iQoo Neo 6 Review: Powerful phone at a reasonable price!

iQoo has launched the Neo series in India with the Neo 6. In this fiercely competitive segment below Rs 30,000, the company has launched the phone with full preparation. It brings with it the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 chip, gives 80W fast charging and tempts with a 120Hz AMOLED display. The charging speed that the company has given in this price range is really commendable. It is rarely seen in this segment. But do all these features make the iQoo Neo 6 a phone that cannot be beaten? My first impressions for the phone were positive and now it’s time to know whether it is as good as it looks.

iQOO Neo 6 price in India

iQoo Neo 6 is priced at Rs 29,999 in India for the base model with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. Its top model comes with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage, which is priced at Rs 33,999. iQoo Neo 6 can be purchased in Dark Nova and Cyber ​​Rage colours.

iQOO Neo 6 Design

The iQoo Neo 6 phone is a rebranded model of the iQoo Neo 6 SE launched in China earlier this year. The Neo 6 is a large smartphone in size and weighs 190g. The phone has a 6.62-inch AMOLED display with a hole punch design at the top for the selfie camera. The bezels of the display are thin. The frame of the phone is made of plastic and it is kept flat at the top and bottom.

iQoo has added an IR (infrared) emitter to it, which is placed near the secondary microphone at the top. The bottom has a slot for the USB Type C port, speaker and SIM tray. The back panel is made of plastic with curved sides. The phone is very comfortable to hold. Its right side is narrow and carries a slim power button and volume button.

The Dark Nova color of the phone looks quite classy. It has a gradient finish which shows a mixed shade of dark blue and bright teal. If you want a more flashy phone, then you can also check out its Cyber ​​Rage variant. The camera module of the phone will grab your attention. It has a two-step design on which Neo’s branding is given, which looks distinct.

The company has also provided a transparent case in the box of the phone. The back panel has a matte finish, so fingerprints do not appear so easily. Along with this you get a USB Type C to 3.5mm audio adapter which is a good thing.

iQOO Neo 6 Specifications and Software

The iQoo Neo 6 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 SoC which is the most powerful processor for this price range. The Mi 11X competes directly with this phone, which has the same chip. iQoo says that it has provided a liquid cooling system in the phone to keep the processor cool.

The Neo 6 has a Full HD Plus E4 AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. It has a 360Hz touch sampling rate that can go up to 1,200Hz in some games. The display is also HDR10+ certified and has a brightness of 800 nits. iQoo has also provided stereo speakers in the Neo 6, but the phone does not have an IP rating.

This iQoo phone supports Bluetooth 5.2, dual-band Wi-Fi, four 5G bands, dual-4G VoLTE and five satellite navigation systems. You do not get NFC in this. iQoo Neo 6 has a 4,700mAh battery and supports fast charging up to 80W. You also get a compatible charger in the box.

Talking about the software, it runs on Funtouch OS 12, which is based on Android 12. The company has promised to provide Android updates for two years and security updates for 3 years with the phone. Its user interface is almost similar to the Vivo X80 which I recently reviewed. Sadly, I got the same bloatware experience in this as well. Some apps can be uninstalled. The browser keeps sending unwanted notifications throughout the day, which is quite annoying.

iQOO Neo 6 performance and battery life

iQoo Neo 6 has a powerful processor and there is no lag in the phone even during continuous use. I had its 12GB variant on which I was able to multitask comfortably, switch between apps. I did not see any app reloading at any time. The phone has an extended RAM feature and it can use 4GB of storage from the system as RAM.

It was a pleasure to watch videos on the phone’s AMOLED display. Stereo speakers make this experience even better. The refresh rate is high, so scrolling in apps and menus is smooth. The company has set the refresh rate to Smart Switch by default. On this setting, it runs at 120Hz most of the time.

iQoo Neo 6 has an in-display fingerprint scanner which is quite reliable and never failed during use. Face unlock also worked in the same manner. The phone scored well on benchmarks. Its score on AnTuTu was higher than OnePlus Nord 2 with 729,331 points. In Geekbench 5, it scored 983 and 3074 points in single and multi core. In GFXBench graphics, it scored 50fps in the Car Chase test. Users looking for good performance will not be disappointed in terms of scores by this phone.

I played Call of Duty: Mobile on it which ran on Very High graphics by default and the frame rate was set to High by default. I played the game for 20 minutes and the battery drained by 5%. The phone did not heat up which speaks for its liquid cooling capability.

I liked the battery performance of this phone and it easily lasted for a day and a half. In the HD video loop test, the phone lasted for 21 hours and 17 minutes which is quite impressive. Its 80W fast charger charged the phone to 83% in 30 minutes and the phone was fully charged within 50 minutes.

iQOO Neo 6 Camera

iQoo Neo 6 has a triple camera setup consisting of a 64-megapixel primary lens with OIS, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide lens with 116-degree field of view, and a 2-megapixel macro shooter. It has a 16-megapixel camera for selfies. The camera app is quite easy to use and looks similar to the Vivo X80 app. The main camera takes 16-megapixel photos by default but you can also click photos in full resolution if needed.

Its daylight landscape photos were full of detail and objects were easily recognizable even at a distance. Words written on distant buildings could also be read. The phone gets AI optimization which increases the contrast in the output. The ultra wide camera has a wider field of view and the same color profile as the primary camera.

The phone took close-up shots that were crisp and full of detail. It creates a natural bokeh effect between the background and the subject. Edge detection was good in portrait mode. The macro camera also captured very close-up shots well.

The phone was quick to capture scenes in low light by automatically keeping the shutter open for longer, resulting in clear and detailed images. In extremely dark areas, the phone automatically suggested switching to night mode.

The phone’s sensor captures selfies in full resolution. The app applies a beautification filter by default, but it can be adjusted or disabled if needed. Skin tones in photos are accurate in daylight. In low light, the screen flash automatically activates for better results. Selfies taken in portrait mode had good edge detection and the background blur level was also adequate.

Its primary rear camera can shoot 4K video at 60fps. Its selfie camera can also shoot video at this resolution and frame rate, which is very rare. Footage was quite stabilized in daylight but there was some shaky footage while walking in low light. The camera app has a dual video mode that allows the primary and selfie cameras to record video simultaneously.

Our decision

If you are looking for a smartphone in the budget of 30 thousand, then you can put this phone on top of your list. The performance of the phone is quite good as can be expected from a device with a Qualcomm chip. The promise of Android and security updates makes it future proof. In my opinion, its 8GB base variant seems to be more value for money.

I don’t have much to complain about except for the pre-installed bloatware. If you are buying the phone for video recording purposes, then keep in mind that it doesn’t perform that well in low light.

If you want clean software then you can look at Motorola Edge 30. If you cannot compromise with performance then you can also go for Mi 11X and OnePlus Nord 2, which are good alternatives in the same price range.