iQOO 9 Pro first impressions- Slick and powerful

iQOO 9 Pro first impressions: Slick and powerful1/10

iQOO 9 Pro is iQOO’s most ambitious product, ever. This is the Vivo spin-off’s answer to the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and even the OnePlus 10 Pro, should OnePlus launch it in India anytime soon. iQOO has thrown everything but the kitchen sink when it comes to pure hardware-LTPO display check, Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 check, high-resolution camera sensors check, dual speakers and high-end vibration motor check, big battery with insanely fast wired and wireless charging check, and Android 12, something that only sweetens the deal further. The iQOO 9 Pro is easily the most complete flagship phone that iQOO has ever made. We have spent some time with it and here are our first impressions. (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)2/10

iQOO is continuing its collaboration with BMW M Motorsport, a BMW AG subsidiary known for its high-performance cars and therefore-much like the iQOO 7 Legend before it-one of the models of the iQOO 9 Pro-called Legend- comes in white and features BMW M’s iconic tri-colour racing stripes logo engraved with the slogan “Fascination meets innovation.” We were pretty impressed with the design of the iQOO 7 Legend. The iQOO 9 Pro is mostly the same, only bigger. The phone is made of curved glass and metal. The power button stands out with its blue accent. The iQOO 9 Pro looks gorgeous from every perceivable angle. The in-hand feel, too, is nice and premium. The matte finish on the glass really ups the premium quotient while also resisting smudge and fingerprints. The only thing missing from the spec-sheet is an official IP rating. (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)

3/10

The iQOO 9 Pro has a 6.78-inch 1440p or 2K resolution E5 AMOLED display with an adaptive-LTPO 2.0-120Hz refresh rate, 300Hz touch sampling, and hole punch cut-out. iQOO is using a 10bit panel with peak brightness of 1500nits. It supports HDR10+ playback. Biometrics are handled by a 3D ultrasonic fingerprint scanner that’s fast and accurate. There is also an “Intelligent Display chip” inside this phone that’s said to optimise colours and offer 90 FPS gameplay on 60 FPS games through interpolation. (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)

4/10

Under the hood, the iQOO 9 Pro has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip with up to 12GB LPDDR5 RAM and up to 256GB UFS3.1 storage. This is not expandable but iQOO gives you “extended RAM 2.0” virtual memory option. The phone does tend to heat up when pushed. There is a vapour chamber liquid cooling system in this phone but clearly, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip is too hot to handle. There is some throttling, too, which is not surprising. That said, at no point so far did we feel that it was hampering experience, especially while gaming. More on this in our full review. (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)

5/10

It’s nice to see the iQOO 9 Pro running Android 12 (based Funtouch OS 12) software out of the box. Our review unit is running the January 1, 2022 security patch at the time of writing. (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)

6/10

The iQOO 9 Pro has three cameras on the back-a 50MP main (Samsung GN5 sensor) with gimbal stabilisation, 50MP 120-degree “fisheye” ultrawide, and another 16MP portrait shooter. On the front, it has a 16MP selfie camera. It’s safe to say, there’s a lot of potential in there but we will have more to say about this in our review. (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)

7/10

Powering the iQOO Pro is a 4,700mAh battery with 120W “FlashCharge”. iQOO claims you will be able to charge the phone up to 50 percent in just eight minutes using the bundled fast charging brick and cable. A full charge takes only twenty minutes, the company says. This is accurate and you can take iQOO’s word for it. The iQOO 9 Pro indeed charges from 0-100% in flat 20 minutes. The phone supports 50W fast wireless charging, too. (iQOO is launching a 50W wireless charger alongside for Rs 4,499.) (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)

8/10

Rounding off the package are dual stereo speakers (there is no headphone jack), X-axis linear motor, and support for 14 5G bands. This is a dual-SIM phone. (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)

9/10

There’s no doubt that iQOO has hit it out of the ballpark with its new phone-the iQOO 9 Pro-jampacking it with latest and greatest hardware. It may appear to be a gaming phone at heart, but iQOO has played the balancing act with meticulous perfection. The design is nice and premium, and unique, the display top-notch, while at the same time the phone packs potentially great cameras and both wired and wireless charging. What’s not to like? Our first impressions have been largely positive and looks like, iQOO might just have a winner here. (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)

10/10

iQOO 9 Pro starts at Rs 64,990 for a version with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. A model with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage will sell for Rs 69,990. Stay tuned for out full review of the iQOO 9 Pro dropping soon. (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)