POCO F5 vs iQOO Neo 7: Which is the best gaming mid-range smartphone of the two?

Who is the supreme king for the throne of the best gaming smartphone?

The premium mid-range segment in the smartphone market has been one of the most successful segments where you can see manufacturers launching a bunch of smartphones of their respective brands recently there are two smartphones that not only bring good specifications but also target high-end gaming in the premium mid-range segment.

Recently POCO F5 (Review) was launched which targets the audience who want the best performance and since POCO smartphones do focus on performance this one is no different. It brings some very good specifications like a 120Hz AMOLED display, a powerful Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 chipset, a 64MP triple camera setup, a 5000mAh battery with 67W fast charging, etc.

On the other hand, there is the newly launched iQOO Neo 7 (Review) which is also a gaming-centric smartphone that brings some very good specifications like a 120Hz AMOLED display, a powerful MediaTek Dimensity 8200 chipset, 64MP camera setup, a 5000mAh battery with 120W fast charging. However, it does miss out on an ultrawide camera.

Since both are gaming-centric smartphones, it is difficult to make a wise decision. Which is the better pick of the two the iQOO Neo 7 and the POCO F5? 

Let's find out the full comparison.

POCO F5 vs iQOO Neo 7 Design:

In terms of build and design, both smartphones have a polycarbonate build as there is no glass back on each of these. However, there are some differences as the iQOO Neo 7 comes with a smooth matte finish which feels premium and provides a good grip compared to the glossy finish on the back of the POCO F5 which catches a lot of fingerprints. 

At the back, the iQOO Neo 7 is slightly curved around the sides whereas the POCO F5 has a flatter back. The POCO F5 has triple cameras with a LED flashlight placed on the back whereas the iQOO Neo 7 houses a rectangular camera module that houses a triple camera setup with a LED flashlight just placed under the camera module with the Neo logo under it. 

The POCO F5 weighs around 181 grams which makes it much lighter compared to the 193 grams weight of the iQOO Neo 7. Also, the POCO F5 is slimmer around the sides at 7.9mm compared to the iQOO Neo 7 which is slightly thicker at 8.6mm. The iQOO Neo 7 does not have any sort of IP rating whereas the POCO F5 has an IP53 rating making it splash resistant. 

Around the sides, both smartphones have a polycarbonate frame instead of metallic and house a power button with volume buttons. On the top, both smartphones have a secondary noise-cancelling microphone and an IR Blaster whereas the POCO F5 gets a 3.5mm headphone jack and a dedicated secondary speaker which is missing on the iQOO Neo 7. 

At the bottom, both smartphones have a USB Type-C port, a primary microphone, a dual SIM card slot, and a loudspeaker grille. On the front, both smartphones have minimum bezels to the sides but the bezels are slightly slimmer on the POCO F5 compared to the iQOO Neo 7. Both also have a single punch hole located at the top to the centre. 

Overall the build and design on both smartphones is a personal preference but they miss out on a glass back which would have made them premium.

POCO F5 vs iQOO Neo 7 Display:

On the front, the iQOO Neo 7 has a slightly larger 6.78-inches display compared to the 6.67-inches display on the POCO F5 where both of them have a Full HD+(1080x1920 pixels) AMOLED displays with support for 120Hz refresh rate. Since both of them have AMOLED displays, the colour reproduction and viewing angles are best in class.

The display on the POCO F5 is a 12-bit one compared to the iQOO Neo 7 which is a 10-bit display and in terms of colour saturation definitely, the colours look more saturated on the POCO F5 compared to the iQOO Neo 7. Talking about the refresh rate, the one on the POCO F5 is an adaptive one where the display switches between different refresh rates i.e. 30Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz, or 120Hz.

The refresh rate on the iQOO Neo 7 can only switch between 60Hz or 120Hz depending on the content of the display. Combined with the 120Hz displays on both, there is a 360Hz touch sampling rate also which provides faster touch responses during gaming. In terms of display brightness, both displays can reach around 600-700 nits with normal usage.

But when it comes to peak brightness, the iQOO Neo 7 holds the edge as it has 1300nits compared to 1000nits on POCO F5 and both of these displays are brighter under direct sunlight. Both these displays have different color tunings and the display temperature can be set to a warmer or cooler tone. The iQOO Neo 7 houses an optical in-display fingerprint scanner compared to a side-mounted one on the POCO F5.

Regarding display protection, the iQOO Neo 7 is protected by Schott Xensation whereas the POCO F5 is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. Both of them have support for Widevine L1 so you can stream HD content on all OTT platforms and also there is support for HDR on YouTube. But the display on the POCO F5 has support for Dolby Vision on Netflix which is not present on the iQOO Neo 7.

However, the iQOO Neo 7 gets standard HDR support on Netflix. Overall, the display is also a personal preference, if you want a display with saturated colours for content consumption, then the POCO F5 is better, or else if you want an in-display fingerprint scanner with slightly better brightness levels, then the iQOO Neo 7 is better.

POCO F5 vs iQOO Neo 7 Performance: 

Since both smartphones' main focus is on performance and gaming, both of them come with top-of-the-line chipsets that provide almost flagship performance as seen on premium flagships. The POCO F5 sports a powerful Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 chipset whereas on the other hand, the iQOO Neo 7 sports the powerful MediaTek Dimensity 8200 chipset. Both these chipsets are based on an efficient 4nm process.

In terms of performance in all the daily tasks like scrolling web pages, rendering videos, playing games, and many other activities, both smartphones handle all of them easily without any lags or stutters. Some of the heavy games like Call Of Duty Mobile, Asphalt 9 Legends, BGMI, etc. run smoothly without any lags or stutters when played at the highest graphics settings.

In BGMI, the POCO F5 could easily run at HDR graphics with Extreme frame rates whereas the iQOO Neo 7 could only run at HDR graphics with Ultra frame rates. The gameplay is slightly better optimized on the POCO F5 as the Snapdragon chipset is very well optimized for handling higher graphics but iQOO will push a software update where you can find BGMI playable at HDR graphics and Extreme frame rates.

After longer hours of gaming on both smartphones, there were some minor stutters noticed on the iQOO Neo 7 compared to the POCO F5 but it was negligible. Also, there was no heating noticed on both of them since there is a dedicated vapour cooling system that does dissipate heat faster on both of them. However, the benchmark scores were slightly better on the POCO F5 compared to the iQOO Neo 7. 

In terms of CPU throttling test, the iQOO Neo 7 could achieve a sustained performance of around 80-90 per cent which is slightly better than the POCO F5 which could achieve a sustained performance of around 60-70 per cent with more throttling compared to the iQOO Neo 7. In terms of network connectivity, both smartphones have support for good carrier aggregation.

In terms of 5G support, the POCO F5 has support for 12 bands of 5G which is slightly better than the 8 bands of 5G on the iQOO Neo 7. Both smartphones are available in two storage variants where the POCO F5 is available in 8/12GB LPDDR5 RAM with 256GB storage whereas the iQOO Neo 7 is available in two storage variants - 8GB/12GB LPDDR5 RAM with 128/256GB storage where both have UFS 3.1 storage speeds. 

POCO F5 vs iQOO Neo 7 Software:

The POCO F5 runs on the latest MIUI 14 based on Android 13 whereas on the other hand, the iQOO Neo 7 runs on FunTouchOS 12 built on Android 13 out of the box. Both these user interfaces come with a lot of customizations where you can change the icon shape and size, different styles for Always-On display and fingerprint animation, and different themes and wallpapers.

The look and feel of the FunTouchOS are almost close to Stock Android where you get a notification toggle with all the controls if you swipe down on the home screen whereas the MIUI Control Center resembles iOS where swiping from the top right opens the notification tray and swiping from the top left shows all the necessary toggles. 

Both of them have all the necessary features like dark mode, Privacy Dashboard, and widgets based on Android 13. However, the widgets are slightly limited on the MIUI 14 compared to FunTouchOS. However, both smartphones' user interface does come with quite a handful of bloatware but still, it is slightly less on the MIUI compared to FunTouchOS. 

However, you can easily uninstall bloatware on both of them. When it comes to software updates, both smartphones will receive another two major AndroidOS updates and three years of security patches but when it comes to software updates, FunTouchOS has a better track record of providing faster software updates compared to the MIUI which on the other hand, has a poor track record of software updates.

Even with POCO smartphones in the past, there have been a lot of issues regarding motherboard and camera which puts a big question on its long-lasting software experience whereas FunTouchOS is better and does not have such issues in the past. The software experience is slightly better and long-lasting on the iQOO Neo 7 compared to the POCO F5.

iQOO Neo 7 vs POCO F5 Cameras:

Both smartphones come with a triple-camera setup where the POCO F5 sports 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 whereas the iQOO Neo 7 has a 64MP f/1.8 Samsung GW3 sensor for the main camera, a 2MP f/2.4 macro and a depth sensor. 

The iQOO Neo 7 lacks an ultrawide camera which is present on the POCO F5. On the front, both smartphones have a 16MP f/2.5 camera. The images from the main camera come out with good details and dynamic range but the iQOO Neo 7 does have slightly sharper details and better contrast compared to POCO F5 which on the other hand does blow out highlights in most scenarios in the background.

The images of the POCO F5 have a considerable amount of noise compared to the images taken from the iQOO Neo 7. The iQOO Neo 7 also has natural colours in the background compared to POCO F5 which does oversaturate colours in the background. In HDR mode, the iQOO Neo 7 takes better images with natural colours and proper white balance compared to the POCO F5. 

At night, the POCO F5 images do suffer from some oversharpening and also have a lot of noise in the background. In contrast, the iQOO Neo 7 maintains consistency in its images as it has very less noise and also the dynamic range is far better than on the POCO F5. The details look slightly sharper on the iQOO Neo 7 with better low-light exposure in night shots compared to the POCO F5.

Both smartphones get a dedicated Night Mode where turning them on results in slightly better dynamic range, less noise in the background, and sharper details but still, the images come out better on the iQOO Neo 7 as the night mode on the POCO F5 does not make any such difference. However, the POCO F5 has a big advantage in that it comes with an ultrawide camera which is not present on the iQOO Neo 7.

The images from the ultrawide camera of the POCO F5 come out with good details and decent dynamic range with natural colours in the background but do have a lot of noise present. The 2MP macro camera on both smartphones is just average as the details look softer, the colours look washed out, and since it is a fixed focus camera, there is a considerable amount of noise present.

On the front, both smartphones take selfies with good details that look sharper and have decent dynamic range but the iQOO Neo 7 has better contrast, and skin tones look natural compared to POCO F5 which has slightly undersaturated colours. The noise is slightly higher in the selfies taken by POCO F5 as the highlights look blown out and it suffers from some oversharpening which is not the case with the iQOO Neo 6.

In terms of portraits, both smartphones take good portraits but the details look much better and the dynamic range is far better on the iQOO Neo 7 compared to the POCO F5. The edge detection is equally good on both of them but background blur is slightly better on the iQOO Neo 7 whereas the background is completely blown out on the POCO F5.

In terms of selfie portraits, the edge detection and background blur are better implemented on the iQOO Neo 7 with natural-looking skin tones compared to the POCO F5. In terms of videos, the iQOO Neo 7 can record 4K videos at 60fps whereas the POCO F5 can record 4K videos at 30fps only. Both the cameras have OIS so videos come out with good details and dynamic range on both of them.

The videos on the iQOO Neo 7 come out with slightly less noise and also have a better dynamic range compared to the POCO F5. The POCO F5 has an ultrawide camera that records 1080p videos at 30fps which is not present on the iQOO Neo 7. On the front, the videos come out with slightly sharper details and better dynamic range on the iQOO Neo 7 compared to the POCO F5.

However, the front camera on the iQOO Neo 7 can only record 1080p videos at 30fps whereas the POCO F5 can only record 1080p videos at 60fps. Overall, whether it is cameras or videos, the iQOO Neo 7 has a clear edge over the POCO F5 but if you are the one who needs that ultrawide camera as well, then the POCO F5 is the one to choose.

POCO F5 vs iQOO Neo 7 Battery Life:

Both the iQOO Neo 7 and the POCO F5 sport a 5000mAh battery which can easily last for one single day with heavy usage that includes rendering videos, streaming social media, attending continuous calls for 5-6 hours, playing games for 3-4 hours continuously, etc., both of them could easily last for a single day with some charge left.

With normal usage that includes casual web browsing, streaming social media, taking images from cameras, etc. both smartphones could easily last for two days with the display set to 120Hz. The standard screen-on time for iQOO Neo 7 was around 6.5-7 hours which is slightly better than the 6 hours of screen-on time on the POCO F5.

In terms of charging speeds, the POCO F5 comes with a 67W fast charger that charges it from 0 to 100 per cent around 55-60 minutes which is slightly slower compared to the 120W fast charger bundled inside the box of the iQOO Neo 7 which takes around 25-30 minutes from a full charge from 0 to 100 per cent completely. Overall the battery life and charging speeds are better on the iQOO Neo 7.

POCO F5 vs iQOO Neo 7 Audio Quality:

Both smartphones have support for a dual stereo speaker setup that sounds loud and clear but the level of loudness is slightly better on the POCO F5 and also it has a better bass level compared to the iQOO Neo 7. The POCO F5 has a 3.5mm headphone jack which is not present on the iQOO Neo 7. Both have support for Dolby Atmos for enhanced sound output but overall the audio is better on the POCO F5.

Verdict:

Overall, both the iQOO Neo 7 and the POCO F5 are solid offerings as they bring in some of the best specifications for the price like a good build and design, a 120Hz AMOLED display with stereo speakers for multi-media consumption, powerful chipsets for gaming and performance, a good set of cameras and larger 5000mAh batteries with faster charging. 

However, there are quite a few differences between the two of them. The POCO F5 brings the best of everything except for the software experience which is a big question considering the motherboard issues and the delay in software updates. The cameras do need some improvement on the POCO F5. On the other hand, the iQOO Neo 7 brings all the best specifications except for the ultrawide camera.

The iQOO Neo 7 has a better software experience with timely software updates, a better set of cameras, slightly better battery life with faster charging, and even the build and design feel good since you get a matte finish compared to the glossy finish on the POCO F5. On the other hand, the POCO F5 has better audio quality, provides an ultrawide camera, and supports Dolby Vision for better multi-media consumption both of which the iQOO Neo 7 lacks.

The iQOO Neo 7 seems to be an excellent package as it brings the best of everything except for the ultrawide camera. The POCO F5 is also a great smartphone as it has very good specifications but still the issues with the motherboard in the past POCO smartphones and cameras make it slightly difficult to recommend. Now POCO is giving two years of warranty which is good.

If you can live without the ultrawide camera, it is the iQOO Neo 7 that is the better overall package of the two.