iQOO launched its Neo7 Pro smartphone in India last week, after the launch of Neo 7 earlier this year. This has a better display, faster SoC, new camera and retains the same large battery and a fast charging. Is this the best gaming phone in the market under Rs. 35,000? Let use dive into the review to find out.
| Box Contents |
| Camera |
| Battery Life |
| Conclusion |
Box Contents
- iQOO Neo7 Pro 12GB + 256GB version in Dark Storm colour
- Clear Silicon case
- USB Type-C Cable
- 120W Super FlashCharge wall adapter
- SIM ejector tool
- Quick start guide and Warranty information
Display, Hardware and Design
The iQOO Neo7 Pro 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 360Hz touch sampling rate. Visual enhancement optimizes the color and contrast in apps like YouTube, Prime Video 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 chin below the screen, and the side bezels are just 1.6mm, so it has 93.1% screen-to-body ratio. 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 power 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. The Dark Storm colour that we have has an AG glass back that looks premium, and has a smooth matte finish that doesn’t attract fingerprints.
The Fearless Flame colour variant in Orange has a vegan leather finish on the back.
Camera
- 50MP camera with 1/1.57″ Samsung GN5 sensor, f/1.88 aperture, OIS
- 8MP ultra-wide camera with f/2.2 aperture
- 2MP macro camera with f/2.4 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, 50MP mode and more. Even though the phone has a 50MP rear camera, the final output is 12.5MP 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. The 8MP ultra-wide camera is just average compared to the 13MP camera in phones like iQOO 9T.
Macro shots are decent, but the 2MP macro camera is just useless since the resolution is low. You can adjust the aperture manually in the portrait mode for the best background blur. Low-light images are good. The night mode is useful, thanks to the optimization. There is also a new supermoon mode with up to 20x zoom, compared to 20x in the normal mode.
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 June 2023. Like the previous Neo series phone, the Neo 7 should also get 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 11.07GB is usable, out of which 6.5GB 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, 220GB is free out of the box. We got about 1698.87MBps 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, Amazon, Netflix, LinkedIn and 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 5.2, 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 Neo7 Pro’s body SAR is 1.249 W/Kg and head SAR is at 1.206/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 one of the first phones in the price range to use Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 Mobile Platform. This has an under clocked prime core. It has 1 x Kryo Prime CPU (Arm Cortex-X2-based) at up to 3GHz, same as the 8 Gen 1, while retaining the 3 x Kryo Performance CPUs (A710-based) at up to 2.50GHz, 4x Kryo Efficiency CPUs (A510-based) at up to 1.80GHz.
Thanks to new TSMC’s 4nm fabrication processor, this promises 30% power reduction in the CPU. This also offers 10% faster GPU performance. The phone has large 4013mm² vapor chamber liquid cooling, and the company said that it hasMultilayer graphite for a better heat dissipation
We did not face any issues or frame drops in the graphic-intensive games like COD, BGMI and Genshin Impact. It reached maximum 37º C in our testing indoors in Wi-Fi, but this might vary outdoors in 4G or 5G. This has less heating than the iQOO 9T with the same chip, which reached up to 39º C.
For the gamers, it has In-Display Dual Monster Touch which, so the screen is divided into left and right areas with L and R keys, assisting in pressing any operating position, easily triggering the mapping in the game, and two fingers are better than four fingers while playing the heavy battle games Check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.
As you can see in the benchmarks, the iQOO Neo7 Pro powered by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip, and is better than the Neo7 with the MediaTek Dimensity 8200 chip.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the phone packs a 5000mAh (typical) battery, same as the Neo 7. 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 close to 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.
Conclusion
At a starting price of Rs. 34,999, the iQOO Neo7 Pro is more than a gaming phone. It is an all-rounder that is also good for multimedia, and the camera is good as well for both photos and videos.
Pricing and availability
The iQOO Neo7 Pro is priced at Rs. 34,999 for the 8GB + 128GB model and the 12GB + 256GB version costs Rs. 37,999. The phone will go on sale from July 15th through Amazon.in and iQOO.com and is already available for pre-order.
With Rs. 1000 early bird discount till July 18 and Rs. 2000 instant discount for SBI and ICICI cards, the effective price of the phone will be Rs. 31,999.
Alternatives
The OnePlus Nord 3 is a direct competitor, but it has a Dimensity 9000 SoC instead of Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 which is slightly more powerful. However, the Nord 3 will get 3 major Android updates, compared to two Android updates in the iQOO.
Pros
- 120Hz AMOLED HDR display is brilliant
- Smooth performance and good gaming performance
- Stereo speakers
- Main camera is good
- Good battery life with 120W fast charging
Cons
- Average 2MP macro camera and front camera