Merely a day after Realme unveiled India’s first 5G smartphone, Vivo’s gaming sub-brand iQOO has launched the second 5G phone in the country today. It was supposed to be the first but Realme stole its thunder. However, the iQOO 3 is now official and it brings in tow the Snapdragon 865 chipset, 5G connectivity, 48MP quad-camera, fast-charging, and more.
iQOO 3: Specs and Features
Starting off with the design, iQOO 3 boasts a premium glass build on the Tornado Black variant whereas you get a rubber matte finish on the Orange variant. The company has used Gorilla Glass 6 protection and I quite like the design and color choices here. You’re getting a rectangular camera module and the iQOO branding on the rear, which is quite clean.
iQOO 3 includes a 6.43-inch Full-HD+ Super AMOLED display with a punch-hole selfie camera at the top right. The company hasn’t included a high refresh rate display onboard, which is a little disappointing, but you do get 180Hz touch sampling rate. This means you won’t miss that headshot while playing a game of PUBG. The display sports a 20:9 aspect ratio, 1080 x 2400pixels resolution, HDR10+, and 800 nits of peak brightness.
As for the selfie camera, well, it’s a 16MP shooter but iQOO boasts that it’s the smallest punch-hole cutout. It has a 2.98mm diameter and should provide you a fullscreen-like immersive experience. You also get the latest in-display fingerprint sensor that’s coupled with a GX chip that makes it possible for you to unlock the device in just 0.29 seconds.
As you just read above, Qualcomm’s latest flagship chipset, the Snapdragon 865 powers the iQOO 3 gaming smartphone. It’s coupled with up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. The one thing that differentiates this device from the Realme X50 Pro will have to be the fact it comes both in 4G and 5G variants. Both of the variants will come with the Snapdragon X55 modem but only one of them (12GB + 256GB) has been certified with 5G connectivity support.
Yes, this means you can get a Snapdragon 865-powered phone only with 4G connectivity support. 5G connectivity is only a gimmick, a marketing fad in India at the moment. The company made the right choice by offering 4G-only variants to keep the price low, but it appears like Realme’s 5G offering has been able to match and possibly take it down.
You also get air triggers, which iQOO likes to call Monster Touch buttons, on each side of the right edge. You can assign what function each air trigger will perform from the Game Assistant pop-up window. iQOO 3 runs Android 10-based iQOO UI, which looks and feels much like FunTouchOS 10 with some minor improvements here and there
In the camera department, iQOO 3 includes a rectangular quad-camera setup on the rear. You get a 48MP (f/1.8) primary camera, coupled with a 13MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide-angle camera with a 120-degrees FOV, 13MP (f/2.4) telephoto camera with 20x zoom capability, and a 2MP depth sensor. You get 4K @ 60fpps support, super anti-shake mode, and other camera features here. You can check out some of the camera samples we captured in our first impressions video right here:
iQOO 3 comes equipped with a 4,440mAh battery pack, along with Vivo’s 55W Super FlashCharge technology support. You get the 55W adapter in the box and it will enable you to juice up your device from 0% to 50% in around 15 minutes, which is amazing. It matches the likes of Realme’s 65W SuperDART fast-charging technology. You do get this pill-shaped charger that will make it easier for you to fill up the battery and game at the same time.
You also have a 3.5mm headphone jack, USB Type-C port, and a high-quality audio DAC, among a ton of other things. There’s no wireless charging or IP rating assigned here but that would have been amazing to have on a premium flagship phone like this one.
Price and Availability
iQOO 3 will be available in three configurations — two 4G variants (8GB+128GB and 8GB+256GB) and one 5G variant (12GB+256GB). iQOO 3 has been priced at Rs. 36,990 for the 8GB+128GB 4G variant and Rs. 39,990 for the 8GB+256GB 4G variant. However, you will have to shell out Rs. 44,990 for the 5G variant.
iQOO 3 will be available in 3 color variants, namely Tornado Black, Volcano Orange, and Quantum Silver. The device will go on sale from March 4, exclusively via Flipkart and iQOO’s official website.
