iQOO 11 5G review: when performance is all you need

Earlier in the month, emerging smartphone maker iQOO announced the company’s first premium phone iQOO 11 5G. It’s the first of their portfolio to pack a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. It may not look that different compared to its predecessor iQOO 9 series, but there’s more than meets the eye inside. It’s a performance-oriented model, ready to deliver faster and more efficient performance along with improved photography features. We got the device for a 2 week review, so here are our thoughts.

iQOO 11 5G: Technical specifications

• 6.78-inch (3200 x 1440 pixels) Quad HD+ E6 LTPO 4.0 AMOLED 20:9
  aspect ratio screen with HDR10+, 1.07 billion colors, DCI-P3 color gamut, up to 1800 nits brightness, 1440Hz PWM dimming, Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection
• Octa Core Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 4nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 740 GPU
• 8GB / 16GB LPDDR5X RAM with 256GB (UFS 4.0) storage
• Android 13 with Funtouch OS 13
• Dual SIM (nano + nano)
• 50MP camera with 1/1.57″ Samsung GN5 sensor, f/1.88 aperture, OIS, LED flash, 8MP ultra-wide camera with f/2.2 aperture, 13MP 2x telephoto camera with f/2.46 aperture, V2 imaging chip
• 16MP front-facing camera with f/2.45 aperture
• In-display fingerprint sensor, infrared sensor
• USB Type-C audio, Stereo speakers, Hi-Fi audio
• iQOO 11 Dimensions: 164.86× 77.07×8.4mm (Alpha) / 8.72mm (Legend); Weight: 208g (Alpha) / 205g (Legend)
• 5G (SA: n1/n3/n5/n8/n28/n40/n41/n77/n78) / (NSA: n28/n1/n3/n40/n41/n77/n78) bands, Dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 6 802.11 ax, Bluetooth 5.3, GPS/GLONASS, USB Type-C, NFC
• 5000mAh (Typical) battery with 120W ultra-fast flash charging

Design, build quality and display

The brand new iQOO 11 5G sports a blocky design, a decent mix of flat and curved edges. However it does exude a premium hand-feel experience, with nice non-slippery materials all around it. The device is available in 2 colors. A white one, with BMW M Series branding (if you’re a BMW fan you may love it) but also a dark grey. It’s a professional variant with a matte finish that looks much more premium. Gorilla Glass Victus is the protection being employed upfront, while on the back is standard AG glass.

If you believe that the phone needs “protection”, then you can use the transparent cover case  in the retail box. It is soft and sturdy enough to protect the device from getting dents on the premium metallic frame.

There is no headphone jack on the iQOO 11 but you do get a set of stereo speakers. There’s also an in-display fingerprint sensor along with an On/Off button on the side, along with volume rocker. On the back side, you find the big rectangular camera module with triple camera sensors and dual-tone LED flash. At the bottom, a speaker grill is housed next to a USB Type-C charging port along with a SIM card tray. The smartphone supports two nano SIMs.

The first time I activated the iQOO 11 5G for the review, a beautiful 6.78-inch Quad HD+(1440 x 3200p) LTPO(v4) AMOLED display appears. It offers support for a peak brightness of 1,800nits and pixel density of 518 ppi (pixels per inch). It looks great under direct sunlight, and offers great viewing angles when watching FHD videos on YouTube. The colors of the subject and scene on the display come off as rich and vibrant, visually pleasing.

iQOO 11 5G review: Snappy Performance!

As I mentioned in the review, the iQOO 11 5G is one of the most powerful Android smartphones out there. It packs a 4nm class Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, Qualcomm’s latest and most powerful octa-core (3.2 GHz Cortex-X3 x 1 +  2.8 GHz Cortex-A715 x 2 +  2.8 GHz Cortex-A710 x 2 + 2.0 GHz Cortex-A510 x 3 with Adreno 740 GPU) mobile chipset to date.

On the AnTuTu benchmark, the device posted 1,234,181 points in our test. Similarly, on Geekbench 5, the iQOO 11 scored 1400 points on the single-core CPU test and 4890 points on the multi-core CPU test. As per these numbers, the iQOO 11 is currently one of the most powerful smartphones out there, and we can expect to see similar performance on upcoming phones like the OnePlus 11 and the Samsung Galaxy S23.

Our review unit is the top-end model packing 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM with an additional 8GB available as virtual swap memory from the 256GB UFS 4.0 storage. It did an excellent job in all day-to-day chores such as opening apps instantly, switching between multiple apps, operating the camera to record 4K videos and other tasks. It even worked smoothly while playing games and didn’t exhibit overheating issues when playing in the shade outdoors or indoors.

One thing that should be noted is that the iQOO 11 5G comes with a Vapor Chamber Liquid Cooling system. It is said to be made of stamped stainless steel for efficient heat dissipation, 40 per cent better compared to the predecessor.

iQOO 11 5G review: more tech specs

The dual speakers on the iQOO 11 are nothing out of the ordinary and have an acceptable amount of volume. We mentioned at the beginning the in-display fingerprint sensor. It is working as advertised with snappy recognition and an easy registration process. In terms of 5G, the phone does have NSA and SA support and can connect with all the popular bands on offer except for mmWave.

iQOO 11 5G review: Software (or bloatware)

The iQOO 11 runs on FunTouchOS 13 – based on the latest Android 13 OS. It’s Vivo’s main software – we all know it. This is both good and bad. While the software feels highly optimized with no lags, I didn’t like the fact that it comes with many third-party bloatware apps. Some of them can be easily uninstalled, while apps like Browser, V-Store, iManager, and EasyShare can neither be removed nor disabled.

Another thing that ruined my experience with the device was the constant appearance of notifications from these apps, asking me to either update them or buy some stuff from iQOO’s original store. I easily muted them – but still, not what I’d expect from a flagship level smartphone. Let’s hope that with timely upgrades the iQOO 11 has a secure and enjoyable tenure as far as the software goes.

iQOO 11 5G review: Battery life and connectivity

Inside the iQOO 11 5G there’s a large 5,000 mAh battery. Thankfully you get a 120W fast charger in the box, which can top up 50 per cent of the battery in just 8 minutes. It can also go up to 100% in just 26 minutes! In terms of battery life, I got approximately 5,5 hours of screen-on time with the resolution capped at 2K along with 120Hz refresh rate. I used the phone for social media, some email, certain Google Sheets editing and 45 minutes of Call of Duty: Mobile – because why not?

All in all, you8 can easily expect up to 2 days of battery life with normal usage. But with a 120W fast charger at hand, who needs to know?

Decent photo shooter

Although it’s not aimed at digital photographers, the iQOO 11 5G can easily please us with its imaging features. It packs a V2-processor-powered triple camera with: a main wide 50 MP (f/1.9, 23mm, 1/1.57-inch, 1.0µm pixel size, PDAF: Phase Detection Auto Focus, OIS: Optical Image Stabilization) backed by 13 MP telephoto lens (f/2.5, 47mm size, PDAF, 2x optical zoom) and a 16mm 8MP ultra-wide sensor (f/2.2) with dual-LED flash on the back.

When daylight takes over, the photos are incredible. With warm colors, worthy to be shared on social media platforms. Some may say that they’re over-saturated, but a lot of people like it this way. And iQOO doesn’t like to bust their bubble as it seems.

In low-light conditions, the main camera does an excellent job. It captures details, snapping photos almost instantly, and the OIS does an impressive job of nullifying excessive shake. If you need a helping hand, then Night Mode is there. It does the hard computing work and deliver a rather pleasing shot in most conditions. The 16MP selfie shooter is also something of note as it clicks highly detailed images of portraits on display and measured skin tones.

If you care more about video, then you’re in for a treat. The device can record high-resolution 8K videos at 30fps, 4K at 30/60fps, and full HD 1080p at 30/60/120/240fps. Thanks to gyro-EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization), the videos tend to be stable, but not that stable.

iQOO 11 5G review: Conclusion

iQOO 11 5G is available in two configurations. 8GB RAM + 256GB storage and 16GB RAM + 256GB storage, priced for Rs 59,999 and Rs 64,999, respectively. I really liked it. It is a well-balanced premium phone thats gets the job done.

The iQOO 11 5G has all the right stuff for you. It packs an efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 to deliver smooth performance and long battery life. A crystal clear display, and excellent quality build. All of the above make it a top-tier device worthy of the flagship smartphone title. What holds it back is the UI, filled with bloatware. If you can overlook it, then you may have found a smartphone suited for your needs.