iQOO launched Z9s Pro smartphone in India last month as the successor to last year’s Z7 Pro. This gets a brighter screen, faster SoC, bigger battery and faster charging, and also gets cheaper. Is this worth the price? Let us dive into the review and find out.
| Box Contents |
| Display, Hardware and Design |
| Camera |
| Software, UI and Apps |
| Fingerprint sensor |
| Music player and Multimedia |
| SIM and Connectivity |
| Performance and Benchmarks |
| Battery Life |
| Conclusion |
Box Contents
- iQOO Z9s Pro (12GB+256GB) in Luxe Marble colour
- 80W Flash charger
- USB Type-C Cable
- Clear Protective case
- SIM ejector
- Quick Start Guide and Warranty Information
Display, Hardware and Design
The iQOO Z9s Pro sports a 6.77-inch (2392 x 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 20:9 aspect ratio curved AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate. The display is bright even outdoors, and it has up to 4500 nits brightness peak brightness. This is better than the Z7 Pro.
You can select from standard (default), professional and bright screen colour modes. You can select the smart switch that can switch between the refresh rate or force it to 60Hz or 120Hz. It has 360Hz touch sampling rate and 1200Hz instant touch sampling rate. There is a visual enhancement option that optimizes color and contrast in select apps when enabled.
It also has HDR 10+ support, which works for YouTube and Netflix. This has an always-on-display that shows contextual info and notifications all day or as per schedule.
The phone has a 16MP front camera inside the punch-hole. The earpiece acts as a secondary speaker.
There is a small chin below the screen. It has an in-display optical fingerprint scanner. The haptic feedback is decent, but could have been better.
Coming to the button placements and ports, the phone has a power button and volume rockers on the right. The bottom part is crammed with dual SIM slot, primary microphone, USB Type-C port and a speaker grill. The secondary microphone is on the top. The phone doesn’t have a 3.5mm audio jack.
The back of the phone has a camera part with dual rear cameras that looks similar to the iQOO 12. Even though it has a polycarbonate back, it looks and feels premium, but it has a glossy finish that attracts fingerprints.
The phone also comes in a Flamboyant Orange colour that has a vegan leather finish. The phone is just 7.49mm thick. Even though it packs a huge 5500mAh battery, compared to 4700mAh in the Z7 Pro, it weighs just 185 grams, making it lighter than the predecessor. The phone has IP64 ratings for dust and splash resistance, compared to IP54 ratings in the predecessor.
Camera
- 50MP camera with Sony IMX 882 sensor, OIS, f/1.79 aperture
- 8MP ultra-wide camera with f/2.2 aperture
- 16MP front camera with f/2.45 aperture
The camera UI is the same as other phones running Funtouch OS. It includes several features such as Pro mode, 50MP mode, supermoon, and more. Even though the phone has a 50MP rear camera, the final output is 12.5MP in size after pixel binning, and the front camera output is 16MP.
Coming to the camera quality, the daylight shots are good, and it is recommended to enable HDR option which automatically switches on HDR according to the shot, so that the dynamic range is good. The camera can focus quickly. There is a 8MP ultra-wide camera is decent, and is useful instead of depth sensor in the older models. The portrait mode has good edge detection.
Low-light images has also improved compared to the previous generation, but there is noise when you zoom in. The night mode is useful, thanks to the optimization. There is also supermoon mode with up to 20x zoom, compared to 10x in the normal mode. The supermoon option is a good addition, but you can’t compare it to flagships.
The same old 16MP camera is good in daylight, and the front camera portrait is decent as well, but it is not the best when it comes to low-light.
Check out some camera samples below
It can record videos at up to 4k resolution at up to 30 fps from the rear camera and the front camera supports 1080p 30 fps recording. It has standard stabilization which is EIS on top of OIS that does a good job in stabilization. The phone has portrait video recording at 730p 30fps, but doesn’t have HDR video recording.
Software, UI and Apps
Coming to the software, the phone runs on Android 14 with Funtouch OS 14 on top. It has Android security patch for August 2024. The phone will get 2 Android OS updates and 3 years of security updates, same as the older models.
Funtouch OS 14 brings Smooth Experience, Visual Smoothness, Enhanced Multitasking, improved Personalization, including custom Kinetic wallpapers, custom lock screen clock style with three layout styles and eight font styles.
Out of 12GB of LPDDR4X RAM, about 11.03GB is usable, out of which 7GB is free when the default apps are running in the background. There is additional 12GB RAM expansion feature. Out of 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage, 223.8GB is free out of the box.
Apart from the usual set of utility and Google apps, it comes preloaded with a lot of apps such as Facebook, Amazon, LinkedIn, PhonePe, Netflix, Myntra and some games. These apps can be uninstalled, but they come back after reset.
Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock
The phone has an optical in-display fingerprint sensor which immediately unlocks the phone just by keeping your finger on the sensor. You can add up to 5 fingerprints. There are different animation styles that display when you unlock, which you can disable. The phone also has face unlock that can unlock the phone in seconds, but it is not as secure as fingerprint.
Music and Multimedia
The default Music Player also has equalizer and DeepField sound effects. It doesn’t have FM Radio support. There is audio super resolution, and super audio features. Audio through the stereo speakers is crisp and loud. Audio through the headphones is good as well.
This has Widevine L1 so that you can play HD content on Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and other streaming apps. It also supports HDR playback on Netflix and YouTube.
Dual SIM and Connectivity
It has the usual set of connectivity features such as 5G with support for n1/n3/n5/n8/n28B/n40/n77/n78) bands, and supports Airtel and Jio 5G out of the box. There is also dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 6 802.11ac (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz), Bluetooth 5.4, GPS + GLONASS, but lacks NFC support. We did not face any call drops and the earpiece volume is good.
The iQOO Z9s Pro 5G’s body SAR is 0.830W/Kg (15 mm distance) and head SAR is at 0.950/Kg which is way under the limit in India which is 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g).
Performance and Benchmarks
This is one of the few phones in the price range to be powered by the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 Mobile Platform in India. It has 1+3+4 architecture, as the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2. This uses 1 x 2.63 GHz ARM Cortex-A715 prime core, 3 x A715 performance cores at up to 2.4 GHz, and 4 x Cortex-A510 efficiency cores at up to 1.8 GHz.
It is fabricated using the TSMC 4nm Process Technology. It promises 15% improvements in CPU performance compared to Snapdragon 7 Gen 1. The phone has a 3000 mm² large vapor chamber cooling area to help keep the phone cool, said the company.
This uses Adreno 720 GPU. We did not face any issues or frame drops in the graphic-intensive games. In 3D Mark wild life stress test, it scored 99.4% which is good, and the temperature shot up from 32 to 42 degrees. That said, check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.
The Snapdragon 7 Gen 3-powered Z9s Pro beats Dimensity 7200-powered phones.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the phone packs a 5500mAh (typical) battery, which is bigger than the 5000mAh battery in the Z9 and 4700mAh in the Z7 Pro. It can easily last for a day with heavy use and more than a day with medium use, thanks to the optimization.
I got close to 8 hours of screen on time with 2 days of use, mostly on Wi-Fi, and occasional 5G use with smart refresh rate. This is way better than the iQOO Z9.
Since the phone has support for 80W fast charging, it can charge up to 50% in less than half an hour and up to 100% in less than an hour. It shows battery health in the settings.
Conclusion
At a starting price of Rs. 24,999, the iQOO Z9s Pro 5G is a stylish power-packed phone that ticks all the boxes for a phone in the price. The curved AMOLED screen, improved camera, and the bigger battery and are good upgrades. Wish the company had added the IR blaster as well.
Pricing and availability
The iQOO Z9s Pro is priced at Rs. 24,999 for the 8GB + 128GB model, Rs. 26,999 for the 8GB + 256GB model and the top-end 12GB + 256GB model costs Rs. 28,999. It is available from Amazon.in, and iQOO.com.
Alternatives
The OnePlus Nord CE4 is a direct competitor that offers IR blaster, and slightly faster 100W charging. The Nothing Phone 2a is a cheaper alternative, but it has a slightly smaller battery.
Pros
- 120Hz curved AMOLED HDR display is good
- Smooth performance and good gaming performance
- Camera performance is good in daylight
- Eye-catching design, IP64 ratings
- Good battery life with 80W fast charging
Cons
- A lot of preloaded apps
- Low-light camera performance could have been better