It appears that there is only one gaming phone brand left in the market, but the truth is that while dedicated brands have kinda died off, the spirit of gaming phones remains in mainstream brands. The iQOO 15 series is one such gaming phone from Vivo’s sub-brand, iQOO.
Billed as a “future performance flagship smartphone,” the new iQOO 15 [CH] brings to the table the latest Qualcomm Mobile Platform—the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5—along with the self-developed gaming chip Q3, which promises to offer a “discrete GPU” experience on a smartphone. It further rocks a brilliant, flagship-grade 2K OLED display co-developed with Samsung Display. This display combines Samsung’s latest M14 luminous material with a breakthrough 2K LEAD OLED architecture.
Other highlights include a 50 MP camera system, an 8K VC “ice dome” cooling system (dubbed the “central air-conditioning” in the phone—a super bold claim), and a 7,000 mAh “Blue Sea” high-capacity battery. Aesthetically, the iQOO 15 pretty much follows the current design trend: a matte-finished metal straight frame with subtly rounded edges that improve handling and aid in heat dissipation, and larger R corners—a feature Redmagic begs to differ on when it comes to mobile gaming.
Anyhoo, still on design, the device boasts an AF coating that is smooth to the touch and fingerprint-resistant. Meanwhile, iQOO chose not to be overly pronounced with the camera module. It is just a square bump that appears to float—thanks to the transparent element at the base. This transparent element also hides the “Halo” feature, an RGB lighting with a breathing effect. In addition to reacting to your gaming, the “Halo” also “breathes” when charging and can even sync with the music being played back.
Back to the hardware specs and performance, the 3 nm process Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Mobile Platform on the new iQOO 15 logged an AnTuTu benchmark of 4,356,144. Not sure if we told you about this, but GPU performance sees a 23% increase, and ray-tracing performance sees an overall bump of 25%.
I believe this performance has something to do with the LPDDR5X Ultra Pro and UFS 4.1 memories, as well as the MONSTER Super Core Engine. The display is a 6.85-inch panel that touts a 3,168 x 1,440 resolution, 1.07 billion colors, an 8,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and supports up to a 144 Hz refresh rate.
In the imaging department, it rocks a 50 MP Sony super-stabilized main camera, a 50 MP Sony Super Periscope telephoto camera, and a 50 MP super wide-angle camera. Meanwhile, over at the front is a 32 MP front-facing camera.
Other notables include dual nano-SIM, 2G–5G radios, the usual bunch of positioning and sensors (including IR), tri-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 6.0, USB 3.2 Gen 1 with Type-C interface, NFC, 3D ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, Face Wake facial recognition, Dual-Axis Haptic Motors for “true 4D vibrations,” pro-grade 1511 dual speakers, and Global Gaming Network System 2.0 for strong connectivity—even when traveling in an underground train.
With the launch of the iQOO 15, the smartphone maker has released a special edition for fans of Honor of Kings. The iQOO x Honor of Kings 10th Anniversary Collector’s Edition comes with collectible packaging and a bunch of themed goodies, including the iQOO × Honor of Kings 10th Anniversary Collector’s Edition Phone, Honor of Kings 10th Anniversary Custom Phone Case, Crystal Label 100W Charger, Honor of Kings 10th Anniversary Braided Data Cable, MVP Victory SIM Card Ejector, Blue Crystal Phone Strap, “A Letter to Summoners” Hero Postcards, NFC Honor of Kings Hero Flash Cards, MVP Glory Ring, and Hero Radiation Desktop Ornament.
The iQOO 15 was launched in China last month with a starting price of 4,199 yuan[CH] (about US$590 at the time of this post). It is available in a choice of four colors and five configurations (12+256, 12+512, 16+256, 16+512, and 16+1 TB). Meanwhile, the iQOO x Honor of Kings 10th Anniversary Collector’s Edition is offered only in a 16+512 configuration for 5,499 yuan (~US$772).
Images: Vivo [CH].
