Poco’s latest smartphones give you a choice between gaming and photography

Poco has long-established itself as a strong player in the budget smartphone market with the likes of the Poco M4 Pro and Poco X4 Pro 5G, and that trend continues today with the reveal of the budget-friendly Poco M5 and Poco M5s.

Tailored towards entertainment-hungry users on a budget, the two smartphones offer consumers a choice between the gaming prowess of the Poco M5 and the camera smarts of the Poco M5s.

Focused on gaming, the Poco M5 prioritises performance and the display over all else. To that effect, the Poco M5 sports MediaTek’s 6nm Helio G99 chipset with either 4 or 6GB of RAM and up to 128GB of storage depending on the variant you opt for. It also boasts the company’s Game Turbo 5.0 tech that Poco claims “intelligently controls and optimises the CPU, GPU and memory” to improve game performance, even in demanding 3D titles, though we’ll have to wait to review it to verify those claims.

That’s paired with a decently-sized 6.58in FHD+ display with a dynamic 90Hz refresh rate that should provide high frame rates when gaming and lower frame rates when watching videos and scrolling through social media, and that should help boost battery life too. Though with a whopping 5,000mAh battery within, the Poco M5 should be an all-day device, and 18W charging, while not the fastest, should reduce the time tethered to a wall.

Elsewhere you’ll find a basic rear camera setup comprised of a 50Mp main snapper, a 2Mp macro lens and 2Mp depth sensor. The two latter lenses won’t be that useful, but the 50Mp snapper should deliver decent results for the price.

Besides, if photography is your passion, you might be better off with the Poco M5s.

The Poco M5s is tailored towards photography, sporting an impressive quad-camera setup on the rear much more capable than its gaming-focused sibling. The Poco M5s sports a 64Mp main camera alongside an 8Mp ultra-wide, alongside the same 2Mp macro and 2Mp depth sensors as the M5, and a 13Mp front-facing camera for snapping selfies. The budget smartphone is also able to shoot up to 4K@30fps for those interested in video.

Poco has included a number of shooting modes to help take advantage of the rear snappers, including a dedicated night mode, a portrait mode, time-lapse and slo-mo capabilities and more – though you shouldn’t expect the same impressive night mode capabilities as flagships.

In lieu of a fast 90Hz refresh rate, the Poco M5s sports a smaller 6.43in AMOLED panel for improved visuals when editing photos and watching movies via apps like Netflix, with premium features like DC Dimming also present.

Backing up the experience is the slightly less powerful MediaTek G95 chipset, and like its sibling, comes with either 4- or 6GB of RAM and 64- or 128GB of storage depending on the variant you opt for. There’s also the same whopping 5,000mAh battery found within, so whichever model you opt for, you’ll have solid all-day battery life.

Both the Poco M5 and Poco M5s are slated for release in the UK in mid-September, and while we’ve been assured of the budget-friendly nature of the smartphones, exact pricing is yet to be confirmed. We’ll update this piece once we get confirmation from Poco.