iQOO has made exceptional inroads within the Indian smartphone market and has diversified its portfolio of merchandise such that it’s offering units in a number of value segments. The iQOO Z6, launched final month, is one such product that is likely to be the important thing to establishing a dominant foothold within the aggressive funds house. Priced beginning at Rs 15,499, the iQOO Z6 stays true to the corporate’s philosophy of delivering the perfect efficiency for the value by placing the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G SoC on the helm. The opposite specs, on paper, usually are not too shabby with a 120Hz LCD panel, a 5,000mAh battery, and Android 12 out of the field. Time to search out out if the iQOO Z6 is the funds decide of the season on this full assessment of the gadget.
Desk of Contents
Verdict
By way of uncooked processing energy, the iQOO Z6 might outstrip all different competing units. It has the battery life to maintain lengthy hours of gaming and in addition packs in a clean 120Hz display screen for fluid searching. Nevertheless, it doesn’t impress within the digicam division, and the bloatware points influence the general utilization expertise as nicely.
The lowdown
The iQOO Z6’s again panel does exude vibes of telephones from Vivo’s steady. The prismatic purple-violet color shifting theme known as Chromatic Blue, and the matte end to prime all of it off, are very harking back to the Vivo V21 sequence launched final yr. I preferred it then and I undoubtedly dig it now, particularly given the cheaper price tag the iQOO Z6 carries. Though it isn’t as slim or light-weight because the V21, I do love the Z6’s svelte in-hand really feel and durable building with zero flex on the chassis. The digicam association reveals two huge rings organized vertically whereas a smaller sensor and a LED flash module on the facet full the ensemble. Sadly, the highest earpiece doesn’ double up as a secondary speaker for stereo sound. There’s a headphone jack on the underside although, which sits beside the USB C port. As per the norms on this value vary, the facility button has a fingerprint sensor built-in whereas the quantity rocker is current simply above it.
So far as the show goes, the iQOO Z6 sports activities a 6.58-inch panel with a 120Hz refresh fee and FHD+ (2,408 x 1,080) decision. iQOO claims a 90.61 % screen-to-body ratio however the presence of a waterdrop notch and chunky bezels across the panel paint a somewhat totally different image. The LCD display screen does have a number of limitations as in comparison with an OLED show, akin to poorer viewing angles, lighter blacks, and a shallower dynamic vary. Nevertheless, for the common person, these are issues might be of little concern because the Z6’s display screen will get loads brilliant for indoor utilization and the color calibration is respectable sufficient for many visible content material. Changes will be made when it comes to the three preset color profiles together with toggles for eye-care and darkish mode. The refresh fee will be set to Good Change or be completely locked at 60, 90, or 120Hz. Throughout my time with the gadget, there was hardly a second when the display screen stuttered or induced any jitters when set at 120Hz. For gaming fanatics, the Z6 is provided with a quick 240Hz of contact sampling fee which is the perfect the section has to supply when it comes to contact response.
Coming to the cameras, the iQOO Z6 makes use of a 50MP major shooter which is supported by a 2MP macro and 2MP depth sensor. Photographs captured by the gadget usually are not actually spectacular, with respectable color saturation ranges and spotty detailing. The sensor does nicely to not blow up highlights within the background however publicity ranges brighten up the shot to unnatural ranges. Focusing was fast sufficient together with the shutter speeds however there was a basic softness in photographs and the dynamic vary wasn’t very broad. The AI-based scene detection labored solely to amplify colors on the picture and nothing extra. The macro and depth shooters had been common at finest with edge detection on the latter being the one worthwhile point out.
In low gentle situations, the digicam fares under expectations even for a funds cellphone. Getting the topic in focus was a strenuous job and the extreme oversharpening to cut back noise affected the shot too. For as soon as, lens flaring was not a regarding challenge however even with a ton of supporting lights throughout the body, the sensor had a tough time gathering particulars. The devoted Evening mode was of little assist typically. It is usually prudent to say that for some motive the 4GB RAM model of the gadget has neither the bokeh mode nor the Evening mode. The cellphone’s 16MP selfie digicam incorporates Vivo’s facial oversharpening and fairer pores and skin tones however does a greater job at dealing with the publicity behind the face.
The iQOO Z6 is the most cost effective cellphone with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G SoC. I beforehand encountered the chipset on the POCO X4 Professional (assessment) and I can’t say I used to be overly impressed with it. Nevertheless, for the Z6’s beginning value of Rs 15,499, I can consider no chipset higher suited to gaming and CPU wants. Benchmark scores level towards that with Antutu V9.1.3 churning out a really wholesome 410,397 general rating and Geekbench 5’s multi-core consequence logging 1,946. For some motive the CPU Throttle benchmark crashed, which is barely troubling for the reason that POCO X4 Professional throttled to about 73 % of its peak efficiency. Even so, common smartphone customers won’t discover a factor in the case of duties like app switching or working heavy social media apps side-by-side. So far as BGMI gaming goes, the utmost body fee setting is Extremely (45fps) at Balanced graphics. iQOO has detailed a 5-layer liquid cooling system designed to run video games with out body drops for a considerable period of time. My testing revealed that the cellphone heated up fairly a bit beneath my fingers however not sufficient to trigger any discomfort. There are 4GB, 6GB and 8GB LPDDR4X RAM variants out there whereas the interior storage stays fastened at 128GB UFS 2.2. A microSD card slot can be out there for an growth within the storage by as much as 1TB.
Different facets of the iQOO Z6 embrace a single bottom-firing speaker which isn’t nice however isn’t too unhealthy both. You do have a 3.5mm headphone jack if wired audio merchandise curiosity you however there isn’t any Hi-res assist like a number of Redmi telephones have in the identical value bracket. 5G capabilities, whereas current, can’t be utilised till the Indian telecom market units up the required infrastructure. If studies are to be believed, then the completely satisfied second ought to arrive someday subsequent yr. The fingerprint sensor works simply effective and I used to be fairly pleased with the facial recognition system on the gadget as nicely. So far as software program goes, the gadget packs in Vivo’s FunTouchOS 12 which relies on Android 12. You may learn my iQOO 9 assessment for extra particulars however the fundamental gist is that bloatware points nonetheless persist though the thematic customisation choices are fairly respectable to mess around with.
Contained in the gadget, there’s a 5,000mAh cell that has 18W charging assist. Now, iQOO has made some tall claims concerning the Z6’s battery life with figures like 16.9 hours of Netflix or 22.6 hours of Fb and even 8.5 hours of BGMI, on a single cost. My testing revealed that the cellphone provides about 6 hours of screen-on time. I watched a number of episodes of Fashionable Household on Hotstar together with a 2 hour run of BGMI and on the finish, I had as much as 45 % battery left within the financial institution. PCMark’s Battery check confirmed a stupendous rating of 19 hours 23 minutes which is the very best I’ve seen on a 5,000mAh battery. Nevertheless, I do really feel that charging speeds might be improved a tad bit because the 18W resolution takes as much as 2 hours to utterly juice up the cell.
Last verdict
As a price-to-performance package deal, the iQOO Z6 might be the quickest cellphone in the marketplace within the funds house, not counting the Realme 9 SE 5G (assessment) which begins at Rs 19,999. I like how the Z6 blends in a great model whereas protecting the design sturdy and durable. Additionally, it comes with Android 12, which is a giant plus in my books and the battery life is somewhat good. Nevertheless, cameras lon the iQOO Z6 aren’t spectacular, and the shortage of a stereo output is a bummer as nicely. It doesn’t assist that though the gadget is on the most recent software program model, it’s nonetheless riddled with lots of bloatware. Even so, if processing prowess is what you’re after and don’t care a lot concerning the optical capabilities, I really feel that the iQOO Z6 might be among the many finest choices within the inexpensive vary.
Editor’s score: 3.5 / 5
Professionals:
- Good design and in-hand really feel
- First rate show
- Sturdy efficiency
- Wonderful battery life
Cons:
- Sub-par cameras
- Waterdrop notch appears to be like archaic
- Bloatware points persist
- Lacks stereo audio system