iQOO Z3 5G launched with 120Hz display, Snapdragon 768G and 55W fast charging, price starts at Rs 19,990

The key USP of the iQOO Z3 is its system-on-chip. (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)

Vivo spin-off brand iQOO launched the iQOO Z3 5G in India on Tuesday, entering the under 20k price segment for the first time. This is iQOO’s third phone in two months. Only recently, it had launched the iQOO 7 series of “value” flagship phones. The iQOO Z3 5G is now the most affordable phone in its portfolio. A version with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage will sell for Rs 19,990. For Rs 20,990, you can get a version with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. The top-of-the-line variant with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage will cost Rs 22,990.

The key USP of the iQOO Z3 is its system-on-chip. This is the first phone in India to come with Qualcomm’s recently announced Snapdragon 768G, a 7nm chip that can clock 2.8GHz. Like other iQOO phones, the iQOO Z3 is also being marketed as a performance-heavy device built for high-end gaming on a budget though possibly because of its low price, it is missing out on some of its headlining gaming chops like says, monster buttons.

iQOO is highlighting the phone’s five-layer liquid cooling system that’s claimed to “intelligently” lower core temperature by 10-degree Celsius. Phones in this segment don’t really have elaborate cooling systems. The only other phone that has some sort of useful cooling in this segment is probably the Poco X3 Pro but clearly, the iQOO Z3 could be the next benchmark which come to think of it, is also necessary, since almost every new Qualcomm chip today has a tendency to get hot when stressed. A gaming phone like the iQOO Z3 therefore has a bigger responsibility to walk the talk, something that we will be testing at length in the coming few days – so be sure to stay tuned for our review coming soon.

The phone has a 1080p IPS LCD display with 120Hz refresh rate. (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)

The SD768G in the iQOO Z3 is paired with up to 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and up to 256GB of UFS2.2 storage. This is expandable. The phone also supports iQOO/Vivo’s “extended RAM” feature which can allot 3GB of additional RAM from memory for when it’s needed. Software inside the phone is Android 11-based Funtouch OS 11.1.

The phone is powered by a 4,400mAh battery and supports 55W fast charging which is claimed to charge 50 percent of the phone in just 19 minutes while a full charge is completed in 50 minutes – that’s fast.