POCO F5 vs Nothing Phone 1: Can the POCO F5 beat the well settled Nothing Phone 1 or will the Nothing Phone 1 continue to reign?

Which is the best premium mid-ranger between POCO and Nothing?

The Nothing Phone 1 (Review) has created a big hype ever since its launch last year as the smartphone came with a very unique design with a transparent back housing those Glyph LEDs that do work best with different functionalities. Other than that, the specifications were outstanding like a 120Hz AMOLED display, a powerful Snapdragon 778G chipset, a 50MP dual camera setup, a 4500mAh battery, etc.

However, the software experience has also been a strong point for the Nothing Phone 1 as it provided a clean and bloatware-free software experience. But now POCO has come to shake up the competition in the form of POCO F5 (Review) which brings some very good specifications like a 120Hz AMOLED display, a powerful Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 chipset, a 64MP triple camera setup and a 5000mAh battery.

So can the Nothing Phone 1 take on the POCO F5 or will the POCO F5 be the better choice? 

Let's find out in the full comparison.

POCO F5 vs Nothing Phone 1 Design:

In terms of build and design, the Nothing Phone 1 sport a unique design with a transparent back having the Glyph LEDs that light up if any of the notifications come or any action is triggered. The Nothing Phone 1 is curved around the sides and has a dual set of cameras with a LED flashlight. On the other hand, the POCO F5 has a flat back which is only curved towards the sides.

The Nothing Phone 1 has a glass back with both the front as well as the back protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 whereas the POCO F5 has Gorilla Glass 5 protection on the front and the rear has a polycarbonate back. The POCO F5 has a triple-camera setup with a LED flashlight on the back with a glossy finish that attracts quite a bit of fingerprint or smudges.

The POCO F5 weighs around 181 grams which makes it quite lighter than the 193 grams weight of the Nothing Phone 1. Around the sides, the Nothing Phone 1 has an aluminium frame which feels premium compared to the POCO F5 has a polycarbonate frame and both of them have a power button with volume buttons. Both smartphones are IP54 rating making them splash resistant.

On the top, the Nothing Phone 1 has dual antenna bands with a secondary noise-cancelling microphone whereas the top of the POCO F5 has a 3.5mm headphone jack, a secondary noise-cancelling microphone, a secondary speaker and an IR Blaster to control various devices. At the bottom, both smartphones have a primary microphone, a USB Type-C slot, a loudspeaker grille and a dual SIM card slot. 

On the front, both smartphones have a single punch-hole in the display but the bezels all around are slightly thicker on the Nothing Phone 1 compared to the POCO F5 which on the other hand, has slimmer bezels of the two. Definitely, in terms of build and design, the Nothing Phone 1 is better as it comes with a glass back compared to the POCO F5 with a polycarbonate back.

POCO F5 vs Nothing Phone 1 Display:

The POCO F5 has a slightly larger display at 6.67 inches compared to the 6.55-inch display on the Nothing Phone 1. Both smartphones have a Full HD+(1080x2400 pixels) AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate but the one on the POCO F5 is an adaptive one where the display refreshes between 30Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz or 120Hz whereas on the Nothing Phone 1 you can switch between 60Hz or 120Hz only.

Combined with a 120Hz refresh rate, you get a 360Hz touch sampling rate on the POCO F5 whereas the Nothing Phone 1 gets a 240Hz touch sampling rate so definitely in games, the POCO F5 feels slightly faster. As both of them are AMOLED displays, the colour saturation and viewing angles are great on both of them.

Since POCO F5 has support for Dolby Vision which provides saturated colours on the display compared to the display on the Nothing Phone 1. Both smartphones have support for HDR on YouTube and there is also Widevine L1 present on both so you can stream HD content on OTT platforms but currently, there is no support for HDR on Netflix on the Nothing Phone 1.

The POCO F5, on the other hand, has support for Dolby Vision with HDR on Netflix. In terms of brightness, the display on the POCO F5 can reach a peak brightness of around 1300nits compared to 1000nits of peak brightness on the Nothing Phone 1. Both displays have good visibility under direct sunlight but the POCO F5 does feel slightly brighter of the two.

The display on both smartphones can be changed from a warmer to a cooler tone and also you can choose different colour settings on both of them. The Nothing Phone 1 has an optical in-display fingerprint scanner that works fast but the POCO F5 has a side-mounted one where the power button doubles up as a fingerprint scanner.

When it comes to display, the POCO F5 has a slightly superior display compared to the Nothing Phone 1.

POCO F5 vs Nothing Phone 1 Performance:

Both the POCO F5 and the Nothing Phone 1 get powerful mid-range chipsets. The POCO F5 has the powerful Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 chipset based on a 4nm process whereas the Nothing Phone 1 gets the last year's powerful Snapdragon 778G+ chipset based on a 6nm process. Regarding daily tasks, both smartphones can handle almost all of them easily.

All heavy games like BGMI, Call Of Duty Mobile, Apex Legends, etc. ran smoothly on both of them but the gaming experience was slightly better on the POCO F5 as there were no drops in frame rates noticed whereas there were minor frame drops noticed on the Nothing Phone 1. After long hours of gaming for 3-4 hours, the back of the Nothing Phone 1 did feel slightly warmer compared to the POCO F5.

In terms of the CPU throttling test, the Nothing Phone 1 scored a sustained performance of around 85-90 per cent which is far better than the 70-75 per cent of sustained performance on the POCO F5 which does throttle to a larger extent. In terms of benchmarks, the POCO F5 definitely scores higher than the Nothing Phone 1. 

In terms of network connectivity, both smartphones have support for good carrier aggregation and both of them have support for 12 bands of 5G. The POCO F5 is available in two different variants - 8/12GB LPDDR5 RAM with 256GB UFS 3.1 storage whereas the Nothing Phone 1 is available in three different variants - 8/12GB LPDDR4X RAM with 128/256GB UFS 3.1 storage.

In terms of gaming and performance, definitely, the POCO F5 holds a clear edge over the Nothing Phone 1.

POCO F5 vs Nothing Phone 1 Software:

The Nothing Phone 1 runs on the latest NothingOS 1.5.3 built on Android 12 but currently it is running on Android 13 whereas the POCO F5 only runs on MIUI 14 based on Android 13. There are a lot of differences between both user interfaces. MIUI provides more customizations compared to the Nothing Phone 1 where you can change icon shape and size, different styles for the Always-On display, different wallpapers and themes.

The Nothing Phone 1 also gets an external icon pack and wallpapers that you can use which is very minimal. Both of the user interfaces provide widgets but the Nothing Phone 1 has slightly more than the POCO F5 where you can create folders that can occupy 2x2 space on the home screen and pop-up view for multi-tasking. The unique thing about the Glyph interface where you can control LED lights at the back of the smartphone.

The Nothing Phone 1 comes with a dot matrix font through the user interface and the look and feel is close to Stock Android. The POCO F5 comes with the traditional MIUI where you get the Control Center where if you swipe from the top left shows the notifications tray and swiping from the top right shows the quick toggles. MIUI also brings some additional features compared to NothingOS.

There are a lot of pre-installed Mi-specific applications that are handy but some amount of bloatware is present which can be uninstalled. On the other hand, the Nothing Phone 1 does not come with any sort of bloatware. In terms of software updates, the Nothing Phone 1 will get another two major AndroidOS updates and three years of security patches as now recently it got upgraded from Android 12 to 13.

The POCO F5 will receive another two years of AndroidOS updates and three years of security patches but the software update cycle of POCO has not been so good in the past as the updates roll out slower. Overall, if you want a feature-packed user interface, consider the POCO F5 or else with better software updates and a clean software experience, then the Nothing Phone 1 is the better option.

POCO F5 vs Nothing Phone 1 Camera:

The POCO F5 comes with a dual camera setup that includes a 50MP f/1.8 Sony IMX766 sensor for the main camera and a 50MP f/2.2 Samsung JN1 sensor for the ultrawide camera. On the other hand, the POCO F5 has a triple camera setup that consists of a 64MP f/1.8 Omnivision OV64B sensor for the main camera, an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera and a 2MP f/2.4 macro camera.

Both smartphones have a 16MP f/2.5 camera on the front. The images from the main camera come out with good details but the dynamic range is slightly better on the Nothing Phone 1. The colours look natural on both smartphones but the level of noise in the background is slightly higher on the POCO F5 compared to the Nothing Phone 1. 

The POCO F5 does suffer from oversharpening which is not the case with the Nothing Phone 1. At night, the images from both the main cameras have a lot of differences. The Nothing Phone 1 takes images with better details and dynamic range with less noise in the background compared to the POCO F5 which does suffer from oversharpening and also the exposure is not so well maintained as on the Nothing Phone 1.

With the dedicated night mode, both smartphones do take good images with improved dynamic range, slightly less noise and better exposure in the background but still here also the Nothing Phone 1 holds the clear edge over the POCO F5. In terms of the ultrawide camera, the Nothing Phone 1 houses a larger 50MP ultrawide camera which takes better details and dynamic range compared to the POCO F5.

The 8MP ultrawide camera on the POCO F5 does suffer from edge distortion which is minimal on the Nothing Phone 1. The colours look natural on both the images from the ultrawide camera but the noise is slightly less on the Nothing Phone 1. Similarly, at night, the Nothing Phone 1 takes images with much better details and dynamic range with less noise in the background compared to the POCO F5.

The POCO F5 gets a 2MP macro camera which is just average since it is a fixed focus camera, it cannot go very close to the subject so as a result, the colours look washed out, there is a lot of noise and the details look softer with poor dynamic range. The Nothing Phone 1, on the other hand, uses it is an ultrawide camera for macro shots which come out with good details and better dynamic range.

In terms of portraits, edge detection is equally good on both smartphones but the level of background blur is not well implemented on the POCO F5 as it blows out the background too much and the dynamic range is not so good as compared to the Nothing Phone 1. The portraits of the Nothing Phone 1 have sharper details and accurate skin tones compared to the POCO F5.

Both smartphones have a 16MP selfie camera which takes some selfies with a good amount of detail but the selfies on the Nothing Phone 1 have slightly better dynamic range and the details also look a bit sharper with slightly less noise compared to the POCO F5. However, the colours look natural on both. The selfie portraits come out with better edge detection and background blur on the Nothing Phone 1 compared to the POCO F5.

In terms of videos, both smartphones can record 4K videos at 30fps from the main camera and the video footage on the Nothing Phone 1 comes out with slightly better details, dynamic range and also less noise compared to the POCO F5. The stabilization is equally good on both since both of them get OIS but the video comes out slightly better on the Nothing Phone 1.

The videos from the ultrawide camera on the Nothing Phone 1 come out with slightly better details and dynamic range with less noise compared to the POCO F5 and also the ultrawide camera of the Nothing Phone 1 can record 4K videos at 30fps whereas the ultrawide camera of the POCO F5 can record 1080p videos at 30fps only. 

On the front, the POCO F5 can record 1080p videos at 60fps whereas the Nothing Phone 1 is only restricted to 1080p videos at 30fps. The videos come out good on both smartphones but the dynamic range is slightly better on the Nothing Phone 1 whereas POCO F5 has better stabilization in the videos with less noise compared to the Nothing Phone 1. 

Overall, the Nothing Phone 1 holds a clear edge over the POCO F5 in terms of cameras.

POCO F5 vs Nothing Phone 1 Battery Life:

The Nothing Phone 1 house a 4500mAh battery whereas the POCO F5 has a slightly larger 5000mAh battery. With heavy usage that includes playing games like BGMI, Apex Legends, etc. for 3-4 hours continuously, rendering videos, attending calls for longer hours, etc. both smartphones could easily last for two days.

With normal usage that includes streaming social media, playing casual games, web browsing, etc. both smartphones could easily last for one single day with some charge left. The standard screen-on time for the POCO F5 came around 6-7 hours which is slightly better than the 5.5-6 hours of screen-on time on the Nothing Phone 1. 

In terms of charging, the POCO F5 comes with a 67W fast charger that takes the smartphone around 50-55 minutes for a full charge from 0 to 100 per cent. On the other hand, the Nothing Phone 1 does not come with a charger inside the box but it supports 33W fast charging and using any 33W fast charger takes around 1 hour 30 minutes for a full charge from 0 to 100 per cent completely.

The Nothing Phone 1 has another advantage is that it comes with 15W wireless charging and 5W reverse wireless charging both of which the POCO F5 lacks. So definitely POCO F5 holds the clear edge in terms of battery life over the Nothing Phone 1 but if you need features like wireless charging and reverse wireless charging, then Nothing Phone 1 is the better option.

POCO F5 vs Nothing Phone 1 Audio Quality:

Both the Nothing Phone 1 and the POCO F5 come with a dual stereo speaker setup that sounds adequately loud and clear but the speakers on the POCO F5 have slightly better clarity and also bass level is superior compared to the Nothing Phone 1. The POCO F5 also gets a 3.5mm headphone jack which the Nothing Phone 1 lacks. Both smartphones get Dolby Atmos support for enhanced sound output.

Verdict:

Both the Nothing Phone 1 and the POCO F5 are very good premium mid-range smartphones that have their own set of uniqueness to them. The POCO F5 is targeted at users who want the best performance and gaming with multimedia consumption as it gets a Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 chipset as it is very powerful and also the presence of Dolby Vision in the display makes it a great combination.

Other than that, it comes with a good battery life with support for fast charging with a charger included in the box which is where the Nothing Phone 1 falls short of. The software experience is good on the POCO F5 but there have been issues with software regarding cameras and motherboard in the past and also there is a lot of bloatware present.

This is where the Nothing Phone 1 simply beats the POCO F5 as it provides a cleaner software experience with no bloatware and has a better software update cycle compared to the POCO F5. It has a better set of cameras both for clicking images and videos. The design also feels premium compared to the POCO F5 and does exhibit uniqueness with those Glyph LEDs on that transparent back.

When it comes to display, performance and gaming, battery life and audio quality, then the POCO F5 holds the clear edge over the Nothing Phone 1 but if you want a premium build and design, a cleaner software experience, a better set of cameras and some features like wireless charging, then the Nothing Phone 1 is the better pick of the two. 

So in the end, it all depends on your personal preference as you cannot go wrong by considering any one of these. But on an overall basis, the POCO F5 does go ahead of the Nothing Phone 1 by a very slight margin.