iQOO 11 5G

The iQOO 11 doesn’t exactly shake the high end of the iQOO lineup, coming less than 6 months after 10/9T. In addition to the predictable chip upgrade to Qualcomm’s latest version, we get a jump in storage technology, while a more unexpected development in display specifications brings it into vanilla 11 Pro territory. If in the previous three generations, the 1440p screen was only for professionals, now the high-resolution panel also goes to the “main” model. Not only that, but it’s 144Hz, which is higher than the standard. Of course, it’s AMOLED with adaptive refresh, so it’s easier on the battery. However, the battery is one of the most underrated innovations of this generation, with a capacity of up to 5,000 mAh, something that the brand-new flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 should appreciate, as powerful as it is. The newly introduced UFS 4.0 storage is also touted to improve energy efficiency, but the performance numbers are likely to be more impressive. With all this energy saving, you shouldn’t worry too much about the charging speed, but the iQOO 11 does have support for 120W charging. Not much has changed in the camera department with the 10/9T. The seemingly identical 50MP main unit is now joined by a short 2x telephoto and a relatively basic ultra-wide camera – the latter going from 13MP to 8MP. From the looks of it, the Pro model is named after its camera configuration, while this model aims to be just “good enough” in that department.

Design of the Phone

This leather-like material is placed over a layer of fibreglass, giving it strength and rigidity to truly function as a smartphone back panel. It’s AG-type glass, which means it has a matte finish that should prevent fingerprints, although it’s very slippery – at least that’s been our experience with such models in the past. For China, the phone is offered in green colour with the same finish. the camera configuration is quite dominant on the back of the iQOO 11. The business end is covered by a large piece of glass surrounded by black paint. The 6.78-inch screen is surrounded by pleasantly thin bezels, the hole for the selfie camera is… unfathomable, and you can almost forget about the thin headphone jack above the screen. The iQOO 11 has an under-display fingerprint sensor and is optical of a different type – the Pro gets ultrasound technology. In this Legend version, iQOO 11 measures 164.9 x 77.1 x 8.7 mm and weighs 205 g. For glass back alpha, add 3g and subtract 0.3mm. That said, it’s no different from the competition in terms of size and height – if you’re looking for a 6.7-6.8-inch phone, be prepared to carry a 200g bar in your pocket.

Display

The iQOO 11 has a 6.78-inch display and packs top-of-the-line specs. The E6’s LTPO AMOLED panel features a true native resolution of 1440p, a higher refresh rate of 144Hz, and granular adaptive switching for 1Hz and 1440Hz pulse-width modulation for glare-free dimming. The specs also include HDR10 support and a promise of 1,100 nits of full-screen peak brightness. The iQOO 11 display supports a refresh rate of up to 144Hz, and it can also slow down to  1Hz if you are not interacting with it. As usual, the behaviour depends on other factors such as the application you are using and the brightness of the screen – the dimming settings keep the refresh rate threshold higher. There are three refresh rate modes – Smart Switch, Standard and High. As far as we can tell, Smart Switch and High perform mostly the same, maxing out at 144Hz in very limited use cases – just a benchmark in our experience. Both modes are happy to maintain 120Hz for games that support high frame rates, which is nice. Even standard mode, which limits the refresh rate to 60Hz, drops to lower values ​​because it considers 60Hz  too wasteful at the moment.

Battery and Charging

The iQOO 11 is powered by a 5,000 mAh cell, a small but still appreciated upgrade over the 4,700 mAh power pack in the iQOO 10 and 9T. In our experience, the battery life of the 9T was already good, so we expected great performance from the 11. It worked. The Wi-Fi internet browsing script clocked in at 20 hours, with an automatic refresh rate between 5Hz and 60Hz – there was no way to force the maximum refresh rate for this test. Going forward, the phone was able to watch our test video for more than 23 hours (supporting 24Hz refresh) – another respectable result. Above-average talk volumes and standby performance added to the excellent overall performance, and the iQOO 11 earned a 127-hour endurance rating.

The iQOOs passed our charging speed tests, and with 11,120W of charging power and the included charger, they joined the ranks of the brand’s other ultra-fast charging models. The flat iQOO 11 took 22 minutes to reach 100% – we’re perfectly fine with a few extra minutes compared to the record holders. During the first 15 minutes, you will reach 83%, which with high endurance is probably good enough for a full day in real life.

Software Performance

The iQOO 11 runs Android 13 with its layer on top, which depends on where you are in the world. The version related to China is called Origin OS, while we have the “international” Funtouch OS – v13. The iQOO 11 is the first phone to arrive at our office with  Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 –  the definitive chipset for high-end Android smartphones for at least the next six months. We covered the generational improvements in more detail on the day of the announcement, but the main achievements are a 35% increase in performance and a 40% increase in CPU efficiency, mostly thanks to a reworked core configuration (1 2 2 3  1 3 4 from the previous ), 25% and 45% increase in performance and efficiency deviations on the GPU side and support for new faster memory technologies (LPDDR5X and UFS 4.0). There is also an in-house V2 chip developed by iQOO’s parent company Vivo. It works for night photos and videos, but it also works for gaming applications. We decided to start testing the storage speed in the comparison section to check how this UFS 4.0 standard compares with the UFS 3.1 of previous flagships. So the numbers show that if you read or write a lot on your phone (in 2022, everyone will be a content creator), you will see a huge benefit from the new type of storage. Random write speed also has a noticeable hit and should be felt in more cases than just transferring large video files.

Camera

The main camera of the iQOO 11 is based on a Samsung GN5 –  Tetrapixel sensor with a 1/1.57″ optical format (some say 1/1.56″), a nominal resolution of 50 megapixels and a pixel height of 1.0 µm. On the front, it has a 6-element stabilized lens with a  focal length of 23mm and an aperture of f/1.9  (iQOO claims f/1.88).

The telephoto camera uses Samsung’s 3L6 sensor (13MP, 1/3″, 1.12µm) placed behind a 50mm-equivalent lens with  f/2.46 aperture. iQOO calls it a telephoto and portrait camera.

The Ultrawide has been upgraded from the 13MP unit on the 10/9T and now relies on OmniVision’s 8MP sensor (iQOO calls it the OV08D10). It has a 1/4-inch optical form factor and a 1.12 µm pixel. The lens has an aperture of f/2.2  and a reported equivalent focal length of 16mm with fixed focus.

Selfies are handled by the Samsung 3P9, and it is the 3P9SP version with the Tetrapixel colour filter (also the SX version with the standard RGB filter). A fixed-focus lens has an equivalent focal length of 27mm and an aperture of f/2.45. The iQOO 11 has a standard triple-camera setup on the back, which includes a  main camera with a large sensor, a short 2x telephoto lens and a modest ultra-wide camera. Without the UW change, the 11’s shooting performance would be identical to the 10/9T’s selfie camera.

Price

iQOO 11 5G is a high-end smartphone launched in February 2023 in India. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC flagship is powered by a 2K AMOLED display, 50MP primary camera and 120W fast charging support. The iQOO 11 5G is available in two memory configurations: 8GB RAM with 256GB storage and 12GB RAM with 256GB storage. The base model is priced at ₹54,999 (~$720) and the top model is priced at ₹59,999 (~$780). The iQOO 11 5G is a premium smartphone and its price reflects that. However, it is also one of the most powerful and versatile smartphones on the market. If you’re looking for an uncompromising high-end smartphone, the iQOO 11 5G is a great choice. The iQOO 11 5G is available for purchase from several retailers including Amazon, Flipkart and the iQOO website.