The Iqoo Z7 Pro is a phone that’s really good at running games and doing lots of things at the same time. It also looks nice, has a good screen, and the battery lasts a long time. But, when it comes to taking pictures and the sound quality, it’s not the best. However, that might not be a big problem depending on what you want from a phone.
The new iQOO phone comes with some important features like a curved design with a ‘3D Curved Super-Vision display’, MediaTek’s Dimensity 7200 processor, a 5,000mAh battery, 66W fast charging support, and various gaming-focused features. In this review of the iQOO Z7 Pro, let’s see how well it competes with other smartphones in the market.
IQOO Z7 Pro Design
The design of the iQOO Z7 Pro resembles the Vivo V27 series released earlier this year. It flaunts a slim and sleek look with curved edges and an impressively thin build. The phone is only 7.36mm thick, which makes it very easy to hold. Unlike some phones with color-changing backs, the Z7 Pro opts for a gracefully curved rear panel that has a shiny matte finish, giving it an attractive appearance. Additionally, this surface does a good job of hiding fingerprints and smudges.
Display
The iQOO Z7 Pro has curved 6.78-inch AMOLED display. This screen offers a Full HD+ resolution of 1,080×2,400 pixels with a 20:9 aspect ratio and a pixel density of 388 pixels per inch. It supports a high refresh rate of up to 120Hz and includes HDR10+ support. Moreover, the display can achieve a peak brightness of 1330 nits, ensuring outstanding readability and content visibility, even on sunny days.
Performance and software
The iQOO Z7 Pro runs on the MediaTek Dimensity 7200 SoC, which was introduced earlier this year. This new mid-range chip is also featured in Vivo’s V27 smartphone. The SoC is configured with two clusters, consisting of 2 Cortex-A715 cores and 6 Cortex-A510 cores, with a clock speed that can reach up to 2.8GHz. In benchmark tests, the iQOO Z7 Pro achieves an impressive AnTuTu score of 713,965 points. When it comes to Geekbench scores, it records 1,181 points in the single-core test and 2,682 points in the multi-core test.
The iQOO Z7 Pro is equipped with 8GB of built-in RAM, supplemented by an additional 8GB of virtual RAM. You can choose between two storage options: 128GB or 256GB. It’s important to note that the storage cannot be expanded by the user, so make your choice wisely.
Regarding the software, the iQOO Z7 Pro operates on Vivo’s customized FunTouch OS 13, which is based on Android 13 right from the start. It’s not a completely clean software experience, as it comes with numerous pre-installed apps. However, it offers several customization options, including the ability to remove or uninstall certain apps that you might not need. Additionally, the software allows you to personalize UI icons, hide albums, and control heat through the iManager Cooling phone app, among other features.
Cameras
The standout feature of the iQOO Z7 Pro isn’t its Camera performance. It features a capable 64MP primary camera with Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS), accompanied by a secondary 2MP depth camera and a rear Aura light. In well-lit settings, the primary camera captures images with good details, highlights, and exposure levels. While color accuracy might be slightly off, the overall results are satisfactory. However, indoors or in low-light conditions, the cameras don’t perform as well. While the images aren’t blurry, thanks to the OIS, they tend to have some graininess, resulting in a slight loss of detail and sharpness. The Aura light primarily helps in adding brightness to the scene, with consistent quality.
For taking selfies and video calls, the iQOO Z7 Pro is equipped with a 16MP camera in its punch-hole setup. However, the performance of this camera is somewhat mediocre. While it can capture reasonably accurate skin tones in daylight, the level of detail in facial features falls short of expectations. The smartphone’s portrait mode also leaves room for improvement, as the edge detection isn’t very precise, both for selfies and rear cameras. There are other smartphones in this price range that may offer better performance in this aspect.
Battery
The iQOO Z7 Pro comes with a 4,600mAh battery, which is slightly smaller than the 5,000mAh batteries commonly found in its category. Nonetheless, the phone’s battery management seems to work efficiently. Depending on your usage, you can expect a screen-on-time of around six to seven hours. If you’re a heavy user, especially if you engage in long gaming sessions, you may find it necessary to connect to a charger at least once during the day.
In the PCMark test, the iQOO Neo 7 demonstrated an impressive endurance of 19 hours and 19 minutes, outperforming many of its rivals. As for charging, the phone requires just about 45-50 minutes to reach a full charge from zero when using the included 67W fast charger.
Price
The iQOO Z7 Pro is available in India with an introductory price starting at Rs 23,999, making it an attractive option for those seeking a feature-packed smartphone without breaking the bank.
