iQOO Neo 10 Flash Review: Big Battery Energy, Budget Personality
With each passing year, iQOO is taking bolder steps to make a name for itself in Malaysia. Before you get suspicious of its cheeky lowercase ‘i’ prefix, we’ll be the first to assure you that it’s not some sort of rip-off of the hugely popular iPhone. iQOO is, in fact, a sub-brand of vivo, and its name stands for ‘I Quest On and On’.
Putting the oddly phrased brand name aside, it does have smartphones that mean serious business — chief among them is the flagship iQOO 13. Now, with the latest Neo 10 mid-ranger fully unveiled, we have the opportunity to walk you through the good, the bad, and whether it’s worth buying.
iQOO Neo 10 Pros
1. Versatile Performer
The iQOO Neo 10 is powered by the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4, which is generally seen on lower-flagship or upper mid-range models. Performance is what you would expect from a phone at this level. That is, an excellent daily driver that will meet the requirements of most people.
However, the Neo 10 comes with the versatility of a high-performing gaming device, no doubt thanks to its proprietary Supercomputing Chip Q1. According to iQOO, the supplemtary chip supposedly enhances gaming performance with sustained frame rates and upscaled ‘super resolution.’
I wouldn’t harp too much on the fancy ‘super resolution’ term. Having had a go at both Mobile Legends and Genshin Impact, let’s just say you’ll be hard-pressed to find which part of the resolution is actually ‘super’. I’m not saying that graphic performance was bad – just that I personally didn’t see anyting extraordinary.
Nevertheless, the gaming experience was more than satisfactory, and frame rates were consistent in both games mentioned above, which you could take to mean that the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 and Q1 Chip formula works well.
2. Massive, MASSIVE 7,000mAh Battery
While some competitors are developing slim phones at the cost of deadbeat batteries, we’re glad to see that the Neo 10 packs a whopping 7,000mAh power source. This is well and truly a two-day phone with moderate usage, stretching up to three days if you can keep your chronic doomscrolling under control.
A large battery also calls for fast charging. Luckily, the Neo 10 supports 120W fast charging to power up the phone. Bonus points to iQOO for including the charging brick in the box, so you won’t need to go fishing for a compatible adapter.
3. Impressive Display With High Refresh Rates
There’s nothing to complain about when it comes to the Neo 10’s display – and that’s a good thing. It comes equipped with a 6.78″ AMOLED flat panel that offers impressive colour reproduction, with a 1.5K resolution (specifically, 2800×1260) that won’t leave you wanting more.
In fact, the 144Hz refresh rate will certainly appeal to gamers, who will appreciate the smoothness it provides in supported games. Plus, it’s also worth noting that many higher-priced flagships don’t offer refresh rates as high as this.
I mean, Apple still caps the refresh rate of the RM3,999 iPhone 16 at 60Hz.
4. Pretty Decent Cameras
You’ll get the standard dual cameras that are expected of a mid-range device: a main camera and an ultra-wide. Between the two, the main camera shines the most, with a 50MP Sony IMX882 sensor that thankfully supports OIS.
In daylight, photos turned out crisp, with a great amount of clarity in detail, and colour reproduction was true to life and not overprocessed. This is a solid point-and-shoot shooter that will be sufficient for casual users.
Cons
1. Haven’t We Seen This Design Before?
Same same, but different?
iQOO has gone with a clean and minimalistic look – like every other brand is doing. To their credit, it is clean and minimalistic, but almost too much like its iQOO 13 sibling. Plain-Jane aesthetics can work, but certainly not on models released 5 months apart.
It doesn’t help that the camera bump is a direct resemblace to the iQOO 13’s, except without those gaudy RGB lights. Still, the recycling of the rounded-edged square design makes it look like they’ve run out of ideas.
2. Bloatware is Unappreciated
Turning on the iQOO Neo 10 for the very first time is like walking into your new home, only to find out that squatters have been living there the whole time. The number of pre-installed apps is unappreciated, and you’ll likely need to invest time removing them before actually feeling like you have full ownership of the phone.
Unless, of course, you’re an avid user of Tiledom, Block Blast!, Puzzle Challenge, iQOO Store, V-Appstore, iQOO Cloud, Temu, Trip.com, WoW (the word puzzle game, not the MMORPG), and all the other nonsense apps you’ll find on the phone.
iQOO Neo 10: Should you buy?
While we may have ended on a somewhat negative note, there’s simply more to like about the iQOO Neo 10 than not.
At a starting price of RM1,999, you’ll be getting more than you bargained for with the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 processor and massive 7,000mAh battery. Smooth performance and long battery life are positives everyone can get behind – and that’s exactly what you can expect here.
So, should you buy the iQOO Neo 10? We don’t see why not. It offers great value at an affordable price point, with very few cons to deter your purchase. The Neo 10 is an easy recommendation in our books.
Read more of our articles below!
