iQOO Neo3 mobile phone review: Between 5G, performance and wallet, this is one of the most balanced models currently

As a new brand in 2019, iQOO has launched 5 or 6 models in just one year after returning to the domestic market, and its momentum is fierce. Coupled with the low-price and high-performance strategy of its products, the iQOO brand is closely linked to cost-effectiveness. On the one hand, it uses high performance to win the favor of users, and on the other hand, it is making a dimensionality reduction attack on competitors in terms of price.

Obviously, iQOO's latest Neo3 also follows this strategy, with a flagship Snapdragon 865 SoC plus 8GB of memory, but the price is less than 3,000 yuan. What effect can such a high-end approach have on the market? Let's find out.

The front of the iQOO Neo3 is a 6.57-inch LCD screen with a resolution of 2408×1080. Under the single hole in the upper right corner is a 16-megapixel camera. The aperture is not small, which may affect your vision in daily use, but after getting used to it, it will naturally blend into the background. In addition, the screen-to-body ratio reaches more than 90%, which can fully meet the requirements of most people for front integration.

Turning to the back, the back of the iQOO Neo3 Polar Day Edition is blue and white, symbolizing the blue sky reflected by the white glacier. As the colors rotate and flow, coupled with the smooth touch of the back, the whole phone has an artistic and cold feeling like an ice sculpture when held in the hand.

Cool is actually a major feature of iQOO Neo3, which is cool from the outside to the inside. It is equipped with an eleven-layer liquid cooling system composed of multiple heat dissipation structures. This system covers all heat sources, so that you will not feel the heat on your hands when running various high-energy-consuming applications, and it can also ensure that the game will not be reduced due to overheating during the game, affecting the gaming experience. This is inseparable from the product concept of iQOO Neo3. It would be a waste if this flagship phone is not used for playing games. Good heat dissipation is an indispensable part of ensuring the entire gaming experience.

The screen is one of the biggest highlights of iQOO Neo3, because it supports 144Hz, and the higher refresh rate means that it can allow users to obtain more dynamic details when the game screen moves at high speed, making the entire game process look smoother and more fluid, ensuring a higher winning rate.

Generally speaking, high refresh rate has a great advantage in competitive games, but it is more than that for mobile phones. When scrolling through information streams such as TikTok and Toutiao, high refresh rate can also give you a smoother experience.

There is no doubt that this 144hz high refresh screen directly positions iQOO Neo3 as a gaming phone. After all, for gamers, high refresh rate is the most attractive feature. Of course, in addition to the screen, the long-lost 3.5mm headphone jack below the screen also hints at the positioning of iQOO Neo3 as a gaming phone.

For gamers, the delay problem of Bluetooth headsets has always been a knot in their hearts. Although Bluetooth technology has been perfected to the point where users can hardly feel the delay, it is still not as reassuring as wired headsets.

However, having a headphone jack and a screen that supports 144hz is not enough. If you really want a higher gaming experience, you also need hardware support so that the game can run above 144 frames.

The relationship between the game frame rate and the refresh rate is like having an automatic loading machine gun that can load 144 bullets per second, but the firing rate of this gun is only 60 rounds per second. In other words, with a refresh rate of 144hz, it depends on whether your firing rate can keep up.

At this time, it’s time to look at Snapdragon 865.

With an eight-core processor, 2.84GHz*1, 2.42GHz*3, 1.8GHz*4 main frequencies, and Adreno 650 as GPU, the Snapdragon 865 is now standard for many flagship models, and it is not an exaggeration to call it the most powerful Android processor. With such a powerful core, coupled with the high-performance memory combination of UFS 3.1 and LDDR 4X, iQOO Neo3 can be said to be as powerful as any flagship model in terms of loading and operating efficiency. And its price is often only 2/3 of that of competing products.

Then as usual, we open AnTuTu to run the test. The one we have is the 8+256 version, and its score in normal mode (left side) is 561880. After turning on Monster mode (right side), which is equivalent to high-performance mode, the score goes up to 600172 points.

In fact, even in normal mode, the score of iQOO Neo3 exceeds that of most models of the same price on the market. After turning on the high-performance mode, it even tops the list. It can be seen that iQOO is really armed to the teeth in terms of performance.

With such performance scores, playing the most popular games nowadays is definitely no problem. In addition to the performance support of hardware, iQOO Neo3 also has significant optimizations in software. As soon as you open the game, you can see the optimization content of the game assistant.

Although users don’t know exactly how much the optimization has improved the game, they can still play the game with high frame rates and high frame rates when using ultra-high-definition graphics and anti-aliasing. Even when switching out of the game and back in, there is no lag.

In addition, iQOO Neo3's 4D gaming vibration and stereo dual-speaker Hi-Fi sound effects further enhance the gaming experience. Coupled with some small functional support on the software, such as the float prompting the game start time after switching programs, or the built-in game voice changing system, it can be said that in terms of the ease of use settings for players, it can be said that everything is taken into consideration.

In addition, the iQOO Neo3 is also equipped with a 4500mAh battery and 44W fast charging. It only takes about 50 minutes to fully charge, which can provide a longer unplugged gaming experience.

iQOO Neo3 has made great efforts in performance and strives to meet the current gaming needs of players. The powerful core of Snapdragon 865, coupled with the support of 144Hz screen, can get the highest quality of any game and run it smoothly. For gamers, this alone is enough to make them take out their wallets.

In terms of photography, compared with the current photography-focused phones that have five or six lenses arranged horizontally and vertically, the three lenses at the back of the iQOO Neo3 seem a bit "shabby". However, as a phone that focuses on gaming, the 48MP main camera plus an 8MP wide-angle lens and a 2MP macro lens are really acceptable and can easily meet the needs of daily photography.

In fact, judging from the sample photos, the performance of iQOO Neo3 can be said to be beyond expectations. After all, the 4800W main camera is not a pushover. In the case of sufficient light during the day, the scenery in the finished product is very clear and recognizable, and the details in the distance can basically be clearly distinguished, with excellent performance in resolution.

In terms of color, it can be seen that iQOO Neo3 has chosen to go for the realistic style. The color saturation in the sample photos is not high, and the overall feeling is gray. In the sample photo above, you can see that the green trees appear to be more faded, without the green protrusion, and the red and yellow below also lack a sense of brightness against the gray background.

Moreover, for color control, we can also make up for it through the large number of filters built into the iQOO Neo3. All the popular color filters on the market can be found on this phone, which is enough to meet our different needs in daily photography.

In addition, with the support of AI algorithms, the iQOO Neo3's macro shooting performance is remarkable. The background blur is very good, the edge transition is very soft, the details are very clear, and there is no obvious noise.

In terms of night scenes, the photos taken by iQOO Neo3 are quite eye-catching in terms of clarity. The details of the distant buildings are not lost at night, and the noise control is also very good. The color is richer than that during the day, there is no obvious overexposure in the highlights, and the dark parts are also bright enough.

If compared with some flagship models that focus on photography, the three lenses of iQOO Neo3 are obviously not enough. But from the perspective of taking daily photos, it is definitely above the usable level. Especially in daytime shooting, the color can be met by choosing the right filter to meet different needs, and a little adjustment can produce a good picture.

In general, the main focus of iQOO Neo3 is obviously gaming, and its performance can easily beat a number of flagship models. At a time when "buckets" are popular, it is actually a good strategy to have such a product that focuses on segmentation - gamers are not sensitive to camera performance, so wouldn't it be better to save the money and fill it with performance? Therefore, when the 8+128 version of iQOO Neo3 was sold at a price below 3,000 yuan, players began to rejoice, but competitors could only respond in a panic.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.