In the last review, we compared the cameras on the OnePlus 8 Pro vs Huawei P40 Pro. This time let’s take a closer look at gaming on the OnePlus 8 Pro. And for this, we pit the OnePlus 8 Pro vs iQOO Neo 3.
The latest iQOO Neo 3 is a really cost-effective gaming phone. Even if you consider the top-end version, it only costs around 480 USD. Compared to the OnePlus 8 Pro’s price tag starting from 899 USD, I think it’s worth looking at the performance of both the devices in terms of gaming. The price difference is huge and if you are looking for a high-end gaming smartphone, it’s worth checking out if the affordable iQOO Neo 3 can be as good as the top-end players.
OnePlus 8 Pro vs iQOO Neo 3: Display
Let’s start with their displays. For the OnePlus 8 Pro, the 6.78-inch display is pretty amazing just like we saw in the last video. This customized Samsung Super AMOLED display features up to 120Hz refresh rate with 2k resolution, which is already better than most current smartphone displays. In addition to this, OnePlus continues the excellent tuning of its displays including high color accuracy under different color modes.
The tested result of delta E is even lower than 1 in the standard mode, making it one of the best smartphone displays in the market right now. But it’s not just about right color tuning, the phone’s display is also able to boost its peak brightness under strong sunlight. OnePlus also developed a video frame interpolation technology (you can read more about MEMC tech here) for playing videos in specific apps and included players, which used to be applied on some high-end TV sets for smoother video output, adapting to the high-refresh-rate display.
While, for iQOO Neo 3, the 6.57-inch display amazingly supports up to 144Hz refresh rate. In the last few weeks, we saw just how useful the 144Hz display of Red Magic 5G is for improving gaming experience and system fluency. And this time, iQOO has given us an even cheaper model with the same quality display. But compared to the OnePlus 8 Pro, the display gap between 120Hz and 144Hz is hard to perceive. 
Meanwhile, it’s important to note that iQOO Neo 3 comes with an LCD 1080P display, which forces it to use a side fingerprint-reader. Although it responds fast enough, the in-screen fingerprint reader of the OnePlus 8 Pro provides a more comfortable user experience besides being fast. As for the display colors, although it’s not as accurate as the OnePlus 8 Pro, the standard mode delta E also gets a pretty decent score at 1.9. But when we switch to the default mode, the number rises to 3.8. As for the gaming experience, there is no doubt that OnePlus will have a better visual experience.
By the way, the front cameras are pretty small, so it doesn’t take up a lot of the display space. It is also worth adding that the iQOO model can be a fingerprint magnet if you remove the screen protector because it doesn’t have an oleophobic coating on the display, unlike the OnePlus 8 Pro.
I would also like to add that despite having a higher refresh rate, the iQOO Neo 3 isn’t unsusceptible to display smearing. As you can see here in this image (or check the review video at the start of this article), the display on the iQOO models smears a bit. So the OnePlus 8 Pro does a better job in the display department.
In addition to better visuals, gamers should also be interested in the sound output of a smartphone during gaming. Both phones come with dual speakers for creating stereo audio. But here we would like to give credit to the OnePlus 8 Pro, it sounds much better, no matter for music or gaming. But the Neo 3 has 3.5mm earphone jack, so if you are going to take the Neo 3, make sure to use your wired headphone to experience better sound quality.
OnePlus 8 Pro vs iQOO Neo 3: Benchmark Performance
Before we move on to the actual gaming test, let’s run some typical benchmark apps. In 3Dmark, the iQOO Neo 3 takes the lead and the result is closer to Redmagic 5G that we’ve tested before. And 7207 point for the OnePlus 8 Pro was also good enough for a Snapdragon-865 model. And the results in Geekbench 5 is similar to what we got in 3Dmark. The iQOO model still takes the lead in both single-core and multi-core test but there is a small gap between them. In the Antutu benchmark, the overall score of the Neo 3 is also a bit higher than the OnePlus 8 Pro but the GPU test tells us there should be a very small gap in their gaming performance.
But are they really close to each other when we actually play games? Of course not.
OnePlus 8 Pro vs iQOO Neo 3: Gaming
In the actual gaming test, the better display quality of the OnePlus 8 Pro will naturally provide better image quality including better resolution and better colors. So when it comes to gameplay, it was really fun to play games on the OnePlus 8 Pro.
When you consider Android games supporting high framerates like 120fps or even higher, all I can tell you is that there are only a few popular games that allow you to fully use the highest frame rate, whether its the OnePlus 8 Pro or the iQOO Neo 3.
Maybe you’ve already seen a list of 120fps android games on the internet. Then I have to say the list does not hold true for all high-refresh-rate smartphones – at least according to our test. The games mentioned in most lists were only able to run high at framerate on the iPad. We tested so many games on the list on both these phones, but hardly any game performed over 60fps.
On almost all games, the OnePlus model with snapdragon 865 handled graphics very well and was able to stably maintain 60 fps framerate. On the other hand, the iQOO Neo 3 sometimes was able to have up to 90fps framerate in certain games. For example, in shadow-gun legends, the Neo 3 could peak at 90fps over a short period but suddenly fell down to 60fps level. It seems that iQOO Neo 3’s system would allocate the CPU resources according to the phone temperature automatically. But we checked the CPU temperature and the hand-perceived heat and confirmed that it wasn’t really very high for the phone to throttle the CPU performance. So it was surprising to see the performance drop down on the iQOO Neo3 even without a significant rise in temperature.
And then we tested running the PUBG Mobile China version where we applied the highest graphic settings including HDR quality and 120fps mode on these two models. In the 30-min gaming test, the iQOO Neo 3 still got the problem of framerate reduction. The strategy used by the Neo 3 is more likely to maintain a stable framerate over a period while controlling the temperature well. So overall, although it could peak at 120fps, the average framerate for the Neo 3 only remained at 93.2fps. For the OnePlus 8 Pro, the result was better than expected. Though it fluctuated a lot during combat, the average framerate still remained at 104.9fps. 
And for OnePlus 8 Pro, there are two more Chinese games supporting 120fps. One is called Garena Speed Drifters, another one is Ace force. But neither of them is available on the Google Play store. For Garena Speed Drifters, the 8 Pro ran at an average of 116fps, but the game did not support high framerate for the Neo 3, so it only ran at 57fps on it. The FPS game Ace force, which is very similar to the PC game overwatch, could run at 109.8fps on the OnePlus 8 Pro, but only run at 58.95fps on the Neo 3 due to the framerate limitation. Note that now the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro can both run Fornite at 90fps!
And in the end, we did the stress test with the Nimian Legend. The Neo 3 was able to peak at 144fps framerate under simple scenarios and run at an average of 65.7fps, while the OnePlus 8 Pro met with frame limitation again and ran at 60fps maximum framerate. But the average framerate wasn’t bad at 57.7fps.
So there are still a lot of obstacles to pursue high framerate gaming experience on Android phones. Whether its 144Hz on the Neo 3 or the 120Hz on the OnePlus 8 Pro, both phones couldn’t fully unleash their power of the excellent displays and SOCs. It seems that game developers and phone manufacturers haven’t come to an agreement to provide the best mobile gaming experience for users yet in most games.
Although the OnePlus model achieved better performance in certain optimized games that were customized for higher framerate for the OnePlus 8 Pro, most of them were not available for global users. And the occasional heating issue on the OnePlus 8 Pro is also a negative factor for hardcore gamers.
As for iQOO Neo 3, the problem is more complicated. It often automatically cut down the performance to cool down the CPU. While this helped the phone stay cool most of the time, we also lost gaming performance as a result.
OnePlus 8 Pro vs iQOO Neo 3: Battery Life & Charging
In daily use, battery life and charging efficiency are also important for a gamer. As compared to most smartphones, the OnePlus 8 Pro generally consumed more power when the display was switched to the high-resolution and high-refresh-rate mode. In our 1-hour PUBG Mobile test, the OnePlus 8 Pro with the highest display options consumed 23% of power, while the iQOO neo 3 consumed around 20% in the 144Hz mode.
These two models feature a 4500mAh battery. In our 100% charging test, the OnePlus 8 Pro took 71 mins to fully charge with its 50W charger. And it only took 62 mins for the Neo 3 to finish the test. In addition to the tests we did, in daily use, the OnePlus 8 Pro sometimes gave me a feeling of battery anxiety as the premium display really consumed a lot of power.
So that’s it. There’s no doubt that the OnePlus 8 Pro has better gaming graphics and more stable performance. However, it doesn’t mean that the iQoo Neo 3 totally lost the competition. On the contrary, the Neo 3 achieved better cooling and also a higher peak frame rate during gameplay.
More importantly, iQOO Neo 3 is a LOT cheaper! Just imagine you’re able to pay half price of the OnePlus 8 Pro to get similar gaming experience.
So if you are looking for a gaming smartphone but don’t want to spend a lot of money, the iQOO Neo3 is a very good option. The OnePlus 8 Pro offers a slightly better gaming experience and is definitely more feature-rich too. So if you have the money, you’ll not be disappointed with OnePlus 8 Pro’s gaming performance either.
