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iQOO Z7 Pro 5G review: Design and Display
The iQOO Z7 Pro ships inside the signature black iQOO box. Inside, you’ll find the smartphone, a clear plastic case, a 67W power adapter, a USB Type-C cable, a quick start guide, and a warranty card. The smartphone is available in two colour options – Blue Lagoon and Graphite Matte.
iQOO Z7 Pro’s design is inspired by the Vivo V27. Since iQOO is a subsidiary of Vivo, their products often share the same design language. However, unlike the V27, the Z7 Pro does not have a colour-changing back panel. We got our hands on the Blue Lagoon variant and it looks like a very summery shade of blue. The hue changes from a very light blue around the camera panel to a darker shade at the bottom.
The glass back gets a nice matte texture which elevates the in-hand feel of the phone. The plastic frame gets a metal finish as well. The camera island on the black panel gets a large rectangle cutout which looks similar to the one on the V27. This camera island houses the main camera, a depth sensor, and the LED flash which iQOO/Vivo prefer to call ‘Aura Light’.
The right side of the frame houses the volume rocker and the power key. The SIM card slot, primary microphone, USB Type-C port, and speaker grille are located on the bottom edge of the devices. Up top lies the secondary microphone and the left edge is entirely buttonless. The Z7 Pro does not get a secondary stereo speaker nor does it offer expandable storage.
A glass back on a smartphone priced under Rs 25,000 is always a good thing, but it isn’t the only distinguishing factor on the Z7 Pro. The 6.78-inch curved AMOLED display feels just as premium. The minimal bezels surrounding this curved display become slightly more prominent at the vertical ends. The selfie camera is housed inside a punch-hole cutout. The under-display fingerprint scanner is quick and responsive but could have been placed a bit higher. Overall, iQOO Z7 Pro’s sleek form factor together with its glass back and curved display instantly makes it one of the more premium devices in its price bracket.
Design and form factor aside, the AMOLED display on the Z7 Pro offers a very smooth touch response. It can reach a peak refresh rate of 120Hz, allowing a seamless browsing and gaming experience (more on that later). With a resolution of 2400 x 1080p and HDR10+ support, you can watch HD content across your favourite OTT and streaming apps. The video playback is smooth and the pictures are packed with a lot of detail. The contrast and colour richness are tuned pretty well. The range of viewing angles is also optimum. The only downside to the content-watching experience is the lack of a stereo speaker. While the lone speaker can reach a loud volume, the audio output is deprived of an adequate low end.
iQOO Z7 Pro 5G review: Performance and Cameras
As we mentioned earlier, the iQOO Z7 Pro sports a MediaTek Dimensity 7200 chipset under the hood. This is the same SoC that powers the Vivo V27 as well. The Z7 Pro gets 8GB of RAM and two internal storage options – 128GB and 256GB. Handling the OS duties is Android 13 along with Funtouch OS 13.
On Geekbench 6, the iQOO Z7 Pro scored 1196 points on the single-core test and 2657 points on the multicore test. The smartphone handles basic tasks without breaking a sweat. Running multiple apps in the background presents no issues at all. Routine tasks like messaging, calling, content streaming, and social media browsing are managed perfectly. The haptics could use some tuning, but the display’s touch response is very good. Browsing through different apps and web pages is snappy and fun.
iQOO Z7 Pro’s gaming chops make it a well-rounded smartphone in its price category. It features a 30cm² vapor chamber for efficient liquid cooling. This vapor chamber can cool the smartphone by 1.6°C further than a regular cooling chamber. An instant touch sampling rate of 1200Hz while gaming ensures that every subtle touch gets registered and relayed in no time. We played Call of Duty Mobile at the highest graphics and did not experience any frame drops or unwanted lags. The smartphone started to heat up after 30-40 minutes of continuous gaming, but the performance did not take a huge hit.
Talking about the OS, our biggest gripe with Funtouch 13 is the amount of bloatware that plagues the UI. Folders like ‘Hot Apps’ and ‘Hot Games’ are always brimming with unwanted notifications, which need to be constantly cleared. There’s a separate folder for ‘Recommended Apps’ as well. Luckily, the bloatware can be removed by uninstalling the third-party apps and disabling the ‘Hot Apps’ and ‘Hot Games’ folders from the V-Appstore. We would also suggest muting all notifications from the V-Appstore as well.
The Z7 Pro gets a 4,600mAh battery which can easily last a day. Even though it isn’t a 5,000mAh unit, we didn’t experience any issues with the battery backup. On an average day which involved using the phone’s camera, taking video calls, gaming, social media browsing, and watching content, we went to bed with around 15-20% charge. Our daily screen on time during the iQOO Z7 Pro’s review period was between 5-6 hours. However, if you’re going to be gaming on this smartphone a lot, expect the battery life to drop down by a small factor. The 67W power adapter provided in the box can juice up this smartphone in just under an hour.
Moving on to the cameras, the iQOO Z7 Pro gets a 64MP primary shooter with OIS along with a 2MP depth sensor. There is no ultrawide lens in the Z7 Pro’s rear camera arrangement. While we did miss taking wide-range shots, the primary camera delivers a very good performance. Outdoor shots in natural light had a good dynamic range and colour contrast. The colours were rich and the images packed a good amount of detail. We also liked that the smartphone did not overprocess the images.
Pictures taken in limited lighting are slightly on the softer side and display a fair bit of graininess, even with the night mode turned on. The image processing that we had desired was not found while taking pictures at night. This isn’t to say that you wouldn’t want to take pictures with the Z7 Pro when it gets dark, the smartphone still does a good job of artificially lighting the subject.
We were pleased with the portrait shots we took using the iQOO Z7 Pro. The smartphone does a good job of separating the subject from the background and applying the blur effect adequately. The camera app has a bunch of fun filters that you can use while taking portrait images of other people. The 16MP selfie camera also takes decent shots, but we do not like the overt skin tone and texture correction that takes place in image processing. The selfies have a good level of contrast and display vibrant colours, which is a big plus. The Z7 Pro can also record 4K videos at 30fps using the rear camera and 1080p videos at 30fps using the selfie camera.
Read Also: Samsung Galaxy S23 FE gets listed on Chinese regulator TENAA: Tech specs revealed
Verdict
iQOO Z7 Pro is one of the most premium phones in its price category if we only take the form factor, design, and display into account. The lack of an ultrawide camera and a stereo speaker keeps it from being the standout phone in the segment. However, if you don’t care about those two missing features, the Z7 Pro is easily one of the best phones you can buy at Rs 23,999.iQOO Z7 Pro 5G: Pros
- Glass black
- Curved AMOLED display
- Good gaming performance
iQOO Z7 Pro 5G: Cons
- No ultrawide lens
- Bloatware
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