iQOO 11 5G Review: Swashbuckling flagship phone with plenty of hits, and few near-misses

iQOO 11 5G Review: iQOO, a sub-brand of Vivo, is among the first companies that have begun 2023 on the front foot and launched a flagship phone in the very first month of the year. From great specifications to a powerful battery to excellent camera quality iQOO 11 5G manages to tick almost all the boxes. If your budget allows you to spend upto Rs 60,000, then this could be one of the best smartphones in the flagship range that you can buy right now. Check the detailed review below.

iQOO 11 5G Review: Design

We received the Legend (16GB RAM + 256GB) variant of iQOO 11 as a review unit, and this looks more premium than the Alpha (all-black) variant. Although the design is carried forward from iQOO 9, however, there are minor changes like the placement of the logo over the BMW Motorsport’s iconic tri-colour racing stripes this time around.

While iQOO 11 5G has Gorilla Glass Victus protection upfront, it sports textured silicon leather at the back. The material used is of top quality and won't register any smudges easily. It is almost scratch resistant as well. While the white background remained clean even after being used for a month, I did notice some dirt accumulating close to the curved edges where it merges into the metal body frame. However, not many will catch sight of it.

The textured material provides a good grip, else one would struggle to use the phone with one hand. However, curved edges and precise weight distribution make the smartphone more ergonomic than some of its predecessors.

iQOO 11 5G Review: Dimensions

Width - 77.07mm
Height - 164.86mm
Thickness - 8.72mm
Weight - 205gm

The Alpha variant of iQOO 11 is slimmer (Thickness - 8.40mm)  but heavier (Weight - 208gm) than Legend.

As mentioned earlier, the outer frame is made entirely out of metal and adds elegance to the device. For more details about the design of iQOO 11 CLICK HERE.

On the rear, there is a triple camera setup that is rectangular in shape and quite big. The camera placement is vertical and protruding as well, but does not look too out of place. The camera setup and lens have been covered with a flat glass panel for better protection.

iQOO 11 5G Review: Display

iQOO 11 5G comes with a 6.78-inch E6 AMOLED panel. This is one of the first phones to use the E6 display of Samsung. Bezels are thin, the same goes for the chin, and the screen-to-body ratio is 92.9 per cent.

The panel offers a screen refresh rate of 144Hz and a type 2K resolution. To reduce power consumption, the device deploys LTPO 3.0 technology to adjust the refresh rate and save power, Also, it has a 300Hz touch sampling rate. The smartphone can display 10.7 billion colours with a peak brightness of 1800nits.

These specifications hold true when it comes to the viewing experience. Media consumption is immersive as the content appears sharp and detailed. You can easily read and watch anything on this device even under direct sunlight. However, iQOO could have added Dolby Vision playback for making your video-watching experience more enriching. Decent sound quality is provided by speakers. Though there was some scope for improvement, it isn't a deal-breaker.

iQOO 11 5G Review: Software and Performance

The iQOO 11 5G is the first smartphone to be powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC (system-on-a-chip) — an octa-core processor. It runs on FuntouchOS based on the Android 13 platform and iQoo is offering three years of OS and 4 years of security updates.

The user interface (UI) is neat and clean, but we would have preferred to see no bloatware in a phone that costs approximately Rs 60,000. While third-party apps can be uninstalled, one wonders why suggested app windows like 'Hot Apps' and 'Hot Games' are not removable. iQOO will hopefully address this issue with future updates.

With Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, the iQOO 11 5G was expected to provide top-notch performance, and it does not disappoint. Games like Asphalt 9: Legends and Call of Duty: Mobile were smooth even at maximum settings.

However, there are chances of the device getting a bit warm if pushed to the limit. To tackle this problem, the company has introduced a vapour chamber liquid cooling system.  

iQOO 11 5G Review: Battery and Charging

The iQOO 11 5G comes with a 5000mAh battery that offers good backup. With this battery, you can multi-task throughout the day without worrying about charging your device. 

Even if it runs low on juice, the 120W fast charger can top the phone up from 0-100 per cent in just around 25 minutes. But I noticed the smartphone heats up a little bit while charging. The long Type-C USB cable provided by the company is a boon.

iQOO 11 5G Review: Camera

The triple camera setup at the rear has a 50MP (f/1.88) primary camera with optical image stabilisation (OIS). It is accompanied by 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide angle sensor and 13MP (f/2.46) telephoto and portrait lens.

OIS works beautifully and lets you click some amazing images on the go. Below are the images that I took from inside a moving car. Not only is the image sharp, it is very vivid as well. 

The primary sensor clicks pleasing shots in almost all conditions. While the closeup shots mostly have accurate colours, long shots clicked from this phone have decent details as well.

In both images, colour temperature is a bit on the cooler side.

The image captured by iQOO 11 5G has a good dynamic range and a considerable amount of vibrancy. The image shared below clearly shows this. Also, you can zoom to see vivid details.

iQOO has added a customised V2 chip, built in-house, on the phone to improve the gaming and night photography on the device. This also makes 4K super night video recording easy.

The image (above), taken in low light, shows decent details with negligible noise, and the colour accuracy is close to the source as well. 

When the same image is taken with the help of dedicated night mode, colours from the sensor appear a bit saturated with no noise. In fact, images taken in night-mode look more pleasant.

The ultrawide sensor could have performed better in low-light conditions. Such images are softer with some distortion as well.

For selfies, there is a 16MP punch-hole camera at the front. Images taken in daylight are of superb quality and crisp.

The performance of the selfie camera in low light is decent and retains details.

However, a selfie flash can be used to take better photos.

iQOO 11 5G Review: Verdict

Though there are a few concerns — like the lack of IP rating and the presence of bloatware — the iQOO 11 5G can be a perfect companion for those who want all the features bundled in one smartphone and are not concerned about the device being priced on the higher side.