iQOO today launched the iQOO 13 smartphone in India as the second phone to be powered by Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC. This has several upgrades from the iQOO 12 in terms of display, performance, battery life and lots more while there is not much hike the price. Is this the best flagship phone in the market in the 50K price range? Let use dive into the review to find out.
| Box Contents |
| Camera |
| Battery Life |
| Conclusion |
Box Contents
- iQOO 13 16GB + 512GB version in Legend colour
- Clear Silicon case
- USB Type-C Cable
- 120W Super FlashCharge wall adapter
- SIM ejector tool
- Quick start guide and Warranty information
Display, Hardware and Design
The iQOO 13 sports a 6.82-inch (3168 × 1440 pixels) 2K 20:9 aspect ratio 8T LTPO AMOLED display with BOE Q10 Light-Emitting Material and 144Hz refresh rate. The screen has up to 1800 nits brightness in HBM mode, so the sunlight legibility is good, and it has up to 4500 nits peak brightness. The colour output good as well since it has 1.07 billion colors.
You can select between 1080p and 2K display options. The 144Hz refresh rate, 300Hz touch sampling rate and 2000Hz instant touch sampling rate offer a smooth user experience, especially when you are scrolling through the UI and when gaming.
You can select from standard (default), professional and bright screen colour modes. You can select smart switch or force it to 60Hz or 144Hz. Visual enhancement optimizes the color and contrast of some pictures for more vivid display effects, says the company. There is also MEMC and super resolution for improved frame rate and resolution in some apps like YouTube, Netflix and Prime video. There is 2592 Hz PWM Dimming that is automatically activated when you are using the phone in low brightness. The screen has SCHOTT Xensation Alpha glass protection.
It also has HDR 10+ support, which works for YouTube, and Netflix. The phone doesn’t have a notification LED, but there is Always on display (AOD). There is also a new Monster Halo LED light around the camera module that acts as a notification light. The light turns on and off, matching the rhythm of games and music. It also shows real-time notifications for calls, messages, and charging status. It can be customized for different games, and there are up to 72 different lighting options.
The phone has a new 32MP front camera inside the notch, compared to 16MP in the older models. There is an earpiece on the top edge which also works as a secondary speaker. You can see ultra-narrow bezels around the screen.
Even the bezel below the screen has reduced. The haptic feedback is good as well, thanks to the ultra-wideband vibration motor.
Coming to the button placements and ports, the power button is present on the right side along with the volume rockers. There is nothing on the left side, so you just see the antenna band. The dual SIM slot, primary microphone, USB Type-C port and the loudspeaker grill are present on the bottom and the secondary microphone is present on the top along with the IR blaster.
It has a metal frame with a bit of glossy finish, so it attracts fingerprints. It weighs 213 grams, which is just 9 grams heavier than the iQOO 12 even though it packs a 60000mAh battery. The weight distribution is good.
The Legend version that we have has BMW’s tricolor patterns and a matte finish so that it doesn’t slip out of your hands easily. It also comes in Nardo Grey colour that has a glossy finish. The camera deco has is now just 2.25mm, making it 1mm thinner than the iQOO 12.
Even this time, there is no vegan leather version. It has IP68 + IP69 ratings for the first time, which is a major plus for the phone, since it can stand when immersed in up to 1 meter of water or when exposed to high-pressure water jets for 30 seconds. There is also wet finger screen control enabling calling, shooting, and gaming with a wet or sweaty hand.
Camera
- 50MP camera with 1/ 1.49″ Sony IMX921 sensor, f/1.88 aperture, OIS
- 50MP 150° ultra-wide-angle camera with Samsung JN1 sensor, f/2.0 aperture
- 50MP 119.4° 2x telephoto camera with f/1.85 aperture, 1/2.93” IMX816 sensor, OIS, up to 4x lossless zoom
- 32MP front-facing camera with GC32E1 sensor, f/2.45 aperture
The camera UI is the same as other phones running Funtouch OS. It includes several features such as AR stickers, Pro Sports mode, long exposure, 50MP mode, supermoon, astro, fisheye and more. This also adds new steet photography features with a custom UI. 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 32MP.
Coming to the camera quality, the daylight shots are brilliant, thanks to VCS and vivo’s algorithm. 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. The 50MP ultra-wide camera with macro option is the same as the one present in the iQOO 12. This offers 12.5MP output after pixel binning.
Even though there are improvements in the main camera, and the company sticks to the same ultra-wide camera, there is a change in the telephoto camera which is now 50MP instead of 64MP and switches back to 2x standard telephoto instead of 3x periscope telephoto. Portrait shots in 2x are fine, but the quality is reduced when you zoom further such as 100mm mode, since it uses digital zoom, even though it uses AI enhancements.
You can adjust the aperture manually in the portrait mode for the best background blur, and there are different modes. Low-light image quality has improved, thanks to new NICE 2.0 algorithm. The night mode is useful, thanks to the optimization, but low-light shots from ultra-wide and telephoto camera are average. There is also supermoon mode with up to 100x zoom, same as the normal mode, and the astro mode uses GPS to location constellations around you.
The 32MP camera is good in daylight, and the front camera portrait is decent as well, and it could have been better in low-light.
Check out some camera samples below
It can record videos at 8k resolution at up to 30 fps, and 4k resolution at up to 60 fps from the rear camera and the front camera finally supports 4K 30 fps recording. It has standard and ultra stabilization, but the resolution is down to 1080p in ultra option since it crops the content. OIS does a good job in stabilization. It lacks HDR video recording.
Software, UI and Apps
Coming to the software, the phone runs on Android 15 with Funtouch OS 15 on top. It has Android security patch for October 2024. The iQOO 13 will get 4 years of Android OS updates and 5 years of security updates for the first time.
Funtouch OS 15 brings vivo’s Priority Scheduling model for 15% faster app startup time, has zRAM compression algorithm, resulting in a 40% boost in compression speed, vivo’s Origin Animation for a more natural and intuitive user experience. The Lightning-Speed Engine offers faster app launches, and Aqua Dynamic Effect adds a visually pleasing touch to system interactions.
AI Image Lab uses artificial intelligence to automatically improve photo quality, remove shadows from documents, erase unwanted content with AI eraser and image cutouts. Live wallpapers are now seamless, and there is also customized call background. There is Link to Windows that enhances collaboration between your vivo device and PC. It also has Circle to Search feature.
Out of 16GB of LPDDR5X Ultra RAM about 14.76GB is usable, out of which 10GB is free when the default apps are running in the background. There is additional 16GB RAM expansion feature. Out of 512GB of UFS 4.1 storage, 456.6GB is free out of the box.
Since the phone has an IR blaster, it comes with a Smart Remote app. Apart from the usual set of utility and Google apps, it comes preloaded with a lot of apps such as Facebook, PhonePe, Netflix, Snapchat, Myntra and LinkedIn. These apps can be uninstalled, but they come back after reset.
Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock
The phone has finally adopted an ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor, which is quicker and more accurate compared to the optical fingerprint scanner. This can unlock the phone in 0.12 seconds, says the company. 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/n7/n8/n20/n28A/n28B/n38/n40/n41/n77/n78 bands, and supports Airtel and Jio 5G out of the box. There is also dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 7 802.11be (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6 GHz), Bluetooth 5.4, GPS + GLONASS and NFC support. It also has USB OTG support, and it has USB 3.2 Gen1. We did not face any call drops and the earpiece volume is good. The company says it has 360° antenna for better reception.
The iQOO 13’s body SAR is 0.90W/Kg and head SAR is at 0.99/Kg which is almost similar to iQOO 12, 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 first phones to launch in India with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform. It has a new 2 + 6 all-big core architecture that uses 2 x Oryon Prime CPU at up to 4.32GHz, 6 x Oryon Performance CPUs at up to 3.53GHz.
It is fabricated using the TSMC 3nm Process Technology. It promises 45% performance improvements and 44% improved power efficiency. The phone has the largest, 7000 mm² ultra-large VC vapor chamber in iQOO’s history, 17% more compared to iQOO 12.
The phone has Q2 Self-developed chip that offers 2K super resolution (supports in 20+ games) and 144 fps super frame rate using game frame interpolation. It also enables Live Streaming for the first time, thanks to USB 3.2 Gen1. There are new animations in Ultra Game Mode, and it finally gets real-time FPS Tracking.
We did not face any issues or frame drops in the graphic-intensive games like COD, BGMI and Genshin Impact, thanks to the new Adreno 830 GPU. The Super Computing chip helps to achieve ultra low latency even with the high frame rate games. In 3D Mark wild life stress test, it scored 60.2%, and the temperature shot up from 27 to 43 degrees. Even though the stability is better, the temperature is slightly more compared to Dimensity 9400-powered OPPO Find X8 series.
As you can see, it is on the top of the benchmark charts, beating the latest Dimensity 9400. The Apple A18 Pro-powered iPhone 16 Pro Max is slightly better when it comes to single-core CPU benchmark.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the phone packs a 6000mAh (typical) Silicon-Carbon battery, which is 1000mAh bigger than the iQOO 12. The energy density increases by 8.7%, yet the size of the phone remains the same. It can easily last for a day with heavy use, thanks to the optimization.
I got over 6 hours of screen on time with over 2 days of use, mostly on Wi-Fi, and occasional 5G use with Smart refresh rate. This is way better than the iQOO 12.
Since the phone has support for 120W fast charging, it can charge from 0 to 50% in about 15 minutes and up to 100% in less than 30 minutes. You will have to enable fast charging option if you want to reduce the charging time, but the phone gets a bit hot. It doesn’t have wireless charging support. There is also bypass charging feature when gaming, so the charging current bypasses the battery to go straight to the motherboard, so it doesn’t affect the battery.
Conclusion
At a starting price of Rs. 54,999, the iQOO 13 shines when it comes to performance. However, the company doesn’t miss out on upgrading other aspects such as display, battery life, and the main camera. The software support has also been increased, which is good. Wish it had retained the same old telphoto camera.
Pricing and availability
The iQOO 13 is priced at Rs. 54,999 for the 12GB + 256GB model and the 16GB + 512GB model costs Rs. 59,999. With the bank offers, the effective price is Rs. 51,999. It will be available from Amazon.in, iQOO.com starting from December 11th for everyone and from December 10th with pre-bookings starting today at 2PM on iQOO.com and December 5th on Amazon.in.
Alternatives
The realme GT7 Pro is currently the direct competitor, but you will have to spend more. The OnePlus 13 that is launching in India next month should be a good competitor, but is expected to be priced more.
Pros
- 144Hz 2K AMOLED display is brilliant
- Smooth performance and good gaming performance
- Good main camera
- Solid build with IP68 + IP69 ratings
- Good battery life with 120W fast charging
Cons
- 2x telephoto camera is average