iQoo 3 Design
When we first saw the iQoo 3, we were quite pleased with its build. Weighing 214.5 grams, it certainly feels quite heavy, but at the same time feels 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.
iQoo 3 The earpiece is set on the frame of the phone, 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 very well. It is not difficult to reach them with the thumb. The power button comes in an orange finish.
iQoo has also provided 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 landscape mode while gaming. There is a smart button on the left side of the iQoo 3 which can be used to access Google Assistant. This phone has a 3.5mm audio jack on the top, while there is a USB Type-C port and loudspeaker on the bottom.
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 launched this smartphone in three color options – Tornado Black, Quantum Silver and Volcano Orange. Our review unit was the Tornado Black variant color, but we really liked the Volcano Orange finish as it looks different from the usual color.
The iQoo 3 has a quad-camera setup at the back. The camera module looks similar to most smartphones coming these days. The iQoo 3 has a 4,440mAh battery and the good thing is that the phone comes with a 55-watt “Super FlashCharge” charger in the box, which helps in charging the device quickly.
iQoo 3 specifications and software
The iQOO 3 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset. This is the most powerful chipset ever to come in an Android smartphone, with one core clocked at 2.8 GHz, three cores at 2.4 GHz and the other four cores clocked at 1.8 GHz.
iQoo has launched three variants of iQoo 3 in the Indian market. The base variant has 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage and is priced at Rs 36,990. Its second variant has 256 GB storage with 8 GB RAM, which is priced at Rs 39,990. The phone also has a 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage variant, 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 sports a 6.44-inch full-HD+ AMOLED display with 409ppi pixel density and HDR10+ support. The iQoo’s display features Schott Xensation UP glass for protection 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 packs a 4,440mAh battery that supports 55W fast charging and the phone comes with a 55W Super FlashCharge charger in the box. The charger has a pill-shaped 90-degree bent connector and iQoo claims that it makes it easy to charge the smartphone while gaming.
Coming to the software, the iQoo 3 comes with iQoo UI 1.0 based on Android 10. We liked its user interface as it is quite easy to operate and looks simple too.
iQoo’s UI does not have an app drawer and all the icons appear on the home screen. This does not cause much difficulty while using it with one hand. There are also many customization options available on iQoo. You can choose different animations for lockscreen, fingerprint and face 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, which comes in the form of swiping back and holding. Vivo’s smart assistant Jovi is also present on the device.
Android 10 features like Digital Wellbeing and Parental Controls are also present. iQoo 3 has a Monster Mode, which instantly boosts 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 when turned on, starts all the gaming features of the smartphone.
The iQOO 3 comes loaded with bloatware like Helo, Dailyhunt, Flipkart, Facebook, WPS Office, Amazon Shopping and Opera. The device also has its own app store called V-Appstore. Note that if you launch apps like Dailyhunt and Helo, spam notifications start appearing. If you don’t want to use these apps, we recommend you to uninstall them.
iQoo 3 performance, battery life
The display of the iQoo 3 has a 60Hz refresh rate panel. Still, its color production is very good. The viewing angles of the panel are good and it also performs quite well in sunlight. There are three color modes to choose from and you can also tweak the color temperature. The display of the iQoo 3 has a small hole-punch, but it will not distract you from entertainment while watching content. However, we were not happy with the loudspeaker of the iQoo 3. It lacks stereo output and the speaker sounds too low for our liking.
Along with the in-display fingerprint scanner, it also has a face unlock feature, which is fast and accurate. We did not face any issues while using apps or playing games. Since we had the 12GB RAM variant, multitasking also felt buttery smooth.
We tried playing PUBG Mobile and Asphalt 9: Legends in it. Both the 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 that it is very useful for avid PUBG players.
You will be happy to know that the iQoo 3 delivers good battery life. In our HD video loop test, this phone managed to last for 19 hours and 13 minutes. With regular usage this phone can last for about a day and a half without any issues. In our charging test, the iQoo 3 took 30 minutes to charge to 78 percent and took about 50 minutes to fully charge. A short five-minute charge was able to bring the smartphone up to 16 percent which is impressive. If some people compare it with the Realme X50 Pro 5G, then let us tell you that the phone takes less time than the iQoo 3 to charge 100 percent, but it is worth noting that the Realme phone comes with a 65W charger and has a smaller 4,200 mAh battery.
iQoo 3 cameras
The iQoo 3 comes with a quad-camera module at the back, which reminds us of the Vivo V17. The primary camera has a 48-megapixel Sony IMX582 sensor with an f/1.79 aperture and the secondary camera has a 13-megapixel telephoto sensor with an f/2.46 aperture that supports 2x optical zoom and 20X digital zoom. The other two cameras include 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 on Vivo smartphones.
The iQoo 3’s camera setup locks focus quickly and its AI easily detects which subject the phone’s camera is trying to focus on. Apart from this, the camera also suggests which camera would be best to use to take a particular shot. In daylight, the smartphone captures light correctly. Photos taken in daylight are good, but the color tone appeared a bit faded in some pictures.
There was no lack of detail in most of the photos, but grain is visible when you zoom in. Switching to the wide-angle camera reduces the quality of the photos and distortion appears at the edges. We also noticed that the color tone in the photos is slightly different from the real thing. The telephoto camera supports 2x optical zoom and like the primary camera, it can also take some good pictures.
Close-up shots were good with the primary camera. 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 the wide-angle camera. Macro shots capture good detail and the iQoo 3 lets you get quite 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 in it compared to other smartphones in this price range.
In low light, the camera performance drops to average and we also noticed a lack of detail in the photos. Switching to night mode makes little difference in the photos. However, the phone’s camera performs slightly better in areas with light shadows as opposed to complete darkness. The exposure also appears good along with detail in the photos.
Selfies taken with the IQOO 3 also turned out well. Focusing is fast and the smartphone applies beautification by default. When shooting in bright light, the smartphone automatically enables HDR, which helps in delivering better output.
Talking about video recording, the primary back camera can record videos at 4K resolution with a maximum of 60fps and the selfie camera can record videos at 1080p resolution at 60fps. In daylight, we noticed a little flickering in the video. There is also a Super Steady mode. However, even after using it, there is a little 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 from this new brand in India and it comes with some powerful hardware. The phone is powered by the Snapdragon 865 chipset and also includes support for UFS 3.1 storage. Both these combinations are seen 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 currently available in India, so you can also choose the lower variants without any worries. However, in our review, we have only tested the 5G variant with 12 GB RAM.
The software on the iQoo 3 is good. However, it gets even better when the bloatware included is removed. However, the camera felt light on occasions. Apart from its camera performance, the iQoo 3 did not give us much to complain about.