iQOO 15 Review: Well-packaged premium phone

iQOO 15 is a well-packaged premium phone, delivers smooth performance, impressive build quality, top-class display, excellent battery life and a really good camera. Though the device's starting price is way more than the predecessor's, the device is worth the hefty price.

Last week, iQOO launched the company's new Android flagship phone, iQOO 15, in India.

Design, build quality and display

The new device comes in a standard rectangular thin slab design with a flat display panel. On the sides, it features a sturdy aluminium frame with a matte finish.

And, the company has incorporated high-quality fibreglass with matte finish and does a fantastic job of repelling the fingerprint smudges.

iQOO 15.

It also features an IP68+IP69 rating, meaning the device can survive a drop in a freshwater body for a depth up to 1.5 metres (around five feet) for up to 30 minutes. Also, it can even withstand close-range high-pressure, high-temperature water jets for at least 30 seconds.

Additionally, the company offers free soft and sturdy silicone cases. It features a raised lip around the edges of the display. This way, the screen will be able to survive an accidental drop on a flat, hard surface.

Also, even with the cover case, it doesn't add much thickness and offers a pretty strong grip for the fingers to hold on to the device.

iQOO 15.

iQOO 15 comes in two colours— matte black Alpha Edition and Legend Edition in white. The latter also features the new tri-colour rhombus pattern inspired by motorsport’s checkered racing flags.

iQOO 15.

Both phones feature RGB LED lighting around the camera module. It comes in handy to notify users about a new SMS/email notification or a phone call when the device is on a table with the screen facing down.

It sports a 6.85-inch 2K+ (3168×1440p) curved Samsung M14 8T LTPO AMOLED screen. It supports 144Hz variable refresh rate, 20:9 aspect ratio, Dolby Vision, and offers up to 6000 nits peak brightness. It has a pixel density of 508 pixels per inch (ppi).

Add to the the company has incorporated anti-reflection coating on the screen. It is one of the few handful of premium phones in the market, to boast such a feature.

iQOO 15.

Even under direct sunlight, I didn't have to squint my eyes to read messages or newsfeed on the social media platforms.

Thanks high refresh rate, scrolling on the iQOO 15's display is buttery smooth, and the device delivers a really visual experience while gaming and binge-watching multimedia content on OTT apps.

iQOO 15.

The device also features a Type-C USB port, stereo speakers, an infrared sensor, Bluetooth 6.0, Wi-Fi 7 (802.11, dual-bands), and dual-SIM slots (type: nano).

The in-screen ultrasonic fingerprint sensor does a fine job. It takes a fraction of a second to recognise and unlock the home screen.

Performance

It is powered by a 3nm class Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which can clock at 4.67 GHz CPU speed. It is a 3nm class 64-bit octa-core Oryon silicon and promises 20 per cent improvement in performance and 35 per cent better power efficiency compared to the previous iterations.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 comes paired with Adreno 840 GPU and Q3 Gaming chip to handle graphics-heavy gaming titles smoothly.

iQOO 15 single-core and multi-core performance score on Geekbench 6.0

iQOO 15 boasts of 8000 mm² ultra-large VC vapour chamber, the biggest in any iQOO device to date.

The device manages to deliver stable performance without overheating, while playing games or when operating generative Artificial Intelligence (gen AI) applications such as Gemini AI or ChatGPT or even the in-house AI photography tools.

iQOO 15 GPU performance score on Geekbench 6.0.

It also comes with Android 16-based OriginOS 6.0, 12GB / 16GB LPDDR5X Ultra Pro RAM with 256GB / 512GB UFS 4.1 storage.

Though there are many pre-loaded third-party apps in the phone, the user interface is neat and easy to navigate through the settings without much hassle.

iQOO 15 is guaranteed to get five years of Android OS updates up to 2030 and seven years of security software patches for protection against emerging cyber threats in the future up to 2032.

iQOO 15.

With a massive 7,000mAh battery, the device was able to last one and a half days under normal usage. Even if it was pushed to the extreme with binge-watching on OTT platforms for several hours, the device was able to last a whole day.

During the testing period, the device usually took around 30 minutes to reach 50 per cent and a little over 65 minutes to hit the 100 per cent mark. It also supports 40W wireless charging.

iQOO 15's camera sample.

Photography

iQOO 15 boasts of triple camera module-- main 50MP camera (with 1/ 1.49-inch Sony IMX921 sensor, f/1.88 aperture, OIS: Optical Image Stabilisation) + 50MP 150-degree ultra-wide-angle camera (with f/2.0) and a 50MP 3x periscope telephoto camera (with 1/1.95-inch Sony IMX882 sensor, f/2.65, OIS) with LED flash on the back.

iQOO 15's camera sample.

It takes brilliant photos in the natural sunlit conditions. The colours don't come off brighter than they really appear to the eyes.

iQOO 15's camera sample.

iQOO 15's camera sample.

Be it in the day or night's darkness, the device's camera does a good job of retaining the true tone of the human skin.

iQOO 15's camera sample.

iQOO 15 also excels with portrait images with sharp focus on the subject and artfully blurs the background to deliver a bokeh effect.

At close-up range, it can get all the minute details with near-accurate colours.

iQOO 15's camera sample.

With ultra-wide-angle mode, it can capture the vast area of the landscape with nice details. As you can see from the camera samples below, it has managed to cover the vast expanse of the lake pretty nicely.

iQOO 15's camera sample.

iQOO 15's camera sample.

It also supports 3X optical zoom and up to 100X Zoom.

iQOO 15's camera sample.

iQOO 15's camera sample with 100X Zoom.

At night, it takes pretty sharp pictures with less grains.

iQOO 15's camera sample.

On the front, it also features a 32MP (f/2.2) camera. It takes really good selfies in almost light conditions.

iQOO 15's camera sample.

It supports generative Artificial Intelligence features such as AI Eraser, AI UHD (quality upscaler), AI Image Expander, and AI Colour Adjustment to enhance the photography experience.

Both the front and the back cameras can record high-quality 4K videos.

iQOO 15's camera sample.

Final thoughts

iQOO 15 is a well-packaged phone, delivers smooth performance, impressive build quality, excellent battery life and a really good camera.

Though the device's starting price is way more than the predecessor's, the device is worth the hefty price.

iQOO 15.

It should be noted that there is a huge increase in the costs of premium mobile silicon and RAM chips; OEMs have no choice but to inflate the price of the premium phones.

iQOO 15 series comes in two variants— 12GB RAM + 256GB storage and 16GB RAM + 512GB storage— for Rs 72,999 and Rs 79,999, respectively.

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