iQOO Neo 11 Ultra Launches With Dimensity 9500M and a Huge 9,100mAh Battery

iQOO has officially launched the Neo 11 Ultra in China, and this one is clearly built for people who care about gaming and battery life. It is the first phone to use MediaTek's new Dimensity 9500M chip, while a huge 9,100mAh battery sits inside. The price is just as interesting, starting at 3,399 yuan, or around $504.

The Neo 11 Ultra is the first phone powered by the Dimensity 9500M. This is a slightly different version of the regular Dimensity 9500, with one fewer GPU core. iQOO pairs it with LPDDR5X Ultra RAM and UFS 4.1 storage, so there should be plenty of speed here.

But iQOO isn't relying on MediaTek alone. The phone also has the company's Q2 gaming chip, which can upscale games to 2K. An 8K Ice Dome vapor chamber handles cooling during longer gaming sessions.

Here's the thing, though. A gaming phone needs more than a fast chip, and the display looks ready for the job.

The Neo 11 Ultra has a 6.83-inch 2K screen with a 144Hz refresh rate. iQOO claims up to 2,000 nits across the full display and 4,500 nits in smaller areas. Touch sampling can also reach 500Hz, which should help in fast games.

To be honest, the battery interests me even more than the new chip. The Neo 11 Ultra packs a 9,100mAh silicon-carbon battery, the largest ever used in an iQOO Neo phone. It also supports 100W wired charging.

iQOO claims the phone can deliver around 13.7 hours of mobile gaming or 23 hours of video playback. We'll need real-world tests before taking those numbers too seriously, but 9,100mAh gives the phone a lot to work with.

And somehow, the Neo 11 Ultra is still 9.13mm thick. That's not exactly slim, but I can live with an extra millimeter or two if it means I don't have to look for a charger every evening.

There had to be a compromise somewhere, and the cameras are probably it. You get a 50MP main camera with OIS, an 8MP ultrawide and a 16MP selfie camera. There is no telephoto lens here, which makes it clear where iQOO's priorities are.

The rest of the hardware is much harder to complain about. You get an aluminum frame, IP68 and IP69 protection, an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor and OriginOS 6. The phone is available in Wind Chaser, Black and White.

Prices start at 3,399 yuan ($504) for 12GB/256GB, while the top 16GB/512GB model costs 4,399 yuan ($652).

I think iQOO made the right choice here. The cameras won't compete with an Ultra flagship, but that isn't what the Neo series is about. Give me a fast chip, a 144Hz 2K screen and a 9,100mAh battery for around $500, and I can forgive that 8MP ultrawide.