While there are plenty of impressive phones now available under even Rs 25,000 in India right now, if you really want a phone that offers uncompromising and reliable performance, you will definitely have to shell out a bit more. As two of the most obvious contenders for best performance phones under Rs 35,000 currently are the iQOO Neo7 Pro (review) and the OnePlus Nord 3 (review), we decided to pit these against each other to find out which phone comes out on top. The iQOO Neo7 Pro is currently available in the market for as low as Rs 32,999 and comes with the mighty Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, a 120Hz AMOLED display, and blazing-fast 120W charging speed. On the other hand, if you look at the OnePlus Nord 3, the handset can currently be bought for Rs 31,349 and comes with a powerful MediaTek Dimensity 9000 chipset, Super Fluid 120Hz AMOLED display, and up to a whopping 16GB RAM.
Before we get into the performance comparison between the iQOO Neo7 Pro and the OnePlus Nord 3 5G, let’s review the key SoC specifications of both smartphones:
| iQOO Neo7 Pro | OnePlus Nord 3 5G |
| Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 | MediaTek Dimensity 9000 SoC |
| 4nm octa-core processor with one Cortex-X2 3.19GHz core, three Cortex-A710 2.75GHz cores, and four Cortex-A510 2GHz cores | 4nm octa-core processor with one Cortex-X2 3.05GHz, three 2.85GHz Cortex-A715 cores, and four 1.8GHz Cortex-A510 cores |
| Adreno 730 GPU | Mali-G710 MC10 GPU |
| Up to 12GB RAM | Up to 16GB RAM |
Geekbench v6
In our Geekbench test, which essentially measures the speed at which a device can complete a specific task, there was a massive difference between how the two phones performed. While the OnePlus Nord 3 got a single-core score of 984 and a multi-core score of 3284, the iQOO Neo7 Pro hits the ball out of the park with a jaw-dropping score of 1730 in the single-core test and a whopping 4553 in the multi-core test. While the choice of processor gives you a rough idea of how well the iQOO smartphone would fare in comparison, the numbers show how vast the difference is.
AnTuTu v10
In our AnTuTu benchmark test, which gives you a single score on the basis of your phone’s overall performance, the OnePlus Nord 3 managed to score 845270, which is a respectable score for the price segment and shows that the phone packs enough power to tackle most tasks with ease. However, with the iQOO Neo7 Pro, we are talking about a whole other beast. The phone managed to get a mind-boggling score of 1308876, which is substantially higher than what we got with the OnePlus Nord 3 5G.
CPU Throttle test
In the CPU Throttle test, the OnePlus Nord 3 sustains 80 percent of its peak performance while running 50 threads for half an hour. In contrast, the iQOO Neo7 Pro sustains 77 percent of its peak performance. This gives the OnePlus smartphone a very slight advantage over its counterpart in terms of better performance under sustained loads.
Gaming
While benchmark tests usually give a decent idea about a phone’s performance, real-life gaming tests are probably the best indicators of which phone will be better for users in daily use. In my test, I played several games on both of these phones. These included Cricket 22, Battlegrounds Mobile India, NBA 2K, and EA FC 24 Mobile.
While all these games were fairly playable on both these phones, my overall experience with the iQOO Neo7 Pro was better than with the OnePlus Nord 3. While the OnePlus phone offers several useful features dedicated to gaming such as Pro Gamer mode, Championship mode, Screen Recording, Touch Optimisation, Quick Startup, and Voice Changer (within the game through a dropdown shade panel), the phone couldn’t match the raw horsepower of iQOO Neo7 Pro. I even faced mild heating issues with the OnePlus Nord 3 after gaming for just half an hour, while on the other hand, the Neo7 Pro didn’t present any such issue after even 45 minutes.
Verdict
These were the key takeaways from our iQOO Neo7 Pro vs OnePlus Nord 3 performance comparison:
- Despite being priced in the same range, the iQOO Neo7 Pro outshines the OnePlus Nord 3 in terms of performance. With the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, the Neo7 Pro doesn’t just take an edge over the OnePlus phone but rather creates a wide rift between the two, especially when it comes to performance benchmarks.
- While performance benchmarks usually give a fair idea about the performance, real-world usage also showed that the iQOO phone manages to handle workload effectively and can tackle even the most demanding games with ease. On the other hand, the Nord 3 presented some heating issues after some time. The OnePlus Nord 3 showcased marginally lower CPU throttling during prolonged usage than its iQOO counterpart, though the difference was quite small.
- While in performance the iQOO Neo7 Pro is clearly ahead of the OnePlus Nord 3, in some other aspects such as the display quality and software, the latter would be the preferred choice for most people.
