The prices of smartphones have climbed more and more in recent years, and the basic models of the “flagship devices” of the various manufacturers easily reach NIS 3,000-4,000. On the other hand, innovation has slowed down and even stopped – in most cases the average user will not feel if inside the device is the most powerful processor on the market or another model, which is weaker on paper. But who said you have to buy flagship devices?
The brand names of the smartphones are a bit confusing, so let’s sort it out: Fuku is a sub-brand of Xiaomi that offers “intermediate devices” – powerful and cheap smartphones. In terms of technical specifications, the models do not compete with the flagship devices of the various manufacturers, but offer a significantly more affordable price. The new Poco X5 Pro costs about NIS 1,500 – less than half the price of a regular Galaxy S23 or a regular iPhone 14 and about a third of the price of the Ultra or Max models. So what do you get for this price?
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Focus X5 Pro
(Itay Shmoshkovitz)
Design and structure: plastic on behalf of FEM
There is no second chance for a first impression, and when I took the Poco X5 Pro out of the box it looked huge. It’s actually only about an inch and a half bigger than the Galaxy S23 (regular, not ultra), but the impression remains and it still felt big.
The Poco X5 Pro comes with a 6.67-inch screen – almost identical to those of the Galaxy S23 Ultra and iPhone 14 Pro Max, but in terms of weight it is closer to the basic models of Samsung and Apple and does not feel heavy. It’s big, as mentioned, and if you don’t have big hands you’ll find that it’s a bit difficult to manipulate it with one hand and reach every icon and corner of it.
In terms of design, there is no big news – it is a standard smartphone, but something about it still feels a bit rough, perhaps because the back of the device and the frame are made of plastic. On the front you will find Gorilla Glass 5.
The device has protection against water and dust according to the IP53 standard – which means that officially it is not recommended to walk around with it in the rain and there is nothing to talk about immersion in water. I walked with it through the drops in the rain and it actually performed fine.
On the back of the device there are three lenses and a flash, with two lenses sticking out and one fitting into the body of the device.
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The cameras of the Focus X5 Pro
(Itay Shmoshkovitz)
The Poco is equipped with stereo speakers – one at the top of the device and the other at the bottom. The device also has a headphone jack, which is disappearing from more and more smartphones, and an even more surprising addition – an infrared transmitter. With the help of the Xiaomi remote application that comes with the device, you can control the TV and a variety of other devices. On the other hand, there is no room for an external memory card.
The fingerprint scanner is integrated into the activation button on the side of the device and does the job impressively quickly and efficiently – you don’t have to try to find the right angle to place your finger to unlock the screen.
Hardware: Never ending battery
You will not find the most advanced specifications in Poco devices. In this case it is a Snapdragon 778 processor, compared to Snapdragon 8 in the flagship devices, and 256 GB of storage and another 6 GB of memory. What does this data actually mean? This specification is absolutely sufficient for daily use of the device, which coped without problems even with heavy games.
The screen shows an excellent image, but outside the house it turns out that the maximum brightness is not enough – even on a gray day without a bright sun, the surroundings are reflected on the screen. The content is still readable, but this reflection is a bit annoying and disturbing.
Behind a large screen is a large battery, and in the Poco it is a 5,000 mAh battery. The feeling you get from using the device is that the battery just doesn’t run out – it took a long time to drain it (after a few hours of 4K YouTube movies, at full brightness) and it easily managed a day’s work. The device does not support wireless charging but does offer fast charging and the phone kit includes a 67 watt fast charger, with which charging from zero to 25% took about 15 minutes and a full charge required about 45 minutes.
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The quick charger is included in the kit
(Itay Shmoshkovitz)
Software and interface: the intentions are good, the conversion created a problem
The Poco X5 Pro comes with Android 12 and Xiaomi’s MIUI interface in version 14. The interface advocates the both-and-both method – both deploys the apps on the home screen, like on the iPhone, and also displays them in an app drawer, as is customary with Android devices. Everyone can choose according to taste and personal preference, when the app drawer is divided by categories – communication, entertainment, photography, games and more. It’s a shame that the system doesn’t really know how to categorize all the apps, including games that haven’t been moved to the games category, for example, but you can of course add and move apps manually.
Android’s notification curtain is split into two, both – notifications and settings. To view the settings slide your finger down on the right part of the screen and to view the notifications slide your finger on the left part. It sounds logical and for a few moments I thought I had it under control, but the execution is confusing – when you choose to display the menus in Hebrew, a notification about a new email or WhatsApp message appears in the upper right corner, but if you slide your finger down on them you will actually reach the settings. In English it works better, in Xiaomi we simply did not update the directions when switching to Hebrew. And beyond all that, it’s a matter of habit – those who are used to swiping down don’t necessarily stop to check which side of the screen they are on.
Camera: Don’t rely on photos for the exhibition
Despite being content with little in terms of technical specifications, in the field of photography, Xiaomi chose to stay in the arms race and equipped the Poco with a 108 megapixel sensor. This figure also appears on the back of the device, next to the lens, but Xiaomi knows that you don’t really want or need to use such a resolution in every shot and made sure that it is not the default when you open the camera.
If you still want to shoot at 108 megapixels, you’ll have to select this option from the camera menu – don’t worry, it’s not hidden and you can easily find it. In any case, the optical zoom is only X2.
In normal shooting mode the result is good for basic use, but not sharp enough – if you enlarge the image on the screen you will easily see that parts of it are a bit blurry.
It’s not the prettiest and not the most up-to-date, but if you don’t need the latest flagship device or the most up-to-date specifications and you’re looking for a device that won’t hurt your bank account too much – the Focus X5 Pro is a good plus option.
It does the job and survives a working day without seeing a charger, with the main compromises being the quality of the images (if you go into details) and the protection of the device.
At a price of about NIS 1,500, and you can even find it at a lower price, you will get a device that doesn’t really feel discounted.