iQOO Z6 Pro Review: Delivers excellent value under Rs 23,000

iQOO Z6 5G Pro review Summary:

Editor’s rating: 3.7/5

iQOO for its success in India owes a lot to the Z series. The phones offered under the Z series have been offering an excellent price-to-performance ratio. The company recently expanded its Z series with the addition of iQOO Z6 Pro and iQO Z6.

The iQOO Z6 series claims to provide a premium experience at an affordable price point. The higher model in the series is the iQOO Z6 Pro 5G which appears to be a rebrand of the Vivo T1 Pro. The phone shares similarities not only in terms of design but specs as well. Since Vivo T1 is already available in the market, is iQOO Z6 Pro make any sense? Should you buy this one? Let us find out.

iQOO Z6 Pro 5G Review: Design

The iQOO Z6 Pro 5G comes with a design inspired by the iQOO 7. Where it stands different from the iQOO 7 is its unique camera module. The rear panel has 2 large circles holding 3 camera lenses which makes the camera module’s design different from all other iQOO devices. The top ring has the main sensor whereas the bottom one has ultrawide and macro lenses. The device is available in 2 colors-Phantom Dusk and Legion Sky we received the Legion Sky variant and it did look beautiful from the back.

iQOO has used plastic as the main material for the body which has received a shimmery matte finish. One of the advantages of a plastic build is it doesn’t catch fingerprints or dust easily, which leads to the device maintaining its appearance even after a long day. The smartphone looks boxy and has curved corners but is comfortable to hold in hand. The front has a 6.4-inch screen with a notch design and slight chin. The phone weighs 180 grams and is 8.5mm thick which makes it sleek, light, and easy to carry on the go. Operation on one hand is smooth and the smartphone does have a strong build quality.

iQOO Z6 Pro 5G comes with Gorilla Glass protection on the front. The phone has a power button and volume rockers on the right side edge. At the top edge is an IR blaster while there is a speaker grille, USB-C port, and SIM tray at the bottom but a 3.5mm headphone jack is missing. This can be a huge downside for those who still use wired earphones. There is no microSD card slot as well. However, it has an in-display optical fingerprint sensor which is definitely an upgrade from the side-mounted fingerprint scanner.

iQOO Z6 Pro 5G Review: Display

The iQOO Z6 Pro 5G sports a 6.4-inch AMOLED display panel with a 90Hz refresh rate. The quality of the display is different from what other brands normally offer as the color settings seem to be set to a true tone which might make the display look faded due to no color saturation. Initially, it takes a while, but slowly your eyes get adjusted to the visuals on the screen. It starts to feel easy on the eyes and you find colors closer to reality. The 90Hz refresh rate is slightly disappointing as even the last Z series (Z5 and Z5 Pro) had a 120Hz refresh rate. The difference can be felt while gaming sometimes, otherwise scrolling is mostly smooth.

The smartphone comes with HDR10+ support for content streaming but it involves some limitations as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are not supported. The viewing angles are decent and peak brightness is good as well (1300 nits), making the screen clearly visible even under direct sunlight. The touch sampling rate of 180Hz works fine but is not ultra-fast so you will be disappointed if you want it that way. All in all, if you are a true-blue gamer, then a low refresh rate and touch sampling rate might be an issue for you, but if not, the display is good.

iQOO Z6 Pro 5G Review: Battery

iQOO Z6 Pro packs a 4700mAh battery under the hood. Though it is a downgrade from 5000mAh which powered Z5 Series, but the battery life is decent as it lasts throughout the day. If you have moderate usage which includes calling, browsing, chatting, listening to music, watching videos, and more, the battery easily lasts the entire day. If your usage involves long gaming sessions, then you might need to charge the device earlier.

The smartphone comes with 66W fast charging support which means super-fast charging speed. Using this charger, the device charges from 0 to 100% in 45 minutes. With a 4700mAh battery and full charge in under an hour, there are no complaints from the battery department of iQOO Z6 Pro 5G.

iQOO Z6 Pro 5G Review: Camera

The iQOO Z6 Pro has the same camera setup as its predecessor. The backside features triple camera lenses including a main 64MP lens, an 8MP ultrawide lens, and a 2MP macro sensor. The front sees a waterdrop notch with a 16MP selfie camera. The smartphone can record 4K videos at 30fps and 1080p videos at 60fps.

The main 64MP camera takes amazing shots in daylight. The photographs clicked are detailed with vibrant colors and an excellent dynamic range. The camera never overexposes images and colors look real tone. The shutter speed is fast and HDR is effective as well.

Although the main camera works well in the daytime, the results start downgrading as the light becomes less. Images taken in the nighttime are softer and lack details, especially around the edges. Switching on Night Mode does improve the quality of images a little bit as it reduces noise and increases detailing by brightening up the scenes. But the night mode to doesn’t give perfect results when photos involve shadows.

Coming with the 8MP ultrawide camera, it gives good images in daylight. Details are well maintained but the edges are distorted. The camera is unable to handle shadows well and images when zoomed in, don’t look clear.

The 2MP macro lens does not do anything substantial. There is no autofocus and in most of the scenes, colors are inaccurate too.

The camera comes with various modes like time lapse, panorama, dual view, AR stickers, and more. These can be used as per requirement.

There is a 16MP selfie camera at the front. The selfie camera is pretty decent as the images clicked have good detailing and sharpness. The edge detection is accurate and skin tones look real and natural. The focus is kept on human subjects and the background is slightly blurred to highlight the subject.

iQOO Z6 Pro 5G Review: Performance

The iQOO Z6 Pro is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G chipset and since it is one of the best performing chipsets in this segment, so there are no issues with its performance here as well. Combined with 12GB LPDDR5 RAM and up to 256GB UFS 2.2 storage, the chipset is fast and efficient. RAM can be extended by up to 4GB to improve the performance further.  Multiple apps run smoothly in the background and the loading of apps is fast.

Gaming on iQOO Z6 Pro is decent as the games like Call of Duty: Mobile and Apex Legends Mobile ran seamlessly with high frame rates and HD graphics. Thermal performance has to be improved upon as the device heats up after long gaming sessions and also during charging.

In terms of software, the iQOO Z6 Pro 5G runs Android 12 with Funtouch OS 12. It comes with an Ultra-Game mode that improves the gaming performance of the device and since the device has Android 12, all privacy-focused features can also be found in it. Funtouch comes with eons of customizations and is user-friendly to handle. The only issue is the huge amount of bloatware that comes pre-installed. Though some of these apps can be uninstalled, there are some which will always occupy space. iQOO has pledged 2 major Android updates and 3 years of security updates, which is pretty decent for a mid-range smartphone.

One more letdown is the speaker. The iQOO Z6 Pro comes with a single bottom-firing speaker which doesn’t give clear audio during gaming. This can be a problem if you don’t have wireless earphones and are playing a game in which, you need to hear sounds to move ahead.

iQOO Z6 Pro 5G Review Verdict: Should you buy it?

At a starting price of under 25k, iQOO Z6 Pro 5G is a phone with many strong points. The Snapdragon 778G chipset-driven smartphone delivers good performance with good battery life, super-fast charging capability, and a reliable camera setup. It runs Android 12 and has a decent display as well. All these make it bang for the buck in its price segment. Although it lacks a headphone jack, has a Slower refresh rate, and loads of bloatware, these can be ignored if you want a performance-oriented device for under Rs. 25,000