I have been using the iQOO Neo9 Pro (8GB + 256GB) for over a month now as my primary device and here are my observations.
This piece of hardware is an excellent choice in its price segment for those who want strong performance without compromising on imaging capabilities. The 8GB+256GB variant is currently priced at Rs 36,998 (~$440).
However, the UI experience of the iQOO Neo9 Pro (or Funtouch OS in general) might be disappointing for some, potentially leading to regret after purchase. I’ll do my best to explain why I couldn’t fully appreciate the software skin below, but first, let’s discuss the other impressive aspects. That being said, if you’re already familiar with and comfortable using Funtouch OS 14 (based on Android 14), your decision becomes much easier.
Design and display:
iQOO Neo9 Pro comes with a textured glass back and flat sides with a plastic middle frame. While the plastic frame doesn’t offer a premium feel, the overall in-hand experience is decent and the phone weighs 196g.
The phone offers a 6.78″ flat AMOLED display that offers decent outdoor visibility in direct sunlight. Speaking of numbers, the entire display panel reaches 1400 nits in bright light and it can even reach 3000 nits during HDR video playback (something you won’t see very often). The colors also look good.
However, the phone can reduce the brightness when it gets hot. I placed the phone in direct sunlight while it was connected to 5G and I was using its hotspot. After around 10 minutes I noticed a dip in brightness where it was readable but was significantly dimmer.
Camera: it impressed me
As I mentioned above, if you’re looking for a device that is good at both raw performance and imaging, the iQOO Neo9 Pro could be the best option in its price range. Here are some images I took in different lighting conditions.
As you can see, the dynamic range is good. The phone maintained details both on the sky and the leaves at the same time.
Moving on to low light scenarios, the phone takes bright images in both normal and night mode. You can see both the samples below. I was actually surprised to see how bright the images appear after processing for a fraction of a second. Also, the images have very low noise even those taken on the darker situations, which is a very good thing.
The iQOO Neo9 Pro also offers a ‘Supermoon’ mode, which lets you take a very good-looking and reasonably detailed moon shot at 20x digital zoom without having a telephoto. You can see the result below.
The ultrawide camera captures decent images, but I’ve noticed some inconsistency in the color profile between the main and ultrawide cameras.
For those interested, the phone packs a 50 MP 1/1.49″ Sony IMX920 main sensor, which is paired with an 8 MP ultrawide.
Performance: don’t get too excited
This phone is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, which is paired with UFS 4.0 storage. As expected, it loads apps very fast and renders UI animations flawlessly.
I bought this phone to play Genshin Impact in the high to highest setting, and it turns out that I was overestimating its capabilities a bit. For those unfamiliar, this is an open-world game that is often used to measure the raw performance capabilities of flagship devices.
Based on what I’ve seen so far, the iQOO Neo9 Pro starts throttling in Genshin Impact as soon as it crosses 39°C in the ‘Balanced’ power mode. It happens within 10 minutes of playing the game in high settings.
Fortunately, the ‘Ultra Game Mode’ offers features like fps priority, monster mode, and frame interpolation which allows you to enjoy the full performance of the chipset. Nonetheless, the phone also gets hotter as you enjoy a higher frame rate. In Genshin Impact I saw it reaching 44°C (9°C gain) in just 10 minutes.
Although, I should note that this phone handles relatively lightweight games like PUBG Mobile or Call of Duty without an issue.
Battery and charging:
This phone packs a 5160 mAh battery and comes with a 120W charger, which adds around 4% to the battery every minute. This is very fast in my opinion. However what impressed me even more is that it stayed below 40°C while charging this fast in an ambient temperature of 31°C.
UI experience: it could be a deal breaker for you
To be clear, I have noticed only one bug in Funtouch OS 14 for this device so far: you cannot resize the small screen window while typing within that app.
It’s the UI elements and the implementation of some basic features that disappointed me.
I don’t (or I can’t) use the ‘Smart Sidebar’ feature in Funtouch OS 14 because it not only looks unpolished but also triggers too often, accidentally.
Using the app drawer is also very inconvenient unless you have both hands free. While the search bar is placed on top and the keyboard appears at the bottom, your thumb has to climb to the top again to tap on the search result. The UI elements for activating the ‘Small window’ without a sidebar are also hard to reach with one hand. Long story short, the UI lacks polish and is definitely not for one-hand use. Lastly, here are a couple of easy steps that let you enjoy a relatively better UI experience.
If you think you can deal with the UI, the iQOO Neo9 Pro is no doubt one of the best phones in the price range. You can also comment below on what else you’d like to know about the device.
