iQOO launched its Z7 Pro smartphone in India last week, after the launch of Z7 earlier this year. This has a better display, faster SoC, while retaining the same camera and a fast charging. Is this a worthy phone in the Rs. 25,000 price range? Let use dive into the review to find out.
| Box Contents |
| Camera |
| Battery Life |
| Conclusion |
Box Contents
- iQOO Z7 Pro 8GB + 256GB version in Graphite Matte colour
- Clear Silicon case
- USB Type-C Cable
- 80W FlashCharge wall adapter
- SIM ejector tool
- Quick start guide and Warranty information
Display, Hardware and Design
The iQOO Z7 Pro sports a 6.78-inch (2400×1080 pixels) Full HD+ 20:9 aspect ratio curved 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 and 120 Hz or force it to 60Hz or 120Hz. It has 300Hz touch sampling rate and 1200Hz 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, but it doesn’t work as a secondary speaker.
There is a 2.7mm ultra-narrow chin below the screen, and the side bezels are just 1.6mm, so it has 93.30% 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 button placements, 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 is present on the top. It doesn’t have a 3.5mm audio jack. The phone is just 7.36mm thick.
The back of the phone has a camera part with triple rear cameras. The Graphite Matte colour that we have has an AG glass back that looks premium, and has a smooth matte finish that doesn’t attract fingerprints. The phone also comes in Blue Lagoon colour that has attractive patterns on the back. The phone has IP52 ratings for dust and splash resistance and comes with SCHOTT Xensaton UP glass for protection.
Camera
- 64MP main camera with ISOCELL GW3 sensor, f/1.79 aperture
- 2MP depth sensor with f/2.4 aperture
- 16MP front-facing camera with f/2.0 aperture
The camera UI is the same as other phones running Funtouch OS 13. It includes several features such as Live photo, Slo-mo, Time-lapse, Pro 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. 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 decent, but it could have been better. The night mode is useful, thanks to the optimization. There is a powerful Aura light.
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 the camera samples below
It can record videos at 4k resolution at up to 30 fps from the rear camera and the front camera supports 1080p 30 fps recording. It has stabilization, but 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 August 2023. The phone gets two years of Android updates and three years of monthly security updates, similar to other mid-range phones from iQOO.
Funtouch OS 13 brings new personalization options, privacy and security measures, and control functions for a smoother, uninterrupted experience.
Out of 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM about 7.42GB is usable, out of which 4GB is free when the default apps are running in the background. There is additional 8GB RAM expansion feature. Out of 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage, 225GB is free out of the box. We got about, 1022MBps sequential read speed.
Apart from the usual set of utility and Google apps, it comes preloaded with a lot of apps such as Truecaller, Spotify, Snapchat, Netflix, Amazon, LinkedIn, Facebook and more. 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. The phone has a single bottom-ported speaker, which is decent. Wish the company had added stereo speakers. Audio through the headphones is good.
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 (SA: n1/n3/n8/n28A/n77/n78 | NSA: n77/n78). Jio and Airtel 5G work out of the box. It also has dual 4G VoLTE, 4G carrier aggregation or 4G+, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4 + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5.3 and GPS + GLONASS, but doesn’t have NFC support. It also has USB OTG support.
We did not face any call drops and the earpiece volume is good, even though it is present on the top edge.
The iQOO Z7 Pro 5G’s body SAR is 1.114 W/Kg and head SAR is at 1.219/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 few phones in India and the first in the price range to be powered by the latest MediaTek Dimensity 7200 4nm processor. It has 2 x Arm Cortex-A715 performance core operating at up to 2.8GHz and 6x Arm Cortex-A510 efficiency cores at 2.0GHz.
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, 3000mm² vapor chamber cooling and a 3D graphite structure. The heat dissipation is 40% or 1.4 times more compared to Z6 Pro, said iQOO.
It reached maximum 41º C in our testing indoors in Wi-Fi, but this might vary outdoors in 4G or 5G. However, we did not face any issues or frame drops in the graphic-intensive games like COD, BGMI and Genshin Impact. 90fps mode is supported in both BGMI and COD. That said, check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.
As you can see in the benchmarks, the iQOO Z7 Pro 5G powered by the Dimensity 7200 chip outperforms the Snapdragon 782G, but the Dimensity 8200-powered iQOO Neo 7 is better.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the phone packs a 4600mAh (typical) battery, compared to 4700mAh in the predecessor. Still, it can can easily last for a day even with heavy use, thanks to the optimization. I got over 6 hours of screen on time with over a day of use with mixed Wi-Fi and 5G use.
Since the phone has support for 66W fast charging, it can charge up to 50% in about 22 minutes and up to 100% in less than an hour.
Conclusion
At a starting price of Rs. 23,999, the iQOO Z7 Pro 5G is a slick, power-packed phone focused on gaming that gets the job done. The curved AMOLED screen with support for HDR and OIS for the camera are good upgrades compared to the Z6 Pro, but it has a couple of compromises such as lack of ultra-wide camera, and stereo speakers.
Pricing and availability
The iQOO Z7 Pro is priced at Rs. 23,999 for the 8GB + 128GB model and the 8GB + 256GB model costs Rs. 24,999. It will be available from Amazon.in and iQOO.com starting from September 5th 12 noon. There is a Rs. 2000 instant discount with SBI or HDFC cards, or additional Rs. 2000 off on exchange.
Alternatives
The Inifnix GT 10 Pro with Dimensity 8050 SoC offers bettery performance and has a unique design. Otherwise, there is no direct competition to the iQOO Z7 Pro 5G that offers the gaming performance, curved AMOLED screen in the price range. For a slightly higher cost, there is iQOO Neo7.
Pros
- 120Hz curved AMOLED HDR display is good
- Smooth performance and good gaming performance
- 64MP main camera with OIS is good in daylight
- Decent battery life with 66W fast charging
Cons
- No ultra-wide camera
- No stereo speakers
- Average low-light camera performance