iQOO launched its Neo 7 smartphone in India last month as the successor to last year’s Neo6. This has a bigger display, better SoC, packs a bigger battery and a faster charging. Is this the best gaming phone in the market in the price range? Let use dive into the review to find out.
| Box Contents |
| Camera |
| Battery Life |
| Conclusion |
Box Contents
- iQOO Neo 7 12GB + 256GB version in Frost Blue colour
- Clear Silicon case
- USB Type-C Cable
- 120W Super FlashCharge wall adapter
- USB Type-C to 3.5mm converter
- SIM ejector tool
- Quick start guide and Warranty information
Display, Hardware and Design
The iQOO Neo 7 sports a 6.78-inch (2400×1080 pixels) Full HD+ 20:9 aspect ratio Samsung E5 AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate. The display is bright, thanks to, up to 1,300 nits brightness, and the sunlight legibility is good as well.
You can select from standard (default), professional and bright screen colour modes. You can select smart switch that can switch between 60 Hz/90 Hz/120 Hz, 30 Hz or force it to 60Hz or 120Hz. It has 300Hz touch sampling rate. Visual enhancement optimizes the color and contrast in apps like YouTube and Netflix for more vivid display effects.
It also has HDR 10+ support, which works for YouTube and Netflix. The phone doesn’t have a notification LED, but this has an always-on-display that shows contextual info and notifications all day or as per schedule.
The phone has a 16MP front camera inside the punch-hole. There is an earpiece on the top edge which also works as a secondary speaker.
There is a small 2.65mm chin below the screen, 1mm less than the predecessor. The side bezels are just 1.6mm, so it has 93.1% screen-to-body ratio, compared to 91.4% in the predecessor. It has an in-display optical fingerprint scanner. The haptic feedback is good as well, thanks to the X-Axis Linear Motor, which is also useful in 4D Game Vibration.
Coming to the button placements and ports, the phone has a home button and volume rockers on the right. The bottom part is crammed with a dual SIM slot, primary microphone, USB Type-C port and a speaker grill. The secondary microphone and the IR blaster are present on the top.
The back of the phone has a camera part with triple rear cameras. Even though it has a polycarbonate back, but it looks premium, and has a smooth matte finish that doesn’t attract fingerprints.
Camera
- 64MP main camera with ISOCELL GW3 sensor, f/1.79 aperture, OIS
- 2MP depth sensor with f/2.4 aperture
- 2MP macro camera with f/2.4 aperture
- 16MP front-facing camera with f/2.45 aperture
The camera UI is the same as other phones running Funtouch OS 13. It includes several features such as AR stickers, Pro Sports mode, double exposure, dual view, 64MP mode and more. Even though the phone has a 64MP rear camera, the final output is 16MP in size after pixel binning, and the front camera output is 16MP.
Coming to the camera quality, the daylight shots are good, and it is recommended to enable HDR option which automatically switches on HDR according to the shot, so that the dynamic range is good. The camera can focus quickly. Macro shots are decent, but the 2MP macro camera is just useless since the resolution is low. It lacks an ultra-wide camera which was present in the predecessor. You can adjust the aperture manually in the portrait mode for the best background blur. Low-light images are good, but it could have been better. The night mode is useful, thanks to the optimization.
The 16MP camera is good in daylight, and the front camera portrait is decent as well, but it is not the best when it comes to low-light.
Check out some camera samples below
It can record videos at 4k resolution at up to 60 fps from the rear camera and the front camera supports 1080p 30 fps recording. There is also a night video mode option. It has standard and ultra stabilization, but the resolution is down to 1080p in ultra option since it crops the content. OIS does a good job in stabilization.
Software, UI and Apps
Coming to the software, the phone runs on Android 13 with Funtouch OS 13 on top. It has Android security patch for February 2023. Like the previous Neo series phone, the Neo 7 also gets two years of Android updates and three years of monthly security updates.
Funtouch OS 13 brings new personalization options, privacy and security measures, and control functions for a smoother, uninterrupted experience.
Out of 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM about 11.17GB is usable, out of which 7GB is free when the default apps are running in the background. There is additional 8GB RAM expansion feature. Out of 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage, 221GB is free out of the box. We got about 1725.51MBps sequential read speed.
Since the phone has an IR blaster, it comes with a Smart Remote app. Apart from the usual set of utility and Google apps, it comes preloaded with a lot of apps such as Facebook, Spotify, Byjus, Amazon, Netflix, LinkedIn ad Snapchat. These apps can be uninstalled, but they come back after reset.
Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock
The phone has an in-display fingerprint sensor which immediately unlocks the phone just by keeping your finger on the sensor. There are different animation styles that display when you unlock, which you can disable. The phone also has face unlock that can unlock the phone in seconds, but it is not as secure as fingerprint.
Music and Multimedia
The default Music Player also has equalizer and DeepField sound effects. It doesn’t have FM Radio support. Audio through the stereo speakers is good and loud. Audio through the headphones is good as well.
This has Widevine L1 so that you can play HD content on Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and other streaming apps. It also supports HDR content on Netflix and YouTube.
Dual SIM and Connectivity
It has the usual set of connectivity features such as 5G with support for n1/n3/n5/n8/n28A/n41/n77/n78 bands. Jio and Airtel 5G work out of the box. It also has dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4 + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5.3, GPS + GLONASS, but doesn’t have NFC support. It also has USB OTG support. The phone also has carrier aggregation. We did not face any call drops and the earpiece volume is good, even though it is present on the top edge.
The iQOO Neo 7’s body SAR is 1.11 W/Kg and head SAR is at 1.22/Kg which is slightly high compared to some mid-range phones, but it well under the limit in India which is 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g).
Performance and Benchmarks
This is the first phone in India to be powered by the latest MediaTek Dimensity 8200 4nm processor. It has 1x Cortex-A78 @ 3.1GHz, 3x Cortex-A78 @ 3.0GHz and 4x Cortex-A55 @ 2GHz.
The Mali-G610 MC6 offers a smooth gaming performance even in graphic intensive games, and the phone doesn’t get too hot even during long hours of gaming, thanks to large, 2396mm² vapor chamber cooling and a 3D graphite structure that fits closely to the internal parts of the phone, and the total heat dissipation area is 35,090 mm², and the heat dissipation film is 23% more compared to Neo 6, said iQOO.
The phone gets a bit warm on intensive gaming, but it doesn’t too hot. We did not face any issues or frame drops in the graphic-intensive games like COD with 90Hz, BGMI and Genshin Impact. It reached maximum 38º C in our testing indoors in Wi-Fi, but this might vary outdoors in 4G or 5G. This is better than 41º C in the Neo 6.
It has 300Hz touch sampling rate and 1200Hz instant touch sampling rate. That said, check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.
As you can see in the benchmarks, the iQOO Neo 7 powered by the Dimensity 8200 chip outperforms several phones including Snapdragon 870 and 888.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the phone packs a 5000mAh (typical) battery, compared to 4700mAh in the predecessor. It can easily last for a day with heavy use and for 2 days with typical use with 5G enabled and multimedia, thanks to the optimization. I got over 5 and half hours of screen on time with about 2 days of use with mixed Wi-Fi and 5G use.
Since the phone has support for 120W fast charging, it can charge up to 50% in about 10 minutes and up to 100% in about 25 minutes. The company says that it can retain 80% battery health even after 1000 charging cycles.
Conclusion
At a starting price of Rs. 29,999, the iQOO Neo 7 is a value-for-money phone for multimedia, gaming and a good successor to the Neo 6 since it offers a bigger battery and a faster charging and still maintain the same price. Even the rear camera is good in daylight and also has OIS, but it lacks an ultra-wide camera.
Pricing and availability
The iQOO Neo 7 is priced at Rs. 29,999 for the 8GB + 128GB model and the 12GB + 256GB model costs Rs. 33,999. It is available from Amazon.in and iQOO.com. There is 1500 instant discount with HDFC Bank, ICICI and SBI Debit and Credit cards.
Alternatives
There is still no direct competition that offers the gaming performance of the Neo 7 in the price range. The iQOO 9 SE with Snapdragon 888 around the same price has a better camera, but has a smaller battery. The POCO F4 is a cheaper alternative.
Pros
- 120Hz E4 AMOLED HDR display is brilliant
- Smooth performance and good gaming performance
- Stereo speakers
- Good battery life with 120W fast charging
Cons
- No ultra-wide camera and 2MP macro camera
- A lot of preloaded apps