iQoo Z6 Pro: A Steal Deal at 20K – The Unbiased Review

The mid-range smartphone market has been acquired by several smartphone manufacturers including Xiaomi, Oppo, Poco, Vivo and OnePlus. Vivo’s subsidiary brand iQoo set the ball rolling this year with the announcement of its flagship iQoo 9 series which includes iQoo 9 SE, iQoo 9 and iQoo 9 Pro. They’ve been jogging on the right track for articulating performance-centric smartphones under an affordable price tag to mesmerize the core-power users under a strict budget. On 27th April 2022, iQoo expanded its Z-series with the introduction of two new smartphones in its portfolio i.e, the iQoo Z6 Pro 5G and iQoo Z6 4G. 

iQoo Z6 Pro is a successor of the iQoo Z5 which makes its debut with the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G as its predecessor which is an upgrade over a two-year Qualcomm Snapdragon 768G and 765G. With the right balance of performance, it also features a 90Hz Amoled display and a 4,700mAh battery with the support of 66W Flash Charge which makes it a better value for money proposition. Does it get lost in the shuffle of overcrowded mid-range devices or sculpt its place in the Indian market with its standout features? 

That’s what we’re aiming to answer in our The Unbiased Review of the iQoo Z6 Pro. After using this as our primary device thoroughly, here’s what we’ve to say:-

iQOO Z6 Pro 5G Full Specifications

DESIGN & DISPLAY

Last year’s iQoo Z5 didn’t bring major improvements over the iQoo Z3 which failed to amuse a lot of consumers. Later, iQoo realised that only upgrading the processor isn’t enough to attain the traction of the consumer and hence, they introduced the iQoo Z6 Pro. This device is a testimony of all the major upgrades that were missed in its previous iterations which includes better cameras, an AMOLED display and fast charging solution. 

The iQoo Z6 Pro looks elegant and classy with its polycarbonate back design which feels premium. The frosted texture finish continues with this iteration as well which ensures that it keeps the fingerprint and smudges at bay. As the name suggests, the Phantom Dusk colourway shimmers a glittery pattern when light rays strike it which represents the twilight in the sky. Apart from this, it also comes with a Legion Sky colourway.

With its matte finish, the curved edges on the back also cooperate in delivering better ergonomics as well. The mid-frame is also made out of plastic and it’s worth mentioning that the use of plastic is more durable than any glass and metal slab which means getting away with this device without a case won’t be a problem. With an 8.5mm slim profile and a weight of around 180 grams, iQoo Z6 Pro is extremely lightweight and sliding into and out of your pockets is a pure delight. 

On the functional elements around four edges; the power button and volume rockers are flanked on the right side whereas the left side is bare. These buttons deliver tactile feedback and reachability is not a concern either. At the top, there’s a secondary microphone. Elsewhere, a USB-C port, a SIM tray slot which can only accommodate two SIM cards and there’s no option to expand the storage via SD Card, a primary microphone and a mono speaker. This single speaker unit is decently loud but lacks clarity on the vocals. Sadly, it doesn’t come with stereo speakers like its predecessor. 

The other omission is the removal of the headphone jack in the iQoo Z6 Pro which was present in the iQoo Z5. It also has support for carrier aggregation. This camera array on the iQoo Z6 Pro reminds me of the Huawei P50 Pro which resembles the same dual-circle camera setup on a rectangular glass slab. On one ring, it holds for the primary camera sensor and the other ring holds up for two other camera sensors. The camera bump protrudes slightly from the back which makes it wobble on flat surfaces. On the bottom, ‘iQoo’ is engraved in bold letters which slightly looks flashy in our opinion. The front is further protected by Schott Xensation glass unlike the rest of the other smartphone OEMs opting for Corning Gorilla Glass 5. 

On to its display, they have stepped up its display with the iQoo Z6 Pro over its predecessor. It flanks a 6.4-inch FHD AMOLED display panel which is similar to the Realme 9 Pro+. During outdoor scenarios, it delivers a peak brightness of up to 1300 nits and we didn’t encounter any issues under harsh sunlight. It offers 90Hz of refresh rate and 180Hz of touch sampling rate which is an upgrade over its earlier iterations which came with a 120Hz LCD panel. Usually, some of its competitors offer a better refresh rate at this same price tier.

This display produces a deep level of contrast ( AMOLED of course!) and well-saturated and punchy colours. The choice of discontinuing the punch-hole notch and opting for a waterdrop notch with the iQoo Z6 Pro makes it look a bit outdated by today’s standards. It also comes up with an in-display fingerprint scanner which is responsive and quick. Rounding out, there’s HDR10+ certification to cherish your binge sessions and a 100 per cent DCI-P3 colour gamut for better colour reproduction. It comes with three colour profiles:- Standard(default), Professional and Bright. However, switching to the ‘Bright’ mode and adjusting the colour temperature towards a little cooler side to get rid of warmer hues in the display.

PERFORMANCE 

The iQoo Z6 Pro is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G which is based on 6nm technology, an upgrade over the two-year-old Qualcomm Snapdragon 768G and Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G. The Snapdragon 778G has a familiar configuration with one Kryo 670 Prime core which is clocked at 2.4GHz, followed by three Cortex A78 cores at 2.2GHz and four Cortex A55 cores at 1.9GHz for better efficiency. It shares the same processor which is available in the iQoo Z5 to power the device. This chipset is also available with the Samsung Galaxy A52S and Samsung Galaxy M52.

In terms of day-to-day usage, the iQoo Z6 Pro runs at solid speed as we haven’t encountered any slowdowns or lags throughout our time with the device. It gives an option to choose RAM up to 12 Gigs LPDDR4x and ROM up to 256 Gigs. However, we got 8GB+128GB throughout our review period. If you feel that 8GB of RAM is less at your disposal, it can be further increased upto 4GB by using Virtual RAM technology which will use the internal storage like RAM. The graphical duties are handled by Adreno 642L.

As far as gaming is concerned, after playing various game titles including Asphalt 9, BGMI, COD and we were able to max out BGMI at HDR graphics on Ultra frame rates and COD at Very High graphics on Max frame rates. iQoo claims that the liquid cooling technology can cool down the CPU temperature up to 12° and surface temperature up to 2° which manages to keep the device cool during graphic-intensive games or while multitasking. As far as benchmark scores are concerned; it scores 5,46,007 on Antutu Benchmark, 790 in the Single-Core score and 2874 in the Multi-Core score on GeekBench 5. During our CPU Throttling Test, the CPU throttles to 92% which is impressive.

CAMERA 

The iQoo Z6 Pro gets a triple camera setup on the array which consists of a 64MP Primary Sensor, 8MP Ultra-wide angle lens and 2MP macro lens. On the front optics, it holds a 16MP selfie shooter.

Photos that are captured from a Primary camera hold ample amounts of detail and sharpness with a wide dynamic range. It reproduces natural colour tones with a proper exposure level. Due to the fast shutter speed, there’s no lag while capturing photos which tends to capture sharper images. During indoor or artificial lighting situations, the colours look close to reality which looks decent. Under low light conditions, the details turn on the soft side and the overall colour distribution is on-point. Turning on the night mode brightens the image more than the regular low-light photo. 

Portrait shots come out impressive with a decent edge detection which is considerable at this price point. Photos that are captured from an ultrawide camera keeps the consistency of colours on point while shifting between primary and ultrawide lens. The details slightly look compromised from the primary camera. Also, the ultra-wide lens usually boosts the yellow colour more than usual. The 2MP Macro Camera doesn’t create a marginal difference like any other smartphone. However, we’ll recommend using a Primary camera and later cropping it into post-processing to get your desired picture.

While capturing selfies, the 16MP camera handles skin tones pretty well with enough sharpness and details in the scene. The edge-detection is on-point and the results that came out look decent enough to post on social media without any hesitation. As far as video recording capabilities are concerned, the rear camera can shoot up to 1080p resolution at 30fps which also comes with gyro-EIS for better-stabilised video footage. The front camera also shoots at the same 1080p resolution at 30fps without any EIS onboard.

SOFTWARE & BATTERY

To start, iQoo Z6 Pro ships with Android 12 which is running on a custom skinned Funtouch OS 12. The Funtouch OS 12 promises a stock-like Android experience with a lot of UI customization which now even includes material style theming, switch between various AOD styles, the ability to change touch screen animations, turn on ambient light effects, play with a home screen and unlock and enter animations, change the fingerprint icon and recognition animation, change the facial recognition, charging animation and much more which deserves an applause.

Meanwhile, no spammy notifications are being encountered but the amount of bloatware in this device is dense. It brings some assortment of third-party apps like Facebook, Amazon Prime, Linked In, ByJus and Cred which may be useful for some users but then comes the apps like Moj, Josh, Takatak, and ShareChat which are a part of its software annoyance. Glad, there is an option to uninstall those apps easily.

The iQoo Z6 Pro harness a 4700 mAh battery whereas its predecessor iQoo Z5 had a 5000mAh which is a trade-off in terms of battery department. To cover this trade-off, they’ve added the support for 66W Flash charging which is a respectable speed and a sheer improvement from 44W in the iQoo Z5. This device pushed through more than a day on moderate usage with ease. On heavy usage, it was able to deliver a day’s battery life with a SOT (Screen on Time) of around 5-6 hours which includes playing BGMI, browsing social media, watching Netflix etc.

This got a clear advantage over the Realme 9 Pro+ which delivers a 4,500mAh battery with 60W SuperDart Charge. As far as fast charging is concerned, reaching 0%-100% was possible in under 60 minutes which is impressive. However, the hypercharge 120W technology by Xiaomi still remains on top if you’re looking for the best fast charging experience in this segment.

THE UNBIASED VERDICT

iQoo Z6 Pro is available in three storage configurations:- 6GB+128GB priced at Rs.23,999 ,8GB+128GB priced at Rs. 24,999 and top-of-the-line 12GB+256GB is priced at Rs. 28,999 and the sales start on 4th May 2022 at 12PM on Amazon. During the Amazon Flash sale, its base variant (6GB+128GB) will be available for Rs. 19,999 instead of Rs. 23,999; a straight discount of Rs. 3,999 which makes it a steal deal.

The iQoo Z6 Pro is an incremental and worthy upgrade from its predecessor which shifts its primary focus from being a performance-centric smartphone to an all-rounder device. That being said, there’s a lot to like about this device such as the 90HZ Amoled Display, a fast 66W Fast Charging, a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G processor, and a slim and light form factor and a good camera experience (not as good as Realme 9 Pro+). There are some downfalls to this year’s Pro model too such as the lack of stereo speakers, not-so premium experience due to plastic construction, an outdated waterdrop notch in 2022, and a lot of bloatware which can be uninstalled easily. If you’re ready to deal with these compromises, the iQoo Z6 Pro would be a no-brainer choice on its own, but there are some alternatives as well if this isn’t fit in your choice’s portfolio.

If you’re looking for a more appealing camera array then Realme 9 Pro+ (Rs. 24,999- Rs.28,999) delivers an astonishing camera experience with fluid and snappy experience and feels quite compact during in-hand operations which are coupled with a decent battery life of around 6 hours of SOT, and fast charging which juices the smartphone in 70 minutes. If fast charging is your priority then look nowhere else than the Xiaomi Mi 11i Hypercharge which brings a blazing fast 120W Fast Charging which looks and delivers more tempting results than the others.

Disclaimer: We tested the iQoo Z6 Pro (12GB+256GB)  for a week before writing this review. All our reviews are unbiased and are published without the brand getting to read them before you guys. We don’t change our reviews on pressure from brands and that’s the reason we are not sent review units from companies like Samsung, Xiaomi, and a few more.