iQOO 7 Legend or OnePlus 9R? Which is the best of the two?
The OnePlus 9 series had a good start this year with all three products with the OnePlus 9R (Review) being the most affordable and all-rounder smartphone under Rs.40000. There is also the OnePlus 9 and the OnePlus 9 Pro of which the OnePlus 9 was not well received as it had a plastic frame, no OIS for the main camera, and had some heating issues, so the OnePlus 9R makes the better sense.
On the other hand, iQOO, a sub-brand of Vivo started as a younger brand in 2019 and with the iQOO 7 series, the company received a huge amount of success where the iQOO 7 Legend packs in everything that a flagship smartphone has as it has the flagship 2021 Snapdragon 888 chipset, a 120Hz AMOLED display, proper triple camera setup, 67W fast charging and also has an eye-catchy design.
We do also have other options like the Xiaomi Mi 11X Pro in the same price category that also has almost all the features that both these smartphones offer. So has OnePlus done the homework to make their product a successful one in the market or will iQOO take away the honors for being the best value flagship that money can buy under Rs.40000? Let’s find out in the full comparison.
OnePlus 9R vs iQOO 7 Legend Design:
In terms of design, the iQOO 7 Legend has a unique and eye-catchy design with a matte-finished back that has three long strips of red, blue, and black running with the “Fascination Meets Design” logo is present as iQOO has partnered with BMW for the design. The camera module is rectangular with triple cameras on the first half whereas the lower half has a glossy finish with an LED flashlight and iQOO logo.
The iQOO 7 Legend is available in this single color only. The OnePlus 9R, on the other hand, has a very simplistic design with no such lines or flashy design as you have a matte finish with two colors available – Carbon Black and Lake Blue. The OnePlus 9R has a rectangular setup that includes quad cameras with an LED flashlight.
The camera module is also slightly protruded compared to the iQOO 7 Legend which is felt while keeping on a flat surface. In terms of protection, the OnePlus 9R has Gorilla Glass 5 both on the front as well as back whereas iQOO 7 Legend has Schott Xensation glass protection on the front and the back has Gorilla Glass 5 for protection.
The OnePlus 9R weighs around 189grams which makes it lighter compared to the 210grams weight of the iQOO 7 Legend. To the sides, both have a power button with volume buttons but the OnePlus 9R gets the alert slider for switching between sound profiles. At the bottom, both have a USB Type-C port, a loudspeaker grille, a primary microphone, and a dual SIM card slot.
Neither of them has support for microSD cards for storage expansion but still, you are getting 128GB as base storage on both. There is also no 3.5mm headphone jack on either of these and no IP rating but both have P2i coating which makes them splash resistant. On the top, both have a secondary noise-canceling microphone only.
On the front, both have punch-hole displays at the top where iQOO 7 Legend has it at the center, the OnePlus 9R gets it to the left side. Both have minimum bezels to the sides and are great-looking smartphones. Overall, in terms of looks and design, it is a subjective choice whether you want that eye-catching design of iQOO or the simplistic design of OnePlus but in terms of ergonomics, the OnePlus 9R is better.
OnePlus 9R vs iQOO 7 Legend Display:
On the front, as said above, both have punch-hole displays with the iQOO 7 Legend having the larger display at 6.62-inches compared to the 6.55-inches display on the OnePlus 9R. Both have Full HD+ (1080×2400 pixels) Super AMOLED panels which also have a 120Hz refresh rate on both. The 120Hz display on both makes multi-tasking smoother and scrolling feels faster on both.
However, with the iQOO 7 Legend, there is a Smart Switch mode also where if you set that option, the display will automatically switch to standard 60Hz or smooth 120Hz depending on the application in use. The OnePlus 9R, on the other hand, has two options to switch to smooth 120Hz or standard 60Hz only. However, both do not have an adaptive refresh rate which is present on the Xiaomi Mi 11X Pro.
The iQOO 7 Legend has a massive 300Hz touch sampling rate and this can go as high as 1000Hz during gaming whereas, on the OnePlus 9R, we have a 240Hz touch sampling rate which you can instantly know during gaming. There is no frame interpolation like the iQOO 7 on the iQOO 7 Legend but you do get pressure-sensitive buttons for playing games smoothly.
Since both these displays are AMOLED, the viewing angles and color reproduction is really good on both but the display on the iQOO 7 Legend has some green tint issues which is not the case with the OnePlus 9R. In terms of brightness, the iQOO 7 Legend can go as high as 1300nits under direct sunlight whereas the OnePlus 9R achieves 1100nits of brightness.
In HDR videos, the brightness of the OnePlus 9R was well controlled compared to the iQOO 7 Legend which had slightly inconsistent colors. Both have HDR and Widevine L1 support, so streaming HD content from OTT platforms is a breeze. However, Netflix can run in HDR on the OnePlus 9R whereas it is restricted to HD on the iQOO 7 Legend and maybe iQOO fixes this in a future software update.
Since both these smartphones have an AMOLED panel, there is an optical in-display fingerprint scanner on both which is accurate and fast. The position of the fingerprint scanner on the OnePlus 9R is positioned well but it is slightly lower on the iQOO 7 Legend to the bottom. Overall, for media consumption definitely, both are very good and you can go for either of these.
OnePlus 9R vs iQOO 7 Legend Performance:
When it comes to performance, the iQOO 7 Legend steals the deal with the Snapdragon 888 chipset which is the flagship chipset from Qualcomm in the year 2021 and we have seen this flagship chipset in many other smartphones like the Xiaomi Mi 11X Pro, OnePlus 9, etc. The OnePlus 9R, on the other hand, has the Snapdragon 870 chipset which is an upgraded chipset over the Snapdragon 865 of last year.
The Snapdragon 888 is based on a tri-cluster setup that has 1×2.84 GHz Kryo 685 Cortex-X1 core and 3×2.42 GHz Kryo 685 Cortex-A78 cores and another 4×1.8 GHz Kryo 685 Cortex-A55 cores coupled with Adreno 660 GPU is built on a 5nm process. The Snapdragon 870 has 1×3.2 GHz Kryo 585 Cortex-A77 cores with 3×2.42GHz Kryo 585 Cortex-77 cor and another 4×1.8GHz Kryo 585 Cortex-A55 cores.
The Snapdragon 870 has the Adreno 650 GPU which is built on a 7nm process so clearly, in terms of efficiency, the Snapdragon 888 is ahead. Also, raw performance should be better on the iQOO 7 Legend compared to the OnePlus 9R due to the more powerful chipset underneath. But in terms of daily usage with all the casual apps, both were excellent and could handle the toughest of all tasks.
When it comes to heavy tasks like video rendering, loading of heavy games, the iQOO 7 Legend is slightly faster but in all other activities like switching between applications, scrolling through webpages, and playing games, both were equally good. In heavy games like Call Of Duty Mobile, BGMI, both ran at the highest graphics and maximum frame rates and there was no stutter or lag at all on both.
The iQOO 7 Legend does come with pressure-sensitive buttons to map different controls on the display during gaming and there is no such feature on the OnePlus 9R. After a longer hour of gaming, the back of the iQOO 7 Legend did not felt warmer much especially due to the large vapor chamber cooling system whereas the OnePlus 9R did feel warmer after gaming.
In terms of benchmarks like Antutu v8, Geekbench 5.1, the iQOO 7 Legend scored higher compared to the OnePlus 9R but when it comes to CPU throttling tests, the OnePlus 9R maintained a stable performance whereas the iQOO 7 Legend had throttled. Both smartphones are available in two variants – 8/12GB RAM and 128/256GB storage of UFS 3.1 speeds.
The haptic feedback is slightly better on the iQOO 7 Legend compared to the OnePlus 9R as iQOO has provided a “4D Vibration Motor”. So overall performance and gaming are definitely better on the iQOO 7 Legend due to the powerful Snapdragon 888 chipset but in terms of all activities, both are equally good.
OnePlus 9R vs iQOO 7 Legend Software:
In terms of software experience, both have Android 11 out of the box but both run on their respective custom skins where the OnePlus 9R has the OxygenOS, the iQOO 7 Legend runs on FuntouchOS. When you compare both the software, definitely OxygenOS feels smooth and looks much cleaner than FuntouchOS as there are no third-party applications present and also no ads present.
The FuntouchOS 11.3 on the iQOO 7 Legend has a lot of third-party applications pre-installed like MX Takatak, Moj, Dailyhunt, etc. that push in a lot of notifications and the V-app store throws in a lot of notifications which clutter the software experience. However, these applications can be uninstalled but still, the OnePlus 9R is cleaner with no notifications, and only one third-party app Netflix is present.
There are the system-wide dark mode, navigation gestures, Digital Wellbeing, and all Android 11 features on both of them and a lot of features where you can set the icon shape and size, layout, color, and also different styles for the Ambient display. In terms of software updates, the OnePlus 9R edges ahead of the iQOO 7 Legend as the former will get three years of OS updates and four years of security updates.
The latter will get two years of OS updates and three years of security updates. The latest merger of OnePlus with Oppo has improved the software update lifecycle policy. If you are fine with FuntouchOS, then iQOO 7 Legend is good, or else the overall software experience is better on the OnePlus 9R.
OnePlus 9R vs iQOO 7 Legend Cameras:
The OnePlus 9R has a quad-camera setup that sports a 48MP f/1.7 Sony IMX586 sensor for the main camera, a 16MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, a 5MP macro camera, and a 2MP monochrome sensor. The iQOO 7 Legend, on the other hand, has a triple camera setup consists of a 48MP f/1.8 Sony IMX598 sensor for the main camera, a 13MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, and a 13MP f/2.5 telephoto camera.
The telephoto camera can do 2x zoom. The front camera on the OnePlus 9R and the iQOO 7 Legend is the 16MP selfie camera. The images from the main camera on the iQOO 7 Legend come out with sharper details and very little noise compared to the images from the OnePlus 9R. The color saturation is also close to natural on the iQOO 7 Legend whereas the OnePlus 9R has very dull-looking colors.
iQOO 7 Legend
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
OnePlus 9R
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
The dynamic range is better on the iQOO 7 Legend but there is a tendency to boost colors in certain situations whereas the OnePlus 9R maintains consistent color science. At night, the images from the iQOO 7 Legend have many more sharp details with good exposure and contrast in the background. And this newer Sony IMX598 sensor completely beats the Sony IMX586 sensor on the OnePlus 9R.
Without Night Mode:
iQOO 7 Legend
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
OnePlus 9R
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
With Night Mode:
iQOO 7 Legend
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
OnePlus 9R
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
The images at night come out with better dynamic range and the noise is also on the lower side compared to the OnePlus 9R. The OnePlus 9R tends to overexpose background more and the colors just cannot match the saturation level of the iQOO 7 Legend. With the dedicated Night Mode, the OnePlus 9R does improve in terms of dynamic range and reduces noise but it cannot match up against the iQOO 7 Legend.
The OnePlus 9R has a slightly larger 16MP ultrawide camera with a larger field of view compared to the 13MP ultrawide camera on the iQOO 7 Legend. The ultrawide camera on the OnePlus 9R captures more details and they have sharper details with good dynamic range but color saturation is better on the iQOO 7 Legend and also the contrast is better than the OnePlus 9R.
iQOO 7 Legend
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
OnePlus 9R
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
At night, both these ultrawide cameras do a nice job in capturing details with good dynamic range but the noise is slightly lesser on the OnePlus 9R compared to the iQOO 7 Legend. The iQOO 7 Legend takes images with better color saturation and with the dedicated Night Mode, iQOO 7 Legend outperforms the OnePlus 9R in terms of dynamic range and lesser noise.
iQOO 7 Legend
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
OnePlus 9R
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
The iQOO 7 Legend also has a 13MP telephoto camera that can 2x optical zoom and the images have sharper details and good dynamic range whereas the OnePlus 9R does not have a telephoto camera and the main camera can only do 2x digital zoom. The images from both at 2x come out good but there is slightly more noise in the images taken by the OnePlus 9R and color saturation is also not as good as the iQOO 7 Legend.
iQOO 7 Legend
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
OnePlus 9R
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
The 2x zoom images taken from both smartphones have a large amount of noise but the iQOO 7 Legend has better and sharper-looking details and also the third camera gets the dedicated Night Mode. The images from the OnePlus 9R struggle in low-light situations with dull colors and a lot of noise in the background.
The third camera on the OnePlus 9R is a 5MP f/2.4 macro camera that takes images as close as 3cm but has a fixed focal length so as a result, the images have a large amount of noise with slightly more noise, and colors look washed out. The iQOO 7 Legend uses the ultrawide camera for macro shots where it can be as close as 2cm and you adjust it and the macro images have better dynamic range.
The portraits come out with better details and dynamic range on the iQOO 7 Legend and it also has better edge detection compared to the OnePlus 9R. The OnePlus 9R, on the other hand, has the better background blur wherein the iQOO 7 Legend the background blur is applied sometimes and the color saturation is not natural as on the OnePlus 9R.
In terms of selfies, the iQOO 7 Legend with the 16MP camera has a better dynamic range and sharper details compared to the OnePlus 9R which also gets the same 16MP camera, and the selfies from it come out with a lot of noise and there is some overexposure in the background. However, the skin tones look natural compared to the iQOO 7 Legend that does apply some skin smoothening by default.
The portrait selfies come out with better details and dynamic range on the iQOO 7 Legend compared to the OnePlus 9R. In terms of videos, the 4K videos at 60fps come out with good dynamic range on both but the color saturation and details are sharper on the iQOO 7 Legend. However, there is a lot of shakiness in the videos of the iQOO 7 Legend as OIS only kicks at 4K at 30fps.
The OnePlus 9R has much more stabilized videos as OIS works perfectly well so there is very little noise compared to the iQOO 7 Legend. The 4K videos at 30fps are better on the iQOO 7 Legend with better dynamic range and sharper details compared to the OnePlus 9R. The ultrawide camera is restricted to 1080p at 60fps on the iQOO 7 Legend whereas the OnePlus 9R can do 4K videos at 30fps.
The video footage on the ultrawide camera of the iQOO 7 Legend has slight distortion and also more noise compared to the OnePlus 9R which in fact has better dynamic range and also the color saturation was slightly natural compared to a lot of overexposure in the background on the iQOO 7 Legend. The iQOO 7 legend had spruced up the color saturation though.
The telephoto camera videos come out better on the iQOO 7 Legend as details are sharper compared to the OnePlus 9R. The front camera videos come out with better details and dynamic range on the iQOO 7 Legend and also in portraits, there is no oversharpening in the background as found on the OnePlus 9R. The OnePlus 9R has better edge detection and also the natural color of the two.
So overall the cameras feel better on the iQOO 7 Legend compared to the OnePlus 9R but when it comes to videos, the OnePlus 9R does hold the edge.
OnePlus 9R vs iQOO 7 Legend Battery Life:
The OnePlus 9R sports a 4500mAh battery which is slightly larger than the 4000mAh battery on the iQOO 7 Legend. So with heavy usage, both smartphones easily lasted for a single day with the display set at 120Hz and if switched to standard 60Hz, the smartphones lasted for more than a day. With normal usage, both can easily last for two days with the OnePlus 9R providing better battery life.
The standard screen on time was around 7-7.5 hours on the OnePlus 9R whereas on the iQOO 7 Legend you get around 6-6.5 hours and this is due to also the slight overheating of the Snapdragon 888 chipset that drains the battery slightly faster. OxygenOS is well optimized compared to FunTouchOS for battery life also.
In terms of charging speeds, the iQOO 7 Legend has support for 67W fast charging and the OnePlus 9R supports 65W fast charging. The iQOO 7 Legend charges from 0 to 100 percent within 35 minutes whereas the OnePlus 9R takes around 45 minutes for a full charge and it takes around 10 minutes extra since it charges a larger 4500mAh battery compared to the 4000mAh battery on the iQOO 7 Legend.
So definitely, the battery life and charging speeds are great on the OnePlus 9R over the iQOO 7 Legend.
OnePlus 9R vs iQOO 7 Legend Audio Quality:
Both have dual stereo speakers where the loudspeaker grille and the earpiece double up together for sound and the sound on the OnePlus 9R is slightly better than the iQOO 7 Legend in terms of bass level and the volume at the highest level feels louder on the OnePlus 9R. Both do miss out on a 3.5mm headphone jack though. There is also Dolby Atmos on both but the OnePlus 9R has the better audio quality of the two.
Verdict:
Overall both of these are great smartphones and pack in the best features to make consumers go for them. The iQOO 7 Legend is a great product made by team iQOO as it packs in some very great features like a 120Hz AMOLED display, an eye-catching design, a powerful Snapdragon 888 chipset, a great set of cameras, and also has good battery life with fast charging making itself a good all-rounder.
The OnePlus 9R, on the other hand, makes for a good option as it packs some very good specifications like a 120Hz AMOLED display, premium build and design, great audio quality, Snapdragon 870 chipset, excellent software experience in the form of OxygenOS which is by far the cleanest user interface out there. The battery life and fast charging are some excellent things for it.
However, there are places where the iQOO 7 Legend does fall short like the software wherein you get FuntouchOS which has a lot of bloatware present, the AMOLED display has some green tint issues, and the Snapdragon 888 does have some heating issues which do result in battery drain at times. This is where the OnePlus 9R makes sense as the Snapdragon 870 though being less powerful does have good stable performance.
The OnePlus 9R with its OxygenOS provides the premium software experience with no bloatware and notifications and also the battery life is excellent. But it does struggle in terms of camera performance where the images simply cannot match up the cameras on the iQOO 7 Legend and in terms of gaming, the iQOO 7 Legend is better with a powerful chipset and does provide pressure-sensitive buttons.
So it all depends on personal preference if you want a smartphone for an eye-catching design, gaming, and cameras, the iQOO 7 Legend is a great smartphone to be considered but if you want a simple and premium design, software experience being the highest priority, good performance and gaming, good battery life, great audio quality and not much inclined towards cameras, then the OnePlus 9R is a perfect choice.