Introduction

This is the iQOO Neo 10, India’s first phone with the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4. Of course, iQOO Neo series is generally focused on performance enthusiasts and gaming. which is the reason why I have compared the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 inside the iQOO Neo 10 to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 that you get with the OnePlus 13R and the MediaTek Domestic 9400 that’s inside the Realme GT7, But you know what? iQOO Neo 10 is not a one-trick phone because even the camera and the battery performance are actually pretty competitive.

Design and Build Quality

The first thing that you notice when you take a look at the iQOO Neo 10 from the rear is that wait a second I have  seen this somewhere before. Yeah, because the design is very similar to the iQOO Neo 13 thanks to that distinctive squirrel camera module. Now, I’m not opposed to brands continuing the same design language across different phones that they sell.

You also do get two colour options. Basically, the one is the titanium chrome variant. And there is also something called an inferno red, which is the dual tone option. I prefer the more, you know, simpler, minimalistic titanium chrome.

Material and Weight

Now, like most IQOO Neo devices, the iQOO Neo 10 also sticks to a completely polycarbonate build, and that also includes, of course, the side frame. Now, plastic might not scream premium like aluminium or glass, but it helps keep the weight of the phone low.

That is very, very important in the case of the iQOO Neo 10 because it has a large 7,000 mAh battery inside. Now, when I put the iQOO Neo 10 on a scale it weighs about 208 g which is all right, but the weight distribution is slightly off because it is bottom heavy and therefore sometimes when you’re holding it, it can weigh you down. That said, since it has a curved back and it is actually a very slim frame, 8.09 mm for a 7,000 mAh battery. It does sit comfortably in my palm, so I’m not really concerned too much.

Display Protection and Ports

To set in the display, on top, you get a layer of short sensation up. And in our time with it, it hasn’t scratched up much, so it’s actually holding up well. Talking about which, you do get a pre-applied screen protector with the iQOO Neo 10 and a case inside the box.

By the way a couple of things that I must mention here is that the Type-C port at the bottom is USB type-C 2.0 for a gaming phone. That’s a bit of a let down. You get IP65 rating which is fine for light splashes but there are phones in this price range that come with IP69 rating as well.

Display Quality

The 6.78 in display on the iQOO Neo 10 is the absolute star here. It’s of course a flat display with 1.5K resolution and 144 Hz refresh rate as well. Of course 144 hertz will work in supported games, not in UI. You also do get variable refresh. Basically, it can switch between 60, 90, 120, and 144 hertz as well.

Display Features and Brightness

When you take a look at the display head on, you will notice that the bezels are extremely slim and the punch hole is very tiny. So, you get extremely good real state on the screen. And you know what? iQOO Neo10 could possibly be the brightest panel in its price class, primarily because it can reach a peak brightness of 5,500 nits when you’re watching HDR content, of course, in a 1 to 10% APL. And yes, you do get HDR support both on YouTube and on Netflix, which is very, very good. Plus, the HDR tuning has been done exceptionally well.

HDR and Color Calibration

There are many AMOLED panels that we’ve tested in this price range where the HDR performance can sometimes be wonky. That’s not a problem with the iQOO Neo 10 because you get very clean details from the shadows and a very good control over the highlights as well.

More importantly, I didn’t notice any gray banding issues. It’s a very well tuned panel for HDR. In fact, it’s also a very well tuned panel for colors because in the original color mode, you will notice that the color accuracy is pretty good and you can trust it for video editing and photo editing.

Fingerprint and Audio

The optical in-display fingerprint scanner is also very fast and very responsive, but not everything is hunky dory because the haptics, I feel like it could have been tighter. It’s not bad, but it could have been tighter.

Another thing that I wasn’t particularly impressed with was the stereo speaker performance. It can get loud, don’t get me wrong. It can also reach up to 200% at 300% peak volume, but you know what? When you actually bump it to 200% or 300%, there is a chance that the sound will crackle.

Performance and Variants

All right, now time to talk about the performance, which is possibly what everybody watching this video is waiting for. So I am going to talk about in detail and compare it against the Realme GT7 and the OnePlus 13R.

But before that let me tell you all the different variants that are available of the iQOO Neo 10. So you get 8GB+128GB, 8GB+256GB, 12GB+256GB and 16GB+512GB variants. But the base variant the 8GB+128GB variant comes with UFS 3.1 storage whereas all the other variants come with UFS 4.1 storage and all the variants actually do come with LPDDR5X ultra RAM type

Gaming Performance

Basically, the GPU on iQOO neo 10 and OnePlus 13R are far more superior, which is also evident from our Genshin Impact test where we play the game at highest graphics and 60 frames per second target FPS.

Now, when we did this, you won’t believe the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 are basically toe-to-toe. They got the same average FPS and the temperatures are very similar, too. However, the Dimensity 9400e inside the Realme GT7 runs cooler. And if you’re a BGMI or a COD player, then all these three phones can also play the game at 120 fps.

So, in my testing, what I noticed is that if you want the absolute best performance for gaming, then you know the OnePlus 13R actually make more sense over the Realme GT7

Battery Life and Charging

All right, talking about the battery life, the OnePlus 13R has the smallest battery of the three. It’s a 6,000 mAh battery, whereas both the Realme GT7 and the IQOO Neo 10 come with a 7,000 mAh battery. And therefore, it goes without saying that both the Realme and iQOO actually offer better screen on times or better battery life compared to the OnePlus 13R.

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Charging Comparison

In fact, both the Realme GT7 and the Icon Neo 10 come with support for 120 watt charging. But the good thing about the IQOO Neo 10 is that you actually get a type-C charger inside the box with a type-C cable, which means that it also has USB PD support and it can charge a MacBook.

So, that’s definitely an advantage that I must mention. And both these phones take about 35 minutes for a full charge from 1% to 100%. In comparison, the OnePlus 13R, despite having an 80 watt charger inside the box, it actually takes about 52–53 minutes for a full charge, which is slower than what I expect.

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