IQO NEO 10R review: Gaming phone that will not burn a hole in your pocket. Mint

Shortly after the launch of Flagship IQO 13, IQO launched its latest gaming phone in India-its first device in its mid-range ‘R’ series. On paper, IQO NEO 10R appears to tick all the right boxes for the price below a phone 25,000. But are things really as great as they look, or are the hidden truths waiting for being found here? I am now using Neo 10R for about two weeks, and here are my two bits of how the phone was performed in the real world.

Unboxing:

Inside the black box of IQO NEO 10R, you get the device yourself, wrapped in a layer of plastic and with a pre-lagu screen protector (always a good touch). Below, you will find some paperwork that no one will get to read, a SIM Ejector Tool, an 80W adapter and a USB A USB C Type Cable, as well as a transparent PU case that you should last for a few weeks from yellow.

Design and connectivity:

In terms of design, the back part of the NEO 10R is clearly inspired by the IQO 13, which features a squarel camera island – although without RGB lights. However, unlike IQO 13, the NEO 10R has a two-tone design, separated by a dotted line in which ‘NEO’ Easter eggs (see image below).

Neo 10r and frames are made of plastic and the phone feels slippery in the hand. I think the feeling of this phone could have been a bit better, but given the price, it is not a deal breaker.

At the front, there is a flat display with a small cut-out for the front camera. The SIM Ejector is at the bottom, followed by the USB Type C port (USB 2.0 type) and speaker, while the power and volume rockers are on the right. The good news is that despite the massive battery housing, this phone is not too thick at 7.98 mm and its weight is less than only 200 grams (196 to be accurate).

If you were thinking, this phone has an IP65 rating, which means that it can withstand a little spatting and light rain, but there is no complete immersion in the water. There is also no support for NFC or wireless charging.

Display:

The 6.78 -inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 4,500 NITs peak brightness in the IQO NEO10R has a 1.5K AMOLED display – 1200 nits in high shine mode (HBM). There is no complaint with performance here, it provides quality of decent photographs for the price point, offering vibrant and porous colors with great ease even in direct sunlight.

While the phone is preserved by Scott Zensation Up Glass, a large scratch appeared in the middle for a few days after using the device, meaning that it is not ideal for removing the plastic cover provided with the device until you want to get a proper screen guard at the top.

The display has been paired with a stereo speaker setup that is best, loudness can be better and prosperity and bass are also weak. For bing viewing sessions, you will be most likely that it will be connected with the speaker or use an earphone.

Display:

The IQO NEO 10R is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8S General 3 processor, providing equivalent performance to Snapdragon 8 General 3 (last year’s flagship Qualcomm processor). This is the same processor found on Poco F6, which I reviewed last year and also have some similar issues, but IQO has probably fixed some major glitches with its cooling system. (Later more on it)

It is paired with 128GB model with 8/12GB LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 3.1 storage and 256GB variants with UFS 4.1 storage. While I would have individually given priority to remove IQO with 128GB variants, it is still a big thing to come up with LPDDR5X RAM for a budget phone and offer the option of UFS 4.1 storage. 40,000 do not provide this option.

First let’s talk about the benchmark. On AnTuTu, the NEO 10R gets a score of 14,69,865, which is equivalent to the other Snapdragon 8S General 3 devices, suggests that there is no artificial restriction on SoC.

On Geekbench 6, it receives a single-core score of 1,940 and a multi-core score of 5,032. And on 3D Mark’s extreme wild life stress test, NEO 10R gets the best loop score of 3,171 and the lowest loop score of 1,552, but the stability was less than 48.9%.

However, the good thing was that the phone was not too hot during benchmark and the maximum temperature was during the entutu test where the mercury was up to about 41 degrees.

Snapdragon 8 at the loss of 8 General 3. A consistent issue that I had seen with Poco F6 last year was that the phone with 5G was slightly hot during the summer months while running normal tasks.

A similar issue was present with the NEO 10R, with the CPU temperature at around 38–39 degrees, when taken out despite the outside temperature, was about 6-7 degrees lower. I tried to examine top heating issues by playing COD mobile on the highest possible setting at the same temperature and the good thing is that after a point after a point the heating stabilized, which is maximum at about 43–44 degrees.

In terms of daily use, this is a very good performance phone, and you will not notice any interval or stutter during day-to-day functions or heavy gaming. I especially prefer some gaming mode options that provide IQO direct power supply, a dedicated ESPORTS Mode (inhibition calls from incoming calls and popping ups to provide information from the upcoming calls) and Voice Changer.

IQO has also taken some inspiration from IQO 13 and is supporting support for 144Hz refresh rates in some games such as Clash of Clain, Brillon and Clash Royal through an OTA update in the coming weeks.

Software and Battery:

Neo 10R FUNTOUCH runs on OS 15 that is out of Android 15 box. There are some blotware apps that come up with the device which includes the first party apps of Snapchat, Facebook, PhonePe, LinkedIn, Netflix, Amazon and Iqu. All these apps can be united except the IQO browser, which can neither uninstall or disable.

Most of the UI advertisements can be disabled when setting the phone, and after that, there are no major disruption.

The NEO 10R is packed with a large -scale 6,400mAh battery, which is coincidentally more than the capacity introduced with IQO 13. For charging, an 80W adapter is provided with the box that takes the phone from 0–100% in about 1 hour and 10 minutes.

In my experience, Funtouch OS has been good in customizing the performance of the battery and this phone is not different. Even with 5G, you can expect more than a day of battery life when performing power consuming power like gaming or video streaming.

Camera:

NEO comes with a dual camera setup on the back with a 50MP Sony IMX882 primary shooter with 10R OIS and 8MP ultra-wide angle lens. On the front, you get a 32MP selfie shooter. The primary shooter can also capture with stabilization on 4K 60fps, while the front shooter can capture the video on 4K 30fps and the ultra-wide angle lens can capture the video on only 1080p FPS.

The primary 50MP shooter is surprisingly good, just a pinch of overbright with images, but usually pleasing to the eyes. While indoor portraits look decent, shots cannot be said about shots in bright outdoor, going to the toss with skin tone and images are also processed.

Night shots are decent for price, but there is nothing to write about the house. Portrait shots under light are really good, but the edge needs to be detected.

As an ultra-wide angle lens, it provides the same results for any other 8MP shooter in the market, with color shifts prominent, but the shifts of the day are good and the discrepancies are evident under the lights.

The 32MP selfie camera has a tendency to overbare the skin tone that can work for some people during daylight, but in night -time shots, details take a hit that makes artificial processing very clear.

Overall, I would say that cameras are civilized for price, but do not expect much from them.

Decision:

At the initial price of 24,999, IQO NEO 10r is one of the best options for gamers, thanks to its Snapdragon 8S General 3 processor, 6,400mAh battery, 80W wired fast charging, 120hz amoled display, LPDDR5x RAM and UFS 4.1. Of course, it is not without its flaws – somewhat inconsistent camera systems, NFC deficiency and wireless charging, a basic plastic build, and an old USB 2.0 port are some tradeoffs. But given the overall package, these are easy compromises to accept.