Introduction
Vivo had introduced its iQOO (which stands for I Quest On and On) sub-brand last year, April. The brand sells performance-driven gaming smartphones with impressive price tags. At the beginning of this year, the company confirmed that it would be arriving in India by launching its first phone in February. Today, the company took off covers from the Snapdragon 865 mobile platform powered iQOO 3 smartphone. After the Realme X50 Pro 5G that unveiled yesterday, it is the second smartphone to come with 5G support in India. The iQOO 3 phone that is packed with some exciting features like punch-hole display, 48-megapixel triple cameras, and 55W fast charging for its large-sized battery can be bought in 4G and 5G flavors.
Price and availability detail
The iQOO 3 will available through Flipkart in India starting from March 4 at 12 PM. The smartphone will also be available for purchase through the iQOO India website. The iQOO 3 with 4G connectivity arrives in two models, such as 8 GB of RAM + 128 GB storage and 8 GB RAM + 256 GB storage. They are priced at Rs. 36,990 ($515) and Rs. 39,990 ($557). The 5G edition of the iQOO 3 (for India) comes with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB storage, and it costs Rs. 44,990 ($626). Buyers of the iQOO 3 in India with ICICI credit cards can take advantage of flat Rs. 3,000 ($42) discount (according to the company). The phone has color variants such as Volcano Orange, Quantum Silver, and Tornado Black. On the other hand, the company also revealed that in China, the IQOO 3 arrives in four versions such as 6 GB RAM + 128 GB storage, 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage, 12 GB RAM + 128 GB storage and 12 GB RAM + 256 GB storage. These models are priced at 3,598 Yuan ($515), 3,798 Yuan ($539), 3,998 Yuan ($568) and 4,398 Yuan ($625). The pre-sales of the gaming phone begin today in China through online retailer sites. The first sale of the iQOO 3 5G will be held in the home market through online and offline stores from March 2.
Design and Display
The iQOO 3 smartphone measures 158.51 x 74.88 x 9.16mm, and it weighs 214.5 grams. The phone is built with an aluminum frame, and the front and rear panels are protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 6. The right side of the device houses a power button as well as volume rockers. For gamers, there are also shoulder buttons dubbed as Monster Touch buttons on the left edge of the device. These buttons can be used to map gaming functions such as shoot, jump, fly, etc. On the front panel, it has a punch-hole for the selfie shooter, and on the rear side, it offers a rectangular-shaped quad-camera setup.
The smartphone has an HDR10+ compliant Super AMOLED display of 6.44 inches that features a punch-hole at the top-right corner. The 20:9 aspect ratio supporting display produces full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels, 800nits of full-screen brightness, and 100 percent P3 color gamut. The screen of the iQOO 3 is integrated with an in-display fingerprint reader that unlock in just 0.31 seconds. The glass rear of the phone curves towards the edges.
Front and rear cameras
The punch-hole on the iQOO 3 has a 16-megapixel sensor with an f/2.5 aperture for selfie experience. The backside of the smartphone has a rectangular camera module at the upper-left corner. The quad rear camera setup has an f/1.79 aperture 48-megapixel primary shooter, an f/2.2 aperture 13-megapixel ultrawide lens, an f/2.46 aperture 13-megapixel telephoto sensor with 20x digital zoom and an f/2.4 aperture 2-megapixel portrait lens.
The quad cameras are blessed with features like 2.5cm Super Macro Mode, Super Night Mode, Super Anti-Shake, and 4K video recording at 30fps/60fps. The phone also can record full HD videos at 30fps. You can record only Full HD videos at 30fps from the 16MP selfie sensor.
Processor, battery, and software
The Snapdragon 865 mobile platform, which is a 5G-ready Chipset, is present at the helm of the iQOO 3. The chipset of the iQOO 3 is coupled with up to 12 GB of LPDDR5 RAM. It is the world’s first gaming smartphone to ship with UFS 3.1 storage that promises transfer speeds of 1.2Gbps. It can be bought in 128 GB and 256 GB storage versions. IQOO 3 also provides other gaming-friendly features such as 180Hz touch response rate, 4D in-game vibrations, and Ultra Game Mode. There is carbon fiber VC liquid cooling technology onboard that can effectively reduce surface temperature by 3.5-degree Celsius and CPU temperature by 12-degree Celsius. There is a Multi-Turbo technology for boosting the phone’s performance while gaming. According to the company, iQOO 3 has recorded an impressive AnTuTu score of 610,576. For enhanced audio experience, the iQOO 3 also comes with the AK4377A Hi-Fi audio chipset. The device comes with Hi-Res audio certification.
The iQOO 3 smartphone draws power from a 4,400mAh battery that supports 55W Super FlashCharge technology. It takes only 15 minutes for the phone to reach 50 percent battery juice from scratch. Vivo iQOO offers an L-shape capsule data cable for conveniently charging the iQOO 3 while playing games. The Android 10 OS is preloaded on the handset along with iQOO UI 1.0 custom skin.