iQOO 3 is official with 5G, Snapdragon 865 and 55W FlashCharge

We saw an avalanche of rumors and teasers, but now everything is official - vivo’s gaming sub-brand revealed the iQOO 3 5G smartphone. It comes with Snapdragon 865 chipset, liquid cooling technology, LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage, a lot of software tweaks for gamers and ultra-fast charging so you don’t have to put down the phone for a long time.

The vivo iQOO 3 5G has a 6.44” Super AMOLED display of Full HD+ resolution. There is a fingerprint scanner underneath, while in the top right corner nested inside a punch hole sits the 16MP selfie camera. The brand calls the screen “Polar View Display” and it can reach up to 1200nits brightness in some scenarios and supports HDR10+ content playback. It comes with a 180Hz touch sampling rate to minimize input lag, but a standard 60Hz refresh rate.

There are four cameras on the back - a 48MP f/1.8 Sony IMX582 main unit is joined by a 13MP f/2.46 telephoto shooter, a 13MP f/2.2 ultrawide angle snapper and a 2MP depth sensor.

One of the key talking points around the iQOO 3 is its 5G connectivity. The phone is marking the debut of the subbrand in India, but with no commercially available 5G networks there it will serve more as futureproofing.

The vivo iQOO 3 5G comes with 55W Super FlashCharge capabilities - the company claims it can top up half of the 4,440 mAh power cell in 15 minutes. The user interface of the phone is called iQOO UI 1.0, based on Android 10, and brings along Ultra Game Mode that lets you block notifications and calls when gaming to minimize distractions.

It also sports two shoulder keys, which the company calls Monster Touch buttons. There is 4D game vibrations that simulate recoil when shooting a gun while gaming. Holding the two keys can activate Monster Mode that runs the chipset at 100% which may minimize lag on some occasions, but will certainly be taxing on the battery.

iQOO 3 5G

The vivo iQOO 3 is going to come in three versions - 8/128GB LTE that costs INR36,990 ($515/€475) and 8/256GB LTE going for INR39,990 ($555/€512). The third option is the only one that is 5G-enabled, comes with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage and will be INR44,990 ($625/€575).

Interestingly enough, all the iQOO 3 phones are 5G-ready in China and the memory versions are a bit different. Here's the full price breakdown: the 6/128 GB version costs CNY3,598 ($510/€475), 8/128 GB version is CNY3,798 ($540/€500), the 12/128 GB goes for CNY3,998 ($568/€525), and the 12/256 GB option is CNY4,398 ($625/€575).

First sale in India is scheduled for 12 PM on March 4, and will take place at iqoo.com and Flipkart.