iQOO 9 review

Alternatives

The iQOO 9, just like the iQOO 9 Pro and 9 SE, targets the Indian market, and its starting price is about INR 43,000 (about €520). It is quite a competitive price, and even better, the iQOO 9 specs are nothing short of flagship-grade. With such an attractive price and specs sheet, we can imagine many people, especially gamers, will be eyeing the phone as a potential purchase.

Of course, there are many great phones within the same price bracket, so, before we pass our judgment, let's look at some of its competitors.

The first phone that comes to mind is the popular Poco F3 GT priced around INR 29,000. It sure is a cheaper device but offers a similar AMOLED screen with 1 billion colors and 120Hz refresh rate, runs on a powerful but not overheating Dimensity 1200 5G gaming-friendly chipset, and the phone even features physical pop-up gaming triggers. The F3 GT has an inferior camera setup with no gimbal and no telephoto, and cannot charge that fast (just 67W), but being noticeably cheaper easily outweighs these shortcomings.

Poco has already unveiled a successor to the Poco F3 GT - the Poco F4 GT (also known as Redmi K50 Gaming in China). It upgrades the F3 GT with the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset and adds faster 120W charging support. The phone has a suggested retail price of €600, though the early bird price is €500. The F4 GT is not available in India yet, but if or when it makes it there, it is expected to be priced around INR 50,000. And while it may offer faster performance than the iQOO 9, its camera is quite inferior, and we are not sure if it can pass as a premium all-rounder when compared to the iQOO 9.

The iQOO 9 SE is about INR 9,000 cheaper, and for that savings, you won't get a telephoto camera, Monster Touch and 10-bit display colors. It runs on the vanilla Snapdragon 888 5G chipset with similar overheating issues and has standard optical stabilization instead of a gimbal one. If the iQOO 9 is over your budget, we'd say the iQOO 9 SE is a very good alternative as it is pretty much the same phone without the premium extras like Monster Touch and Gimbal OIS.

The OnePlus 9RT 5G costs exactly as much as the iQOO 9 in India. It is worth considering for the more refined software with better support and the proper thermal control of its Snapdragon 888 chip. The OnePlus 9RT has a similar camera setup but omits a zoom camera, and its charging is merely 65W fast. The main reason why anyone would consider the OnePlus 9RT over the iQOO 9 is for its premium take on hardware.

And, finally, we want to mention the Galaxy A52s 5G model. It's a water-resistant smartphone, cheaper than the iQOO 9, with a powerful enough Snapdragon 778G chipset and an excellent 120Hz AMOLED screen. It also has a camera setup of great photo and video quality but omits a zoom camera. And it cannot recharge the battery as fast as the iQOO 9. The 8GB/128GB version of the Galaxy A52s costs about INR 33,000, and if you value waterproofing and software support more than gaming features and flagship performance, you may want to consider this one instead.

Xiaomi Poco F3 GT • Xiaomi Poco F4 GT • vivo iQOO 9 SE • OnePlus 9RT 5G • Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G

The Realme GT2 Pro and the Realme GT 2 are also worth considering. The GT2 Pro costs about INR 50,000, and it offers an even faster Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset under a higher-res 1440p AMOLED. The GT2 Pro has a more premium ultrawide camera, but instead of a zoom camera, it has a microscope one.

The Realme GT2 on the other hand is cheaper at INR 32,000, and it is more like the iQOO 9 SE - a regular 120Hz AMOLED, Snapdragon 888 chipset, and a triple-camera setup without a telephoto. Both devices have no exclusive gaming controls, and charge at 65W instead of 120W.

Realme GT2 Pro • Realme GT2

Our verdict

The iQOO 9 is an excellent all-rounder with many great treats that should give it an edge over any competitor - gimbal OIS, a zoom camera, the pressure-sensitive Monster Touch layer, and the 120W fast charging, to name a few. We also found its screen and performance to be of a flagship origin, and the iQOO 9 surprised us with excellent photo and video quality.

Even better, the iQOO 9 demonstrated some excellent battery life, a stable Funtouch launcher, and it can be a very good gaming smartphone. We also got a promise for two major Android updates and three years of security patches.

The iQOO 9 has its shortcomings, though. It is not a water-resistant device, and the speaker quality is hardly impressive. But there is something of a bigger concern - the overheating. We all know that the Snapdragon 888+ generates a lot of heat under pressure, and there is no passive cooling that can handle it for hours. That's why Asus and ZTE are using actual fans for that. It's fine. But having no thermal control and throttling and relying instead on the overheating failsafe is not healthy for the phones or the users.

And that's why the iQOO 9 case is complicated. It is an excellent smartphone without proper competition - it easily aces everything and is priced incredibly well. It's just that the overheating issue stands in the way of its greatness. If you are not an avid gamer and you are more like a balanced user, we think you will have no problems with the iQOO 9. But if gaming all day long is what you need the iQOO 9 for, you should either consider some sort of an active cooling attachment or look for another device.

Pros

• Attractive dual-glass design, metal frame, IP52.
• Outstanding display quality, 1B colors, 120Hz.
• Pressure sensitive touchscreen for custom gaming triggers
• Great battery life, crazy-fast charging.
• The second-best chipset on the Android market.
• Superb photo and video quality across the board.
• Great video stabilization across all cameras.

Cons

• Thermal management is too relaxed, allowing terminal overheating during gaming.
• No HFR gaming support past CoD and BGMI.
• Weak top speaker.
• No proper ingress protection.
• Limited availability.