So finally, the new flagship killer iQOO 9 pro is here. iQOO 7 and iQOO 7 Legend were two of the most powerful phones to launch in India last year. Despite their popularity, what stopped the phones from reaching the flagship killer status that iQOO aimed for was heavy competition, lacking software and camera performance. But in 2022 iQOO has launched the iQOO 9 Pro, Who has the beast specifications and exellent camera performance on paper. And this is the company’s first phone to feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in india.
But before we go dig deep into the review of IQOO 9 Pro, let’s first have a look at the specifications at a glance.
Specifications of iQOO 9 Pro
| Processor | Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 |
| Display | 6.78-inch 2K E5 AMOLED curved display |
| Refresh Rate | 120Hz |
| Rear cameras | 50MP GN5 Gimbal camera + 50MP fisheye wide angle lens + 16MP portrait zoom lens |
| Front camera | 16 MP, f/2.5 wide |
| Video | 8K@30fps, 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS |
| Battery | 4,700mAh |
| Charger | 120W fast charging |
| Price | Checkout Now |
Design and Display:
As a flagship, iQOO 9 Pro comes with the latest and greatest display hardware available on a phone in 2022. You get a vibrant E5 AMOLED display that supports a crisp 2K resolution. Club that with a tall 6.78-inch 10-bit panel and the smartphone is one of the best for multimedia consumption. It is also pretty bright, both indoors and outdoors. The iQOO 9 Pro’s display comes with an HDR10+ certification and comes with a peak brightness of 1500 nits. As expected, there is support for a 120Hz refresh rate. The 9 Pro uses an LTPO 2.0 panel, which allows the refresh rate to switch between 1Hz and 120Hz depending on the type of content on the screen. The dynamic switching between refresh rates contributes to providing some extra minutes of battery life.
To offer an immersive viewing experience, the display is curved on the sides. The screen curvature is not as aggressive but enough to seamlessly blend into the device’s metal frame without having to worry about accidental touches.
The power button is blue in colour, and the volume buttons are situated above it on the metal frame. The left frame is flush with the bottom edge, allowing place for the SIM tray near to the USB Type-C port and the primary speaker grille.
The earpiece above the display doubles up as a secondary speaker. There is no partnering with any audio maker here but the speakers are among the best we have heard so far on a smartphone. Be it something as simple as listening to music, watching videos or while playing games, the audio at about 80 percent is very clear. However, we felt that the dedicated primary speaker is slightly louder than the earpiece. The difference is marginal but something that is noticeable only at a lower volume.
There is no skimming out on the in-hand feel either. The phone weighs about 210 grams. The phone’s tall form factor and the curved edges of the rear panel help get a hefty in-hand feel. As expected from a top-tier flagship, the iQOO 9 Pro has a glass back. It has a White textured rear panel with three stripes in the shades of Red, Black and Blue. It is not just the phone’s racing stripe design that reminds you of speed but also the performance unit. While we are at it, let’s dive into the phone’s Camera section.
Camera
iQOO is following Vivo’s footsteps when it comes to the camera performance on the iQOO 9 Pro. The phone comes with triple-camera setup on the back. The huge camera block on the rear panel has a 50MP Samsung GN5 sensor. The large sensor helps capture great shots in both day and night.
While daylight images are great, it is the lowlight performance that is particularly impressive on the iQOO 9 Pro. There is little to no noise in the darker portion of images. The software also manages to not overflow the highlights while trying to retain the details in the shadows. iQOO 9 Pro also gets the gimbal stabilisation feature found on the Vivo X70 Pro Plus. It has a five-axis video image stabilisation that offers better stability and a less jittery output than the traditional optical image stabilisation tech.
iQOO 9 Pro is the first smartphone in India to come with a 150-degree ultrawide camera sensor. The images offer a fair amount of detail while capturing a wider frame than the main camera. It also comes with a bunch of dedicated modes like Fisheye, Crystal Ball, Asteroid and Rabbit Hole. If implemented well, you can get some creative images using these modes.
The third sensor is a 16MP portrait sensor with a 60mm focal length. It supports up to 2.5x optical zoom. Images clicked using the portrait mode on the iQOO 9 Pro offer creamy bokeh. The edge detection is great here. Vivo’s software does tend to smoothen the skin slightly. Disable the beauty mode and you will still be happy with the overall output of the image. For selfies, there is a 32MP front camera housed inside the hole-punch cutout at the top centre. Selfie lovers can blindly get this one for the quality of images it clicks. There are many filters and styles to choose from as well.
Performance
The iQoo 9 Pro has the distinction of being the first smartphone with the flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset. There’s close competition with the Samsung Galaxy S22 series which has also opened pre-orders for its flagship on February 23. First, to get the statistics out of the way, the Geekbench score of the device stands at 1235 for the single-core and 3533 for the multi-core score.
Day to days tasks on the iQoo 9 Pro are buttery smooth. There’s no sign of lag or jitter, as expected from a flagship of this category. Switching between apps is no problem at all. The real parameter for iQoo buyers will be gaming.
Playing BGMI on maximum frame rate did end up warming up the device pretty quickly, but it wasn’t unpleasant. The battery does take a hit though.
The base variant comes with 8GB RAM. Both variants can provide up to 4GB of extended RAM. However, I didn’t feel the need for that. The phone also has a “dedicated Game Chip” which the company claims is able to increase the frame rate and optimize colors for high FPS gameplay.
The phone comes with Android 12 out of the box with Funtouch OS12. Android 12 does make things really smooth on the device. The privacy indicators work flawlessly as well. iQoo will be providing 2 years of Android updates and 3 years of security updates for the iQoo 9 Pro.
Battery
For a 4700 mAh device, iQoo provides adequate backup. Even with a few brief (30 minutes to 1 hour) game sessions, the device comfortably lasts a day. The standby time is very amazing, with only a 1% or two reduction over night.
The 120W rapid charging is fantastic. In just a few minutes, you can receive a full day’s worth of battery. The battery percentage rise is the biggest when you’re down to single digits. In about 20 minutes, the device goes from 10% to nearly 100%. Expect the phone to heat up as the charging progresses. When the charger reached a high battery percentage, it made some minor noises.
Final Word
Ofcourse iQOO 9 pro is a great phone and true flagship. If you’re looking for a phone that offers the raw performance of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 under under Rs 70,000, along with an excellent screen, great cameras, and gorgeous looks, the iQOO 9 Pro is a solid choice. But if you were looking for something a little more affordable that give you same camera performace than you can go with some other phones like samsung s22 or Iphone 13
