The Poco F5 Pro launches with the latest software from Google and Xiaomi. That combo would be MIUI 14 + Android 13. The former, however, isn't pure MIUI but as Poco labels it - MIUI 14 for Poco. There's not a lot of difference between the standard MIUI and the iteration for Poco, so we suggest taking a closer look at our MIUI 14 walkthrough. You will find all the information needed there.
It's important to note, however, that MIUI for Poco (or at least the iteration installed on the Poco F5 family) has a couple of things missing. For instance, you can't set up a proper Always-on display as it's limited to just 10 seconds. Also, there are no Large folders, and you can't disable the app drawer. On the other hand, you can double-tap on an empty spot on the Home screen to lock the device, which isn't a feature you can enable on the standard MIUI. Lastly, the default icon pack seems to be more in line with vanilla Android rather than MIUI's square-ish icons.
In terms of overall performance and feel, MIUI 14 on Poco F5 Pro felt smooth and snappy. No issues here.
The Poco F5 Pro features a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, but that's not your ordinary SD8+ Gen 1 SoC. It's a toned-down version of the original chipset with lower clock speeds on all three core clusters. The main Cortex-X2 core is clocked at 3.0 GHz (instead of 3.2 GHz), the 3x Cortex-A710 cluster runs at 2.5 GHz (instead of 2.75 GHz), and the energy-efficient 4x Cortex-A510 cores are ticking at 1.8 GHz (instead of 2.0 GHz). This should bring down the overall energy demand.
The chipset is still based on TSMC's 4nm manufacturing node, however, and relies on the Adreno 730 GPU for the graphically-intensive tasks.
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Despite the lower clock speeds, the SD8+ Gen 1 inside the Poco F5 Pro matches the performance of the original SoC. In some cases, it outperforms them even. Either way, Xiaomi implemented the chipset successfully and chose a capable chipset, rarely rivaled in the given price bracket. It's also important to note that the Poco F5's SD7+ Gen 2 is coming pretty close in all testing scenarios, closing the gap between the F5 and F5 Pro.
And as for the GPU benchmarks, the Poco F5 Pro scored lower than the rest because of its high-resolution 1440p+ display. Refer to the offscreen tests for more relevant comparisons.
Just like the vanilla Poco F5, the Pro version also features the so-called LiquidCool Technology 2.0 for better heat management. It boasts a 5,000 mm2 cooling area with stainless steel vapor chamber and a multi-layer design that also incorporates a 6,933 mm2 surface area of graphite. But while we weren't impressed with the F5's sustained performance, the F5 Pro did noticeably better. At least for the first half an hour.
In the first 30 minutes, the system maintained good performance (above 80% of the CPU's theoretical performance), despite the rather inconsistent graph and the overheating warning we got at the 28-minute mark. Shortly after, we experienced heavy CPU throttling with various dips close to 0% of the theoretical performance. On average, the system maintained about 60% of its clock speeds.
CPU throttle test: 28 min • 30 min • 60 min
All in all, not the best-sustained performance out there, but we've seen way worse too.
Tip us
1.7m 126k
RSS
EV
Merch
Log in I forgot my password Sign up