Poco F5 and Poco F5 Pro launching this 9 May, will feature the new Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2

Almost a year on since the Poco F4 made its global debut, the Xiaomi sub brand is set to launch the Poco F5 and Poco F5 Pro next month. In a new tweet from the Poco Global account, they’ve revealed that the global online launch even for their two new smartphones is set to happen on the 9th of May 2023, 8pm local time.

Now while we’re still a couple of weeks away from the actual launch event, there’s a good chance that we can already glean some information about the upcoming smartphones. Rumour has it that the Poco F5 is set to be a rebadge of the China-only Redmi Note 12 Turbo, which made waves as the first smartphone to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 processor. Lending credence to this is that the Snapdragon India account has already revealed that the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 will indeed appear on the Poco F5.

Packing major improvements over both the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 and the popular Snapdragon 778G chipset, the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2, built on the TSMC 4nm process, has a lot in common with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 but clocked lower. The Redmi Note 12 Turbo also comes with up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 1TB of UFS 3.1 storage.

The Redmi Note 12 Turbo features a 6.67-inch, FHD+ OLED display too with a peak brightness of 1,000nits and a 120Hz refresh rate. There’s also a 64MP main camera flanked by an 8MP ultrawide and a 2MP macro with a 16MP selfie camera rounding it off. Keeping the lights on is a 5,000mAh battery with 67W fast charging. Other features of note include stereo speakers, a 3.5mm audio jack and an in-display fingerprint sensor.

As for the Poco F5 Pro, it is believed to be a rebadged Redmi K60 instead. This means a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 under the hood together with a 6.67-inch OLED display pushing a 3200 x 1440p resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 1400nits. You’ll also find a 64MP main camera with an 8MP ultrawide and a 2MP macro lens and a 16MP selfie shooter up front. There’s a 5,500mAh battery on the Redmi K60 too with 67W fast charging, 30W wireless charging with other features such as stereo speakers, an in-display fingerprint sensor and an IR blaster.

We’ll have to wait till the actual launch event to know how much the Poco F5 and Poco F5 Pro will cost, but for reference the Redmi Note 12 Turbo starts at CNY1,999 (~RM1,287.51) in China, while the Redmi K60 is priced at CNY2,499 (~RM1,609.54) onwards.