Smartphone companies face stiff competition in India’s premium mid-range segment, and any phone launched at a rupee price tag faces stiff competition. The 40,000 mark requires being a jack of all trades – with a powerful chipset, a reliable camera and a modern design. iQoo has now launched the Neo 9 Pro, a phone equipped with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip and a 50-megapixel main rear camera. The phone will compete with the OnePlus 12R, Samsung Galaxy A54, Nothing Phone 2, and Oppo Reno 11 Pro.

iQoo Neo 9 Pro price in India

iQoo Neo 9 Pro is priced at Rs. The 8GB+256GB RAM and storage configuration is priced at Rs 37,999, while the 12GB+256 variant is priced at Rs. 39,999. The third variant comes with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage and is priced at Rs 100. Priced at 35,999 on March 21st. The phone comes with a USB Type-C to Type-C cable, a 120W SuperVOOC charger, and a transparent TPU cover in the box.

The phone is available through Amazon in Conqueror Black with AG Glass Fire Red finish, as well as Fire Red with a two-tone vegan leather back material.

iQoo Neo 9 Pro review: Design

Depending on which version of the phone you buy, the iQoo Neo 9 Pro comes with a back panel made of glass or vegan leather. I tested the Fiery Red model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of built-in storage. The phone has a flat AMOLED screen with flat edges, a red color, and a matte surface that’s resistant to fingerprints.

There is a center-aligned selfie camera in the punch-hole cutout at the top of the screen. The display comes with a pre-applied thin plastic scratch-resistant protective film. On the back, there is a vertical dual rear camera module in the upper left corner with a metal ring surrounding the camera glass.

iQoo Neo 9 Pro Fire Red color features vegan leather back panel

There is a small iQoo logo at the bottom of the screen, and the words “Neo” and “Power to Win” are vaguely embossed on the white vegan leather material below the rear camera. Other than that, there is no other text or branding on the phone.

The back panel is part white, part red and soft to the touch. Since the color is lighter, it may leave marks and stains over time, so if you want to show off your phone’s vibrant color, it’s best to use a clear case. Even without the included TPU case, the phone isn’t very slippery.

iQoo Neo 9 Pro review: Specs and software

iQoo has equipped the Neo 9 Pro with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC (Qualcomm’s premium mobile processor due in late 2022) paired with the company’s proprietary Q1 chip. The phone comes with a 6.78-inch AMOLED screen. The phone comes with up to 12GB of RAM and up to 256GB of inbuilt storage. It supports Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, 5G, 4G LTE, and GPS connectivity. The phone has a USB Type-C port for data transfer and charging. There is no headphone jack on the iQoo Neo 9 Pro.

The Neo 9 Pro runs Funtouch OS 14 based on Android 14 out of the box, with the same interface as the company’s other smartphones, including the iQoo 12 launched last year. Four apps come pre-installed on the phone: Netflix, Spotify, Snapchat, Facebook and PhonePe. iQoo says the phone will get 3 years of OS updates and an extra year of security updates.

iQoo Neo 9 Pro runs Funtouch OS 14 based on Android 14

The phone comes with Amazon, Facebook, LinkedIn, Netflix, PhonePe, and Snapchat, all of which you can uninstall. While reviewing the iQoo 12, I frequently received spam emails asking me to try apps, and sometimes even received more than one notification. However, on the iQoo Neo 9 Pro, I found that clearing the V-Appstore’s data and never opening it – or disabling the app’s notification permission – prevented any promotional messages from being displayed.

iQoo Neo 9 Pro review: Performance

Powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset and up to 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM (the model I tested), the iQoo Neo 9 Pro is a very powerful smartphone that should be able to handle just about anything you can throw at it. This includes everyday tasks such as replying to work emails, chatting on WhatsApp, editing and exporting high-resolution videos.

On the gaming front, I was able to play Fortnite using the “Epic” (90fps) graphics preset and didn’t experience any lag or stuttering after about 40 minutes of gameplay. Meanwhile, MiHiYo’s very demanding Genshin Impact is also running on “High” settings, with little impact on performance. The phone can also easily run other popular games such as Asphalt 9 and Call of Duty: Mobile without any lag after an hour of gaming.

Neo 9 Pro’s performance is on par with other phones with the same chipset

With Funtouch OS 14 based on Android 14, the iQoo Neo 9 can handle multitasking well and comes with 12GB RAM. The memory of the smartphone has also been optimized so that applications remain in the memory even when launching demanding applications or games or using the camera. Copying files to or from the device (especially the former) is also very fast thanks to the UFS 4.0 built-in storage.

In the AnTuTu v10 benchmark, iQoo Neo 9 Pro scored 1,585,868 points. This is 1,541,517 points higher than the Xiaomi Mi 13 and 1,496,078 points higher than the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. iQoo’s new phone scored 2,050 points and 5,741 points in the Geekbench 6 single-core and multi-core tests, beating the Galaxy S23 Ultra which scored 1,900 points and 5,034 points in the same tests.

I also ran three GFXBench tests on the iQoo Neo 9 Pro – it ran at 120fps in the GFXB T-rex benchmark, 119fps in the Manhattan 3.1 and 85fps in the Car Chase test. The phone “reached the highest level” in the 3DMark Slingshot, Slingshot Extreme (OpenGL) and Wild Life tests. It scored 12,789 points on the 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited benchmark test.

The AMOLED screen on the iQoo Neo 9 Pro is clearly visible in bright sunlight

The phone is equipped with a large 6.78-inch 1.5K (1,260×2,800 pixels) LTPO AMOLED screen with a refresh rate of 144Hz and a pixel density of 451ppi. While it’s certainly not as bright as flagship Android smartphones, the display is bright enough to use in direct sunlight. You can also use the phone in low-light environments without eye strain—the 2,160Hz pulse-width modulation (PWM) dimming feature makes the phone quite dark.

The iQoo Neo 9 Pro has a 5,160mAh battery that ran for 21 hours and 27 minutes on a single charge in our HD video loop battery test, and I was able to play a full day without completely draining the battery – with some gaming as well as moderate daily use App and camera usage. If you enable the built-in power saving mode, you should be able to get up to a day and a half of battery backup.

You can fully charge the phone in 26 minutes using the included 120W SuperVOOC charger. The phone doesn’t have wireless charging, but that’s the same for almost any smartphone in this price range. The phone is rated IP54 for dust and splash resistance, so if you get caught in a light rain outdoors without an umbrella, you should be fine. The in-display fingerprint sensor is mostly responsive, but it’s not the fastest on a phone in this price range.

iQoo Neo 9 Pro review: Camera

iQoo Neo 9 Pro comes with a dual rear camera setup that includes a 50-megapixel primary camera with 1/1.49-inch Sony IMX920 sensor, f/1.88 aperture and optical image stabilization (OIS), and an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera with OmniVision OV08D10 sensor and f/2.2 aperture. There is a 16-megapixel camera on the front with a Samsung S5K3P9SP04-FGX9 sensor with af/2.5 aperture for selfies and video chats.

Images taken during the day have lots of detail (click to expand)

The company has equipped this smartphone with a fully functional camera app that comes with a pro mode. You can swipe on the viewfinder to switch modes, and some modes can be found by swiping into the viewfinder frame. more The rightmost option. After clicking a few images with the iQoo Neo 9 Pro, I found that the main camera I ended up using the most since it’s the most reliable on the phone.

Images captured with the 50-megapixel main camera at 1x and built-in 2x in-sensor zoom are full of detail. When outdoors, a large amount of detail and color can be displayed accurately. You can choose from three effects: Vivid, Textured, and Natural. Selecting the first will produce a colorful image, while Texture mode produces a sharper image with a slightly moody tone – in my experience, Natural mode provides the best results.

iQoo Neo 9 Pro automatic mode and low light mode (click to expand)

The ultra-wide-angle camera on this smartphone can capture decent images, but you’ll miss out on a lot of detail compared to photos taken with the main camera. Color accuracy is also a bit off – compare the color of the sky in the image sample above. That said, images taken with this camera are great for posting on social media, especially if you can’t get too close to a particularly large subject.

Switching to 2x sensor zoom will cause the phone to take a 50-megapixel photo that is then cropped to the middle of the photo. You can get clear and sharp images using this mode, especially when you’re close enough to your subject. If the subject is farther away, you’ll start to see some detail softened when zooming in on an image shot at 2x zoom.

2x in-sensor zoom lets you capture more detailed images (click to expand)

The main camera captures tons of details with built-in night mode. It takes a few seconds to capture a shot, so this is best suited for idle subjects and static scenes. Even if you don’t use the dedicated Night Mode, the main camera takes a little longer than usual to take slightly brighter photos, and it also captures plenty of detail because it’s faster than Night Mode. I couldn’t find a way to disable this feature in the camera settings, so it’s worth keeping this in mind when clicking images in low-light scenarios.

You can also use the built-in portrait mode to capture detailed portrait photos with pleasing bokeh at 1x and 2x zoom.You can adjust this setting in the camera app or use Bokeh Options in the Gallery app allow you to adjust images after they’ve been captured. There’s no noticeable halo or blur around your subject, and the 2x zoom mode makes for great portrait photos.

iQoo Neo 9 Pro takes good human and pet portrait photos (click to expand)

The iQoo Neo 9 Pro lets you shoot videos at up to 8K resolution at 30 fps (this mode does not enable OIS), while 4K and 1080p resolution options offer 30 fps and 60 fps modes. I found that the 4K/60fps mode provided the best quality without any tearing or artifacts – unless you have an 8K monitor to play back the recorded video.

iQoo Neo 9 Pro: Verdict

If you are in the market for a new smartphone priced around Rs., should you buy the iQoo Neo 9 Pro? 40,000? The phone comes with a powerful processor – Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 – and a solid main camera that can handle most scenarios. It also offers 120W fast charging and comes with a charger in the box.

The phone’s biggest competitor in India is the OnePlus 12R, which also comes with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, an LTPO AMOLED screen, and runs Android 14 out of the box. However, it has UFS 3.1 storage and can charge at 100W – both of which are slower than the Neo 9 Pro. The OnePlus 12R has a 2-megapixel macro camera, but you won’t miss much.

There are other options in this price range, such as the Oppo Reno 11 Pro, Nothing Phone 2, and Samsung Galaxy A54 5G. However, their processor is slower than the one inside the iQoo Neo 9 Pro. They also come with slower internal storage and slower charging than iQoo phones.

If you’re looking for a gaming-focused smartphone with a decent camera and solid battery life, the iQoo Neo 9 Pro is easily recommended to most users at its current price — and the company’s ongoing promotions could also bring the price down the most rupee. 3,000. Before making a decision, don’t forget to read our review of the OnePlus 12R, which was launched in India last month.

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