The Legend of iQoo 7 offers premium hardware in a competitively priced package

Launched in India, the Legend of iQoo 7 made the cheapest iQoo 7 smartphone seem a bit understated. For an additional Rs. 4,000 more than its sister cost, the Legend Edition features a refreshing design, with accents and cues from BMW Motorsport cars, giving it a unique look and feel. And then there’s the specific sheet, which seems impossible to supply at this price.

When we look at the competition, only Xiaomi’s Mi 11X Pro (Review) comes close in terms of specs. It features the same Snapdragon 888 processor, but it also has a 108 megapixel main camera and a slightly larger battery.

At just under Rs. 40,000, neither smartphone offers the full premium package, as it lacks both features like wireless charging and IP rating. But these phones are all about the performance, design, and quality of cameras, and with that in mind, we’ll take a closer look at the Legend of iQoo 7 because it’s almost universal … with a few minor flaws.

iQoo 7 Design legend

India is the only market that has seen the launch of the iQoo 7 smartphone with Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 processor and slightly wetted waterproof camera hardware. Globally, it has only one model and is called iQoo 7. This makes the Legend of iQoo 7 more of a cosmetic variant in international markets.

However, buyers in India have a better reason to choose the BMW-inspired iQoo 7 Legend as it packs international model hardware, which is much better than what you get with the iQoo 7 base sold in India .

The iQoo 7 Legend has a pretty clean look, with a brushed metal frame and matte glass back. The metal frame is quite interesting because it has polished edges, cuts and indentations that make it very elegant. The power button on the right has subtle ridges and a blue accent that makes it stand out. The matte glass rear features red, black and blue racing stripes on a white surface reminiscent of a typical BMW M Motor Sport racing car finish. Whether you are a fan of the brand or not, the color scheme looks unique. There are no color or finish options for this phone.

The combination of metal and matte glass keeps fingerprints out, but it’s also quite slippery, so I’d recommend slipping on the included TPU case. With a 6.62-inch display, the phone wasn’t overwhelming to hold as it’s only 8.7mm thin, but it’s fairly heavy at 210g.

The Legend of iQoo 7 is equipped with stereo speakers. The main speaker at the bottom sits next to the USB Type-C port, while the headset doubles as a second and is hidden in an almost invisible gap between the display glass and the metal frame.

IQoo 7 Legends Specifications and Software

The Legend of iQoo 7 is available in two variants. The basic 8GB RAM + 128GB storage variant is available at Rs. 39,990 and 12GB RAM + 256GB storage option is priced at Rs. 43,990. This smartphone, just like the Xiaomi Mi 11X Pro, uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor and does not allow expandable storage. It supports multiple 5G bands and also offers dual 5G standby. It also has a fingerprint reader on display, which worked reliably.

The phone has a 4,000mAh battery, which supports charging speeds of 66W. There is a 6.62-inch AMOLED display that offers a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz and is HDR10 + certified. Connectivity options include Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi 6 (dual band), and NFC.

The Legend of iQoo 7 runs the Funtouch Vivo operating system, based on Android 11. The software ran smoothly in daily use, with no signs of drag or tripping, and was smooth enough thanks to the 120Hz refresh rate display . Funtouch OS offers some unique customization options such as the ability to change unlocked animations for the screen, face recognition, charging, USB insertion and when you put your phone to sleep and wake it up.

There’s also a touch screen animation option, which adds customizable particle tracks (hearts, circles, squares) whenever you interact with the notification bar, home screen, and app drawer. This feature does not seem to affect the use of native or third-party apps.

Pre-installed third-party bloatware includes Moj, Dailyhunt, PhonePe, Snapchat, and Flipkart. These apps can be uninstalled if not needed. The V-Appstore will display some promotional notifications every day, but can be turned off in the app settings.

IQoo 7 Legend performance and battery life

The 6.62-inch FHD + AMOLED display sports a 120Hz refresh rate. Touch sensitivity was perfect and I had no problems scrolling through apps or playing games with bold graphics. I had no problem seeing the display in bright sunlight. Colors looked natural and 394ppi clarity was no problem. IQoo claims to have a 7 Legend HDR10 + certified display. However, only the YouTube app offered HDR10 streaming; Netflix no.

Both speakers can go quite loud and have very clear sound with balanced output, which makes them great for gaming, but also for watching movies or listening to music.

In terms of benchmarks, the Legend iQoo 7 performed on par with other premium smartphones with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888. processor. It controlled 8.23.003 in AnTuTu, as well as 1.138 and 3.668 in Geekbench single and multi-core tests.

Game performance was also pretty solid. Call of Duty: A cellphone performed flawlessly with no hint of delay in the highest possible settings. The phone didn’t warm up either. Only after about 40 minutes of intense gameplay did things start to feel hot, which is pretty good. Asphalt 9: Legends performed impressively high quality with the 60fps mode enabled.

The Legend of iQoo 7 features “4D Game Vibration” using the phone’s dual linear vibration motor. This feature worked well when playing Asphalt 9: Legends, allowing me to feel the impact when my car landed and knocked into things, like the feedback you’d get from a game manager. However, I turned it off while playing Call of Duty: Mobile, as it gets really annoying, especially the very screaming vibration every time I get hit by a bullet.

The 4,000mAh battery failed to meet expectations and remained only for one charge. With an hour of play, a few phone calls, a few photos, and frequent browsing in social media apps, the Legend of iQoo 7 was running out of power by the end of the day. Changing the display refresh rate from 120Hz to Auto or 60Hz only extended the battery life by about an hour and a half. Our HD video loop battery test lasted only 13 hours and 3 minutes, which is pretty low for a premium smartphone these days.

While this may be a headache for experienced users, iQoo has provided a very fast charging adapter in the box. The 66W charger can take the iQoo 7 Legend of dead battery to 100% charge in just 31 minutes.

IQoo 7 Legendary cameras

The Legend of iQoo 7 features a triple rear camera setup, consisting of a 48 megapixel f / 1.79 main camera, a 13 megapixel f / 2.46 telephoto lens (with 2X optical zoom) and a 13 megapixel f / 2.2 ultra-wide lens camera. Selfie tasks are performed by a 16 megapixel f / 2.0 camera. The camera interface is typical of what we’ve seen so far on Vivo and iQoo smartphones, with all important controls available with a single tap.

Camera modes can be customized according to what you need. What has bothered me a bit about the camera interface is the Portrait mode. It seemed to be a bug in the software, but the aperture selection control always went to f / 16 when using the selfie camera. Drawing using this aperture setting meant there was no depth effect. I had to manually set the aperture every time I wanted to take a portrait selfie, which was quite frustrating.

Photos taken in daylight came out sharp with good dynamic range and good detail in textures. Regardless of which camera I chose, the results were impressive. However, I noticed some purple edges in the brighter parts of the frame when using the ultra wide angle camera. Portrait pictures of friends and pets came out pretty sharp, with good edge detection and a wide dynamic range. While Portrait mode is set by default on the 2X telephoto camera, we can also shoot using the main camera at 1X. Autofocus was fast with all three cameras.

The iQoo 7 Legend wide-angle camera also performs double duty as a macro camera because it has autofocus. This meant I could shoot objects at a distance of 2cm. And with a 13-megapixel sensor, the results were impressive and rich in detail.

 

In low light, the Legend of iQoo 7 cameras held up pretty well. The main camera took pictures with low noise, but failed in detail in the darker areas. Night mode takes care of this and even enlivens the photos a bit. The wide-angle camera also performed well when there was some light available nearby, but struggled with textures in low light environments.

Selfies came out clean and crisp in daylight with good dynamic range allowing the subject and background to be properly exposed. In low light, the detail took a good shot and the images looked flat. Night mode helped, provided there was a suitable light source.

The video quality recorded by this phone was pretty good overall. The Legend of iQoo 7 handled 1080p video at 30fps and 60fps well, with lots of detail and good stabilization. The 4K videos also showed a lot of detail and good stabilization even when walking or panning. Videos recorded in low light looked pretty good and had low noise, but I noticed the effect of a slight shimmer when walking around. Although the ultra-wide camera handles decent quality in daylight and low light (albeit with some purple fringes), the lack of stabilization produced very shaky pictures.

Verdict

Given its hardware specs and competitive price, the Legend iQoo 7 is hard to ignore in the premium smartphone segment. The only other smartphone that comes close in terms of raw power is the Mi 11X Pro (review) by Xiaomi. Although the Mi 11X Pro has a 108 megapixel main camera, it does not offer OIS and charging is slightly slower at 33W.

The OnePlus 9R (review) is also a good alternative. It may include a Snapdragon 870 processor that is a bit submarine, but it’s a good combination of performance and features in a package that’s just 8.4mm thick.

The Legend of iQoo 7 offers a Snapdragon 888 processor, a good OLED display with 120Hz refresh rate and excellent build quality, as well as cameras that work quite well. It may not be battery life equivalent if you are a power user, but even though the battery is relatively small, it is certainly fast charging!