This is the new Neo Seven,Icu’s latest midrange phone for 2023.If we know, one thing about ICU is that theymake solid gaming phones, and this guy is no exception.But for a midrange phone in 2023, people also cometo expect a good overall experience in all departments.
So I was really curious to find out ifthe ICU Neo Seven is a phone that evensomeone who is not a gamer should look into.And spoiler alert, except for a fewcompromises here and there, this is actuallya pretty well rounded phone overall. So let me start the review with the starof the show, which is the performance itself here.
The Diamond City 8200 might be a small upgrade overthe Diamond City 8100, yes, but still an impressive one.The most important upgrade here isits four nm fabrication process.Besides the overclocked CPU and GPU and everything else,I think Mediatech could have shaped this chip evenprettier by going with the new Rmv Nine architectureand Tsnc second gen four nm process, though.But for what it’s worth, the8200 is an absolute powerhouse.
Be it CPU or GPU, this Mediatech chip scoreshigher in every benchmark out there against practically everychip you’d find in this price segment. In fact, its performance level is actually similarto the Snapdragon Triple Eight, but with muchbetter thermals, as it does not heat upnearly as bad as the Triple Eight. So this should not come as a surprise when I say thatthe icon US Seven is a total beast in the gaming arena.
Even in something as resource hungry asgently impact, this guy manages around 57FPS on average at high graphics.I did come across some frame drops hereand there, and the phone’s temperature does climbabove 40 degrees Celsius after a while, butthese are more than flavour conditions. Not to mention it’s quite ahead of other Snapdragon778 G 870 or Diamond City 1080 powered phonesthat you would find in this segment.
I also thoroughly enjoyed playing other not as demandingtitles like PUBG Mobile, Apex Legends, RFP, by theway, and Mobile Legends at 60 FPS with thebest visual quality and comfortable thermals.But since the Diamond City 820 is a fairly new kidon the block, I noticed optimization issues in a few games. Ashworth Nine, for instance, can’t hit steady 60 FPSand settles to around 55 FPS instead, whereas InjusticeTwo is also locked at 60 FPS.The other high FPS games I tried was Megarina, whichran at 100 FPS average at the highest settings.
A powerful processor and a competent 3D cooling systemaren’t the only things that make the icon nearSeven such an impressive gaming for ICU has alsoborrowed a couple of gaming features from its flagshipphones, such as Motion Control, which lets you rundifferent in game settings with simple gestures.And if you play a lot of FPS games like PUBGthen I am sure you are also going to love howICU lets you set different levels of gyro sensitivity for thebest recoil control and fast aiming for the game.Vibration is another sweet feature iQOO Hopes keepsyou immersed by delivering precise haptic feedback thatmimics ingame activities in real time.I really liked its implementation on the ICU Eleven,but for some reason it didn’t work that wellhere with the phone often failing to figure outwhat was happening in the game.Besides all its gaming chops, the iconia Seven isalso a dependable performer for your usual everyday task.
The font touch OS experience is alsopretty decent if you can look pastthe minor inconsistencies in the UI design.It can also be somewhat strict with memorymanagement in the background, but you can easilyadjust individual apps power management settings.As for updates, Igu has finally committed tothree major OS updates and four years ofsecurity patches for its flagship phones.But on a mid range phone like the NeoSeven, the company is only offering two years ofOS and three years of security patches.Likewise, I also think ICO could have improved the design andbuild quality on the near Seven, but it is pretty mucha copy paste of what we got last year.
I don’t mean to say that it looks terribleor anything, but for starters, the new Seven hasan all plastic build material which does not feelthat nice and premium on my hands.And like basically every other ICU phone out there,this one also lacks an official IP rating.On the plus side, ICU has done a decent jobwith the weight distribution, and I quite dig it’s curvedback with Matte finish, but overall I can’t say thatthis is the most well put midrange phone out there.OK, getting to the display, you are now looking ata slightly bigger 6.7 inch AMOLED screen with all thegoodies, like a smooth 120 Hz refresh rate, a speedy360 Hz start sampling rate, and more. As for brightness, it peaks at 1300 nits in certainHDR playbacks, or 800 nits under auto brightness mode.That’s not as bright as compared to somethinglike the Redmi Note Twelve Pro Plus, forexample, but I can read stuff off ofthis screen even under directional light just fine.
Also, the factory color calibration was a bit on thewarmer side in my unit, but you can adjust itby dragging the temperature slider inside the settings. ICU has got you covered with HDR Ten Plusand Wide One L One certification for that richviewing experience on Netflix and other streaming platforms, eventhough Tolby vision playback is missing here. Similarly, I found the speakers to be not that nice.The phone thoroughly struggles to maintain properdetail and clarity in either low midor high frequencies, and the overall audioquality also sounds muffled at full volume.
When it comes to gaming phones, the camera isusually the one area which brands usually compromise.Here, ICU has replaced the ultraviolago sensor infavor of a two megapixel depth camera whichsocks for a 300 rupee phone. I am someone who’s into street and landscape photography, andI take a lot of photos with the ultra wideangle camera, so I really missed the ultra wide anglecamera during my review period with this phone. Nonetheless, looking at the bright side, the icon USseven’s main 64 megapixel sensor actually takes really goodphotos for its class, and I think most peopleare going to like its image processing too.That pongy contrast mixed with playful colors,nice sharpness and decent exposure looks quiteeye catching to be honest.Its low light shots are equally good, if not great.
The onboard Ois makes sure you getsharp and well detailed photos, while there’salso good contrast level and highlight control. Overall, Igu does tend to lift theexposure evenly across the image, in mostcases making them look somewhat unnatural.I thought turning on the night mode wouldfix this, but apparently not, so hopefully thisgets fixed with a future update.Anyway, I am equally fond ofhow ICU handles human subjects.Like when it comes to portraits.The phone digitally zooms in on the subjectsmimicking a telephoto camera, and as you cansee from these samples, it delivers noticeably pleasingphotos with great background separation.
The subject skin tone is not the most accuratehere that I will agree to, but the ICUUS Sevens portrait still managed to stand out.It’s the same with selfies as well.Now, moving to videos, ICU lets you record up to FPS,but since Ois does not work here, you’re going to haveto go to FPS or lower for steadier footages.And yeah, ICU has greatly combined optical stabilizationwith a little bit of cropping in magicto give you quite stable videos.Even exposure handling is pretty good here, but as youcan see, there are noticeable jitters every now and then,but unlike the main camera, you’re still stocked with onethousand and eighty P thirty FPS recordings.Up front, its field of view is fine, butICU could have done a better job with facialskin tone as well as dynamic range and stabilization. Okay. Lastly, in terms of battery, it’s fantastic news.
The ICU year seven has been consistently givingme around seven to 8 hours of screenon time, even under fairly stressful usage pattern.Of course, you are not going to get similarresults with continuous gaming sessions, but I find itsbattery backup to be more z reliable enough. And with the upgraded 120 watt fast charging, youcan completely refill this phone in just 24 minutes.Just make sure to enable the fastcharging option in the settings for this. Okay ? So with everything that we have discussed, it pretty muchgoes on without saying that this is easily the bestgaming phone you can buy in the Midwest segment. But what also really surprised me here isjust how well balanced it is in otheraspects, like battery display and cameras too.
So if you’re shopping for a reliable phone ingeneral, and not just a gaming phone under 300Indian rupees the icon US Seven is genuinely agood option that you can consider.Having said that, I believe IQ could have madeit ten out of ten by including an autobiographsensor and a good set of stereo speakers.Likewise, if you look at the competition, weare going to see some exciting new productsin 132, like the new Xiaomi 13, LiteOnePlus, Note Three, and Samsung’s Galaxy A 54.
These phones might not go toe to toewith ICU in terms of performance, but theycould still deliver better value overall, making theiQO newer sevens appeal just a bit weaker.So I really think that they should have included theultra wide angle camera and a good speaker here, whosehardware component should not have cost IQ that much. So, yeah, a slightly missed opportunity.
