iQoo Neo 7 5G First Impressions: Many Upgrades, One Downgrade

iQoo Neo 7 5G is the latest premium mid-range smartphone that is the successor to the iQoo Neo 6 (Review) and will be launching in India on February 16. The iQoo Neo 6 was a well-received smartphone as it offered good performance at a competitive price. On paper, the iQoo Neo 7 5G brings significant improvements in many areas over its predecessor, which should make it an interesting offering. The official price and sale details will be announced at the launch, but until then, here's our first impressions of the phone.

The iQoo Neo 7 5G will be available in two storage options. The base model will have 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB of UFS 3.1 storage. The company sent us the top-end variant with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The retail box contains a TPU case, some documentation, a SIM ejector tool, a USB Type-C to 3.5mm audio jack adapter, and most importantly, a charging adapter.

The iQoo Neo 7 5G, at first glance, looks premium. I have the Frost Blue colour with me, which has a frosted matte finish. There is also an Interstellar Black colour for those who want a less flashy option. Despite featuring a polycarbonate body, the phone does not feel cheap to hold. The iQoo Neo 7 5G weighs about 193g and is 8.58mm thick. 

The iQoo Neo 7 5G comes with a curved frame and rear panel

The right edge of the phone has the power and volume buttons, whereas the left side is completely flush. At the bottom lies the USB Type-C port sandwiched between the primary speaker grille and the SIM tray. On the top, there is a microphone cutout and an IR emitter.

The iQoo Neo 7 5G has a slightly taller display than the outgoing model. It features a 6.78-inch AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate. The phone also has a 93.11 percent screen-to-body ratio with a chin that is said to be 2.65mm thick, while the other bezels measure about 1.65mm. 

There is no Dolby Vision HDR playback support like the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G (Review), but the iQoo Neo 7 5G comes with HDR10+ certification. The phone also has a flat display with a hole-punch cutout at the top centre for the front camera. iQoo says that it chose a flat screen versus one with curved edges as it would help avoid ghost touches while playing games. If you want a curved-edge screen in this segment, there is the Realme 10 Pro+ 5G (Review). More about the display features and performance in the iQoo Neo 7 5G review.

Where the iQoo Neo 7 5G has a clear lead over the two phones mentioned above is performance. The phone comes with MediaTek Dimensity 8200 SoC. With a peak clock speed of 3.1GHz, the SoC is currently the only one in the segment to be based on a 4nm process. The phone also packs a beefy 5,000mAh battery with support for 120W fast charging. 

The iQoo Neo 7 5G has a taller, brighter display compared to its predecessor

iQoo has confirmed that popular games such as PUBG: New State and Call of Duty: Mobile will support 90fps gameplay. With great power in phones comes concerns over throttling and poor battery life, and this is something we will be keeping an eye on in the full review.

What we will also be testing is the iQoo Neo 7 5G's camera performance. The phone features a 64-megapixel main camera with support for optical image stabilisation (OIS). The triple-camera setup also features two, 2-megapixel sensors for macro photography and depth sensing. The camera department is a clear downgrade over the iQoo Neo 6 5G, which came with an 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera sensor. For selfies, the iQoo Neo 7 5G has a 16-megapixel front camera sensor. 

There is no ultra-wide camera in the iQoo Neo 7 5G

In terms of software, the iQoo Neo 7 5G runs on the Android 13-based Funtouch OS 13 out-of-the-box. The device is confirmed to get two major Android updates and three years of security support. 

Should the iQoo Neo 7 5G be your next upgrade? Find out in the full review, which will be up very soon on Gadgets 360.