iQOO Neo 10R review: Gaming phone that won’t burn a hole in your pocket

Shortly after the flagship iQOO 13 launch, iQOO has launched its latest gaming phone in India—the first device in its mid-range ‘R’ series. On paper, the iQOO Neo 10R appears to tick all the right boxes for a phone priced under ₹25,000. But are things really as great as they seem, or are there hidden truths waiting to be found here? I’ve been using the Neo 10R for about two weeks now, and here are my two bits on how the phone performed in the real world.

Unboxing:

Inside the minimalistic black coloured box of the iQOO Neo 10R, you get the device itself covered inside a plastic packaging and with a pre-applied screen protector (always a nice addition). Below that you see some paperwork which no one will ever get to reading, a SIM ejector tool, an 80W adapter and a USB A to USB C type cable and a transparent PU case which should last you a few weeks to months before turning yellow.

Design and connectivity:

On to the design front, the back of Neo 10R takes definite inspiration from the 13R coming wiht a squircle camera island – albeit without the RGB lights and curved edges to the back. Unlike the iQOO 13 though, the Neo 10R features a dual tone design, demarcated by a dotted line which cotains a ‘Neo’ easter egg (see the image below).

The back and frame of the Neo 10R are both made out of plastic and the phone feels slippery in hand. I believe the in-hand feel of this phone could have been slightly better but it’s not a deal breaker given the price point.

To the front you get a flat display with a small cut out for the front camera. The SIM ejector port is at the bottom, followed by the USB 2.0 port and the speaker while the power and volume rockers on the right. But the good part is that despite housing a massive battery this phone isn’t too thick at 7.98mm and weighs in just under 200 grams (196 to be precise).

In case you are wondering, this phone comes with an IP65 rating, meaning it can handle a bit of water splashes and light rainfall but not full submersion under water. There is also no support for NFC or wireless charging.

Display:

iQOO Neo10R features a 6.78-inch AMOLED display 1.5K AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate and 4,500 nits of peak brightness – 1200 nits in High Brightness Mode (HBM). No complaints with display here, it offers decent picture quality for the price point, offering vibrant and punchy colours with great legibility even in direct sunlight.

While the phone is protected by Schott Xensation Up glass, after using the device for a couple of days a big scratch appeared right in the middle which means its not ideal to remove the plastic covering provided with the device unless you want to get a proper screen protector on top.

The display is paired with a stereo speaker setup which is decent at best, the loudness could have better and the richness and bass is also underwhelming. For bing watching sessions, you will most likely have to pair it with a speaker or use an earphone.

Performance:

iQOO Neo 10R is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor, which delivers performance equivalent to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (last year’s flagship Qualcomm processor). This is the same processor found on the Poco F6 that I reviewed last year and it has some of the same issues as well but iQOO has fixed some major glitches perhaps with its cooling system. (more on this later)

It is paired with 8/12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 3.1 storage with 128GB model and UFS 4.1 storage with 256GB variant. While I would have personally preferred iQOO to do away with the 128GB variant altogether, it is still a big thing for a budget phone to come with LPDDR5x RAM and offer option of UFS 4.1 storage given that some phones even under ₹40,000 don’t provide this option.

First let’s talk about the benchmarks. On Antutu, the Neo 10R gets a score of 14,69,865 which is on par with other Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 devices, suggesting that there is no artificial restrictions placed on the 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 a best loop score of 3,171 and a lowest loop score of 1,552 but the stability was less than ideal at 48.9%.

The good thing though was that the phone did not get too hot during the benchmarks and the maximum temperature that it got was during Antutu test where the mercury topped to around 41 degrees.

On to the pitfalls of Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. One persistent issue that I noticed with the Poco F6 last year was that the phone remained a bit warm with 5G turned on during summer months even when running normal tasks.

A similar issue was present with the Neo 10R with the CPU temperature being at around 38-39 degrees when taken outdoors despite the outside temperature was around 6-7 degrees lower. I tried to check the over the top heating issues by playing COD Mobile at highest possible setting at the same temperature and the good thing is that heating stabilized after a point with the temperatures maxing out at around 43-44 degrees.

In terms of daily usage, this is a very good performance phone, and you wouldn’t notice any lags or stuttering during either running day-to-day tasks or heavy gaming. I particularly like some of the gaming mode options that iQOO provides like direct power supply, a dedicated eSports mode (stops notifications of incoming calls and messages from popping up) and voice changer.

iQOO has also taken some inspiration from iQOO 13 and is promising support for 144Hz refresh rate in certain games like Clash of Clans, Brawl Stars and Clash Royale via an OTA update in the coming weeks.

Software and battery:

The Neo 10R runs on Funtouch OS 15 based on Android 15 out of the box. There are few bloatware apps that come with the device that includes Snapchat, Facebook, Phonepe, LinkedIn, Netflix, Amazon and iQOO’s first party apps. All of these apps can be unistalled except iQOO browser which can neither be uninstalled or disabled.

Most of the ads in the UI can be disabled while setting up the phone, and after that, there are no major disruptions.

The Neo 10R comes packed with a massive 6,400mAh battery which incidentally is even more than the capacity offered with the iQOO 13. For charging, there is a 80W adapter provided with the box that takes the phone from 0-100% in around 1 hour and 10 minutes.

In my experience, FunTouch OS has been good at optimizing the battery performance and this phone is no different. Even with 5G turned on you can expected over a day of battery life even when performing power consuming taks like gaming or video streaming.

Camera:

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

The primary 50MP shooter is surprisingly good with the images being just a pinch overbright but generally being eye pleasing. While the indoor portraits look decent the same can’t be said about the shots in bright outdoors with the skin tone going for a toss and images coming out as way too processed.

The nighttime shots are decent for the price, but nothing to write home about. Portrait shots under light are really good, but the edge detection needs a bit of work.

As for the ultra-wide angle lens, it delivers similar results to any other 8MP shooter in the market with the color shift being prominent but daytime shots coming good and discrepancies being obvious under lights.

The 32MP selfie camera has a tendency of overbrightening the skin tones which may work for some people during daylight but in night time shots, details take a hit which makes the artificial processing all too obvious.

Overall, I would say cameras are decent for the price but don’t expect too much from them.

Verdict:

At a starting price of ₹24,999, iQOO Neo 10R is arguably one of the best options for gamers, thanks to its Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor, 6,400mAh battery, 80W wired fast charging, 120Hz AMOLED display, LPDDR5x RAM, and UFS 4.1 storage. Admittedly, it isn’t without its flaws—a somewhat inconsistent camera system, lack of NFC and wireless charging, a basic plastic build, and an older USB 2.0 port are some of the tradeoffs. But given the overall package, these are easy compromises to accept.