For several years, Poco's F-series devices have been their foray into the realm of "flagship killers." Recently, the family has been divided into two distinct models: a more affordable vanilla version and a Pro model that serves as the true "flagship killer" with a higher-end chipset.
This trend continues this year, but there's an intriguing twist. Since the Poco F5 and Poco F5 Pro's announcements, we've noticed a significantly higher level of interest in the vanilla F5 compared to the F5 Pro. We assume this is due to each device's unique value proposition. While the F5 Pro's value proposition isn't bad, it's not as compelling as those of earlier F-series Pocos.
On paper, the Poco F5 appears to tick a lot of boxes for a wide range of users. Therefore, we were eager to assess its performance in everyday life over an extended period of time during which we used it as our primary smartphone. This long-term review was born out of that desire.
It's also crucial to mention that the Poco F5 is identical to the Redmi Note 12 Turbo and is marketed under that name in certain regions. We've long since given up trying to decipher Xiaomi's naming and distribution strategies, but we believe this is vital information for you to know before reading this review. For simplicity's sake, we'll refer to the phone as the Poco F5 because it's the shorter name, but keep in mind that everything we say about it applies to its twin as well.
With that out of the way, it's also worth noting that the F5 is the first phone to be powered by the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 SoC, which, on paper, should provide the majority of the performance of an 8-series Snapdragon without the exorbitant price tag that these chips now command. Is this the best of both worlds, then? We'll find out. It's been a while since a mid-range phone has generated this level of anticipation, offering such a well-rounded package at such a low price – something the most recent Redmi Note non-Turbos haven't managed to do, despite their predecessors' success a few years ago.
Therefore, let's dive right in and examine how the Poco F5 / Redmi Note 12 Turbo performs in our extensive subjective testing. Follow us over the next few pages as we share our overall satisfaction with the device.