A Xiaomi Mi 11 vs. iQOO 7 benchmarking video may be an early hint of overheating issues with the Snapdragon 888 SoC

The iQOO 7 is the world's second Snapdragon 888 phone, beaten to launch only by the Mi 11. The latest Xiaomi flagship is the more expensive, yet better-selling, of the two in their initial market of China thus far. The iQOO might be the faster, though, as it has beaten its rival in the AnTuTu benchmark in leaks prior to its launch.

A new video by the YouTube reviewer Frankie Tech (or Frankie Herrera) seems to bear that out: the 7 was seen to achieve scores of nearly 730,000 in this test, compared to the vlogger's Mi 11 unit's ~677,000.

However, when Herrera went to check this further in a "throttle test", (in which both devices run the benchmark several times over until one drops in scores due to an increase in heat) the situation got a little more complicated.

The phones underwent 2 more runs of AnTuTu on end, after which the iQOO 7 maintained its lead over the Mi 11. However, the final scores dropped in both cases, and the Xiaomi flagship's temperature was found to have shot up to a maximum of 54°C, whereas the 7 went up to 48°C.

However, when the Hong Kong-based tester went to repeat the benchmark a third time, the iQOO phone's fortunes changed dramatically. AnTuTu's app displayed a notification indicating that the phone had become too hot to run the test, then proceeded to force-close on the phone.

The Mi 11, on the other hand, managed to complete the round, although its score had dropped to about 624,000. In addition, its temperature was reported at up to 57°C. Therefore, it seems the main common element here - the 888 - is susceptible to thermal throttling.

On the other hand, this process could hardly be called scientific: for example, it would ideally be repeated at least a few times before drawing a conclusion. In addition, it is not really that surprising that the Mi 11 seems to be slower, as its SoC drives a QHD+ display as opposed to FHD+ in the iQOO 7.

Nevertheless, further benchmarking tests involving Snapdragon 888-powered phones, the Xiaomi and iQOO flagships included, would be interesting to see. In addition, their new or imminent competitors might have better thermal management solutions. At this point in time, they consist of the graphene-equipped non-Exynos Galaxy S21 series (which launched on January 14, 2021) and the Vivo X60 Pro+ (set to debut on January 21).

The iQOO 7 8GB RAM version: on Amazon already!