POCO M5 Review – Pros and cons, Verdict | 91Mobiles

The Little M5 The latest smartphone in the company’s affordable M-series lineup. The handset is powered by the recently launched MediaTek Helio G99 SoC and features a 90Hz refresh rate screen. It also comes with an attractive design, 50MP primary camera, 5,000mAh battery and other important features. Apart from that, the phone is available in three color options namely Icy Blue, Power Black and Yellow. The latter is the company’s trademark color and POCO sent us an M5 review unit with the same paint job. Here is our review of the POCO M5 after using it for a week.

judgment

The POCO M5 is an affordable smartphone that gets a lot of things right. The handset has a good design, solid battery life, good cameras and respectable performance. If anything, the fact that the device is not 5G-enabled might raise a few eyebrows, but other than that, the POCO M5 is the complete package.

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• The POCO M5 takes its design cues from its predecessor, the POCO M4 5G. To wit, the M5 flaunts a dual-tone finish with a faux leather back that’s soft to the touch, offers a great in-hand feel and doesn’t attract any fingerprints or smudges. The phone has flat edges that pave the way for a comfortable grip and reveals a stunning camera island that runs horizontally across the rear panel. The latter keeps the POCO M5 stable when it’s flat on a surface. Talking about the camera island, the range features a triple camera setup along with an LED flash module. The module also bears the company’s branding and is layered with a fingerprint-resistant glossy layer.
• The fingerprint scanner – on the right spine of the POCO M5, along with the volume button – also doubles as the power button. The left fascia houses the SIM tray, which has dual SIM card slots as well as a separate slot for a microSD card. As for I/O, the USB Type-C port is sandwiched between the microphone and the speaker grill at the bottom edge, while the 3.5mm headphone jack can be found on the top edge along with the IR blaster. Overall, the POCO M5 looks great and despite its plastic build, the device feels sturdy and solid. The handset is also IP52 splash-resistant certified. Wish the phone was a little lighter. Given the condition, the device tips the scales at 201 grams, which many may consider heavy.

• The POCO M5 has a 6.58-inch tall screen, which is of the IPS LCD type. As for the rest of the display specs, the screen has FHD+ resolution, 90Hz refresh rate and 500 nits peak brightness. All this makes it a good capable screen for watching and consuming multimedia like movies and TV shows. The display is bright enough to read content even in direct sunlight, and colors look punchy and bright. The viewing angles on the phone are acceptable, especially when you factor in the smartphone’s MRP. Furthermore, despite the handset’s wide chin, waterdrop notch and chunky bezels, the screen offers a reasonably immersive media consumption experience. A 90Hz refresh rate interface and works well in most applications – just not graphically-heavy ones. However, the handset is Widevine L1 certified, which means it can stream HD content from Netflix and other streaming platforms.
• The POCO M5 packs the latest MediaTek Helio G99 SoC under the hood. It is the most advanced SoC in the company’s mid-range Helio G-series lineup yet, with 6nm fabrication technology and a clock speed of 2.2GHz. Starting with the benchmark results, the chipset scored 1,916 points in Geekbench’s multi-core test, while it scored 3,66,351 points in AnTuTu. Surprisingly, the benchmark numbers secured by the SoC are marginally better than its predecessor MediaTek Helio G96 SoC. In the real world, the SoC delivers lag-free performance during normal smartphone usage such as checking emails and messages, going through social media, browsing and watching videos.

• The MediaTek Helio G99 SoC can handle multi-tasking and even some light gaming. I was able to play a game or two of Pool 8 and Real Cricket 22 without any frame freeze and drop issues. The handset can also run New State Mobile and other high-end games but offers an average experience. That being said, the POCO M5 comes in two configurations: 4GB RAM + 64GB storage and 6GB RAM + 128GB storage. Storage can be expanded up to 1TB using a microSD card slot.

• Coming to the cameras, the POCO M5 comes with a 50MP ISOCELL JN1 primary sensor paired with two 2MP depth and macro sensors. Images clicked from the 50MP primary sensor in adequate lighting conditions impressed me with their detail and dynamic range. Color accuracy could be better, but otherwise, the images looked visually appealing. The sensor also focused and processed images quickly. Portrait mode works well – mostly on human subjects, but doesn’t look very natural. As for the 2MP macro sensor, it fails to deliver crisp shots of close-up subjects during the day due to its low resolution.
  

• In low light, the performance of the POCO M5 cameras, including the 50MP primary sensor, suffers. The results are usable, but you have to deal with noise and loss of detail and sharpness. The handset has a special night mode that helps reduce noise levels and enhances highlights. Finally, the 8MP front camera manages to take decent selfies. Skin tones are accurate, but the sensor tends to smooth out details, which is a bummer.
• Going forward, the POCO M5 will ship with a 5,000mAh battery that should provide at least a day of battery life on a single charge. In the PC Mark battery test, the handset scored 18 hours and 3 minutes, which is on par with competing smartphones in the segment. Although you get a 22.5W charger in the box, the handset supports 18W fast charging. A charging solution can take about two and a half hours to lift a dead battery to 100 percent. Although there is no 5G onboard, the handset supports 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi bands for range and high-speed internet respectively. I had no problem using 4G LTE on this device. Apart from this, the phone’s bottom-firing speaker is fine, while the side-mounted fingerprint scanner unlocks the M5 in a snap.

• Software-wise, the POCO M5 comes pre-loaded with Android 12-based MIUI 13. The experience is similar to any other Redmi and Xiaomi smartphone. To give you some perspective, MIUI 13 is one of the most intuitive custom Android skins out there. It offers many customization options, a range of wallpapers and smooth animations, as well as call and screen recording features. That’s not to say the device doesn’t suffer from bloatware. The handset comes with a few pre-installed apps – some of which you can uninstall after setup. I would also like to point out that the handset is marred by annoying notifications that affect the overall experience.

Final judgment

POCO M5 Rs. 12,499 and for the price, the handset looks like a good proposition. The phone performs brilliantly and while the handset doesn’t come with a 5G-enabled SoC, the Helio G99 chipset powering the phone delivers more raw computing power, while the Dimensity 700 powers the POCO M4 5G. It also helps that the handset comes with an interesting design that helps it stand out among its competitors. Interestingly,

Certainly, the device is a worthwhile option if you don’t prioritize 5G and instead want a reliable smartphone at an affordable price.

Editor’s Rating: 3.5/5

Pros

• Good design
• Solid battery life
• Respectable performance

Disadvantages

• Low light photography needs improvement
• Ships with bloatware