IQOO 7 Review: Reliable Performer, But Should You Consider?
Almost after a year, iQOO once again enters the mid-range segment with the launch of iQOO 7 and iQOO 7 Legend. The mid-range market is not easy to disrupt as the customers of this segment want more value at a lesser price so it always remains hard for the brands to crack the market. The iQOO 7 comes with a 120Hz AMOLED panel, 65W Super-fast charging, and Snapdragon 870 processor. Will it be able to make its space? Let’s find it out
Design: No doubt, iQOO 7 is among one of the best-looking smartphones of 2021. The curved-edge back of the smartphone gets AG matte glass which not only feels premium but also keeps fingerprint smudges at bay. In the times when performance-oriented smartphones have to compromise with the design, sleekness and weight, the iQOO 7 comes in handy. The iQOO 7 measures only 8.4mm in thickness and weighs less than 200 grams, ensuring its entry into the new trend of light and slim smartphones.
The sides of the iQOO 7 are polycarbonate, but they feel premium to hold, The power button and volume rockers at the right side. Whereas, the left side is button-free. It also features a flat bottom that holds the single speaker grille and Type-C port, SIM tray, and a mic. The secondary microphone is placed at the top of the smartphone which aids in noise cancellation.
At the back, it boasts a triple camera setup, the camera design adds to the overall pleasant aesthetic of the smartphone. The rest of the panel is clean and bare. Overall, the device feels handy, premium, and copes with the new trend.
Display: iQOO 7 employs a 6.62-inches Full HD+ AMOLED panel with an aspect ratio of 20:9 and a refresh rate of 120Hz. The panel is bright enough to maintain its legibility under direct sunlight. The screen offers great viewing angles and ample brightness. If you are using a smartphone for playing games, watching videos, or scrolling your social feeds, it will be a treat for your eyes, all thanks to its 120Hz refresh rate.
At the top, there is a centrally aligned punch-hole notch that houses a 16MP selfie shooter. Moreover, the panel is surrounded by thin bezels. The iQOO 7 supports DRM L1 certification which means that it can stream Full HD content on apps like Netflix, YouTube, and Prime videos. Notably, HDR is not supported on OTT platforms except YouTube. We enjoyed watching movies and a couple of web series and it always offered exceptional colors and a great viewing experience.
Interestingly, the smartphone comes with an intelligent display chipset that does Motion Estimation, Motion Compensation (MEMC). Basically, it interpolates animation frames in an attempt to make animation more fluid even slow-motion effects look better with MEMC. Overall, the display is sharp, smooth, produces rich colors, and will not disappoint at any point of time.
Camera: The Triple rear camera on the iQOO 7 comprises of Sony IMX598 48MP primary sensor, a 13MP ultra-wide angle that doubles as a macro camera, and a 2MP monochrome lens. At the front, it gets a 16MP shooter for selfies and video.
The daylight shots were rich in colors and full of details. The photographs seem more natural as it automatically recognizes the scene through AI. In some cases disabling AI produces betters pics, depending on the amount of light. Talking about low light, the smartphone has dedicated Night mode which works fine most of the time and produces clearer, brighter, and eliminates most of the noise very well. In The ultra-wide mode, the software adds digital sharpness to the pictures and we saw some loss in details whereas, in the macro mode, it captures the details very well.
Coming to the selfie shooter, it captures wonderful selfies which look almost similar to Vivo X60 pro (Read Review). However, it is behind in terms of detail, and sharpness, compared to Vivo flagship series. Considering its price, the iQOO7 offers a great camera experience at least far better than its rivals.
Camera Samples:
Performance: Now, performance is the comfort zone for this smartphone. Under the hood, iQOO 7 is powered by a 7nm Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 870 processor. This is not a mid-range SOC, the 870 is last year's flagship processor and with that, it brings a lot of horsepower. The smartphone is backed by Adreno 650 graphics engine .iQOO 7 runs on Android 11-based FuntouchOS 11.1 and coupled with up to 12GB RAM (LPDDR5)and up to 256B (UFS 3.1) storage.
For the asking price, the Snapdragon 870 brings great performance to the smartphone. We used smartphone as our daily driver and believe us we didn’t even realize that we are using a mid-range smartphone.
Moreover, it also comes with extended RAM capability which uses ROM to extend the RAM by 3GB. However, we were not able to see much difference as the review unit its self came with 12GB RAM which is more than sufficient in today’s usage scenario.
The smartphone is 5G compatible and offers the Graphite layer Full Coverage Liquid Cooling System, which is useful in faster and even heat dissipation. During our usage, we played games such as Garena Free Fire and Call of Duty to name a few and it really performed as per our expectations. However, we found the device getting warm after an intense gaming session of around one hour. The smartphone, however, showed no sign of lagging or any glitches. The interface is clean and we certainly liked its snappier performance.
Apart from its performance, one more thing that really stood out in our daily usage was the 65W fast charging. iQOO 7 gets a 4400 mAh battery which is sufficient for full day of a moderate usage scenario. The smartphone ships with a 65W charging brick which can charge the smartphone in just 30 minutes.
Verdict: iQOO 7 offers flagship-level performance. Moreover, it checks almost all boxes and offers great value for money. The smartphone comes with a sleek and lightweight design, 120Hz AMOLED panel, 65W superfast charging, and Snapdragon 870 processor. If you are looking for a smartphone with premium features and do not want to spend more, then iQOO 7 should get your attention.
