Can this premium flagship from iQOO capture the market?
Vivo’s sub-brand iQOO has been an enthusiastic brand that primarily focuses on delivering smartphones that provide the best performance with a top-end gaming experience and all other flagship features at a much more affordable price. In 2020, the iQOO 3 was such a smartphone that delivered all the flagship specifications and was a huge success in the market.
Last year Vivo’s sub-brand iQOO has shaken up the premium mid-range segment as well as the budget flagship segment with the iQOO 7 series as both the iQOO 7 and the iQOO 7 Legend came with all the flagship specifications and had given serious competition to offerings from other smartphone companies like OnePlus, Samsung, Xiaomi, Realme, etc.
iQOO 9 series had a very good start this year as the brand has three new offerings in the form of iQOO 9 SE (Review), iQOO 9, and the flagship iQOO 9 Pro which has all the flagship specifications like a premium-looking build and design, a 120Hz AMOLED display, a segment-first ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, a powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen1 chipset, an excellent set of cameras with gimbal stabilization and 120W fast charging.
It seems like the iQOO 9 Pro seems to be the perfect premium flagship that the brand is aiming to make a strong foothold. So is the iQOO 9 Pro worth buying? Let’s find out in the full review.
iQOO 9 Pro Design:
The iQOO 9 Pro has a unique design at the back compared to many other smartphones as it draws a lot of similarities from its predecessor, the iQOO 7 Legend. The back has a carbon fiber pattern with a matte finish that provides excellent grip and does not catch many fingerprints. This back has an IP52 rating which makes it splash and dustproof but it still misses out on the IP68 rating found on other smartphones.
Like the iQOO 7 Legend, here also you get the three stripes – Red, Blue, and Black of German car-maker BMW which runs from the top to the bottom. At the back, at the bottom sits the iQOO logo and below it “Fascination meets Innovation” is present which looks premium. iQOO has also bundled a similar-looking case as that of the back that looks premium.
Unlike the iQOO 7 Legend which has a rectangular camera module, this one has a massive camera module which means it is a huge glass slab that houses the triple cameras with a dual-LED flashlight and beside the dual LED flashlight, there is Gimbal Stabilization printed which means it does provide gimbal stabilization on its main camera like many of the Vivo flagships.
This back also curves to the sides of the metallic frame. However, the camera bump is very minimal as the smartphone does not wobble when kept on a flatter surface. The back of the smartphone is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 whereas the front glass is protected by Panda Glass which is one place iQOO seems to have cut corners as many other flagship smartphones do have Corning Gorilla Glass Victus for protection.
The iQOO 9 Pro weighs around 210grams which is slightly on the heavier side and also has a thickness of 8.8mm feeling slightly thicker during usage. To the sides, a metallic frame looks premium and houses the power button and volume buttons on the right side whereas the left side remains cleaner. The power button is painted blue which looks unique.
The top of the smartphone has a secondary noise-canceling microphone whereas the bottom has a USB Type-C port, a dual SIM card slot, a primary microphone, and a speaker grille. There is no support for a microSD card and no 3.5mm headphone jack. On the front, there is a curved display that curves to the left as well as the right like most of the other flagships.
Overall, the build and design are unique and do feel premium compared to other premium flagship smartphones out there.
iQOO 9 Pro Display:
The iQOO 9 Pro houses a larger 6.78-inches Quad HD+(1440×3200 pixels) AMOLED display with a screen-to-body ratio of 20:9. The display is curved towards the left and right whereas the top and the bottom are flat. This curved display looks premium and this is an E5 AMOLED display with great color reproduction and viewing angles.
This is a 10-bit display which means it has much better contrast and could produce more colors compared to a standard 8-bit display. Like the OnePlus 10 Pro, this display also has LTPO 2.0 technology which means the 120Hz refresh rate can scale as low as 1Hz all the way up to 120Hz depending on the application in usage.
You can also switch to standard 60Hz for better battery life but the 120Hz refresh rate itself is very well optimized for battery life. There is also a Smart Switch option that works similarly to that of the 120Hz mode. Combined with the 120Hz refresh rate, you get a 300Hz touch sampling rate which goes higher up to 1000Hz during gaming thus ensuring faster touch responses during gaming.
In terms of brightness, this display can go as high as 1500nits which is really good as the display is way brighter under direct sunlight. The display has three different modes – Standard, Professional, and Bright where the Standard mode is set by default. The Standard and Bright modes cover the DCI-P3 gamut whereas Professional covers the sRGB scale.
If you want more saturated colors, then the Bright mode is perfect and for a natural color tone, the standard mode is perfect. As it is an AMOLED display, you get an in-display fingerprint scanner which is an ultrasonic one which means for the scanning of the fingerprint you get a larger surface area on the display and the smartphone registers it very fast compared to optical in-display fingerprint scanners.
The display on the iQOO 9 Pro has support for HDR10 so you can stream HDR content on YouTube and also you get Widevine L1, so streaming HDR on OTT platforms is a breeze. However, there is no support for HDR content on Netflix as of now and iQOO will be fixing this issue with a future software update. Overall, this display is an excellent one for media consumption.
iQOO 9 Pro Software:
The iQOO 9 Pro runs on the latest FuntouchOS 12 built on top of Android 12 out of the box. You get a lot of customizations where you can change the icon shape and size, different styles for the Always-On Display, and animations for fingerprint scanner unlocking which are huge in number all of which are grouped under the Dynamic Effects sub-menu under settings.
There is one interesting feature called Quick Action where the larger surface area allows you to register the fingerprint in a larger rectangular area so the moment you touch the tip, it gets registered quickly. The quick toggles are now square-shaped that look very good. But there is no floating window present which would have been a good addition.
Other features include dedicated Ultra Game Mode which provides enhanced gaming features where you can take screenshots, Monster Mode is enabled where some of the background processes are stopped for better gameplay and you can also block unnecessary calls or notifications. The frame interpolation enhances it further.
However, there is a considerable amount of bloatware present which is a sort of disappointment as this is a premium flagship. These can be uninstalled though. In terms of software updates, iQOO 9 Pro is assured of another two years of Android OS updates and three years of security patches which is good but it could have provided another extra year of updates which most of the other brands do offer at this price segment.
Overall, the software experience is good but the presence of bloatware and a not-so-good software update cycle lets it down slightly.
iQOO 9 Pro Performance:
The iQOO 9 Pro like all 2022 flagships is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset. In terms of daily performance, the smartphone could easily handle all the light as well as heavy tasks. In terms of gaming, the experience is very good as you get frame interpolation where the touch sampling rate changes from 300Hz to 1000Hz as it brings an enhanced gaming mode also.
Using the frame interpolation, you can play a 30fps game that will change to 60fps thus providing smoother graphics during gameplay in games like Genshin Impact, BGMI, Call Of Duty, etc. In BGMI, the smartphone could easily run on Ultra HDR graphics with High frame rates and you can also achieve Smooth graphics with Extreme frame rates.
After a longer period i.e. after 4-5 hours, the back gets warm very quickly due to the thermal throttling of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset. In terms of the CPU throttling test, the smartphone could maintain a sustained performance of around 65-70 percent which is just average for a smartphone having the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset.
In terms of network connectivity, you get good carrier aggregation with support for up to 14 5G bands. The iQOO 9 Pro comes in two variants – 8/12GB LPDDR5 RAM and 128/256GB storage with UFS 3.1 speeds. Overall, the performance feels spot on but if iQOO could overcome the heating problem, it would be better.
iQOO 9 Pro Cameras:
The iQOO 9 Pro sports a triple camera setup that consists of a 50MP f/1.8 Samsung GN5 sensor for the main camera, a 50MP f/2.3 Samsung JN1 sensor for the ultrawide camera similar to the one found on the OnePlus 10 Pro, and the Realme GT 2 Pro, and a 16MP f/2.2 telephoto camera with 2.5x optical zoom. The front camera is 16MP f/2.5.
The images from the main camera come out with good details and they look sharper. However, the dynamic range is just average which could have been better and images do look overprocessed. The noise is very low and oversharpening is present to a larger extent. The colors do look oversaturated and this camera is not as good as some of the other flagship cameras as iQOO needs to further improve.
At night, the images from the main camera come out with an excellent level of detail and dynamic range. There is very less noise in the background and the images captured do have a natural color tone without any oversharpening. With the night mode turned on, the images come out with much better details that look sharper and there is hardly any noise present.
The 50MP ultrawide camera does a good job in terms of dynamic range and details look sharper. The noise is very less in the background. The ultrawide camera does some crop to reduce noise. But like the main camera, the images here also look overprocessed. There is also a 150-degree field of view mode for that larger field of view that does introduce some noise but the dynamic range remains excellent.
At night, the images from the ultrawide camera come out with sharper details and a good dynamic range. The colors come out oversaturated and there is some amount of noise in the background. Using the dedicated night mode, the images come out with excellent dynamic range, restores the blown-away highlights, and also details look much sharper resulting in very good images from the ultrawide camera.
iQOO also provides three different modes for the ultrawide camera – Fisheye, Rabbit Hole, Asteroid, and Crystal Ball. Using the fisheye effect, the images have a good level of detail though there is a lot of oversharpening and the noise is also lower. The ultrawide camera on the iQOO 9 Pro also doubles up as a macro camera and as this ultrawide camera has autofocus, the macro images come out really good.
The macro images have excellent dynamic range and by default, they get saved to 12.5MP. The levels of details look sharper and have good contrast. The colors are on the natural side with no noise in the background but still, the images do look overprocessed. You can also take macro images using the fisheye mode which results in sharper details and good dynamic range.
The 16MP telephoto camera does a good job in terms of details that look sharper and have a good dynamic range. The noise is very low but a lot of oversharpening is present in the background. Going beyond 10x, the images have a lot of noise and the level of details looks much softer. Similarly, at night, the images from the telephoto camera have a lot of noise and the details look softer.
The dynamic range is good and there is less oversharpening but at this price segment, iQOO could have provided a better telephoto camera or fixed this issue with a future software update. In terms of portraits, both the main and the telephoto camera do a good job as the details look sharper with good edge detection and background blur is also perfect with proper subject separation from the background.
On the front, the 16MP camera captures selfies with a good amount of details that look sharper and the dynamic range is also good. There is some amount of skin smoothening in the selfies and with HDR turned on, the details look a mixed bag either sometimes softer or sharper. The noise is well under control and also in selfie portraits, there is a lot of oversharpening but edge detection is perfect.
In terms of videos, the iQOO 9 Pro can record 8K videos at 30fps from its main camera whereas the ultrawide camera can do 4K videos at 60fps. The videos from the main camera come out with an excellent level of details that look sharper and noise is also less especially due to the gimbal stabilization. The colors look natural and the dynamic range is very good.
The videos from the ultrawide camera come out with a good amount of details that look sharper and the dynamic range is also good. However, there is some amount of noise present but using the Ultra Steady Mode does improve the frame rate resulting in stabilized videos. The colors look natural in the videos without any oversharpening. The videos also come out with good dynamic range and details using the fisheye mode.
The telephoto camera can record 1080p videos at 30fps and the videos have good dynamic range but noise is on a larger margin. The colors come out natural but there is some amount of oversharpening in the background. However, the details look sharper. On the front, the iQOO 9 Pro can record 1080p videos at 30fps which is slightly disappointing as even midrange smartphones can record 4K videos from the front camera.
The videos from the front camera come out with a good dynamic range and the details also look good. With EIS turned on, the videos have better stabilization abut colors look slightly washed out and skin smoothening takes place. The portrait videos from the main camera and the front camera come out with good edge detection though.
Overall, the cameras are good but still, there are a lot of areas of improvement required and iQOO could fix the issue of overprocessing with a future software update. The front camera also needs some improvement.
iQOO 9 Pro Battery Life:
The iQOO 9 Pro has a good-sized 4700mAh battery which could have been slightly larger as you have a Snapdragon 8 Gen1 chipset which does throttling and consumes more battery. With heavy usage that includes playing games like BGMI for 4-5 hours continuously, streaming social media for 5-6 hours, normal calling, and rendering videos, the smartphone easily lasted for a single day with no charge left.
With normal usage, the iQOO 9 Pro can easily last for two days which is good and the standard screen-on time was around 5-6 hours which is decent for a smartphone having the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset. In terms of charging speeds, the iQOO 9 Pro takes around 22 minutes for a full charge completely using the 120W fast charger that is bundled inside the box.
The iQOO 9 Pro also supports 50W fast wireless charging and iQOO provides a dedicated wireless charging pad using which you can charge the smartphone from 0 to 100 percent completely within 65 minutes. There is reverse wireless charging present which is capped at 10W and you can charge other smartphones or devices that support reverse wireless charging.
iQOO 9 Pro Audio Quality:
The iQOO 9 Pro sports a dual stereo speaker setup that sound very good and is very loud and clear. There is support for Dolby Atmos for enhanced sound output and you also do not get any 3.5mm headphone jack but iQOO does provide a 3.5mm headphone jack to a Type-C converter to listen to audio. There is also support for Hi-Res audio.
Verdict:
The iQOO 9 Pro is a complete all-rounder as it brings all the flagship specifications like a premium build and design, a 120Hz LTPO 2.0 AMOLED display, a powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset for daily performance and gaming, a great set of triple cameras, a 4700mAh battery with 120W fast charging and a good set of stereo speakers for media consumption.
It also brings some segment-first features like an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner and frame interpolation for better gaming. However, there are some areas where the iQOO 9 Pro falls short slightly. IP rating which is not there on the iQOO 9 Pro which is found on most of the premium flagships in this price segment, the cameras though being good captures images that look overprocessed and the telephoto camera is not very good compared to other flagships, the battery life is decent not so good and FunTouchOS has a considerable amount of bloatware present.
iQOO also needs to improve the software update cycle policy compared to other brands. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 though provides excellent performance but does heat up quite a bit which is also a concern. So as a whole package the iQOO 9 Pro is an excellent offering that will set newer benchmarks for the brand and will give a tough fight to all other premium flagships if you can live with those compromises.