iQOO, the new entrant into the smartphone market in India had announced the iQOO 3, their first smartphone here with a bang. The phone price starts at Rs. 36990 and the 5G variant, of course, costs a little more, but we had explained earlier why the iQOO 3 5G variant makes the best sense.
The smartphone is impressive right from the build quality to the core performance, and it has the right amount of goodness in terms of camera, battery life, and the support it gets from the accessories for the audio quality, fast charging, and more. Let’s get into the pointers on what impressed us in terms of performance, connectivity, battery, display, and other experiences.
The display
Let’s start with the front. The display is a super E3 Super AMOLED one with the 6.44-inch size and the Full HD+ resolution, and since it has the punch-hole camera cutout, it feels like a full view display. The in-display fingerprint sensor here is one of the fastest in the industry, with the unlocking time of just around 0.29-seconds when the screen is turned on, and just a couple milliseconds more when the screen is turned off.
The screen also has an enhanced touch response rate at 180Hz, which helps in a faster touch scan and better response, something most of us would want to see while playing games on the smartphone.
The performance
The iQOO 3 is powered by the latest best mobile platforms, i.e. the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, 7nm chipset and is equipped with the latest A77 architecture. While being at its best in the performance and being about 25% better than Snapdragon 855, the latest chipset is also power efficient to increase the battery life by about 30% when compared to the previous generation. With the customized UI made for the iQOO 3, this seriously has been a buttery smooth experience with the device, with no lags or issues even after using the phone as a power user having used heavy apps and many others in the background.
There is also the support by LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 Flash Storage for the app response, reading and writing of data, and even while recording videos.
The experience for gamers
Now, this is where most of the high-end devices have failed to offer the best experience, even though the performance has been good. The chipset constitutes fo one half of the experience. The other half is by the features offered exclusively for gamers. The iQOO 3 has the Monster Touch Buttons, which are the pressure-sensitive buttons on the side frame, and for gamers who indulge in FPS games like PUBG Mobile, this is a must-have feature as it helps with the multi-finger operation.
The games that we tried out on the iQOO 3 include PUBG Mobile, COD Mobile, Dead Trigger 2, Modern Combat 5, Mortal Kombat X among many others but these all graphics-intensive games were smooth all the time. To add to the buttons, the experience is further enhanced by the 4D vibration that would simulate the gun firing, or when you tap on the accelerator to revv up and race.
The Cameras
The iQOO 3 comprises of a powerful set of four cameras, including the primary 48-megapixel shooter for the best quality captures. To add to it, there is a telephoto lens with the 13MP sensor that will help take digital zoomed pictures with up to 20x zooming. There’s a 13MP wide-angle camera as well for the landscape photography, and for the bokeh captures, a 2MP portrait camera is included in the array to complete the quad-camera setup that does an excellent job of photography in every light condition, and given that the phone is powered by Snapdragon 865, its ISP does a good job of optimizing pictures.
For the videographers, there is Super Video Stabilization with the EIS support that would cut and process the edges of the screen to come up with stable videos even while you are running and taking a video.
The Battery Life
A 4440 mAh battery is what powers the device and with the 7nm chipset here, the battery efficiency helps in offering a great battery life, with over a day’s usage even for power users. The battery can be charged with the 55W SUPER FlashCharge Technology, which is amazingly fast and can charge up to 50% of the battery of the device in just around 15 minutes.
The connectivity
True, we right now don’t have 5G connectivity in India and it is well worth arguing that we don’t buy or upgrade our flagships every few months. In fact, flagship phone users retain the phone for a few years, given how well-powered these phones are. The iQOO 3 is a future-proof device, with the support for 5G connectivity, and while we don’t have that latest connectivity in India, it surely should arrive in a couple of years and not everyone would want to upgrade their device only for the latest connectivity. Having the option to switch to the latest network with the same device you have in your hand is what makes the iQOO 3 the best bet.
The entertainment support
While the phone has its pros in almost every aspect that we mentioned, the part about entertainment is where most of the brands miss out talking about and they also don’t mention it because there is not much offered in that area. In iQOO 3, there is an AK4377A Hi-Fi independent chip. This is a high-quality DAC that would keep the audio output at its best, and there is support for even Hi-Res Audio to restore the original and ultimate sound, giving the feel of listening to something real and live in front of you.
Final Verdict
The iQOO 3 is a well-powered device, not defined by specs but the actual powerful performance and with the great looks and superior internals, the phone is a long-term deal for someone who would want to go with a smartphone that doesn’t need an upgrade for a good time and doesn’t have a compromise in any aspect.
