iQoo Z7 5G First Impressions: A Segment Shaker?

The iQoo Z7 5G is official and is the company's latest contender for the best smartphone under Rs. 20,000 in India. Compared to the iQoo Z6 5G, the iQoo Z7 5G has received many upgrades such as a better display, more powerful SoC, an improved camera setup and faster charging. However, like most smartphones launching in 2023, the iQoo Z7 5G is pricier than the outgoing model.

The iQoo Z7 5G has an all-polycarbonate body. The choice of materials helps the phone's weight be on the lighter side at 173g. It is also thinner than its predecessor at 7.8mm. The phone sports a flat frame design and has rounded corners. Overall, I kind of like the in-hand feel of the Z7 5G.

The Pacific Night colour of the iQoo Z7 5G gives it quite a premium look with a glittery back which shines when light hits it at different angles. There are also diagonal gradient patterns running across the rear panel. If you want something colourful, there is a Norway Blue variant as well. Both colour options come with an IP54 rating for basic water and dust protection.

iQoo Z7 5G offers a good in-hand feel with its lightweight design

The iQoo Z7 5G has a 6.38-inch full-HD+ display with a 1,080 x 2,400-pixel resolution. The screen has been upgraded to an AMOLED panel, with a refresh rate of 90Hz. The display claims to have 1,300 nits of peak brightness. There is a tiny waterdrop notch that gives the phone a slightly dated look. The chin too is quite thick compared to the rest of the bezels. There is an in-display fingerprint scanner and support for AI face recognition as well.

The iQoo Z7 5G has a single speaker at the bottom which, although loud, does not feel adequate for a proper multimedia experience. Fortunately, the smartphone has a 3.5mm headphone jack next to the USB Type-C port at the bottom edge. The power and volume buttons on the right side are quite easy to reach. At the top, there is the hybrid-SIM slot, which supports storage expansion of up to 1TB via a microSD card.

iQoo Z7 5G's display is claimed to offer 1,300 nits of peak brightness

The iQoo Z7 5G features a MediaTek Dimensity 920 SoC, which the company claims is the fastest in the segment. It certainly feels like a decent upgrade over the iQoo Z6 5G's Snapdragon 695 SoC, which was featured in several smartphones from last year such as the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G (Review), OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G (Review), etc. However, we'll have to test it and see how well the hardware is tuned with the Android 13-based Funtouch OS 13 software, in the full review. The iQoo Z7 5G is confirmed to get two major Android updates and security patches for three years.

There is a dual-camera setup on the back. The phone has a 64-megapixel Samsung GW3 primary sensor with support for optical image stabilisation (OIS). There is also a 2-megapixel sensor which is used for depth calculation in Portrait mode. For selfies, the phone has a 16-megapixel front camera. We will share our detailed experience with the cameras on the iQoo Z7 5G in the full review.

iQoo Z7 5G's waterdrop notch gives it a slightly dated look

The phone has a 4,500mAh battery with 44W fast charging support. While the charging speed has improved, the iQoo Z7 5G packs a smaller battery than the outgoing model. iQoo claims that the phone can charge from zero to 50 percent in 25 minutes.

The iQoo Z7 5G has been launched in two storage options. The base configuration offers 6GB of RAM, whereas our review unit came with 8GB of RAM. Both variants offer 128GB of UFS 2.2 storage as standard. The iQoo Z7 5G has a starting price of Rs. 18,999 in India. Should you consider this as your next smartphone? Find out in the full review coming soon on Gadgets 360.