Our first Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered smartphone has arrived, and it comes from a brand you might not be too familiar with.

It's certainly the first iQOO phone that we've reviewed, so let's take a quick look at where this company popped up from.

iQOO started out as a gaming-focused sub-brand of Vivo, launching with the Vivo iQOO in 2019, before spinning off to become a general-purpose smartphone brand in its own right.

Now the brand is steadily gaining popularity in its primary markets of China and Southeast Asia, and after using its latest flagship as our main phone for a few weeks, we're starting to understand why.

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iQOO 11
Recommended

4.5/5

The iQOO 11 is an excellent phone on all fronts, it has raw power, battery life, a sleek design and impressive cameras. The problem is its availability, unless you live in one of the few markets that iQOO is launching in, you'll have a tricky time getting your hands on one.

Pros
  • Super speedy
  • Slick design
  • Great camera system and image processing
  • Impressive battery life
  • Fast charging
Cons
  • Loads of bloatware
  • Limited availability
  • Slippery back

Design

  • Dimensions: 164.86 x 77.07 x 8.40 mm
  • Weight: 208 grams
  • Colours: Alpha (black) or Legend (white vegan leather with BMW stripes)

The iQOO 11 has a slick professional aesthetic and feels premium throughout. It's available in two colour options, there's a subtle matte black version, which we're testing, and a flashier white version. The white version has a vegan leather back panel brandished with BMW's signature racing stripes, made possible by a partnership between iQOO and BMW M Motorsport.

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Our version had BMW branding on the packaging, but it's not present on the device itself. The black model has an AG glass back panel that feels lovely in the hand, it's very similar to the back panel of the Vivo V25 Pro, albeit without the colour-shifting gimmick. Our only complaint is that it's extremely slippery, but thankfully, iQOO includes a clear TPU case in the box that gives it plenty of grip - using it does detract from the looks, though.

The back panel curves at the edges and this makes the device feel slimmer than it is, whilst also feeling great in your pocket. We switched from the Google Pixel 6 to the iQOO 11 and immediately felt that it was less chunky, even though the dimensions aren't too dissimilar.

The phone is framed by a slim curved aluminium strip, and here you'll find the usual volume rocker, power button, USB-C port and SIM card tray. There's also an IR blaster, which is less common on modern devices, but some may find it useful for controlling TVs, stereos and other devices.

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We love the look of the camera array, it has a matte aluminium frame, and all of the lenses are behind a large square glass panel. It looks much more sleek and minimal than the usual array of circular lens cut-outs. We were also impressed by how little it protrudes, it's one of the smaller camera bumps that we've seen in the past year, and it sits well on a table with minimal rocking.

Display and speakers

  • 6.78-inch 144Hz E6 AMOLED
  • Resolution: 1220 x 3200, Peak brightness: 1800 nits
  • Dual stereo speakers

The screen on the iQOO 11 is excellent, it's very high-resolution and can achieve an impressive global brightness of up to 1100 nits. It's speedy, too, allowing for refresh rates of up to 144Hz. This is not only great for gaming but makes navigating the user interface feel incredibly smooth.

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The display covers 103 per cent of the NTSC colour gamut and the OS offers basic tweaking to your preference. You can choose between three pre-set profiles, Standard, Pro and Bright - and each of these can be shifted to warmer or cooler colour temperatures. It's far from the most comprehensive control that we've seen but makes it very easy to adjust the colours to your liking.

It's a flat display, which we tend to prefer, and has thin bezels on each side. There's a central punch-hole for the selfie camera, and it's fairly small and unobtrusive.

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The speakers are also seriously impressive, with more bass than most, combined with plenty of clarity and the ability to project a wide soundscape. They're not the loudest around, but they don't distort, even at maximum volume. Whether you're catching up on a Netflix show or having a quick PUBG session, they get the job done excellently.

Performance and software

  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
  • 16GB LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB UFS 4.0 storage
  • 5000 mAh battery with 120W flash charging
  • FunTouch OS 13

As we mentioned up top, this is one of the first Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 handsets to hit the market, and it's the first time we've gone hands-on with the latest flagship SoC. It's paired with an ample 16GB of RAM, and this can be extended by an additional 8GB of virtual memory, should it be required.

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Perhaps unsurprisingly, when it comes to performance, the iQOO 11 is an absolute monster. It smashes to the top of the benchmark charts in almost every scenario. In real-world terms, this results in one of the snappiest phones that we've tested for day-to-day tasks - and of course, it's an extremely capable gaming machine.

There's also a suite of gaming controls that pop up when you open a game. This allows you to tweak performance settings, block notifications or calls and also comes with screen recording tools for capturing your best plays. It's ideal for competitive players and is very comprehensive for a device that isn't explicitly branded as a gaming phone.

Battery life is impressive, and a testament to the efficiency of Qualcomm's latest chips. We found that we were often going to bed with 40 or 50 per cent left in the tank. Even on days when we spent a lot of time gaming, or using Google Maps for hours on end, the iQOO 11 made it to the end of the day.

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The phone comes bundled with a 120W wall charger, which will juice it back up in a flash. You'll have to enable fast charging in the settings menu, though, as it ships with the function disabled by default.

It's also worth mentioning the haptics. The iQOO 11 has dual X-axis linear motors, which it advertises as an immersive feature for gaming, but we found that they provide exceptional feedback for typing, too. It's really nice to have, and something that's not as well implemented on a lot of other devices.

The iQOO 11 runs Vivo's FunTouch OS 13, based on Android 13, so it's a very familiar user experience if you've ever used a Vivo phone before. On the whole, it's a decent skin, with similar features to the other brands in the BBK Electronics family. We like things like the ability to move apps in bulk, and little styling touches like the live wallpapers.

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However, the downside to FunTouch OS is the amount of bloatware that comes pre-installed. After tapping no on all the app options during setup, we still ended up with almost an entire page of pre-installed junk. It really detracts from an otherwise premium experience. Once you've removed all the bloat, it's easy to forget, but it's not something anyone wants to deal with on the first use of their shiny new phone.

Cameras

  • Selfie: 16MP 27mm f/2.45
  • Primary: 50MP 23mm f/1.88 (Isocell GN5)
  • Ultrawide: 8MP 16mm f/2.2
  • Telephoto: 13MP 50mm f2.46

Moving on to the cameras and it's more good news. iQOO has put together an extremely capable system here. As usual, it's the primary camera that's the star of the show, offering the best resolution, stabilisation and autofocus, but the additional cameras are all useful in their own right - which isn't always the case.

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The main camera is Samsung's Isocell GN5 module, that's the same one used on the Galaxy S22 and S22+, so it's well established that it's capable of excellent results. The difference here is the iQOO's image processing, and we think it does a sterling job. The images produced have very natural colours, and while the phone does apply a significant HDR effect, it's not as overbearing or unnatural as some other manufacturers.

The ultrawide camera is a significant drop down in resolution, and won't stand up to much scrutiny, but it's still quite useful when you need to capture something like a tall building. It's a fixed-focus lens, so you won't be able to take any close-ups with it, though.

Rounding out the trio of rear lenses is a telephoto, well, kind of. It's effectively a 2x zoom when compared to the primary camera, and iQOO describes it as a portrait lens. Indeed, when you switch to portrait mode in the camera app, the telephoto is selected by default.

How you feel about this camera will depend on your needs, it won't be a long enough reach for those expecting a traditional zoom, but as a portrait lens, it works well. It has autofocus, although it doesn't work quite as reliably as the primary shooter, and the extended focal length means that it's capable of producing nice natural bokeh - which can be digitally supplemented for a more dramatic look.

Finally, there's the selfie camera, which is decent, if unremarkable. However, the image processing takes this middle-of-the-road camera and elevates the results. Artificial background blurring works excellently, we found it to be more reliable than even the Google Pixel 6, and the images produced are just generally more flattering. Plus, if you like beauty filters, the options here are among the most in-depth we have ever seen.

You can almost make yourself look like a completely different person by playing with the numerous sliders available, and it previews in real-time too, which is kind of trippy to look at. It's not something that we tend to use, but if you do, you'll be amazed at the customisation.

When it comes to video performance, it's also a strong outing. There's good digital stabilisation at up to 4K 60fps, and 8K shooting is also available, sans stabilisation. The selfie shooter, meanwhile, maxes out at 1080p 30fps.

You can record videos with an artificial shallow depth-of-field effect, similar to Apple's Cinematic Mode, but our results were a mixed bag. We tried it with the selfie camera first and were surprised with how well it worked, but on the main lens, the results were less convincing. In any case, it's almost as good as what Google is achieving on the Pixel 7 Pro, which is an impressive feat from a smaller brand.

Verdict

The iQOO 11 impressed us in almost every regard. It's an extremely powerful phone with great battery life, speedy charging, and a slick design.

It's usually the cameras that let these gaming-ready flagships down, and we're happy to report that's not the case here.

The camera array is very capable and it's backed up by excellent image processing and software tools. Particularly if you like beauty filters, where the iQOO 11 has the most comprehensive toolset we've ever seen.

Really, the only thing we didn't like was the amount of bloatware that comes bundled into FunTouch OS.

However, there's a bigger problem for most of our readers, and that's the availability.

The iQOO 11 has initially launched in Indonesia and Malaysia only. It'll be coming to Thailand before the end of 2022, then launching in India on January 10 2023. We don't have pricing information firmed up either (but when we do, we'll be sure to update here).

Outside of those regions, availability is yet to be determined, but we have our fingers crossed for a wider release.