iQOO Neo 10R First Impressions

Compared to most Chinese smartphone brands in India, iQOO seems to be taking it slow and steady with its product launch cycles. The Neo 10R comes a year after iQOO launched its Neo 9 Pro, which was worthy of its “flagship killer” title. As mentioned in our review, it was a solid low-end premium offering, keeping in mind its impressive performance, capable cameras, charging speeds, and, most importantly, value. The Neo 10R indeed has some big shoes to fill, but a quick glance at the hardware upgrades it has received, and there don't seem to be too many. So, let's take a closer look at what's new.

The iQOO Neo 10R has the same overall form factor as the model it replaces. However, it has left behind the confusing, dual-tone vegan leather-laden rear panel and cooked up something that appears less glaring but is equally confusing.

The iQOO Neo 10R gets an IP65-rated design for dust and water resistance

We received the Raging Blue finish of the handset, which is clearly aimed at the youth and the gaming audience, but this weird dual-tone rear panel with a pixellated gradient from white to lavender. The iQOO branding appears lost in that pixellated transition pattern, and the same goes for the ‘NEO Power to Win' branding, which can only be viewed at some extreme angles, but otherwise remains invisible. Confused? We are too!

Thankfully, the iQOO Neo 10R also has a more subtle MoonKnight Titanium finish, which looks very similar to the iPhone 15 Pro's Titanium Grey. iQOO continues to use a polycarbonate frame and rear panel to keep the phone's weight in check (and costs low). It's gotten a bit heavier at 196 grams, but it all sounds impressive given that this phone with a reasonably slim 7.9mm waistline manages to accommodate a 6,400mAh battery and offer an IP64 rating for dust and water resistance.

The iQOO Neo 10R's display remains similar to the previous model, both in terms of size and capability

The display remains the same as before. It's AMOLED and offers a 120Hz refresh rate and 300Hz touch sampling rate while playing games. Thankfully, it's still flat and practical, and it's good that iQOO has not yet requested a quad-curved panel.

In terms of core specifications, the Neo 10R has a newer Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 SoC that replaces the older Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in last year's model. It also offers two RAM and storage options: 8GB or 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 128GB or 256GB of UFS 3.1 and UFS 4.1 storage, respectively.

Both of the iQOO Neo 10R's rear-facing cameras have received upgrades

The other big upgrade is its battery. A higher-capacity, 6,400mAh lithium-ion battery uses the new silicon carbon technology and manages to hold a bigger charge with the same footprint and thickness as the older model. Wired charging speeds have reduced from 120W on the previous model to a more tempered 80W.

The camera department appears the same as the previous model but has new sensors. There's a 50-megapixel primary camera (Sony IMX882) with OIS and an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera (Galaxy Core GC08A3-WA1XA), both of which are different from the previous model. The selfie camera too gets an upgrade of sorts to a 32-megapixel (Galaxy Core GC32E1-WA1XA) sensor.

Charging speeds have dropped, but the battery's capacity gets a massive upgrade

iQOO's latest flagship killer now runs Funtouch OS 15, which is based on Android 15. While the focus is still on customisation, the software now comes with some native AI tools, which will be interesting to test.

With the iQOO Neo 10R priced from Rs. 26,999 for the base 8GB + 128GB variant in India, it will compete with some well-established, mid-range, heavy-hitters around this price point. The competitors include some new launches like the Nothing Phone 3a, and some older devices like the Poco F6 (Review), and the OnePlus Nord CE 4 (Review) to name a few. Can the new iQOO Neo 10R match up to its "flagship killer" dreams, keeping the new competition in mind? Watch out for our detailed review, which will be out soon!