iQOO Neo 10 Review: A Phone That Redefines Value for Money

When it comes to value-for-money performance phones, iQOO's Neo lineup has built a cult following at this point. The iQOO Neo 10 tries to push that reputation even further and sits in that sweet spot between aggressive mid-rangers and full-blown flagships.

Being a successor to last year's Neo 9, it seems like a gamer and power user's dream that won't break the bank but still feels powerful enough with the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4, a 7,000mAh battery and more. I have been using the iQOO Neo 10 for about a month, and here's a detailed review to help you decide if this phone is worth buying or not.

iQOO Neo 10 Unboxing

The iQOO Neo 10 unboxing experience isn't barebones. Instead, you get everything you need to use the phone inside the box, including:

Before we jump to the hands-on experience, check out the main specifications of the smartphone:

iQOO Neo 10 Design and Build

I have with me the iQOO Neo 10’s Inferno Red colour option, but it was more of an orange hue than red. I wasn't not a big fan of this colourway. It was a little too vibrant for my taste, which is something I realised every time I took it out on a sunny day.

While the sneaky “Neo Power to Win” tagline underneath the camera module is cool, the white meeting the orange at the edges is not the prettiest look, if you ask me.

Colour choice is subjective, but I believe everyone will appreciate the in-hand feel of this phone. It’s not the lightest phone for sure, but the weight balance is solid, and I didn’t have to be extra cautious about it falling out of my hands during one-handed usage. Besides, it doesn’t wobble at all when I aggressively type as it lies flat on the table.

The back panel also curves around the edges a little before meeting the middle frame, and that’s what gives it a nice grip. In my one month with the device, I didn’t drop the device once, and that’s a milestone given how clumsy I am.

The plastic frame adds to the premium feel of the iQOO Neo 10, but the plastic back panel feels creaky. I realised this as I shouldered the phone to take a call one day, as my hands were full. That extra pressure made some strange noises and vibrations, which I realised were caused by the plastic back. You’d also want to put on a case, as I can already see micro scratches appearing at the edges of the rear panel.

As for the button placement, it could have been better. Instead of all the buttons being stacked on the left, the right side of the frame could have been used for it, too. Furthermore, while the volume rockers were tactile enough, I wished for the power button to be a little softer and less wobbly.

iQOO Neo 10 Display Quality

The iQOO Neo 10’s display instantly won me over, and I didn't find myself having to recalibrate or mess with display settings to find that perfect colour. Colours instantly popped out, whether I was navigating the UI or watching a YouTube video.

I binge-watched Dan Da Dan’s second season on Netflix and it was an absolute delight to see Okarun go turbo in those happening fight sequences. Meanwhile, when watching Wednesday, those goth blacks in darker scenes were deep and blended very well in my lights-out room at night, making it enjoyable.

The display is also super bright, and I never had to manually impose a higher brightness level than what the auto-brightness mode had adjusted, whether indoors or in super sunny outdoors. Our tests saw the display hit around 1,600 nits, which is great.

Viewing angles were also good and my OCD was always at ease. The iQOO Neo 10’s display is also not that reflective, and I could easily watch content in brightly lit indoors without the distracting reflection of my face bothering me much.

However, this panel doesn’t seem to have a known display protection. But given how Vivo uses Schott Xensation on its phones and isn’t always outright about it, one might guess the iQOO Neo 10 uses the same. Besides, I removed the pre-applied screen protector on day one of using the device and a month later, I don’t even see micro scratches on the panel. Mind you, I haven’t been particularly careful, putting it in my pocket with keys and whatnot. So, that’s seriously impressive.

Sound output was never a problem either, and the dual speakers were loud enough for me not to put on earbuds. However, the bottom-firing speaker is louder than the one at the top, and that took me some time to get used to. There’s also some minor crackling, especially when you boost the audio to 200 or 300%. Yeah, you can do that too, which is helpful when viewing videos that just don’t have the loudest audio.

iQOO Neo 10 Performance Tested

iQOO phones have never let me down on the performance front, and the Neo 10 is no exception. Right from boot-up, the device feels super snappy and day-to-day usage feels super effortless. Whether it’s bouncing between Slack, Chrome and Spotify or quickly editing photos before uploading them to my writeups, I barely saw any stutters.

Apps snap open instantly and the RAM management is top-tier here. I had around 30 or so apps running in the background, and tried using YouTube and Notion in split screen with WhatsApp open in a pop-up window over it to put more pressure on the phone. It still didn’t stutter, and most of those apps resumed from right where I’d left them.

Benchmark numbers were solid too and here’s a quick rundown of the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 AnTuTu, Geekbench, and 3DMark scores:

Gaming is the department where the Neo 10 shines the brightest. From BGMI to Call of Duty Mobile, the experience is silky smooth, and the frame rates held steady even when the action got chaotic. The screen’s responsiveness was commendable as well, and every swipe or tap felt instant. In supported titles like Genshin Impact, iQOO’s dedicated graphics chipset also delivers 144 FPS and sharper visuals. It just felt like I was playing on a device that was built with gamers in mind.

However, if you push it too far, like an hour-long Genshin Impact session at max settings, the phone does start to warm up, but it barely goes beyond 38°C in an AC room. I also noticed a slight dip in performance, but it’s not a dealbreaker.

By the end of the day, this is a performance-focused mid-ranger we are talking about and not an all-out flagship with oversized cooling solutions. So, the results are expected and impressive.

iQOO Neo 10 Software and Updates

Having used my personal iQOO 12 for a while now, I'm used to Funtouch OS and have actually grown to like it. In fact, the skin has some subtle perks here and there, which just make the phone intuitive.

For starters, with a single tap, I can allow more apps to show up on my recent apps panel. This makes shuffling between apps so much faster. Then come the image editing tools, which I find myself relying on from time to time.

Well, thanks to Funtouch OS 15’s intuitive AI editing tools, I don’t have to rely on external apps, as the built-in AI Photo Enhance is great and I may have been enhancing my age-old Facebook photos this way lately.

There's also AI Eraser, which can come in handy to get rid of those who photobomb your pictures. The image and video scaling features are also amazing, and I love having control over the resolution and image/video quality. I also love how it shows you the estimated image or video size, too. 

iQOO has also been excellent in terms of software updates, and while I did most of my testing when the phone was on the PD2453JF_EX_A_15.0.9.5.W30 build, I got two other software updates in just the span of a month. The latest PD2453JF_EX_A_15.0.10.1.W30 build integrated the August 2025 Google security patch and brought other subtle improvements as well.

Besides, last year, iQOO was the first to bring Android 15 with Funtouch OS 15 to its phones, beating Google and Samsung to the punch. So, one can expect to see Android 16 arrive on iQOO phones quite early as well.

However, there's no sugarcoating the downsides. The bloatware problem exists, and you get a bunch of apps and games you will probably never play (no offence, Candy Crush) out of the box. Moreover, I have always felt the absence of satisfying haptics in Funtouch OS.

Apart from when you unlock your phone or summon the recent apps panel, you barely get any haptic integration in this Android skin. Moreover, the app icons, quick access panel, and other elements in the UI just look outdated. I believe Funtouch OS is the only thing holding iQOO and Vivo phones back, but it might change soon. Leaks suggest that Origin OS India launch is scheduled for October 2025, so stay tuned.

iQOO Neo 10 Camera Tested

iQOO Neo 10's camera shines the most in good lighting. Shots taken with the primary and ultra-wide lenses come out crisp, with accurate exposure. There's also plenty of detail retained in both highlights and shadows. The greenery in foliage shots looks vibrant without seeming oversaturated. Meanwhile, skies maintain this pleasing, natural tone. What's equally impressive is the colour consistency across lenses.

Zoomed-in shots at 2x maintain good detail without introducing too much noise. Textures like leaves and building textures are rendered quite sharply. The dynamic range is also handled well and brighter skies don't get blown out, while shadowed areas still retain usable details. 

iQOO Neo 10's selfies are reliable enough for casual shots, as skin tones look natural without aggressive beautification. There are also good details in tricky evening lighting. However, in low light, details take a bit of a hit. Backgrounds don't get completely blown out either when shooting in harshly lit conditions. Edge detection works well too, with clean detection around hair and shoulders.

When the sun sets, that's when the Neo 10 starts having problems. Although night shots come out well-exposed and vibrant, they don't seem to retain the natural hues and lighting. Night-time shots also seem to be overly warm at times.

The Neo 10 also does some aggressive noise reduction, which also leads to some level of detail loss. Light sources are handled gracefully, and there's no lens flare or haloing, but I noticed how the device had trouble focusing on subjects at night. For example, it took me multiple tries to get the phone to focus on that lamp post well without soft-blurring it out. 

Portraits benefit from solid edge detection and there's a convincing separation between the subject and the background. Skin tones remain accurate during the day, while at night, they get washed out. There's also some skin softening going on here, which makes the shots look quite unnatural. 

As for videos, I really appreciated the Neo 10 offering 4K @ 60 FPS recording on both the front and rear cameras. While daytime videos are great, you will notice minor focus hunting issues at night. As for the microphone quality, it's also quite good, with the voice not being overpowered by the background noise outside.

iQOO Neo 10 Battery and Charging

It would be an understatement to say that I’m in love with the Neo 10’s battery backup. After taking who knows how many calls throughout the day, texting my fingers off on WhatsApp, capturing photos and videos, as well as playing Call of Duty Mobile with my friends at night, I was still left with around 40% to carry forward to the next day.

The idle drain is also so minimal (roughly 2% overnight) that I didn’t have to worry about losing juice even when not using it. Battery optimisation is top-notch here and after all that and then some, I got a total of 10 hours and 5 minutes, with 3% of battery left.

However, I didn’t have that charging anxiety, since the phone literally charged in about 40 minutes from there, which is very close to what the brand claims. That’s impressive for a battery this size, making this one of the fastest charging phones out there, if you ask me.

Oh also, I used the phone quite a bit in those 40 minutes that it was charging and while it did get warm near the camera module as expected, it never got hot.

Bottom Line: Should You Buy the iQOO Neo 10?

If you're after sheer raw performance, a gorgeous display and battery life that simply refuses to quit, the iQOO Neo 10 is one of the best phones under Rs 35,000 you can buy. It does stumble a bit with low-light photos and Funtouch OS 15's outdated aesthetics, but those are minor trade-offs when you look at the complete package. Gamers, binge-watchers and heavy users will feel right at home here. 

However, if you're looking for a fuller, more intuitive software experience, there's the OnePlus Nord 5 in this segment. For better design and build quality, the Poco F7 easily stands out. However, if you want a phone that brings better cameras and a more premium build quality at the cost of some performance, the Motorola Edge 60 Pro is your best bet around the Rs 30,000 price point. But, for sheer speed and stamina, there's nothing in this segment to beat the iQOO Neo 10, for sure.