera this time around.

You get a 50Mp wide camera, a 2Mp macro camera, and a 2Mp depth sensor. Suffice to say, those last two might as well not exist for all the good they do.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

That 50Mp main sensor also apparently represents a small step back after the Poco M4 Pro represented the series debut of a 64Mp sensor.

In practical terms, the Poco M5 achieves everything you’d expect from cheaper phones: capturing decent shots in good lighting. Feed it a lot of light and you’ll get reasonably sharp, natural-looking shots, albeit a small flat ad that suffers a touch of overexposure in the highlights.

As soon as the light falls, things descend into a noisy mush. Even the dedicated night mode doesn’t do much more than light up that noise rather than sharpen things up.

There’s a 5Mp selfie camera on the front, which shows quite a bit of noise and struggles with reflections.

Battery life and charging

• 5000mah battery
• Potential two-day use
• Just an 18W charger

The Poco M5 is powered by a 5,000mAh battery, which is pretty much the stakes for a modern, affordable phone, but it’s reassuringly capable nonetheless.

Combined with that more efficient 6nm MediaTek Helio G99 chip and other undemanding components, this is a true two-day performance. A full day of 16 hours of light use would tend to leave me with over 70% left in the tank.

Unfortunately, I was unable to run the usual PC Mark Work 3.0 battery test that we use in this scenario. For whatever reason, the Poco M5 repeatedly crashed outside of this benchmark, and many others for that matter. Given the phone’s solid performance in general use, this isn’t much of a concern.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Xiaomi has included an 18W charger with the Poco M5, which is a solid inclusion. Again though, this marks a step back from the Poco M4 Pro, which came with a 33W charger.

It results in some pretty slow loading speeds. In 15 minutes of charging from empty, the Poco M5 only reached 6%, while 30 minutes took it to 21%.

Software

While the Poco M4 series ran Android 11 at launch, the Poco M5 ships with Android 12. Not that this matters too much: Xiaomi’s custom MIUI 13 continues to take center stage as a big, flashy quilt.

It’s an interface riddled with annoying annoyances. You still get annoying (but largely empty of information) full-screen notifications every time you install an app. It’s still impossible to see how much screen time is active on a single charge, unlike pretty much any other Android UI.

However, also as before, MIUI remains extremely customizable. Don’t like the intricate split notification system? You’re just one trip down the settings menu from combining the two halves into something more standard. Meanwhile, Xiaomi Themes offer one of the most extensive wallpaper store fronts, often with matching icons.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

I could still do without all the tedious bloatware that ruins all Xiaomi and Xiaomi-adjacent phones. Do we really need the open web browser and Xiaomi Mi Browser in addition to Google Chrome? Or the Tile Fun and Dust Settle disposable games? No we will not.

Price and availability

Pinning Poco phones to a specific price or release schedule can be an exercise in futility. However, the Poco M5 arrived with a starting price of £179 for 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage.

Alternatively, you can bump the storage up to 128GB for £199. This is a slightly cheaper price for the Poco M4 Pro from early 2022. It’s also similar to the redmi note 11 and the Realme 9i.

You should be able to buy the Poco M5 through the Poco’s official website but the buy now button links to aliexpress where the phone costs a ridiculous £629 at the time of writing. Therefore, it is much better to get it from the My shop where the prices are correct.

It is not officially available in the US, but you can purchase a global unlocked version for $189 from Amazon If you like.

Take a look at our best budget phones graphic for all current best phones.

Verdict

The Poco M5 offers a fairly competent all-round smartphone experience for less than £200. We’re just not getting that famous Poco sense of generosity here, though, and you only need to look at the Poco M4 Pro to see why.

That early 2022 model offers similar performance, a more flexible camera system, a superior screen, stereo speakers, faster charging, and more memory, all for a slightly higher price. You can also say similar things about the Redmi Note 11.

Buying the Poco M5 isn’t a bad idea by any means, and its unique design and excellent battery life are standout features. However, it just doesn’t represent the value we’re used to seeing in this highly regarded budget brand.

specs

• Android 12 MIUI 13
• 6.59 inches, FHD+, IPS LCD, 90 Hz, flat screen
• Side-mounted fingerprint sensor
• MediaTek MT8781 Helio G99
• 4GB LPDDR4 RAM
• 64GB/128GB storage
• 50Mp, main camera f/1.8
• 2Mp depth sensor
• 2 megapixel macro camera
• Rear video up to 1080p at 30fps
• 5Mp front camera
• monaural speaker
• Dual SIM
• WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
• Bluetooth 5.3
• 5000mah battery
• 18W charging
• 164 x 76.1 x 8.9mm
• 201g
• Launch Colors: Black, Green, Yellow