iQOO's solid offering is set to give tough competition in the market.
iQOO has been known for its performance and gaming-oriented smartphones ever since it came on the market and recently their latest offering i.e. the iQOO Neo 7 (Review) was a well-rounded smartphone that brought in some outstanding specifications like a good build and design, a 120Hz AMOLED display, a powerful MediaTek Dimensity 8200 chipset, a 64MP dual cameras, a 5000mAh battery with 120W fast charging. etc.
But it did lack an ultrawide camera which was slightly disappointing whereas the rest of the specifications were solid. Now iQOO has launched the Pro variant of the smartphone that promises to deliver some killer specifications with all the similar specifications that of the iQOO Neo 7 except for the newer chipset, a newer set of cameras and some minor changes.
It now brings the much more powerful Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset thus promising excellent gaming capabilities. So is the iQOO Neo 7 Pro worth buying over the iQOO Neo 7 and will the iQOO Neo 7 Pro set newer benchmarks in this highly competitive market?
Let's find out in the full review.
iQOO Neo 7 Pro Design:
The iQOO Neo 7 sports a similar design to that of its smaller sibling, i.e., the iQOO Neo 7 where you get a polycarbonate back with the edges curving slightly to both sides thus making it easier to hold in hands. The back has a squarish-shaped camera module that is larger and houses a circular ring that consists of the main and the ultrawide cameras and below there is the LED flashlight with a macro camera.
The iQOO Neo 7 Pro is available in two different colours - Fearless Flame and Dark Storm. The Fearless Flame variant has an orange colour with a vegan leather finish at the back that feels premium and provides excellent grip while holding it in hand. On the other hand, the Dark Storm has a black-to-blue colour transition at the back with an AG glass and a smooth matte finish that attracts fewer fingerprints.
The Dark Storm variant has shiny sparkles that shine when light falls on the back of the smartphone. The iQOO Neo 7 Pro weighs around 194.5 grams and is thicker at 8.8mm thus feeling lighter while holding it in hands. The back of the iQOO Neo 7 Pro has an IP53 rating which means it is splash and dust-resistant up to some extent.
Around the sides, the iQOO Neo 7 Pro houses the power button with volume buttons on the right side whereas the left side remains completely cleaner. On the top, there is a secondary noise-cancelling microphone with an IR Blaster to control various devices and at the bottom, there is a loudspeaker grille, a primary microphone, a dual SIM card slot and a USB Type-C port with USB 2.0 speeds.
On the front, there is a single punch hole located at the top to the centre of the display. Around the sides, you get minimum bezels around the sides. Just like the iQOO Neo 7, this one also has Schott Xensation UP glass for protection on the front. Overall, the build and design look premium especially if you consider the vegan leather finish on the Fearless Flame variant.
iQOO Neo 7 Pro Display:
The iQOO Neo 7 Pro sports a 6.78-inch Full HD+ (1080x2400 pixels) Samsung E5 AMOLED display with a screen-to-body ratio of 20:9. As it is an AMOLED display, you get deeper blues and blacks and also saturated colours on the display with great viewing angles. This is a 10-bit display so the colour looks well-saturated. Just like the iQOO Neo 7, this one also has support for a 120Hz refresh rate.
Here the refresh rate of the display has three different settings to choose from - Smart Switch, 60Hz and 120Hz. Setting the display to Smart Switch, the display refreshes dynamically and scales between 30Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz, or 120Hz depending on the content in the display. At 120Hz, most applications run on 120Hz but certain applications like Netflix, YouTube, etc. are restricted to 60Hz only.
The standard 60Hz does provide good battery life as all applications refresh at 60Hz. Combined with it you get a 300Hz touch sampling rate for faster touch responses. In terms of brightness, the display can reach a peak brightness of 1300nits which is good as the display has good visibility under direct sunlight. The normal brightness levels hover around 500-600 nits in normal conditions.
The display of the iQOO Neo 7 Pro provides colour settings to choose from - Standard (default), Pro, and Bright mode. By default, the display is set to Standard mode which provides realistic colours and there is the Pro mode both of which cover the sRGB colour space whereas the Bright Mode provides saturated colours on the display thus covering the DCI-P3 colour gamut.
The display of the iQOO Neo 7 Pro houses an optical in-display fingerprint scanner which works accurately and is faster. The display also has support for Widevine L1 so you can stream HDR content on OTT platforms like Netflix, Prime, etc. and YouTube has support for HDR thus providing a great multimedia experience as a whole.
iQOO Neo 7 Performance:
The iQOO Neo 7 Pro is powered by last year's flagship Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset which is really great as it is a very powerful chipset based on an efficient 4nm process. In terms of daily activities, this smartphone handles everything easily without breaking a sweat. However, the chipset has been under-clocked slightly on this smartphone to prevent thermal throttling or any kind of heating issues.
In terms of heavy tasks like playing games like COD Mobile, BGMI, etc. the smartphone handles all of them easily. BGMI can easily run at HDR graphics with Extreme frame rates with no frame drops noticed after playing for longer hours. After playing for 3-4 hours continuously, the back of the smartphone does not feel warmer as there is a dedicated vapour cooling system underneath to dissipate heat faster.
Like the iQOO Neo 7, this smartphone has a 4D vibration motor, you get motion-based gesture controls called Motion Gestures and game frame interpolation where the touch response increases to 1000Hz instantly for smoother gaming. The Gaming mode includes some features like blocking incoming messages or calls while gaming, a small pop-up of any application can be seen during gaming, etc.
In the CPU throttling test, the smartphone could maintain a sustained performance of around 70-80 per cent which is good with the minimal throttling present. However, the stability could have been slightly better considering other smartphones like the OnePlus 11R (Review) have a similar chipset that provides better-sustained performance compared to that of the iQOO Neo 7 Pro.
In benchmarks, the scores come out really good. In terms of network connectivity, you get support for good carrier aggregation and have support for 8 bands of 5G. The iQOO Neo 7 Pro is available in two different storage variants - 8/12GB LPDDR5 RAM with 128/256GB storage having UFS 3.1 storage speeds. Overall, the gaming performance remains flagship level with the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset.
iQOO Neo 7 Pro Software:
The iQOO Neo 7 Pro runs on the latest FunTouchOS 13 based on Android 13 out of the box. FunTouchOS comes with a lot of features where you can customize the icon shape and size, colours in the settings and throughout the user interface, different styles for the Always-On display and fingerprint scanner animation, and other features like floating windows, gestures that work as shortcuts for most of the tasks.
All basic Android features like enhanced Privacy Dashboard are present where you can control what applications are using the camera, microphone and location, then there are the three settings for dark mode, depending on the wallpaper, a similar colour theme gets applied to the settings icons and some parts of the user interface.
However, the look and feel of the FunTouchOS is slightly close to Stock Android but still, the look and feel is not as rich as ColorOS or MIUI. However, you do get some amount of bloatware which can be uninstalled easily. However, some applications like Hot Games and Hot Apps can be turned off but certain Vivo-specific applications can only be disabled and cannot be uninstalled.
In terms of software updates, the iQOO Neo 7 Pro will get another two years of AndroidOS updates and three years of security updates which is good but not the best considering this is a premium mid-range smartphone as other smartphones do offer better lifecycle of software updates.
iQOO Neo 7 Pro Cameras:
The iQOO Neo 7 Pro houses a triple camera setup that includes a 50MP f/1.9 Samsung GN5 sensor for the main camera, an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera and a 2MP f/2.4 macro camera. On the front, there is a 16MP f/2.5 camera. The main camera of the iQOO Neo 7 Pro has a slightly better sensor compared to the one on the iQOO Neo 7.
The images from the main camera come out with sharper details and great dynamic range with almost natural colours in the background without any oversharpening. The noise comes out to be less in the background. In HDR mode, the images come out with good details and punchier colours with less noise in the background. By default, the images are saved at 12.5MP by default.
The images taken during the night come out with sharper details and good dynamic range with less noise in the background. The exposure is well maintained and the white balance is also perfect. There is some amount of noise present in the background. The colours look natural without any oversharpening as such. All these results are taken with the dedicated night mode turned off.
With the dedicated Night Mode turned on, the details look much sharper than before with good dynamic range and less noise but it does introduce some oversharpening in the background. The 8MP ultrawide camera does a good job in terms of details that look a tad softer but the dynamic range is good with less noise in the background. The colours look natural without any oversharpening in the background.
However, around the edges, there is some amount of distortion present. You do get a larger 119-degree field of view. The images from the ultrawide camera taken during the night come out with slightly softer details and decent dynamic range. The noise is slightly on the higher side and you can clearly find the details crushed in the shadows. The colours do look slightly washed out.
The 2MP macro camera does a decent job in terms of macro images which come out with a decent level of detail, an average dynamic range and a lot of noise is present in the background. The colours look washed out also. In terms of portraits, the skin tones come out slightly oversaturated but details look sharper and noise is less in the background.
The edge detection is perfect and background blur is well implemented with proper separation of the subject from the background. In terms of selfies, the details look sharper and the dynamic range is good with less noise in the background but in terms of skin tones, it does oversharpen at times and you get an artificial look. In terms of selfie portraits come out with good edge detection with some oversharpening present.
In terms of videos, the primary camera can record 4K videos at 60fps which have sharper details and excellent dynamic range with less noise present in the background as there is OIS present. The 1080p videos at 60fps from the main camera come out with an excellent level of detail and dynamic range with almost no noise in the background.
The ultrawide camera can only record 1080p videos at 30fps which comes out with average details and decent dynamic range with some amount of noise in the background. The selfie camera on the front can only record 1080p videos at 30fps and these videos have a decent level of detail and good dynamic range with less noise in the background. The skin tones look natural with some oversharpening present.
iQOO Neo 7 Pro Battery Life:
The iQOO Neo 7 Pro sports a larger 5000mAh battery which is similar in capacity to the iQOO Neo 7 and with normal usage that includes casual gaming, web browsing, streaming social media for fewer hours, etc. the smartphone can easily last for one and a half days to two days with the display set to 120Hz.
With heavy usage that includes heavy gaming, rendering videos, etc. the smartphone easily lasts for a single day with some charge left. The standard screen-on time was around 3-4 hours with normal usage and with heavy usage, the standard screen-on time was around 6-7 hours which is very good considering the chipset is built on an efficient 4nm process.
In terms of charging, the iQOO Neo 7 Pro is bundled with a 120W fast charger inside the box which charges the smartphone from 0 to 100 per cent within half an hour to 35 minutes which is very fast. There is one big advantage of the charger is that it is USB Type-C to Type-C so it supports USB PD charging which means you can use this fast charger to fast charge other devices like laptops, earphones, etc.
iQOO Neo 7 Pro Audio Quality:
The iQOO Neo 7 Pro sports a dual stereo speaker setup that sounds louder and clearer. The sound output does not feel muffled and even at the highest loudness, the sound does not feel distorted. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack present. For enhanced sound output, there is Dolby Atmos present. You do get a USB Type-C to 3.5mm converter bundled inside the box which is good to have.
Verdict:
Overall, the iQOO Neo 7 Pro is a great package that is aimed at people who consider gaming as their first priority. It may not be as gaming-centric as on Asus ROG smartphones but considering the premium mid-range segment, you get a very powerful chipset that provides flagship-level performance and great gaming capabilities.
Other than that, the iQOO Neo 7 Pro brings some good features like a 120Hz AMOLED display, a premium-looking design, a good set of cameras, and good battery life with support for fast charging. The software experience is also good but still, you get some amount of bloatware and FunTouchOS is not the best in terms of software update lifecycle which needs improvement.
The front camera performance needs some improvement both in terms of selfie in terms of colour saturation and though it has a powerful flagship chipset like the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, the lack of 4K video recording is slightly disappointing. Though the performance is top-notch, still there is some amount of thermal throttling present.
Other than some of the nitpicking, the iQOO Neo 7 Pro is a very strong contender in the market that is set to rule the market and is aimed for people who prefer high-end performance and gaming with well balanced specifications thus making it worth buying.
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