iQoo 3 review
iQoo is the newest smartphone brand to enter the Indian market. While most companies enter the new market to occupy the budget segment-first, iQoo has come up in India with a different plan in contrast. The company made its debut in India with the iQoo 3, which is a premium smartphone and comes with some robust hardware. For example, Iku 3 includes Qualcomm's most powerful processor Snapdragon 865. Not only this, but the top-end model of iQoo 3 also comes with 5G connectivity support. However, this is currently only good for appearances, as the 5G network is not available in India at this time. The starting price of the smartphone is Rs 36,990 and if you look at the specification of iQoo 3 on paper, this price does not feel much. Should you put your money on this new player? We are reviewing the device to find out.
iQoo 3 Design
When we first saw iQoo 3, we were quite happy with its build. With a weight of 214.5 grams, it certainly feels heavy, but also premium. It has a 6.44-inch AMOLED display. It has a small hole-punch cutout for the selfie camera. There are extremely thin bezels around the display.
The earpiece is set on the frame of iQoo 3, which is difficult to find at a glance. The phone includes a metal frame, which gives the device a premium look. The power and volume buttons are on the right side of the device and are set up very well. It is not difficult to reach the thumb. The power button comes in an orange finish.
iQoo has also given capacitive shoulder buttons on the right side of the frame. These are set in such a way that you can use them while keeping the phone in a landscape manner while gaming. There is a smart button to the left of iQoo 3 which can be used to access Google Assistant. This phone has a 3.5mm audio jack on the top, while the bottom has a USB Type-C port and loudspeaker.
The rear panel of the device comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 6 protection, which will protect the phone from minor scratches in everyday use. iQoo has introduced this smartphone in a choice of three colors - Tornado Black, Quantum Silver, and Volkeno Orange. Our review unit was in the Tornado Black variant color, but we liked the Volcano Orange finish quite a lot because it looks different from the common color.
The iQoo 3 has a quad-camera setup at the back. The camera module looks similar to most smartphones nowadays. The iQoo 3 has a 4,440 mAh battery and the good thing is that the phone's box has a 55 watt "super flash charge" charger, which helps in quick charging the device.
iQoo 3 specifications and software
Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset has been given in Iku 3. It is by far the most powerful chipset in Android smartphones, with one core operating at 2.8 GHz, three cores at 2.4 GHz, and the other four cores operating at 1.8 GHz clock speed.
iQoo has launched three variants of iQoo 3 in the Indian market. The base variant has 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage and is priced at Rs 36,990. Its second variant has 256 GB storage with 8 GB RAM, which costs Rs 39,990. The phone also has a 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage variants, which supports 5G. Its price in India is Rs 44,990. All variants of iQoo 3 include UFS 3.1 storage and LPDDR5 RAM.
The smartphone features a 6.44-inch full-HD + AMOLED display, which comes with 409ppi pixel density and HDR10 + support. The iQoo display features Schott Xensation UP glass for safety and comes with a 91.4 percent screen-to-body ratio.
Connectivity options on the iQoo 3 include 5G (top variant only), Dual 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 5.1, GPS, and GLONASS. It has a 4,440 mAh capacity battery, which supports 55 watts fast charging and a 55W super flash charge charger is also available in the phone box. The charger has a pill-shaped 90-degree folded connector and iQoo claims that it allows charging the smartphone during gaming.
Come into the software. iQoo 3 comes with iQoo UI 1.0 based on Android 10. We liked its user interface, as it is very easy to operate and is also simple to see.
iQoo's UI does not have an app drawer and all icons appear on the home screen. It does not hurt much when used with one hand. There are also many customization options available on iQoo. You can choose different animations for lock screen, fingerprint, and facial recognition. This phone also has an Always-on display feature.
Users also have the option to choose between a three-button navigation layout and swipe gestures. This feature is convenient to use and iQoo has also added a quick launch gesture to it, which comes in hold back by Skype. Vivo's Smart Assistant Jovi is also present on the device.
Android 10 features like digital wellbeing and parental control are also available. iQoo 3 has a monster mode, which instantly increases CPU performance and turns off all power-saving options. This feature also changes the theme of the smartphone. It also has Ultra Game Mode, which starts all the gaming features of the smartphone as soon as it is turned on.
iQoo 3 comes with bloatware like Hello, Dailyhunt, Flipkart, Facebook, WPS Office, Amazon Shopping, and Opera. The device also has its own App Store, called V-Appstore. Explain that if you launch apps like Dailyhunt and Hello, then spam notifications start coming. If you do not want to use these apps then we will advise you to remove them.
iQoo 3 performance, battery life
The 60k refresh rate panel has been given in the display of Iku 3. Nevertheless, its color production is very good. The viewing angles of the panel are good and it performs quite well even in the sun. There are three color modes to choose from and you can also tweak the color temperature. The iQoo 3 display has a small hole-punch, but it won't disturb you while watching content. However, we were not happy with iQoo 3's loudspeaker. It lacks stereo output and makes very little noise to our liking of the speaker.
Along with the in-display fingerprint scanner, it also has a Face Unlock feature, which is fast and accurate. We did not see any kind of problem in it while playing apps or games. Because we had 12 GB RAM variants, multitasking also felt like butter.
We saw PUBG Mobile and Asphalt 9: Legends playing in it. Both games ran on high settings and we did not feel any kind of lag or frame skipping during the entire gaming. We also tested the gaming trigger while playing PUBG Mobile. We found it to be quite useful for pubs' enthusiasts.
You will be happy to know that iQoo 3 gives good battery life. In our HD video loop test, this phone managed to run for 19 hours and 13 minutes. With regular usage, this phone can last about one and a half days without any problem. In our charging test, the iQoo 3 took 30 minutes to charge 78 percent and took about 50 minutes to fully charge. A five-minute short charge was able to deliver 16 percent of the smartphone which is impressive. If some people compare it to Realme X50 Pro 5G, then tell that the phone takes less than iQoo 3 to be 100 percent charged, but the thing to note is that the 65W charger comes with the Realme phone and it has 4,200 mAh. Has a small battery.
iQoo 3 cameras
The back of the iQoo 3 comes with a quad-camera module, which reminds us of the Vivo V17. The primary camera has a 48-megapixel Sony IMX582 sensor with F / 1.79 aperture and the secondary camera has a 13-megapixel telephoto sensor with F / 2.46 aperture, which supports 2x optical zoom and 20X digital zoom. The other two cameras feature a 13-megapixel wide-angle lens with an f / 2.2 aperture and a 2-megapixel depth sensor with an f / 2.4 aperture. The camera app is similar to the one found in Vivo's smartphone.
The iQoo 3's camera setup locks focus quickly and its AI can easily detect which subject the camera of the phone is looking to focus on. Apart from this, the camera also suggests which camera would be right to use for taking a particular shot. In daylight, the smartphone captures the light correctly. Photos taken in broad daylight are good, but the color tone faded slightly in some photos.
There is no lack of detail in most of the photos when zoomed in, photographs are seen in grains (fine grain). Switching to a wide-angle camera reduces the quality of photos and distortion appears at the edges. We also saw that the color tone in the photos also diverges slightly from the original. The telephoto camera supports 2x optical zoom and, like the primary camera, it can take some good pictures.
Close-up shots with the primary camera were good. The smartphone creates a natural depth effect between the subject and the background. You can also take macro shots with the iQoo 3 by switching to a wide-angle camera. Macro shots get good detail and iQoo 3 also lets you take pictures very close to the subject.
Portrait shots are also good on the phone. The phone gives you the option to set the level of blur before taking a shot, but there is a slight lack of detail compared to other smartphones in this price range.
In low light, the camera's performance tends to be below average and we also saw a lack of detail in the photos. Switching to night mode makes little difference to photos. However, the phone's camera performs a bit better in areas of light shade as opposed to full darkness. The exposure is also good with detail in the photos.
The selfie was taken with the iQoo3 also looked better. Focus is fast and the smartphone applies beautification by default. When shooting in light, the smartphone automatically enables HDR, which helps to deliver better output.
Talking about video recording, it can record 4K video with a maximum 60fps from the primary back camera and 1080p resolution at 60fps with a selfie camera. In the daylight, we saw a slight flicker in the video. It also has a super steady mode. However, even after using it, there is a slight vibration in the video. Video footage is poor in low light, but the Super Steady mode improves the video to some extent.
Verdict
The iQoo 3 is the first smartphone of this new brand in India and comes with some powerful hardware. The phone has a Snapdragon 865 chipset and includes support for UFS 3.1 storage. Both these combinations appear in very few smartphones. The phone also has a 5G connectivity variant, if you take the top variant and spend Rs 44,990. However 5G networks are not available in India at the moment, so you can also choose the below variants without any worries. However, in our review, we have tested only 5G variants with 12 GB RAM.
The software of Iku 3 is good. It gets even better though when the bloatware involved is removed. Although the camera felt lighter on many occasions. Apart from its camera performance, iQoo 3 did not give us a chance to complain.
0 Comments
if you have any doubts, Please let me know