iQOO 15R review: Powerful performer with gorgeous looks

This Android phone is a perfect option for people who are into gaming and consume multimedia content on OTT and social media platforms for hours most of the day.

iQOO earlier this month rolled out the premium mid-range phone iQOO 15R series in India, with prices starting at Rs 44,999 in India.

Design, build quality and display

The new phone costs almost half the price of the ultra-premium iQOO 15. That said, the company hasn't compromised much. It has done a fine job by crafting unique design elements that make it unique among rival brands.

It features a visually appealing dual-tone colour scheme, particularly the triumph silver. It comes with pretty square-shaped boxes with a textured finish, which reflects light when viewed at certain angles. It is quite an eye turner.

iQOO 15R.

On the top, it features a small square shaped dual-camera module.

The company also offers the device in classic dark black. It aptly calls it the 'Dark Knight'.

The device comes in a compact form factor with curved corners. Also, our review unit managed to remain stain-free without any sweaty fingerprint smudges.

iQOO 15R.

It has a glass back, and the frame on the side is made of sturdy metal with a matte finish, offering a good grip for the fingers to hold the device firmly.

It is not just a pretty-looking phone, but it can survive drops and scratches from daily wear and tear.

It comes with an IP69+IP68 water-and-dust resistant rating, and on the front, the display is protected by Schott Shield glass. Add to that, the company offers a free high-quality silicone case with a retail box. These measures ensure the device will be able to serve the customer for several years.

iQOO 15R.

The iQOO 15R sports a really good 6.59-inch 1.5K (2750×1260p) AMOLED display, supports 144Hz refresh rate, and offers up to 5,000 nits peak brightness and HDR10+.

It is great for multimedia content and even for playing games without strain to the eyes outdoors.

iQOO 15R.

It also comes with display settings that will control the emission of the blue light, and this comes in handy while reading e-books or consuming media at night.

It also boasts a 3D Ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, which does a fine job of quickly recognising the finger impression and unlocking the home.

It also comes with a Type-C port, dual-SIM port and boasts a dual stereo system, which, by the way, does an amazing job with audio output.

Performance

The device is powered by Qualcomm's 3nm class Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 System-on-Chip (SoC), which can clock a peak CPU speed of 3.8GHz. It is backed by Adreno 840 GPU, 12GB / 16GB LPDDR5x Ultra 9600Mbps RAM with 256GB/512GB/1TB UFS 4.1 storage.

Be it playing games or running generative Artificial Intelligence (gen AI) applications, the phone delivered smooth performance without any sign of lag-ness as such.

It boasts a massive 6500mm2 vapour chamber cooling system, and additionally, there is an extra layer of 10,000mm2 of graphite on the back, and these measures ensure the device doesn't easily get overheated indoors.

It supports almost all popular gaming titles available on the Google Play Store. Add to that, it comes with several native gen AI features such as AI Smart Document Scanning, AI Erase, AI Magic Move, AI Image Expander, AI Reflection Erase, and AI Image Cut-out, enabling effortless editing and content enhancement.

It also supports AI Creation in Notes, which comes in handy for rewriting, content generation, text summarisation, and grammar correction for faster everyday work.

The AI Captions, AI Screen Translation, and AI Call Translation support real-time transcription, translation, and summarisation as well. It also features Circle to Search and the Google Gemini AI app.

iQOO 15R.

It runs Android 16-based OriginOS. It is clean and easy to navigate through the settings. It also offers a lot of customisation options to visually improve the user interfaces with colourful themes and wallpapers. The OriginOS is optimised to offer smooth functioning for five years.

Add to that, the device is guaranteed to get four years of Android OS and six years of security updates for protection against emerging cyber threats up to 2032.

With a massive 7,600mAh battery, it can easily last two full days under normal usage with mixed use of Wi-Fi at home and SIM-based cellular internet connection outdoors.

iQOO 15R.

It supports 100W charging capability. It can go from zero to 50 per cent under 30 minutes and hit 100 per cent in a little over an hour. By the way, the company is offering a free charger adaptor and the cable with the retail box. Make note, in the coming days, with rising costs of RAM and storage, companies are planning to take these two accessories off the box.

iQOO 15R's camera sample.

Photography

iQOO 15R boasts of dual-camera module--main 50MP rear camera(with 1/1.56-inch Sony LYT-700V sensor, f/1.88 aperture, OIS: Optical Image Stabilisation) with an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide angle lens with LED flash.

iQOO 15R's camera sample.

As you can see from the sample photos, it does a fine job of capturing the subjects and the surrounding scene in vibrant colours. They are a bit warmer and punchier compared to what the eyes perceive. This is not a complaint, as the resulting images are really good and worthy to be shared on social media platforms.

iQOO 15R's camera sample.

With portrait mode, the human faces get captured neatly with a nice bokeh effect in the background.

iQOO 15R's camera sample.

It also supports ultra-wide-angle photos. It can capture a wide area of landscape with all the details nicely captured in the frame.

iQOO 15R's camera sample.

iQOO 15R's camera sample.

At night too, it does a fantastic job with sharp details and less noise.

iQOO 15R's camera sample.

Similarly, it does a fine job in close-range macro. It manages to get all the minute details pretty nicely.

iQOO 15R's camera sample.

As noted earlier, it supports several gen AI tools such as AI Erase, AI Magic Move, AI Image Expander, AI Reflection Erase, AI Image Cut-out and more. They do it perfectly.

iQOO 15R's camera sample.

Though there is no dedicated telephoto lens, it takes really good digital zoom photos with less noise. It can zoom up to 20X.

iQOO 15R's camera sample.

On the front, it houses a 32MP (f/2.45) camera. The camera takes pretty nice photos and also supports beautify features to further enhance the quality in terms of removing acne scars.

iQOO 15R's camera sample.

Both the front and the back cameras can record 4K videos at 60 frames per second (fps).

iQOO 15R's camera sample.

Final thought

It is not only a pretty good-looking premium mid-range phone, but it also delivers smooth performance and extremely long battery life. Even the dual-camera hardware does a fine job with photography.

iQOO 15R.

This is a perfect option for people who are into gaming and consume multimedia content on OTT and social media platforms for hours most of the day.

iQOO 15R comes in three configurations-- 8GB RAM + 256GB, 12GB RAM + 256GB storage and 12GB RAM + 512GB storage-- for Rs 44,999, Rs 47,999 and Rs 52,999, respectively.

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