POCO has launched the all-new M5S recently and it is one of the coolest and the best budget smartphone out there to try. The base model of it was priced competitively under 189 Euros, making it the most affordable smartphone released recently. If you’re into purchasing and switching phones regularly, this might be the phone for you. Building upon its predecessor’s success, the M5S is a beautiful Android phone that offers unmatched performance with the latest specs.
Out of the two smartphone releases, M5S surely stands out as it is equipped with some of the best features at that price. Let’s dive deep and see what’s so good and bad about the all-new M5S in detail. Before giving you my full review take a look at how much this phone is currently priced.
POCO M5S Review: Design
One of the first things that caught my attention about this smartphone is its design. M5S comes with a curved frame design. The frame feels very solid and offers a reassuring grip. It weighs around 178 grams and feels very light to hold onto. On the front, M5S is equipped with a 6.43-inch 1080p OLED display and looks good both and paper and for real-world usage as well. This display is capable of reaching peak brightness levels up to 1,100 nits which are really good in my opinion.
The bezels are reasonably thin and also have a small circle cut in the middle for the 13MP selfie camera. It measures 160.5 x 74.5 x 8.3 mm which makes it one of the thinnest smartphones in this price range. M5S comes with the coveted Gorilla Glass 3 protection and it is sure has added up to the security aspects of this smartphone. It is available in three colors grey, blue, and white. I got a chance to try the grey edition and it looks perfect for daily use. The color is absolutely fantastic. I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks now and I became a fan of its no none-sense design.
Overall, I think the M5s has got a decent design for its price tag. One of the off-putting things about this smartphone is its glossy finish. Personally, I’m not a fan of the glossy finishes. They make the phone slippery and sometimes less appealing to the eyes. However, ironically, this phone is sure quite comfortable and it also has a good shape and size, and despite the glossy frame, the grip is secure enough. Considering the budget point of view, this phone’s design is a bulls-eye.
POCO M5S Review: Performance
Under the hood, M5S is powered by Helio G95 from Mediatek. It is a gaming-capable SoC for basic mid-range smartphones. The processor is made on a 12nm manufacturing process and is packed with an octa-core CPU with two high-performance Cortex-A76 cores ticking at 2.05GHz and six energy-efficient Corext-A55 cores working at 2.0GHz. Apart from the processor, M5S has a dedicated Mali-G76 MC4 GPU clocked at 900MHz.
POCO M5S Review: Battery
M5s is powered by a large 5,000mAh battery, and it is quite enough to withstand a full day of regular usage. In fact, this can even withstand some heavy usage as well and can last a full day. The model has scored over 132h endurance rating. The battery on M5S can withstand 36H of 3G talk time, 15h of unstoppable web browsing, and 16h of video playback time as well.
The bigger battery requires a good amount of charging speeds and POCO did a fine job of providing higher charging speeds. It is equipped with 33W fast charging, and the phone arrives bundled with the 33W Mi power adapter. With the adapter, I managed to charge up my phone to a neat 54% in half an hour. It took somewhere around 1h:02M to reach full charging which is great for a budget-segment smartphone.
Overall, battery and charging speeds are a huge plus point for this smartphone, and considering the price tag, this is a huge advantage for this smartphone. If you are looking for a phone to withstand your average daily tasks and some decent gaming now and then, then M5S is enough in my opinion.
POCO M5S Review: Camera (Photos)
Poco M5s offers a quad-camera setup on its back. The setup comprises a 64MP primary, an 8MP ultrawide, a 2MP macro, and a 2MP depth sensor. There is a 13MP selfie shooter at the front, too. The main camera packs a 64MP 1/2″ OmniVision OV64B sensor with a Quad-Bayer filter. This camera setup is capable of capturing a whopping 16MP photo with 1.4µm equivalent performance. The photos taken from these look neat and clean on the mobile screen. The problem only arrives when you export them to a computer. When viewing on the bigger screens, the photos taken from the sensor look somewhat over-processed. This problem only arises when the photo is zoomed to 100%.
The good thing about this camera setup is the color reproduction. The colors look good and subtle. The same goes for dynamic range. Both of them are subtle and make the picture less noisy. The 8MP photos from the ultrawide camera are able to capture good details and offer punchy colors and good contrast. When compared to other, images from this shooter has managed to capture less noise than others. The 2MP depth sensor on the Poco M5s helps the for accurate segregation of the subject. As a result, The blur is good and subtle.
The selfies taken from the front 13MP shooter are excellent, detailed, and sharp. The exposure was good and the contrast is decent. The low-light photos from the main camera are decent and acceptable considering the price point – they offer good exposure and good color saturation.
M5S CAMERA SAMPLES GALLERY
Review: Camera (Video)
When it comes to video recording, this mobile is fully capable of capturing 4K@30fps video, as well as 1080p at 60fps. The ultrawide camera maxes out at 1080p@30fps, while the 2MP macro supports 720p@30fps. OIS is unavailable and considering the price point, I’m not expecting it as well. Although the phone lacks OIS, EIS is available fully locked and loaded on all 30fps modes. One thing that I found fascinating is that the audio capture is right on the mark. The audio captured in all of the videos is captured at 128Kbps for 4K and 192Kbps for 1080p clips. It is stereo and possesses a good output.
The 4K footage captured using the main camera is good. The phone has managed to capture every detail, the dynamic range is exceptionally wide, the noise is low, and the colors are great. While the 4K footage has reached beyond expectations, 1080P capture suffers a lot from over-processing. The colors are accurate however the details are poor and over-saturated. This particular mode needs some boost with contrast and stabilization.
Overall, this particular segment yields satisfactory results, and considering the price point, it is decent in my opinion.
Final Words
M5S is surely one of the best budget smartphone releases in this year 2022. The phone has got everything packed right from Bigger Battery, Higher charging speeds, superior hardware performance, a nice AMOLED panel, and a decent camera. It has even got a price tag that’s hard to beat these days. It is an excellent all-around phone for its nearly entry-level pricing.
The only thing that I wanted in this is a higher refresh rate display. Apart from that, everything about this smartphone is perfect. If you are looking for a daily driver that’s budget-friendly, this mobile is a true rock star and a go-to choice. Overall, it is a reliable smartphone and a neat and clean daily driver.
