iQOO Neo 7 Launched In China: Does It Bring Huge Upgrades Over The Neo 6?

iQOO has introduced the iQOO Neo 7 in its home country, China, as promised. It is positioned as an affordable flagship smartphone and replaces the iQOO Neo 6 device in the country. The iQOO Neo 7 gets a major upgrade in the form of a flagship processor from MediaTek, which promises improved performance over its predecessor. But are there any other changes apart from the processor? Let's have a look.

iQOO Neo 7: Is It A Huge Upgrade?

For those not in the know, the Indian and Chinese variants of the iQOO Neo 6 are equipped with different processors. The iQOO Neo 6 (China) came with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, whereas the Indian-spec iQOO Neo 6 comes with the Snapdragon 870 chipset at its helm.

Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 despite its very good peak performance wasn't known for its stability. It suffered heating issues, which led to thermal throttling during extended gaming sessions. iQOO intends to address that by plonking the MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ processor in its new iQOO Neo 7 smartphone. This chipset also powers the recently launched Asus ROG Phone 6D and ROG Phone 6D Ultimate gaming phones.

iQOO has employed the iQOO Neo 7 with a 4013mm² large liquid vapor chamber for efficient thermal management. The brand claims that it has tuned the processor to offer improved performance and higher energy efficiency compared to the chipset in the previous iteration.

Another change is in its display department, as the Neo 7 now sports a 6.78-inch E5 AMOLED panel compared to the 6.62-inch E4 AMOLED screen of the iQOO Neo 6. It comes with Full HD+ resolution and 120Hz refresh rate as before, but now gets a peak brightness of 1500 nits as opposed to 1300 nits previously.

In terms of optics, the smartphone now comes with an updated triple camera setup. It gets a 50MP Sony IMX766V primary sensor with OIS, accompanied by an 8MP ultrawide shooter, and a 2MP macro sensor. A telephoto sensor would've been the icing on the cake. Selfies and video calling duties are handled by the 16MP front-facing shooter.

The iQOO Neo 7 also packs in a bigger 5,000mAh battery under the hood compared to the 4,700mAh unit of the iQOO Neo 6. Not just that, it now boasts a faster 120W fast charging support as opposed to 80W before. The device runs Android 13-based Origin OS out of the box. However, expect it to be loaded with Funtouch OS 13 when it goes global.

iQOO Neo 7: Price, Availability

The iQOO Neo 7 comes at a starting price of CNY 2699 (approx. ₹31,000) for the 8GB RAM+128GB storage variant. The 8GB RAM+256GB storage variant comes at a price tag of CNY 2999 (approx. ₹34,500). The top variant with 12GB RAM+512GB storage is priced at CNY 3599 (approx. ₹41,250). It comes in orange, blue, and black colorways.

The iQOO Neo 7 could be a great flagship killer if it comes with the same processor and at a starting price of around ₹30,000 in India.