iQOO Z7 5G Review: Punching way above its weight in sub-20,000 segment

iQOO Z7 5G Review: iQOO, a sub-brand of Vivo, has already launched several smartphones this year. With the recent launch, it is targeting the top spot in the under-20,000-segment — which happens to be the most popular segment and sees cut-throat competition. But with iQOO Z7 5G, the smartphone maker has tried to provide a go-to smartphone for such buyers. Let's have a look at what this budget-friendly device has to offer.

iQOO Z7 5G Review: Design

Before talking about this design, let us tell you that the iQOO Z7 is available in two storage variants - 6GB RAM and 128GB and 8GB RAM and 128GB. They are priced at Rs 18,999 and Rs 19,999 respectively. There are some offers which can bring down the prices by up to Rs 1,500. In terms of colours, the smartphone has Norway Blue and Pacific Night options. I am using the former one as a review unit.

The iQOO Z7 comes with light-reflective and colour-changing back panels. The panel, made of sturdy plastic, has a matte finish and doesn't attract fingerprints or smudges. 

While the secondary microphone and the SIM tray are available on the top, you will get a speaker grille, a USB Type-C charging port and a 3.5mm headphone jack at the bottom of the device. The headphone jack here is a welcome addition, we miss it on so many phones today. On the right side are the volume rocker and power button. This device has an in-display fingerprint scanner which is very responsive. This feature is usually not seen in devices priced under Rs 20,000. The iQOO Z7 has flat edges but is comfortable to hold as it weighs just 173 grams.

iQOO Z7 5G Review: Display

The iQOO Z7 comes with a 6.38-inch full HD+ AMOLED display with a 1080x2400 pixel resolution. It also offers a refresh rate of 90Hz and a sampling rate of 360Hz, something really good for those who want to play games on this device. The display has a peak brightness of 1300 nits and using it even under direct sunlight won't be an issue. The display also supports HDR and Widevine L1. But the water-drop notch is something people may not like and the bezels are huge, especially at the bottom. The device has a screen-to-body ratio of 90.26 per cent.  

ALSO READ | iQOO Neo7 5G Review: Made for gaming enthusiasts!

The display quality is good and there are some options also to set the colour of the display according to your taste. Content consumption on YouTube or Amazon Prime was fun but some people may miss stereo speakers. However, the single speaker available on the smartphone is capable of generating quite loud music but don't expect bass or a lot of clarity.

iQOO Z7 5G Review: Battery and charging

The iQOO Z7 5G comes with a 4,500mAh battery and supports 44W fast charging. It will take over an hour to juice up your device from zero per cent to 100 per cent. The battery can easily last for an entire day with moderate usage.

iQOO Z7 5G Review: Performance and software

The iQOO Z7 is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 920 chipset and uses UFS 2.2 storage and LPDDR4X RAM. It also has extended RAM 3.0 and storage that can be expanded up to 1TB using a microSD card. This makes the device capable enough of handling everyday tasks with ease. I even played games like Apex Legends Mobile and Asphalt 9 on high frame rates and the device did not stutter even once.

The device has an AnTuTu score of more than 485K. To find out more about the performance, I put the iQOO Z7 through some benchmark tests. On Geekbench 6, the device managed to score 866 and 2,105 in single-core and multi-core respectively. These are not very impressive. Similarly, in Wild Life Stress Test, the device managed to get the best loop score of 2,241. However, the good part is that it managed to get a stability score of over 85 per cent under sustained load.  

In terms of software, the smartphone runs on FunTouch OS 13 based on Android 13 out of the box and it does come with an array of bloatware (which can be removed). The buyers will get two years of Android updates and three years of security updates.

iQOO Z7 5G Review: Camera

The iQOO Z7 sports a dual camera setup at the rear with a primary sensor of 64MP. According to the company, the smartphone has India’s First 64 MP OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation) rear camera system. It is accompanied by a 2-megapixel bokeh camera. For selfies, the smartphone packs a 16-megapixel camera. However, adding a wide-angle sensor could have made things better.

The smartphone manages to click good photos in the daylight. Images clicked using the iQOO Z7 are detailed with a decent dynamic range. Portrait mode works great in terms of edge detection and puts a considerable amount of bokeh.

Photos in the night mode are up to the mark with good contrast. However, the sky won't look normal. Also, you will have to keep your hand still for a few seconds to click the best images. When clicked using the night mode, images look much brighter than real - especially the sky.

When it comes to selfies, the portrait works wonderfully but will make your skin tone look even. In contrast, normal selfies have a colour tone that looks exactly as seen through the naked eye.

Night-mode selfies too are good with decent details, but they do look a bit saturated.

iQOO Z7 5G Review: Verdict

While there's a lot of competition in the under Rs 20,000 segment of smartphones, it is very rare to see a perfect phone - or something which comes even close to being perfect. However, iQOO Z7 has tried hard to strike a balance between all the features - be it design, camera or performance. With all this, the iQOO Z7 looks capable of giving its competitors a run for their money.