iQOO, a sub-brand company under the Vivo group has recently forayed into the Indian market with its mightier iQOO 3 5G smartphone. This idea of breaking away from the clutches of the parent company has created some astounding results in the past, as evident by established brands such as Realme who broke away from Oppo a few years back.
The company’s very first smartphone banks on the development of the 5G network, which at the time is still in a very nascent stage right now. The smartphone marks some remarkable specs for its debut which shows to tell the company’s ideology to objectify its stand as a cutting-edge smartphone brand with the ability to bring such technology to the masses. Well, we recently had a chance to get a good look at this device and test out the benchmark claims made by the company.
Design and display
The design language followed by iQOO 3 looks rather bland with its shiny glass back and side-mounted L-shaped camera setup, similar to the Galaxy A51 we reviewed earlier. The paint scheme is a dual colour finish called Tornado Black which subtlety shifts between black and purple in daylight. The dimensions are a bit bulky and cumbersome which is surprising as this doesn’t have a massive battery pack underneath. Furthermore, this odd design carries a raised top half which makes the device wobbly when placed on the back.
The button placement is ironic too, with a volume rocker and power button all present on the same side which amounts to some accidental pressed of the power button while reaching to adjust the volume. The right houses a dedicated AI-assistant key which can be customised to do numerous tasks with ease. The bottom side, on the other hand, is just a normal USB-C port with a speaker grill and a dual SIM port accompanying on the side with no option for expandable storage. To top this all off, there are two capacitive touch sensors on the left side that can be reprogrammed to any action within a game.
Speaking about the display, it packs a 6.44-inch Super AMOLED display with FHD+ resolution which for starters, boasts of stunning visuals and colour accurate representation. The display is largely capable of outdoor visibility as it peaks out a brightness level equivalent to 1200 nits and supports 100 per cent sRGB colour gamut. We found the display experience to be very pleasing as the colours were deeper and accurate at the same time. The gaming experience is satisfying too as the punch hole camera being the smallest one in the segment, never feels intruding at any point of time. The screen response rate clocked at 180Hz too helps to register the tiniest touch at a moment’s notice to help your gaming experience. The only con we noticed came through the refresh rate of the display which unlike its rivals is just kept at 60Hz.
Camera
The iQOO 3 camera setup includes a 48MP primary sensor with (f/1.8) aperture, a 13MP ultra-wide lens with an (f/2.4) aperture, a 13MP telephoto sensor with (f/2.2) aperture and a 2MP depth sensor on the back.
This overall setup produces results that are pretty great for outdoor conditions and action-packed scenarios. The images come out to be extremely crisp and detailed due to the presence of a dedicated UHD mode. The device handles colour calibration and exposure conditioning accurately to a point where the pictures come out to be dynamic and depth inducing.
As far as the Ultra-Wide lens go, the 123-degree field of view captures a lot of action in a single shot than what you get from the primary lens, however, this comes at the cost of a few details which it missed out on. This ultra-wide lens also doubles up as a macro lens to capture shots within a distance of 2.5cm. These shots were remarkable too but needed a steady hand to capture the intricate details without loosing out on the focus.
Where the daylight shots were astounding, the shots taken at night were passable too, as the Spectra 480 image signal processor rendered some pleasing-looking results. We hope the focus could be tuned in a bit better but a future update could fix this issue easily. Overall results during our varied lighting conditions yielded results that were satisfactory and as expected.
Talking about the 16MP (f/2.0) front-facing lens, it does a good job in capturing some solid-looking selfies. The device is also capable of recording 4K at 60 fps and slow-mo videos at 960fps with the Super Anti-Shake mode to obliterate any susceptible movement caused due to a user’s input.
Performance and Software
iQOO has equipped the smartphone with the latest piece of mobile computing platform with the Snapdragon 865 chipset. The smartphone stands the first in line to get this premium chipset available in India at this point. This chipset makes the iQOO 3 unbelievably fast clocking a score of 598,523 on AnTuTu chart while consuming 30 per cent less battery. Couple this with UFS 3.1 storage and LPDDR5 8/12 GB RAM, and you have a winner in your hand. Apps load faster and things are way smoother while using or navigating around the UI.
Gaming is central to the traits this smartphone possesses, with the high-end chipset running the entire show. Titles like COD Mobile, PUBG, Asphalt 8, Modern Combat ran at the max setting with a boot time coming in just a couple of seconds. This blazingly fast processing speed gives better fps and the 4D vibration shock feature makes the experience highly immersive. This entire setup makes for an ideal gaming experience, also we got heating issue while playing and PUBG crashed couple of times.
Apart from the performance of the chipset, the iQOO is highly secure with a face recognition software and an in-display fingerprint sensor that is fast and secure at the same time. The company also equipped the smartphone with Hi-Res audio setup to make your experience a better one. Coming to the iQOO UI that based on Android 10 operating system. We noticed a lot of improvement over the problem-ridden Vivo’s FunTouch UI. The quick action panel is segregated from the notification panel for more utility, settings are better labelled for accessibility, availability of system-wide dark mode, and a gaming mode that scraps all the useless things to give that little boost while gaming.
Battery
As mentioned earlier, the IQOO doesn’t boast a big battery under its bulky form factor. The device comes with a modest 4,450mAh battery pack which from our estimates would last around 8 – 10 hours of some intensive usage. However, the presence of the power-efficient Snapdragon 865 and 60Hz display meant the smartphone breezed through our daily use and lasted for over an entire day with 20 per cent still left to go. If this was not enough the company packs the industry-leading 55W fast charging technology which takes just 45 minutes to top off your battery from 0-100 per cent. We will recommend not to switch in 5G mode, as currently there is no 5G network but it will drain the battery faster.
Gizmo Verdict
The IQOO 3 is a promising smartphone in 2020 journey taken by smartphones. With some industry-leading specs and performance benchmarks, the smartphone throws a tough fight to the market leaders such as OnePlus and Samsung. The smartphone with its 5G support is undoubtedly a future proof option and we gladly laud the company’s effort to kick off the 5G revolution in India. Though we won’t be able to enjoy the benefits of 5G as of right now, it does symbolize the company’s ideology to pave a way towards a new future. Hence, despite its nominal quirks we highly recommend you take a look at this new smartphone if you are on the lookout for a flat-out gaming beast of a smartphone.
