The iQOO 11 comes less than 6 months after the 10/9T and doesn’t really change things at the top of the line. Along with the expected upgrade to Qualcomm’s latest chipset, we are getting a storage tech boost, and a change in the display specs that was more of a surprise brings this plain 11 into Pro territory you can buy this product directly from iQOO’s store.
iQOO 11: Description
In the last three generations, only the Pros had a 1440p screen, but now the “mainstream” model also has a high-resolution screen. Not only that, but the frequency is 144Hz, which is above average. It’s an AMOLED screen with an adaptive refresh rate, so it’s better for the battery.
Even so, one of the less noticeable changes for this generation is that the battery has been bumped up to 5,000mAh. The new flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 should appreciate this change, as efficient as it may be. The newly adopted UFS 4.0 storage is also said to use less energy, but the performance numbers are probably more impressive. You might not care too much about charging speed with all the power savings, but the iQOO 11’s 120W charging support takes care of that.
Coming from the 10/9T, not much has changed with the camera. The main camera seems to be the same 50MP unit, but now there’s also a short 2x telephoto and a fairly simple ultrawide lens. In fact, the ultrawide lens has gone from 13MP to 8MP. From what I can tell, the Pro model will get its name from its camera setup, while this one just wants to be “good enough” in this area.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Blazing-fast charging
- Excellent display
- Dependable performance
- Good primary camera
Cons
- No IP rating
- No wireless charging
- Secondary cameras could be better
- Gets warms under stress
iQOO 11: Specifications
| Display | 6.78-inch 2K E6 AMOLED, 144Hz |
| RAM | 16GB |
| Storage | 256GB |
| Battery | 5,000mAh |
| Ports | USB Type-C |
| Colors | Alpha, Legend |
Design and Display
There are two colours and finishes for the iQoo 11 5G. The company sent us the Legend version, which has a classic white back panel with a racing stripe design that looks like it came from BMW Motorsport. Fiberglass and silicone leather are used in this particular version. The phone looks and feels pretty new, but it still has a high-end feel when you hold it.
The Alpha colour has a glass back and is a safer choice for people who want the classic black colour. Both models have metal frames to make them last longer and look more expensive. The phone is pretty tall and isn’t made to be used with one hand. It has a thickness of about 8.72 mm.
The power button and volume control are on the right side of the phone and are easy to get to. Even though the phone weighs about 205g, it doesn’t feel very heavy. Obviously, if you are used to a lighter phone, you’ll notice how heavy this one is. The front of the iQoo 11 5G has a 2K AMOLED screen that is 6.78 inches wide. The screen is great to look at because it has bright colors and deep blacks.
The extra features that make the multimedia experience even better are the cherry on top. These include a peak brightness of up to 1800 nits support for WideVine L1, and the ability to watch HDR10 content in apps like Netflix. The iQoo 11 5G’s display bezel around the chin is a little bit wider than other bezels. At the top, there is a hole cut out for the front camera. Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus is also on the screen, which should make it less likely to get scratches or break if you drop it by accident.
iQOO 11: Camera
The camera interface is the same as on other Funtouch OS phones. It has a lot of features, like AR stickers, Pro Sports mode, double exposure, dual view, 50MP mode, and more. Even though the phone has a 50MP camera on the back, the final output is only 12.5MP because of pixel binning. The output from the 16MP front-facing camera is the same. There is the V2 chip that vivo made themselves for Real-Time Extreme Night Vision.
When it comes to the quality of the camera, shots taken during the day are good, and you should turn on the HDR option, which turns on HDR automatically based on the shot, so that the dynamic range is good. It’s easy to get the camera to focus. Compared to the 13MP camera on the iQOO 9T, the 8MP ultra-wide camera is just average, and it doesn’t have the macro option.
There is also a 13MP camera for portraits that can zoom by 2X. In portrait mode, you can change the aperture by hand to get the best background blur. Images taken in low light are good. Thanks to optimization, the night mode is useful. There is also a new “supermoon” mode that lets you zoom in up to 30 times, which is more than the normal mode’s 20 times. It’s not bad for the price, but since it’s a digital zoom, there aren’t as many details.
Performance and Software
For the second year in a row, iQOO beat out all other brands to be the first to release a phone with Qualcomm’s newest and best chipset. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 powers the iQOO 11, and its cores are set up in a 1+2+2+3 layout. This is part of Qualcomm’s new quad-cluster architecture, which is designed to give the phone much better performance and efficiency.
The hard work is done by the Cortex X3 core, which runs at 3.2GHz. It has three 2.0GHz Cortex A510 cores and two pairs of 2.8GHz Cortex A715 and A710 cores. The new Adreno 740 architecture is in charge of graphics. The V2 co-processor helps with motion interpolation when playing games and helps the ISP when taking photos in low light. Not only that, but the iQOO 11 also has faster storage and memory, with up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage. All of this comes together to make a strong setup that can handle anything you throw at it.
First, we did a benchmark test to see how fast the new UFS 4.0 storage is. The numbers from the benchmark show that Sequential Read and Sequential Write speeds are almost twice as fast as UFS 3.1 storage. Random Read and Random Write speeds went up by a little more than 1.5X.
We also did our standard set of benchmark tests, and the iQOO 11 really outperformed every other Android phone on the market. On Geekbench 5, it got a score of 1475 for a single core and 4888 for a group of cores. On the Antutu V9.5 test, a score of 1272572 was given.
iQOO 11: Battery Life
The iQoo 11 5G has a feature called “frame rate interpolation,” which is supposed to add more frames to a game even if it doesn’t support it. Users can also switch between Battery Saver, Balanced, and Monster power modes in “Ultra Game” mode. In Balanced mode, you get a good mix of performance and power efficiency. In Monster mode, you get the SoC’s best performance, but it drains the battery faster.
With more power comes the worry that the battery will run out too quickly. But the iQoo 11 5G seems to work well with this top-of-the-line Snapdragon SoC. I got a little more than six hours of screen time on average, which is not bad. In our HD video loop test, the iQoo 11 5G lasted for 20 hours and 59 minutes, which is very good for a flagship Android phone. The 120W fast charger also charged the battery from 0% to 100% in 23 minutes, which is a couple of minutes faster than the time that was said to be needed.
Final Words
It’s easy to recommend the iQoo 11. It has great performance and a simple design (if you get the black one), so gamers who want a powerful phone but don’t want a flashy one will like it.
The battery life is great, the flat screen is great, and for the price, the cameras are great. Funtouch OS is more annoying because it has a lot of useless software and doesn’t change much over the course of two years.
If you live in a country where the iQoo 11 is sold, it’s a good phone to buy and one of the best you can get for this price. I would recommend that everyone else buy something in their own country instead of importing the iQoo 11, which could mean losing the warranty and customer service from the company.
FAQs
Is iQOO a good smartphone?
Overall, the iQOO 11 is a well-built premium-looking smartphone with almost all the bells and whistles that one would expect from a performance-focused flagship smartphone of 2023.
What is the display quality of iQOO 11?
With its 1440 x 3200 OLED screen and up to 144Hz refresh rate, the phone feels like it can handle anything you throw at it. This is especially true for games, even though the iQOO 11’s hardware and software weren’t made with gamers in mind like some of the best gaming phones.
