Can the POCO F4 dethrone the iQOO Neo 6 in the premium mid-range segment?
The premium mid-range segment has been very popular as each brand is aiming to deliver a solid smartphone in this price segment that could deliver good performance and other specifications close to flagships. Many smartphone brands like Iqoo, Xiaomi, Realme, Samsung, etc. come up with their offerings and pit them against each other.
Last year we had the powerful POCO F3 GT (Review) which was a very solid offering as it provided some very good specifications and came up with a gaming-centric design aimed more toward people who want a gaming smartphone. Now this year, POCO seems to bring back the glory of its F series with the POCO F4 (Review) which is currently a very solid offering as it brings some very good specifications in this price segment.
The iQOO Neo 6 (Review), on the other hand, has been a very solid offering in the premium mid-range segment as it brings all the necessary specifications like a good design, a 120Hz AMOLED display, a powerful Snapdragon 870 chipset, a good set of triple cameras, good battery life and 80W fast charging. So can the POCO F4 dethrone the iQOO Neo 6 which has been the king of the segment for quite some time?
Let's find out in the full comparison.
POCO F4 vs iQOO Neo 6 Design:
In terms of design, both smartphones have completely different designs where the iQOO Neo 6 has gone for a square-shaped camera module that houses the triple cameras with a LED flashlight. Below the camera module, there is a Neo logo that looks unique and good. This back has a matte finish which means it does not catch fingerprints or smudges and is curved to the sides, so it is easier to hold in hand.
On the other hand, the POCO F4 has a rectangular camera module that houses a circular design that houses a triple camera setup and a LED flashlight. The back of the POCO F4 has a shiny design so it reflects when light strikes at different angles and this back have a glossy finish which means it catches quite some fingerprints and smudges.
In terms of weight distribution, the iQOO Neo 6 weighs around 190grams whereas the POCO F4 weighs around 195grams and around the sides, so the iQOO Neo 6 feels slightly lighter. Around the sides, the POCO F4 is slimmer at 7.7mm compared to the 8.5mm thickness of the iQOO Neo 6. Both of them have an IP52 rating at the back which makes them splash and dust resistant up to some extent.
Both of them have a polycarbonate frame to the sides that houses the power button and the volume buttons and to the top, both have a secondary noise-canceling microphone and an IR Blaster. At the bottom, there is a USB Type-C port, a primary microphone, a loudspeaker grille, and a dual SIM card slot. Neither of them has a 3.5mm headphone jack nor a microSD card slot for storage expansion.
On the front, there is a single punch hole on both displays with minimum bezels around the display. The POCO F4 is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 whereas the iQOO Neo 6 is protected by Schott Xensation Glass. Overall, the build and design are good on both but the POCO F4 feels premium as it has a glass back compared to the iQOO Neo 6 which has a polycarbonate back.
POCO F4 vs iQOO Neo 6 Display:
Both the POCO F4 and the iQOO Neo 6 sport larger displays where POCO F4 has a 6.67-inches display, and the iQOO Neo 6 has a 6.62-inches display. Both these displays have Full HD+(1080x2400 pixels) E4 AMOLED display with a 20:9 aspect ratio. As these displays are AMOLED, the color reproduction and viewing angles are very good but the colors look slightly punchier on the POCO F4.
Both these displays have a 120Hz refresh rate which makes everything smoother on the display whether it is multi-tasking between applications like scrolling through webpages, playing games, or switching between different applications. The iQOO Neo 6 has three different options - 60Hz, 120Hz, and Auto where the refresh rate switches between 60Hz and 120Hz only.
On the other hand, the POCO F4 has an adaptive refresh rate where you get two options - Default and Custom where Custom provides two options - 60Hz or 120Hz and if you switch to Default, the refresh rate switches between 30Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz, or 120Hz depending on the content on the display. Both of them have a 360Hz touch sampling rate which provides faster touch responses during gaming.
In terms of display brightness, both the displays can reach a peak brightness of 1300nits which is very and both of them have good visibility under direct sunlight. The POCO F4 does provide slightly better visibility than the iQOO Neo 6. You can set the color temperature to a warmer or cooler tone on both displays. Both displays have support for HDR10 on YouTube.
Both these displays have support for Widevine L1, so streaming HD content on OTT platforms is a breeze Netflix also supports HDR on both but the POCO F4 goes one step ahead by offering Dolby Vision which provides good saturation on the display. The iQOO Neo 6 has an optical in-display fingerprint scanner whereas the POCO F4 has a side-mounted fingerprint scanner that is fast and accurate.
Overall, both these displays are great for media consumption.
POCO F4 vs iQOO Neo 6 Performance:
Both the POCO F4 and the iQOO Neo 6 are powered by the powerful Snapdragon 870 chipset which has been considered one of the best chipsets to provide a flagship-level performance and has good sustained performance unlike the Snapdragon 888 or the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset that does throttle a lot. In terms of daily tasks, both smartphones feel smooth to use and both are very fast.
But in some application opening/closing tasks, the iQOO Neo 6 felt slightly faster compared to the POCO F4 though both have the same chipset. In games like Asphalt 9 Legend, BGMI, etc both smartphones ran smoothly without any stutters but with the POCO F4 in BGMI, there were some very minor stutters after a longer period of gaming.
Both could easily run BGMI at HDR graphics with Extreme frame rates and at 90fps, the gameplay was very smooth. Both also get their dedicated gaming modes where you can see CPU and GPU usage, block calls, and notifications and iQOO also provides a 4D vibration motor and you get a massive 1200Hz touch sampling rate during gaming as it uses frame interpolation.
After long hours of gaming, both smartphones did not heat up much as both have a dedicated liquid cooling system to dissipate heat faster. In terms of benchmarks, though both smartphones have similar chipsets, the iQOO Neo 6 scores slightly higher than the POCO F4 in CPU throttling tests, there is no such throttling noticed as both could maintain a sustained performance of around 85-90 percent which is very good.
In terms of network connectivity, both smartphones have support for good carrier aggregation. The POCO F4 supports 10 bands of 5G whereas the iQOO Neo 6 has support for 4 bands of 5G. In terms of storage, the POCO F4 is available in 6/8GB LPDDR4X RAM with 128/256GB storage whereas the iQOO Neo 6 is available in 8/12GB LPDDR4X RAM with 128/256GB storage, both of them having UFS 3.1 storage speeds.
Overall, the performance is equally good on both but when it comes to gaming and benchmarks, the iQOO Neo 6 is definitely better.
POCO F4 vs iQOO Neo 6 Software:
In terms of software, the POCO F4 runs on MIUI 13 built on top of Android 12 whereas the iQOO Neo 6 runs on FuntouchOS 12 with Android 12 out of the box. Both these user interfaces provide a host of features and customizations where you can change the icon shape and size and different styles for the Always-On display, and you do get different layouts of notification toggles for both.
Both these user interfaces have a lot of bloatware present which can be uninstalled. However, in daily usage, there were some minor stutters in MIUI compared to FuntouchOS, and bugs were also noticed which clearly shows that FuntouchOS is more polished. MIUI provides slightly more features than FuntouchOS but still both lack the widgets support on the home screen which is a part of Android 12.
In terms of software updates, the iQOO Neo 6 is assured of another two years of AndroidOS updates and three years of security updates whereas POCO has not given any clarity on software updates as of now. Overall, the software experience is good on both and it all depends on personal preference but FuntouchOS is slightly better as it has no bugs and you get assurance of timely software updates.
POCO F4 vs iQOO Neo 6 Cameras:
Both the POCO F4 and the iQOO Neo 6 have almost an identical camera setup that includes a 64MP main camera (f/1.8 aperture on POCO F4 and f/1.9 on the iQOO Neo 6), an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera and a 2MP macro camera. On the front, the POCO F4 has a 20MP f/2.4 Sony IMX596 sensor for the camera whereas the iQOO Neo 6 has a 16MP f/2.0 Samsung SK5 sensor for the camera.
The images from the main camera on both smartphones come out with good details but the dynamic range is slightly better on the iQOO Neo 6 but the difference is very marginal. In terms of color saturation, the iQOO Neo 6 produces natural colors whereas the POCO F4 tends to oversaturate colors. The images have slightly more noise on the POCO F4 compared to the iQOO Neo 6.
The POCO F4 has used a 64MP Omnivision sensor whereas the iQOO Neo 6 has used the Samsung GW1 sensor. At night, here definitely the iQOO Neo 6 holds the clear edge as it takes images with slightly better details and dynamic range compared to the POCO F4 and noise is also slightly lower on the iQOO Neo 6.
The exposure in low light is also better on the iQOO Neo 6. Both have a dedicated night mode, but colors look natural on the iQOO Neo 6, and also it has better lighting in darker areas compared to the POCO F4. The 8MP ultrawide camera on both smartphones does a good job in terms of details and dynamic range which come out to be good.
Around the edges, both have quite an amount of noise and there is some distortion around the edges. The colors look natural on both but the noise is slightly more on the POCO F4 compared to the iQOO Neo 6. At night, the images from both the ultrawide cameras come out with good details but dynamic range takes a hit and there is a considerable amount of noise in the background.
Both do not have a dedicated night mode for the ultrawide camera though. The 2MP macro camera is decent but does not matter much as the images come out with softer details with a larger amount of noise and poor dynamic range. Both of them lack a telephoto camera so you can achieve digital zoom using the main camera.
In terms of portraits, the edge detection is equally good on both but the skin tones have better details on the iQOO Neo 6 and they come out natural whereas the POCO F4 oversaturates skin tones in the background. On the front, the POCO F4 has a 20MP camera compared to the 16MP camera on the iQOO Neo 6 so as a result, the selfies come out with a wider range on the POCO F4 compared to the iQOO Neo 6.
The skin tones look natural on both but iQOO Neo 6 has better color saturation whereas the POCO F4 has slightly muted colors. The dynamic range is also better on the iQOO Neo 6 and less noise is present in the background compared to the POCO F4. In terms of selfie portraits, the iQOO Neo 6 has slightly better edge detection and dynamic range compared to the POCO F4 whereas the background blur is equally good on both of them.
In terms of videos, both smartphones can record 4K videos at 60fps and both have OIS, so videos have very less noise on both the videos but the iQOO Neo 6 has slightly better details with less noise, and colors come out natural compared to the POCO F4 which tends to oversaturate colors. The ultrawide camera on both smartphones is restricted to 1080p videos at 30fps only.
On the front camera, both smartphones can record only 1080p videos but the details, skin tones and dynamic range is slightly better on the iQOO Neo 6 on the other hand, the POCO F4 uses EIS so you get stabilized footage on the front camera compared to the iQOO Neo 6. But overall, in terms of cameras, the iQOO Neo 6 holds a slight edge over the POCO F4.
POCO F4 vs iQOO Neo 6 Battery Life:
The iQOO Neo 6 sports a slightly larger 4700mAh battery compared to the 4500mAh battery on the POCO F4. With heavy usage that includes rendering videos, playing games, calls, and steaming social media for longer hours, all with the display set to 120Hz, both smartphones easily lasted for one day with some charge left.
With normal usage, which includes casual web browsing, streaming social media, or other lighter tasks with the display set to 120Hz, both smartphones easily lasted for two days but the iQOO Neo 6 lasted slightly more i.e. around two and half days. The standard screen-on time was around 6-7 hours on the iQOO Neo 6 compared to the 5.5-6 hours on the POCO F4.
In terms of charging speeds, the iQOO Neo 6 supports 80W fast charging whereas the POCO F4 has support for 67W fast charging. The iQOO Neo 6 takes around 40-45 minutes for a full charge from 0 to 100 percent whereas the POCO F5 takes around 50-55 minutes to charge from 0 to 100 percent. Overall, the battery life is slightly better on the iQOO Neo 6 and it also charges faster of the two.
POCO F4 vs iQOO Neo 6 Audio Quality:
Both the iQOO Neo 6 and the POCO F4 have support for dual stereo speakers where the POCO F4 has dedicated dual speakers i.e. one at the bottom as well as on top whereas the iQOO Neo 6 uses only the earpiece and the loudspeaker together. The sound is slightly louder on the POCO F4 compared to the iQOO Neo 6 and the former also has support for Dolby Atmos which the iQOO Neo 6 lacks.
Verdict:
Overall, both the iQOO Neo 6 and the POCO F4 are excellent offerings in the premium mid-range segment as they both have a good design, a 120Hz AMOLED display with dual stereo speakers, a powerful Snapdragon 870 chipset for daily tasks and performance, a good set of cameras, good battery life with fast charging and software experience is good on both though both come with bloatware pre-installed.
But there are certain differences between both smartphones. The POCO F4 has a better build as it has a premium glass back compared to the polycarbonate back of the iQOO Neo 6, the presence of Dolby Vision and slightly better stereo speakers makes it better for media consumption but the difference is very marginal.
However, on the other hand, the iQOO Neo 6 has a better set of cameras, better battery life with faster charging, slightly faster software updates, and also slightly better performance and gaming experience than the POCO F4. So as a whole, if you are looking for a smartphone for only media consumption and want that premium glass back, then the POCO F4 is the better to go for.
But if you are concerned more about gaming, and want better battery life and a better set of cameras, then the iQOO Neo 6 is the perfect one to choose. Overall, it all depends on your personal preference which one you choose but as a whole considering the overall package, the iQOO Neo 6 definitely is still one of the best offerings in the premium mid-range segment and beats the POCO F4 by a very slight margin.
This post first appeared on OnePlus 8 Pro Vs Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra: Which Is The Better Flagship Of The Two?, please read the originial post: here
