Poco M5 series Malaysia: Two confusing budget phones priced under RM700

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 7 — Barely a month after introducing the Poco M4 5G, Xiaomi’s independent brand Poco has announced the new M5 series which consists of the M5 and the M5s.

Both are priced from under RM700 and will go on sale in Malaysia starting this week.

Typically, phones with a higher price tag are the better device but that’s not the case with the new Poco M5 and the M5s.

Poco M5 and M5s Malaysia Pricing

Here’s the official pricing for the Poco M5 and M5s in Malaysia:

• Poco M5 4GB RAM + 64GB storage — RM649

• Poco M5 6GB RAM + 128GB storage — RM799

• Poco M5s 4GB RAM + 64GB storage — RM699

• Poco M5s 6GB RAM + 128GB storage — RM899

As usual, Poco is having an early bird sale on the Poco official global store on Shopee. Here’s the promo pricing if you purchase it online from September 7 to 14:

• Poco M5 4GB RAM + 64GB storage — RM599 (Save RM50)

• Poco M5 6GB RAM + 128GB storage — RM699 (Save RM100)

• Poco M5s 4GB RAM + 64GB storage — RM659 (Save RM40)

• Poco M5s 6GB RAM + 128GB storage — RM849 (Save RM50) + Free wireless earbuds

The Poco M5 comes in three colours — Grey, Green and Yellow, while the Poco M5s is offered in Grey, White and Blue.

Poco M5

The Poco M5 is the cheapest of the duo and it gets a larger 6.58″ Full HD+ “DotDrop” LCD display with a 90Hz refresh rate and a 240Hz touch sampling rate. The screen has a contrast ratio of 1500:1 and a maximum brightness of 500 nits.

Under the hood, it runs on a rather new 6nm MediaTek Helio G99 processor that can be configured with up to 6GB LPDDR4X RAM and up to 128GB of UFS 2.2 storage.

The device also supports microSD expandable storage of up to 1TB.

In the camera department, the Poco M5 comes with a very basic setup housed on a raised full-width camera bump with prominent POCO branding. It gets a 50MP main camera and two 2MP shooters for macro and depth.

Meanwhile, the front comes with a 5MP selfie camera that sits in a tiny notch.

The Poco M5 is a dual-SIM 4G LTE device and it supports 5GHz 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 5.3. It comes with a mono speaker as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Powering the device is a 5,000mAh battery which supports 18W fast charging via USB-C and Poco is including a 22.5W charger in the box. The device runs on Android 12 with MIUI 13 for Poco skin on top.

Poco M5s

The Poco M5s is a peculiar device as it runs on an older processor but it offers a better display, camera and audio.

It appears to be a rehashed Redmi Note 10S that was launched in May last year. Upfront, it gets a smaller 6.43″ Full HD+ display without any high-refresh rate.

However, it uses a more vibrant AMOLED panel that can push up to 1,100 nits of brightness and has a 4,500,000:1 contrast ratio.

Powering the device is a much older 12nm MediaTek Helio G95 chip, and it can be configured with up to 6GB of LPDDR4X RAM and up to 128GB of UFS 2.2 storage. Like the M5, it can support microSD card expansion up to 1TB.

Despite having a weaker processor, the Poco M5s comes with a more versatile camera setup.

The rear gets a higher-resolution 64MP main camera, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle shooter and two 2MP cameras for depth and macro. It also gets a higher resolution 13MP selfie camera that sits in a tiny punch-hole on the screen.

Another advantage the M5s has over the M5 is a dual speaker setup and it also gets a 3.5mm headphone jack with Hi-Res Audio certification. Also included is a Z-axis linear motor which claims to provide better vibration feedback.

Powering the device is also a large 5,000mAh battery but the M5s can support a higher 33W fast charging via USB-C. However, the official Malaysian product page states that the power adapter is not included with the M5s.

This is probably the first time Poco is selling a new phone in Malaysia without a charger. Out of the box, it runs on Android 12 with MIUI 13 for Poco skin on top.

The two phones appear to cater to different segments.

The “cheaper” Poco M5 uses a newer and more efficient 6nm Helio G99 while the “more” expensive M5s runs on an older processor, but it makes up for it by using an AMOLED display, a more versatile camera setup, stereo speakers and support for 33W fast charging.

To learn more, you can check out the official M5 and M5s product pages. If you’re interested to purchase the new Poco phones, you can visit their official store on Shopee. — SoyaCincau