We got our first look at the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2

The iQoo 11 is an upper-midrange phone (or entry-level flagship, depending on how you want to look at it), aimed at the China and Southeast Asia region, released by a Chinese sub-brand that pumps out phones every few months. Normally, such a device wouldn’t get much global attention, but this one is different. It is the first phone to offer us the look of three new pieces of new mobile hardware that will be the leading Android standard in 2023.

iQoo 11 is the first phone launched outside of China to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 silicon, to feature a Samsung 144Hz E6 LTPO 3.0 AMOLED display panel, and to use the UFS 4.0 memory standard. Moreover, it is also the first phone outside of China to run on Vivo’s imaging chip V2 (iQoo is a sub-brand of Vivo) and the first non-Pixel phone to ship with Android 13.

That’s a lot of firsts for a relatively affordable phone in Asia (price varies, but the base model starts at the equivalent of $545). This is the competitive nature of the Asian phone scene. I spent a few days with the iQoo 11, and here are my impressions

iQoo 11: specifications

Design and hardware: first with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2

• It comes with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset
• New Samsung E6 AMOLED panel with a frequency of 144 Hz
• UFS 4.0 storage, which will be the new standard

iQoo 11 continues the design language established by many of the previous iQoo phones, including white color and three stripes. New to this model is that the white portion of the back is made of “vegan leather” or a polyurethane material that is made to look like leather. It’s a change that I like, because the leather-like finish gives the phone a better grip. The three stripes are made of fiberglass, which gives the phone a nice two-tone texture.

Around the front is a gorgeous, beautiful 6.78-inch display that uses Samsung’s latest E6 OLED display with Quad HD resolution, 1800 nits of maximum brightness, and up to 144Hz refresh rate. However, I can’t see any meaningful difference between 144Hz and 120Hz. This isn’t much of a problem because I think 120Hz screens provide smooth enough animation. The screen is amazing, and the panel is also completely flat, which some might like.

There’s a fingerprint scanner under the screen, but it’s an optical one and not the super-sweet Qualcomm 3D Sonic Max scanner that was used on the last iQoo I tested. Qualcomm’s 3D Sonic Max has a larger scanning area and is slightly faster at opening. However, the scanner here – likely sourced from Goodix – is good enough. It’s interesting that iQoo decided to go in and give this phone several new pieces of hardware while taking a step back in others, including the cameras (more on this later).

Most importantly, it’s the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, the latest and best chip in the Android space, and the chip that will power most of the major Android phones in 2023. I’m not a benchmarking person, but I’ve run Geekbench, CrossMark, and Antutu anyway, and the results It’s really the loudest I’ve seen on any Android phone. My colleague Adam Conway previously did some benchmarks already on an experimental device running on the same chip, and the results are similar. Simply put, if you want the most powerful chip in an Android phone, this is it.

There is a large 5,000mAh battery that can be charged at 120W using the included charger. From my testing, a phone can go from 0 to 100 in 19 and a half minutes. This kind of charging speed isn’t uncommon for Chinese phones, but for the average North American consumer, it would be amazingly fast.

iQoo 11 also features 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage. UFS 4.0 is the latest global standard for flash storage and will be used in high-end mobile devices. Not only does UFS 4.0 provide faster read/write speeds, it is also said to be more energy efficient. I haven’t used the phone long enough to confirm if the phone is in fact more power efficient, but it does have faster read/write speeds according to multiple benchmark apps, including Androbench.

The phone also has excellent touchscreen and solid stereo speakers. The only things missing are wireless charging, an IP rating, and premium camera hardware.

Cameras: Not quite stellar

• A good but not great camera hardware is headlined by the GN V sensor. 50MP
• It is flanked by a mid-range 8MP wide sensor
• Vivo’s V2 imaging chip is here for excellent HDR production

I say that iQoo 11 does not have “premium camera hardware” because I use the highest standards set by Xiaomi and iQoo’s parent brand, Vivo. iQoo packs a main triple camera system, titled a 50MP GN V sensor with an image sensor size of 1/1.56 inch. This is a very good sensor, and that size is respectable, but it lags behind the Sony IMX989 used in the Xiaomi 12S Ultra and Vivo’s own X90 Pro Plus (so far only released for the Chinese market).

There’s also a 13MP 2X telephoto zoom lens, an 8MP ultrawide camera, and a 16MP selfie camera. The numbers say it all: This machine is serviceable, and hardly considered top-notch.

But iQoo relies on the aforementioned V2 imaging chip to work wonders. V2 is the second generation of Vivo’s imaging chip. The first slide was a major reason why the Vivo X70 and X80 Pro phones have some of the best cameras around. The magic of the V1, from my extensive testing over several months, was its uncanny HDR ability. Vivo X70 Pro Plus and X80 Pro never stood out.

I’ve only had limited testing time so far, but the iQoo 11 continues Vivo’s excellent HDR. Every shot below is perfectly balanced. Highlights are not blown out and shaded areas are lightened. However, Vivo’s HDR can be a bit finicky, resulting in shots that look artificial.

In fact, I don’t have much interest in testing the V2 chip with this camera rig. I’m waiting to get my hands on the state-of-the-art mobile Vivo X90 Pro Plus to really see what the V2 can do. Overall, the iQoo 11’s camera system is good, but its 8MP ultrawide will be soft on details no matter the imaging chip or software.

Software: How bad is FunTouchOS?

• The first non-Pixel phone to ship with Android 13
• But it’s covered in Vivo’s divisive Android skin

The iQoo 11 is also the first non-Pixel phone to ship with Android 13. And that Vivo is the first third-party Android phone maker to push the latest version of Android isn’t new — two years ago even Vivo beat Google on its launch. Android 11 device.

However, Android 13 here is covered in the Vivo FunTouch OS Android skin, which most reviewers tend not to like, and I can see why. FunTouch isn’t as customizable as Oppo’s ColorOS or OnePlus’ OxygenOS; Also, FunTouch’s multitasking system is not as robust as that seen in Samsung’s OneUI.

But overall, FunTouch 13 is fine. It doesn’t get in the way of what Google is trying to do with Android too much. All the new features in Android 13 are here, including a more customizable home screen with granular controls for UI color schemes.

FunTouchOS 13 also brings App Pinning, an Android 13 feature designed to prevent others from swiping away from an app on your phone to look at other things.

Vivo/iQoo adds additional software touches of its own on top of Android 13, including an “iManager” to manage phone battery optimizations and memory management, and a premium native video editing app that allows video clips to be trimmed in the middle and can apply digital cropping to reduce jitters.

In the end, I don’t think FunTouchOS is as bad as most of my peers have found it to be, but it still isn’t my favorite Android software. For example, FunTouchOS still can’t open most apps in floating windows. Multitasking is mostly done via split screen view.

Final Thoughts: iQoo 11 shows just how competitive the phone landscape is in Asia

Since the iQoo 11 is a Southeast Asian phone mostly, we won’t be doing a full in-depth review on XDA because the majority of our readers won’t be able to buy it. But as mentioned, it is an interesting device that offers a first glimpse of the latest mobile devices that will appear in the Galaxy S23 Ultra, OnePlus 11 Pro, and other flagships for 2023.

iQoo 11 offers Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, UFS 4.0, Samsung E6 144Hz OLED panel, 120W fast charging, and more starting at 3,799 yuan ($545). This price shows how competitive the Asian phone scene is. In North America, you only get all of the above components if the device costs at least $800.

For readers who live in areas where the iQoo 11 is available, this is definitely a worthy buy, as the device far exceeds its price range in terms of hardware. iQoo 11 is also a budget alternative for those who are interested in the Vivo X90 Pro Plus but find the price too high.