vivo iQOO 3 5G review

Android 10 with brand new iQOO UI

The iQOO 3 5G runs Android 10 but you couldn't tell without looking in the menus - the in-house customizations are really thorough. Having said that, this phone's iQOO UI isn't quite as iOS-like as vivo's previous FunTouch efforts.

It has a proper notification shade with quick toggles in it, as opposed to the previous approach with a Control center on the bottom and notifications from the top. And it works almost like any other notification shade - you pull down from the top and a row of toggles appears, notifications cards below it; pull down again and you get the entire grid of toggles.

We say 'almost' though, because it has its idiosyncrasies. For example, there's no shortcut to the settings menu on the first pull - it only appears after the second swipe down, in an area previously unoccupied by anything - why the extra step? And then, to dismiss the shade if it's full of notifications, you need to swipe up from the very bottom of the screen, as if you're doing the 'Home' gesture. It's a bit counterintuitive.

Notification shade

Speaking of gestures, the Android 10 default navigation implementation is how the iQOO 3 5G operates out of the box. Some other custom launchers add a swipe and hold gesture from the side to switch between the last two apps, but not iQOO UI. It does use that gesture for something, though - it's called 'Quick launch apps' and it's a five-icon shortcut menu, where you can add any app installed on the phone. You can't add the flashlight, for example, which we feel is a missed opportunity. You can disable the feature entirely too.

Other navigation options are also available including the swipe from the bottom variety which operates like a nav bar, only with swipes, as well as the classic nav bar itself.

Navigation options and shortcut menu

One entirely custom solution on the iQOO 3 is the extra hardware button on the left side of the phone, directly opposite the volume down button. vivo interchangeably calls it the AI button or Smart button. It recognizes three actions - press, double press, and press and hold. In its out of the box state, the first and third action will summon Google Assistant, while the double press launch Jovi Vision - an in-house tool that scans your screen and tries to find items to buy within it (best used within the camera app, if it wasn't obvious).

Each action can be assigned to open up a Google search or deactivated, so you can effectively remove the hardware AI button in software. You can't set it to launch an app or a function of your choice, so still no flashlight shortcut.

AI button options

The iQOO 3 5G has an always-on display feature, which you can customize to your heart's content. Dark mode for the entire UI is also present.

Dark mode • Always on display

Biometric security comes in two flavors - an under display optical fingerprint reader and a camera-only face recognition. Fingerprint recognition works excellently fast, every time - we believe that optical FPR tech has matured enough to be as quick as the capacitive sensors of the past. The sensor is perhaps a tiny bit too low (say, for example if you're coming from a Galaxy Note10+), but you'll get used to it in no time.

The facial recognition works extremely fast too, even in pitch darkness, where it lights up the display real quick (a little, not blinding you). While it does require at least one open eye to unlock, it's still a relatively insecure authentication method, mind you.

Biometrics and security

There's a bunch of gaming-focused software features baked in too, operated from within the Ultra Game Mode hub of sorts. That's is accessed from the main settings menu or by long pressing the toggle in the notification shade, which also serves a global on/off switch of the features. Game assistant will show a popup informing you it's got everything optimized and briefing you on current settings - you can disable it after you're tired of seeing it. Game sidebar is where you'll be able to change settings mid-game - handle alerts, screen recording, and the pressure sensitive buttons assignment, among others. You can customize the options in this sidebar as well as disable it completely and only set the things from the Ultra Game Mode Optimization Center.

Gaming settings

Synthetic benchmarks, sustained performance

The iQOO 3 5G has some proper flagship internals. For starters, it's the Snapdragon 865 at the helm - the very best chipset on an Android phone right now. The handset comes in several different RAM/storage tiers with 6GB, 8GB or 12GB of RAM, and 128GB or 256GB of storage. Our review unit is the top spec with 12 gigs of RAM and 256GB of storage.

And that storage is also the fastest available - UFS 3.1 can only be found here, on vivo's own NEX 3S 5G, or the Redmi K30 Pro and Pro Zoom. Not even the just announced OnePlus 8 Pro has it, and we all know how big OnePlus is on speed.

So we figured we'd start our exploration of the iQOO 3 5G's performance from storage speed. We threw some AndroBench at it and while sequential read and write speeds are in the same ballpark as UFS3.0 devices, the iQOO 3 5G outperformed them in random read and write, more impressively in the read part. Whether you'll be able to feel the difference is a different matter, but the facts are the iQOO is, indeed, faster.

AndroBench Sequential Read (MB/s)

Higher is better

• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  1758
• Oppo Find X2 Pro
  1687
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G
  1619
• Samsung Galaxy Note10+
  1530

AndroBench Sequential Write (MB/s)

Higher is better

• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  733
• Oppo Find X2 Pro
  738
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G
  688
• Samsung Galaxy Note10+
  570

AndroBench Random Read (MB/s)

Higher is better

• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  292
• Oppo Find X2 Pro
  206
• Samsung Galaxy Note10+
  198
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G
  178

AndroBench Random Write (MB/s)

Higher is better

• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  240
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G
  217
• Oppo Find X2 Pro
  206
• Samsung Galaxy Note10+
  130

Moving on to our more standard set of benchmarks, the iQOO 3 5G posted excellent numbers in GeekBench under both single-core and multi-core loads.

GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  3402
• nubia Red Magic 5G
  3387
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  3269
• Huawei P40 Pro
  3197
• Realme X50 Pro
  3175
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G
  2942
• Samsung Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
  2703
• Samsung Galaxy Note10+
  2154

GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• nubia Red Magic 5G
  929
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  928
• Realme X50 Pro
  911
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  900
• Samsung Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
  886
• Huawei P40 Pro
  780
• Samsung Galaxy Note10+
  776
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G
  764

That top-class performance continued into Antutu where the iQOO 3 5G was only bested by cousins Find X2 Pro and Realme X50 Pro.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  593717
• Realme X50 Pro
  592447
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  575601
• nubia Red Magic 5G
  557056
• Samsung Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
  500114
• Huawei P40 Pro
  496356
• Samsung Galaxy S20+ (60Hz, 1440p)
  489371
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G
  485908
• Samsung Galaxy Note10+
  438622
• Asus ROG Phone II (60Hz)
  384713

Graphics benchmarks also consistently placed the iQOO towards the top of the charts.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  87
• Realme X50 Pro
  86
• nubia Red Magic 5G
  86
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  86
• Samsung Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
  85
• Samsung Galaxy S20+ (60Hz, 1440p)
  85
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G
  81
• Asus ROG Phone II (60Hz)
  78
• Huawei P40 Pro
  75
• Samsung Galaxy Note10+
  68

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
  75
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  61
• Realme X50 Pro
  60
• Asus ROG Phone II (60Hz)
  60
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G
  59
• nubia Red Magic 5G
  59
• Huawei P40 Pro
  52
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  43
• Samsung Galaxy S20+ (60Hz, 1440p)
  43
• Samsung Galaxy Note10+
  38

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Realme X50 Pro
  51
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  51
• nubia Red Magic 5G
  51
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  51
• Samsung Galaxy S20+ (60Hz, 1440p)
  51
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G
  50
• Samsung Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
  50
• Asus ROG Phone II (60Hz)
  47
• Huawei P40 Pro
  44
• Samsung Galaxy Note10+
  43

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Realme X50 Pro
  45
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G
  43
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  42
• Samsung Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
  42
• nubia Red Magic 5G
  41
• Asus ROG Phone II (60Hz)
  40
• Huawei P40 Pro
  31
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  25
• Samsung Galaxy S20+ (60Hz, 1440p)
  25
• Samsung Galaxy Note10+
  24

3DMark SSE OpenGL ES 3.1 1440p

Higher is better

• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  7261
• nubia Red Magic 5G
  7250
• Realme X50 Pro
  7221
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  7159
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G
  6864
• Samsung Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
  6819
• Samsung Galaxy S20+ (60Hz, 1440p)
  6735
• Huawei P40 Pro
  6062
• Asus ROG Phone II (60Hz)
  5393
• Samsung Galaxy Note10+
  4984
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro
  4432

3DMark SSE Vulkan 1440p

Higher is better

• nubia Red Magic 5G
  6678
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  6675
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  6526
• Realme X50 Pro
  6472
• Samsung Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
  6354
• Samsung Galaxy S20+ (60Hz, 1440p)
  6311
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G
  6020
• Huawei P40 Pro
  5637
• Samsung Galaxy Note10+
  4763
• Asus ROG Phone II (60Hz)
  4642
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro
  4233

The iQOO 3 5G did keep up consistent benchmark scores the same for repeated runs, while also staying relatively cool in the process, indicating a good thermal design and promising sustained high performance.

Delving a little deeper into continued load, we ran the CPU throttle benchmark for an hour. The phone recorded an average of 232,518 billion instruction per second, inching ahead of the nubia Red Magic 5G we recently reviewed with a maximum that was also higher than the nubia's. The iQOO 3 5G did throttle a little, down to 90% of its maximum performance, but even in those dips, it remained close to the nubia's minimum result.

CPU throttle in progress