The POCO F5 is among the newest gaming-focused smartphones available at mid-range prices, going up against the iQOO Neo 7 which also offers solid performance. Although priced the same, these smartphones feature different chipsets. While the iQOO Neo 7 is powered by MediaTek Dimensity 8200 SoC, the POCO F5 is equipped with Qualcomm’s newly-launched mid-range Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 SoC under the hood. Both chipsets have individually proven their capabilities in our reviews of the POCO F5 and iQOO Neo 7. Now, it is time to compare these phones and determine which one offers better performance.
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POCO F5 vs iQOO Neo 7 performance test
We tested the POCO F5 and iQOO Neo 7 performance by running popular benchmarking apps, including Geekbench and AnTuTu, CPU Throttle test, and 3DMark test as well as playing high-end games for about half an hour on both smartphones. Before diving into the results, let’s quickly review the chipset architecture of each device.
| Specifications | Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 | MediaTek Dimensity 8200 |
| Process | 4nm | 4nm |
| CPU | Octa-core with 1 Cortex X2 core clocked at 2.91Ghz, 3 Cortex A710 cores, and 3 Cortex A510 cores | Octa-core with 4 Cortex A78 cores clocked at up to 3.1Ghz and 4 Cortex A55 cores |
| GPU | Qualcomm Adreno 725 | ARM Mali-G610 MC6 |
| Memory | LPDDR5 | LPDDR5 |
| Storage type | UFS 3.1 | UFS 3.1 |
With the specifications chipset out of the way, now let’s take a look at the smartphones’ gaming and benchmark performance.
Geekbench 6 test
- Starting with the Geekbench, the POCO F5 performs better than the iQOO neo 7 in the multi-core test but falls behind in the single-core test.
- The F5 scores 3,861 points in the multi-core test and 865 in the single-core test, while the iQOO Neo 7 achieves 3,169 points in the multi-core test and 1,211 points in the single-core test.
- This means that the iQOO Neo 7 will demonstrate superior performance when running single tasks, whereas the POCO F5 will excel in multi-tasking scenarios.
AnTuTu v9 test
- On AnTuTu, the iQOO Neo 7 outperforms POCO F5, but not by a huge margin. The POCO smartphone logged a score of 8,00,847, which is close to 60,000 points shy of the iQOO Neo 7 overall tally of 8,59,629 points.
- The major difference is in the CPU score where the Dimensity 8200-powered iQOO smartphone posted over 2 lakh points, while the POCO F5 could only score 1,82,627 points.
CPU Throttle test
- In the CPU Throttle test, both POCO F5 and iQOO Neo 7 are susceptible to throttling while running 50 threads for 30 minutes.
- However, the POCO F5’s chipset Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 handled the load slightly well compared to the iQOO Neo 7’s MediaTek Dimensity 8200 SoC.
- The POCO F5 CPU throttles to 66 percent of its peak performance, whereas the iQOO Neo 7 performance throttles to 60 percent.
- Be that as it may, both devices did well to keep their thermals in check while running the CPU Throttle test.
3DMark Wild Live Extreme Stress test
- The POCO F5 delivers better results in the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Stress test as well, surpassing the iQOO Neo 7 in terms of stability and loop scores.
- iQOO achieved loop scores ranging from 1,113 to 1,782, with a stability score of 62.1 percent.
- The POCO F5, in contrast, achieved loop scores between 1,664 and 1,952, resulting in a higher stability score of 85.2 percent.
- Additionally, the POCO F5 has lower battery drop and temperature gain than the iQOO Neo 7. Both phones manage to put out similar frames during the test.
- Overall, the POCO F5 should exhibit superior GPU performance than its counterpart the iQOO Neo 7 while gaming.
Gaming
- To see where things stand out between the POCO F5 and iQOO Neo 7 gaming-wise, I played Call of Duty Mobile and Asphalt 9 for 30 minutes each.
- The handsets performed admirably well, without any lags or issues. Both phones are capable of running Call of Duty Mobile on Ultra (90fps) frame rate, albeit with low graphics.
- However, I kept the game’s settings to Max (60fps) frame rate and Very High graphics on both POCO F5 and iQOO Neo 7.
- The handsets offered a smooth gaming performance, with no noticeable frame drop. Additionally, since both smartphones feature a vapour chamber and cooling tech, they don’t get uncomfortably warm even during extended gaming sessions.
- However, thanks to the inclusion of a 12-bit panel that can produce as many as 68 billion colours, the gaming experience on the POCO F5 was marginally better than the iQOO Neo 7.
Verdict
While the gaming performance of both smartphones is equally good, the benchmarking results indicate that the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 SoC has marginally better GPU capabilities than its counterpart. However, this advantage does not translate into noticeable benefits when performing graphically-demanding tasks like playing CoD: Mobile on the POCO F5. Similarly, the MediaTek Dimensity 8200 SoC offers superior CPU performance, but there is no visible difference while performing day-to-day tasks on the iQOO Neo 7.
The bottom line is that POCO F5 and iQOO Neo 7 both are highly capable smartphones, and you can’t go wrong with either of them when it comes to performance.
