In the large family tree that makes up Chinese tech giant BBK Electronics, iQOO or “I Quest On and On” is a sub-brand of Vivo. It’s relatively a new one and hasn’t been raining down many smartphones on us. But the handful it had launched have been much appreciated by young power users, gamers and enthusiasts. The iQOO 9 phones have done energetically well and so have the iQOO 7 phones, to which s the Neo 6 seems the closest. As an aside, do you notice how so many brands are now using the name Neo? Creativity is running short in the smartphone world.
The Neo 6 has a design reminiscent of phones from its parent, Vivo. There’s a stylised camera square glinting in glass and metal tones sitting on a back looking like a frosted glass, but is rather a nice plastic and in a shade we’ve seen before - blush and blue in the colours of a sunset. There are other colours worth exploring, if you’re thinking of picking this phone. This phone, with its curved edges on the back is not difficult to hold, specially as it isn’t too heavy or thick.
In the box, you’ll get all you need. There’s a fat 80W charger, a cable, a case, and even a 3.5mm to USB-C converter for wired headphones. There’s also a screen protector applied to the phone.
Everyday power
The Snapdragon 870 powers the Neo 6. This is no new processor, but it’s at a new price. The iQOO Neo 6 costs ₹29,999 for the 8GB/128GB variant and ₹33,999 for the 12GB/256GB. An inaugural offer makes it available for ₹25,999. Our unit has 12GB LPDDR5 and 256GB UFS 3.1 storage - no memory card slot. This phone handles everyday tasks perfectly fast, but is a gaming centric phone and configured to not bat an eyelid given heavy duty games. It doesn’t heat up very much either thanks to an efficient well balanced cooling system. For those not looking specifically for a gaming phone, the Neo 6 makes a good everyday all-rounder.
The Neo 6 runs Android 12 and FunTouch, Vivo’s interface that’s quite feature-filled, but could do with some finesse and with less of those ever-annoying pre-installed apps, even if they can be off-loaded.
The 6.62-inch, FHD+, E4 AMOLED display has it all. Great colours that are strong from every angle, crispness, brightness. Peak brightness for some tasks shoots up to 1,300 nits. It has WideVine L1 certification. For gaming, has a 360Hz touch sampling rate. Also a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. There’s a set of loud dual speakers to go with the screen, making it good for both gaming and watching content. A strong haptic engine also helps with gaming as well, although I’m only apt to play the simple ones. This phone has a 4,700mAh battery with 80W fast charging and is done in about 40 mins - another of the features making it an all-rounder.
If you’re bracing yourself to be let down by the cameras — don’t. The primary 64MP Samsung GW1P main sensor results in rather nice photos with adequate punch, sharpness and detail. There’s the usual 8MP ultra wide and a 2MP macro. The front camera is a 16MP and it too does a pretty good job. The camera is stabilised and can record 4K at 60fps.
A bouquet of good specs, a capable set of cameras, good battery life with fast charging and a really nice display make the Neo 6 quite the all-rounder.