Just recently, Realme launched the Realme X7 Max with a Dimensity 1200 chip, a first in India. Now, we have yet another phone using a new chip. The new iQOO Z3 5G is the first phone in India with a Snapdragon 768G SoC. So, I decided to put it through its paces to find out how it fares against two of the most powerful chips under Rs 25,000 – the Snapdragon 860 and the Snapdragon 750G.
I have consciously avoided bringing the Exynos 9825 and the Snapdragon 865 because both are really old, and the Realme X3 and iQOO 3 with SD865 are currently all sold out. Also, I have a video on Exynos’ serious throttling issues on the Galaxy F62, do check it out.
Table of Contents
Geekbench
We started off by testing Geekbench on all the three phones. As expected, the Poco X3 Pro with Snapdragon 860 comes out on top with the best single core and multi core scores. The iQOO Z3 5G with 765G comes in second with a very respectable score as well followed by the Mi 10i with Snapdragon 750G. In fact, I must mention here that these scores of the Mi 10i could also be indicative of the performance that we can expect from the upcoming OnePlus Nord CE 5G, which is expected to use the same chip.
AnTuTu
Next, we moved on to AnTuTu v9, which is a slightly more holistic test – which takes into account the CPU, GPU, and Memory or RAM performance into account. Again, the SD860 shows its might here. It is by far the most powerful phone of the three. It managed a score of over 5.7 lakh as opposed to the 4.5 lakh odd achieved by the iQOO Z3 5G with SD 768G. The SD750G is definitely lagging behind now. Note that I didn’t run back to back AnTuTu tests because we have specialised stress tests for you…
| iQOO Z3 (SD768G) | Mi 11i (SD750G) | Poco X3 Pro (SD860) | |
| Geekbench Single Core | 707 | 658 | 759 |
| Geekbench Multi Core | 2027 | 2004 | 2702 |
| AnTuTu | 453834 | 388464 | 572054 |
| CPU Throttle | 85 | 81 | 63 |
| 3DMark Stress Test | 99.5 | 99.5 | 97.8 |
| 3DMark Stress Test Temp | 40 | 40 | 47 |
| 3DMark Stress Test Battery Drop | 7% | 5% | 9% |
CPU Throttle
..starting with CPU Throttle. And, this is where you realise that despite all the power offered by the SD860, there is significant throttling after 30 minutes of continuous run. You can see that the 768G doesn’t throttle as much, nor does the 750G on the Mi 10i.
3DMark Stress Test
While we saw how the CPU throttled in the three chips, let’s check how the GPUs function under stress. For this we use the 3DMark Stress Test, which plays a graphics laden sequence on loop. With respect to stability, the 768G and the 750G were on par. And, no surprises there really. The X3 Pro with the SD860 had a slightly lower stability score. But, at 97.8%, it is not too bad really. However, the POCO X3 Pro touched 47 degrees where the Z3 5G and the Mi 10i were at 40. I did feel the heat too. As for the battery drop, the Poco X3 had the most with 9% drop in 20 minutes but that’s fine really considering the amount of power on offer. Overall, the GPU performance is the best on the Poco X3 Pro. But, we shall confirm that in our real world gaming test.
Real World Gaming – COD: Mobile for 20 Minutes
In our real world gaming test, I played 20 minutes of Call of Duty: Mobile on all three phones, starting with the Mi 10i first. The Mi 10i could play the game at High Graphics and Max FPS. I did notice some frame drops occasionally and the phone did get pretty warm. In fact, it was the hottest of the three. I moved to the Poco X3 Pro next, which can actually play the game at Very High graphics and Max FPS. But, I pulled it down to High graphics to maintain parity. The Poco X3 Pro was just gliding through the game. I was landing more headshots and my gameplay was generally better just because the phone was so powerful. It didn’t get too hot either.
I finished this round of testing with the iQOO Z3 5G with Snapdragon 768G and it maxed out at Max FPS and High Graphics too. However, there were fewer frame drops compared to the 750G. Although, I must say this, the iQOO Z3’s oleophobic coating is extremely average and I had the “oily finger” problem while touching its screen. Not a fan. Plus the display doesn’t get too bright either.
That said, as you can see in this final chart here, the iQOO Z3 ran the coolest and lost the least battery in our real world testing as well. In general, iQOO’s performance optimization with FunTouch OS is generally more stable than MIUI on many phones, including the Poco X3 Pro and the Mi 10i here. Regardless, I’d easily pick the Poco X3 Pro with Snapdragon 860 as the best gaming phone under Rs 25,000.
How Powerful is the Snapdragon 768G?
It is evident that the Poco X3 Pro with Snapdragon 860 is still the most powerful phone out there, especially for gaming. Yes, MIUI tends to throttle CPU performance sometimes. But, when you want extra grunt in your favourite games, the SD860’s GPU is the way to go. But, the Snapdragon 768G is no slouch. It is easily the second most powerful chip in this price range. And, you also get support for 5G along with it. And, that makes the iQOO Z3 future proof for sure. For those who want to know, you get support for two bands N77 and N78.
As for the Snapdragon 750G, it still has a lot of grunt but there are newer better chips coming in now. Which begs the question? Why is OnePlus launching a phone with Snapdragon 750G now? It doesn’t make any sense. In most cases, OnePlus is always at the top of the SoC launch cycle. Even with the Snapdragon 765, the Nord was one of the first few phones to have it. Seems like a smart decision by OnePlus to make a killing. Anyway, more on that in our Nord CE 5G review.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.
