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BatteryWe put the POCO F5 Pro through our rigorous DXOMARK Audio test suite to measure its performance both at recording sound using its built-in microphones, and at playing audio back through its speakers.
In this review, we will break down how it fared in a variety of tests and several common use cases.
Overview
Key audio specifications include:
- Two speakers (Top left, bottom right)
- No Jack audio output
- Dolby Atmos technology
Scoring
Sub-scores and attributes included in the calculations of the global score.
POCO F5 Pro
112th
17th
Playback
Cons
- Strong lack of bass, aggressive timbre at high volume
- Underwhelming volume performance
- Unrealistic stereo rendition
Recording
Pros
- Natural tonal balance
- Satisfying envelope rendition
- No perceived artifacts in some use cases
In the DXOMARK Audio tests, the Poco F5 Pro delivered a performance that that did not manage to set it apart in its class of devices. The Poco did better for Recording than Playback, thanks to overall pleasant audio recordings with a nice timbre. Recorded audio came with a natural tonal balance and very few unwanted artifacts but overall quality somewhat suffered at higher sound pressure levels. Overall Recording results were best with the front camera app and slightly lower for memo use and with the main camera.
In Playback our experts noticed a strong lack of bass with the built-in speakers and an aggressive sound at higher volume settings. In Playback the Poco performed best when playing games and scored slightly lower when watching movies or listening to music.
Test summary
About DXOMARK Audio tests: For scoring and analysis in our smartphone audio reviews, DXOMARK engineers perform a variety of objective tests and undertake more than 20 hours of perceptual evaluation under controlled lab conditions.
(For more details about our Playback protocol, click here; for more details about our Recording protocol, click here.)
The following section gathers key elements of our exhaustive tests and analyses performed in DXOMARK laboratories. Detailed performance evaluations under the form of reports are available upon request. Do not hesitate to contact us.
Playback
POCO F5 Pro
163
DXOMARK engineers test playback through the smartphone speakers, whose performance is evaluated in our labs and in real-life conditions, using default apps and settings.
Playback performance was not among the best in class. In our tests, the Poco F5 Pro delivered only average results for Timbre, due to an overall midrange-centric tonal balance, with fairly unpleasant treble and a lack of low midrange and bass. In terms of Dynamics, the Poco offered quite sharp and precise attack and satisfying punch. However, bass precision was impaired by the lack of low-end extension. The built-in speakers managed to create fairly good wideness but the stereo spread sounded slightly uneven, resulting in an unrealistic sound scene with some dead zones around the center of the stereo image. This also impacted on the localizability of individual sound sources which was blurry around the center, or with a narrow sounding spread towards the sides of the stereo image. The sound scene also lacked depth but our experts found distance rendition to be realistic.
Volume performance was underwhelming, with average loudness at maximum volume at best. At the lowest volume the device was far far too quiet and volume step distribution was inconsistent. In addition, our experts observed a number of unwanted audio artifacts, including a slight fade-in or fade-out when pressing play/pause in the music app, some compression at maximum volume and harsh distortion when playing games. When gaming, our testers also found the bottom speaker to be easily occluded which impaired tonal balance.
Listen to the tested smartphone’s playback performance in this comparison with some of its competitors:
Timbre
POCO F5 Pro
158
The Timbre score represents how well a phone reproduces sound across the audible tonal range and takes into account bass, midrange, treble, tonal balance, and volume dependency. It is the most important attribute for playback.
Dynamics
POCO F5 Pro
149
The Dynamics score measures the accuracy of changes in the energy level of sound sources, for example how precisely a bass note is reproduced or the impact sound from drums.
Spatial
POCO F5 Pro
162
The sub-attributes for spatial tests include pinpointing a specific sound's location, its positional balance, distance, and wideness.
Volume
POCO F5 Pro
162
The Volume score represents the overall loudness of a smartphone and how smoothly volume increases and decreases based on user input.
| Hip-Hop | Classical | |
| POCO F5 Pro | 73.7 dBA | 68.9 dBA |
| Samsung Galaxy A54 5G | 75 dBA | 71.3 dBA |
| Oppo Reno8 5G | 70.4 dBA | 72 dBA |
Artifacts
POCO F5 Pro
157
The Artifacts score measures the extent to which the sound is affected by various types of distortion. The higher the score, the less the disturbances in the sound are noticeable. Distortion can occur because of sound processing in the device and because of the quality of the speakers.
It represents the distortion and noise of the device playing our test signal (0 dB Fs, Sweep Sine in an anechoic box at 40 cm) at the device's maximum volume.
Recording
POCO F5 Pro
160
DXOMARK engineers test recording by evaluating the recorded files on reference audio equipment. Those recordings are done in our labs and in real-life conditions, using default apps and settings.
The Poco did better as a Recording device, with a decent performance in the Timbre category. Recordings sounded slightly unclear, or even muffled on occasion, but the tonal balance was quite natural, with a nice amount of upper bass and low midrange body. In terms of Dynamics, the device delivered a decent envelope rendition and average signal-to-noise ratio, with some background noise noticeable. When recording in landscape orientation, for example with the main camera app, the Poco captured a wide sound scene. However, localizability of individual sound sources could have been better and was a little blurry. Both wideness and localizability were less realistic when recording selfie video in portrait orientation but our testers liked the great distance rendition.
Recording loudness was slightly underwhelming across all use cases but improved slightly at higher sound pressure levels, for example when recording concerts. In these challenging conditions recordings were pretty much free of distortion but our testers observed some compression. In our tests, the device was not particularly prone to occlusions of the microphone, but finger noises in the recordings could be an issue. Tonal balance of the background was natural.
Here is how the POCO F5 Pro performs in recording use cases compared to its competitors:
Timbre
POCO F5 Pro
147
The Timbre score represents how well a phone captures sounds across the audible tonal range and takes into account bass, midrange, treble, and tonal balance. It is the most important attribute for recording.
Dynamics
POCO F5 Pro
146
The Dynamics score measures the accuracy of changes in the energy level of sound sources, for example how precisely a voice's plosives (the p's, t's and k's, for example) are reproduced. The score also considers the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), for example how loud the main voice is compared to the background noise.
Spatial
POCO F5 Pro
159
The sub-attributes for spatial tests include pinpointing a specific sound's location, its positional balance, distance, and wideness on the recorded audio files.
Volume
POCO F5 Pro
170
The Volume score represents how loud audio is normalized on the recorded files and the how the device handles loud environments, such as electronic concerts, when recording.
| Meeting | Life Video | Selfie Video | Memo | |
| POCO F5 Pro | -30.1 LUFS | -23.5 LUFS | -21.5 LUFS | -25 LUFS |
| Samsung Galaxy A54 5G | -25.8 LUFS | -22.2 LUFS | -20.9 LUFS | -21.1 LUFS |
| Oppo Reno8 5G | -23.4 LUFS | -21.3 LUFS | -19.8 LUFS | -17.8 LUFS |
Artifacts
POCO F5 Pro
145
The Artifacts score measures the extent to which the recorded sounds are affected by various types of distortions. The higher the score, the less the disturbances in the sound are noticeable. Distortions can occur because of sound processing in the device and the quality of the microphones, as well as user handling, such as how the phone is held.
In this audio comparison, you can listen to the way this smartphone handles wind noise relative to its competitors:
Background
POCO F5 Pro
166
Background evaluates how natural the various sounds around a voice blend into the video recording file. For example, when recording a speech at an event, the background should not interfere with the main voice, yet it should provide some context of the surroundings.
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