iQOO 9T Review

 iQOO 9T Review

iQOO has been known for delivering some power-packed smartphones. Over the last few years, the company has gained a lot of trust from its users and has emerged as one of the top competitors in the flagship segment. The company has recently launched iQOO 9T which falls under the flagship segment. The starting price of the new iQOO 9T is Rs. 49,999/. It is one of the first phones to feature the new 8+ Gen1 processor. Let’s have a brief look into all the features that the new iQOO 9T has to offer and whether it can take on the likes of OnePlus which has also launched its OnePlus 10T. 

In the Box

The box which we got contains the iQOO 9T in the legend color, a protection case, SIM ejector pin, 120W flash fast charger, Type-C to C cable, and documentation. 

Design

We got the Legend variant of the new iQOO 9T to review. Our review unit was the motorsport edition and has a BMW strip on the back side to mark the BMW association of the company. The body is tall and wide and has a metal frame in between the rear and front glass body. The phone does not feel heavy as it is very lightweight and easy to operate with one hand. The front side is dominated by a tall widescreen with minimum bezels and one can spot the selfie sensor adjusted in the middle of the top side of the screen. The fingerprint sensor is inbuilt on display and is very quick to respond. The placement of volume rockers and the power button is on the right side. On the top side of the phone lies the IR blaster and the noise cancellation microphone whereas the bottom side holds the Type-C port, dual SIM card tray, and a speaker outlet. The new iQOO 9T comes with an IP52 rating making it resistive against water splashes and it will be nice if you don’t try to test its resistance power by submerging it in water. The overall look of the new iQOO 9T is very eye-catching, especially the Legend variant.

Display

The phone comes with a 6.78 FHD+ E5 AMOLED display, 120Hz refresh rate, 360Hz touch sampling rate, and an instant touch sampling rate of 1200 nits. The display is easily visible under bright sunlight as the display has 1500 nits peak brightness level. The screen-to-body ratio is quite good due to the thin bezels. The colors reproduced are very sharp, vivid, and punchy. One can enjoy the movies in crystal clear quality with proper color balance. The TSR adds more fun to the gaming experience as you can enjoy any games without any lag and can move on the screen without any hassle.

OS & Processor

The new iQOO 9T runs on Funtouch OS 12.1 which is based on Android 12. The phone drives power from the latest Qualcomm 8+ Gen 1(4nm) chipset. Our unit has 12GB RAM and 256GB ROM configuration and is also available in 8GB RAM and 128GB ROM configuration. The processor faces no issues while handling any task and it is one of the fastest processors out there in the market. The new iQOO 9T comes with Adreno 730 GPU which powers the gaming experience. The phone can run all the games in its highest setting. It has two motors for haptic feedback for enhancing the gaming experience. You also get two soft monster buttons that can be assigned to the screen. One can also play games in 60fps, 90fps, or 120fps thanks to the V1+ chipset. The whole set of chipsets used in the iQOO 9T is perfect to let you experience a smooth process of performing any task or gaming. We really enjoyed the experience of using the phone for playing some high-requirement games.

Camera

With a 50MP GN5 (OIS)sensor, the iQOO 9T camera is at its best. The phone captures similar to that of the X80 series famed for its camera capabilities. It has a 12 MP secondary sensor with 2X optical zoom and a 13 MP ultrawide sensor with autofocus. The images captured were very sharp with on-point details, the color balance was perfect and the saturation level did not fluctuate. All the lenses are very good to take into consideration all the details of the subject which you are clicking. The portrait images which we clicked were also very good. The images captured in low-lighting turned out to be fantastic as they maintained very sharp details and there was no hint of graining. The selfies that are taken using the 16MP lens are also highly sharp and detailed. The phone can shoot videos in 4K at 60fps using the rear lens and the selfie lens can record videos in 1080p at 30fps. The camera setting also allows you to record videos from the front and the back camera at the same time using the Dual-View mode.

Battery

The new iQOO 9T comes with a 4700mAh battery and 120W charger. We were able to use the phone throughout the day with a single charge. The charging speed is also very impressive as the phone gets charged from 0-100% in 20-25 minutes. The power consumption rate is low thanks to the 8+ Gen1 processor which monitors the power consumption by the apps and helps in extending the battery life. 

Verdict

The new iQOO 9T no doubt is an all-rounder, ticking all the boxes correctly. The only concern for the new iQOO 9T is the latest launch of the OnePlus 10T which comes with more power-packed features and holds a good grip in the Indian market. To me, the new iQOO 9T is no less than the OnePlus 10T if you choose to go with the base variants because, in the higher variant, the OnePlus 10T comes with a humongous RAM size of 16GB which steals the show.