iQoo 7 review: Affordable flagship phone
Emerging Chinese smartphone-maker iQOO (which translates to I Quest On and On)forayed into the Indian market with the launch of iQOO 3 in March 2020. It comes with high-end hardware with a top-of-the-line Qualcomm chipset but costed much less than rival brands.
It was a value-for-money premium phone and also one of the very few to boast a 5G modem. Now, the company has come up with a new mobile iQoo 7 with beefed-up internal hardware.
Will it deliver the goods? Let's check it out
Design, display and build quality
As I noted in the first impression, the iQOO 7 is a lovely-looking phone. Storm Black model flaunts a dual-tone shell on the back with dark blueish on the sides and features light blue in the middle when viewed from a certain angle.
It also features a raven-hued camera module in the top-left corner with iQOO brand engraving and the rest is a clean smooth shell. Interestingly, it doesn't attract fingerprint smudges.
The company is offering a soft rear-side cover with a retail package. It saves the device from getting damaged from accidental drops and also, the transparent cover doesn't harm the visual appeal of the phone.
Also, iQOO has pre-fitted display guard on top of the screen panel to protect from daily wear and tear activities such as scratches from keys when kept in the pocket.
The phone has curved corners with flat base, which houses a SIM tray, a mic, a Type-C port, and a single-grille speaker, which by the way, is loud. The sound output is good even with the volume at max.
On the right side, it features volume rockers and a power button and they offer a tactile touch feel. On the left side, there are no physical keys as such.
At the top, it has another mic and it sits in linear dent adding value to the design. Unfortunately, there is no 3.5mm audio jack. Users have to get wireless earphones to listen to music in a public space.
On the front, it sports a beautiful 6.62-inch full HD+ (2400×1080p) Samsung-made AMOLED screen. It offers a peak brightness of 1300 nits, which is more than good enough to view contents on the screen under direct sunlight.
It comes with a 20:9 aspect ratio, supports up to 120Hz display refresh rate and HDR10+ content. I had a good time watching multimedia content on the widescreen and the credit has to go the company's engineers by placing a small front camera in the top center corner, thereby reducing obstruction to view videos on the big display.
Add to that, in 7 comes with a Game Frame Rate Interpolation feature, which promises enhanced frame rate in games for smoother visual enjoyment.
Also, it comes with a dedicated intelligent display chipset to transform low-quality SD to HDR video with vibrant colours in select apps.
The new iQOO 7 also features an in-display fingerprint sensor. It works like a charm. I never faced any false rejection issue during the entire testing period.
Performance
The iQOO 7 is powered by a 5nm class Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 octa-core processor backed by Adreno 650 graphics engine, Android 11-based FuntouchOS 11.1, 8GB/12GB RAM (LPDDR5), and 128GB/256B (UFS 3.1) storage.
The new phone works smoothly without any fuzz be it launching apps, operating cameras and also while watching high-resolution videos. Even while playing games, the phone showed no sign of lag-ness. It did get warm after 20 minutes of playing a game, but never overwhelming.
On Geekbench 5.0, it scored a decent 3,702 on OpenCL (Open Computing Language) GPU computing test. And, it scored an impressive 999 and 3,262 points on single-core and multi-core CPU tests, respectively.
Also, the device's display supports 300Hz Touch Sampling Rate and 1000Hz instant Touch Sampling Rate, which comes in handy while playing top-end games. With the Battlegrounds Mobile India game set to launch in India soon, iQOO 7 owners will have a lot of fun and enjoyable gaming experience.
Add to that, iQOO 7 comes with a Multi Turbo feature, which extends RAM space by up to 3GB. As I mentioned in my first impression story, if your phone model has 8GB RAM, the phone can extend to a further 3GB to 11GB RAM virtually to offer smooth functioning of the device for tasks such as playing graphics-rich games or while recording high-resolution videos. memory space and reduces energy consumption to offer a lag-free experience.
The iQOO handset is said to come with 6,000 mm sq graphite layer, which helps in reducing the 11 per cent reduction in temperature.
Also, the phone hardware is optimised to reduce 54 per cent power consumption compared to other phones.
As far as the battery life is concerned, it comes with a 4,400mAh cell. It consistently offered a full day of battery life under normal usage with limited sessions of gaming and video ( an hour per day).
Another most important aspect of the phone is the 66W super-fast charger adaptor, which by the way comes out of the box. It takes around 30 minutes to fully charge the phone from zero to 100 per cent mark. This is one big advantage of owning the new iQOO phone.
Camera
The new iQOO 7 comes with triple-camera module-- main 48MP (Sony IMX598 sensor, f/1.79, OIS: Optical Image Stabilisation ) + 13MP 120-degree ultra-wide sensor (f/2.2 with 2.5cm macro ) + 2MP mono camera (f/2.4) with LED flash.
It takes beautiful photos in almost all light conditions. It succeeds in capturing details and near accurate colours of the subject. Like the rival brands, iQOO 7's photo sample does come off warmer than natural. In the cloudy condition, even the brightest of the colourful flowers become dull. But, iQOO 7 enhances the quality.
Even under normal mode, the phone is able to create a shallow depth of field. It comes off natural without coming of unnatural in terms of background blur effect. In the portrait mode too, it takes really good photos.
Also, the night mode is one of the best aspects of the iQOO 7 camera. It nicely balances the darkness and low light condition of the night. For instance, in the image below, the coconut tree's leaves are actually moving due to the wind, but the phone manages to get a fantastic photo. The moving leaves come off very artistic like brush stroke painting.
With just LED flash, the phone takes fantastic sharp images with details.
On the front, it features a 16MP (f/2.0) with HDR support. It can also record full HD (1080p) video recording.
iQOO 7 takes wonderful selfies in the natural light and in controlled light conditions also, the picture quality is decent on par with rivals in its class.
Final thoughts
The new iQOO 7 is an ideal option for those looking for a premium phone and who don't want to spend a big amount on it.
It has a gorgeous dual-tone design language and houses a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 octa-core chipset. The camera is also really good for the asking price.
Also, iQOO 7 offers great battery life and the 66W super-fast charger is a big bonus.
The iQOO 7 is being offered in three configurations-- 8GB RAM + 128GB storage, 8GB RAM + 256GB storage and 12GB RAM + 256GB storage-- for Rs 31,990 and Rs 33,990 and Rs 35,990, respectively. It comes in two colour options- Storm Black and Solid Ice Blue.
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