iQoo 9 Pro First Impressions: Dressed to Impress

The iQoo 9 Pro stands out with its design, and its impressive hardware makes it very competitive.

By Sheldon Pinto | Updated: 23 February 2022 13:26 IST

iQoo 9 Pro First Impressions: Dressed to Impress

iQoo 9 Pro price in India starts at Rs. 64,990

Highlights

The iQoo 9 Pro has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC
It has a 120Hz curved-edge AMOLED display
The 50-megapixel primary rear camera features gimbal stabilisation

The iQoo 7 Legend is still a good premium smartphone that offers a high-quality camera experience and great performance, as pointed out in my review. Its only drawback is its below-average battery life, even though charging is quite fast. Now, iQoo has just announced three new smartphones as a part of its premium 9 series. There's the new iQoo 9 SE, the iQoo 9, and the iQoo 9 Pro. The 9 SE is the successor to the iQoo 7, while the iQoo 9 succeeds the iQoo 7 Legend.

The iQoo 9 Pro is the new flagship in the series and it has several new upgrades over the iQoo 7 Legend. Its battery has grown in capacity, but more importantly, its cameras have taken a big leap forward in terms of hardware. I got my hands on this smartphone and here are my first impressions.

The iQoo 9 Pro is the most expensive offering in the new 9 series. It is available in two variants: 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for Rs. 64,990, and 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for Rs. 69,990. Compared to the iQoo 7 Legend, which was only available in one finish, the iQoo 9 Pro is available in the Legend finish (white, blue and red) and a new Dark Cruise option that has a black carbon fibre texture.

The iQoo 9 Pro comes with a 120W charger and TPU case

IQoo has continued its partnership with BMW Motorsport, which has lent its racing-inspired ‘Legend' finish to the iQoo 9 Pro and iQoo 9, similar to the design of the iQoo 7 Legend. There are some minor tweaks, for instance the overall texture of the back panel appears a bit different thanks to a polished strip running through the otherwise matte back panel. The camera module on the 9 Pro literally takes up one third of the back panel but protrudes only slightly. The box contents include a high-quality TPU case which has the same Legend finish with the BMW Motorsport-inspired stripes. There's an infrared emitter at the top and a USB Type-C port at the bottom, but no 3.5mm headphone jack.

The iQoo 9 Pro has a 6.78-inch curved-edge AMOLED display with a 1,440x3,200 pixel (2K) resolution. It is an LTPO panel with an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120Hz, along with a 300Hz touch sampling rate.

The iQoo 9 Pro has a 6.78-inch 2K AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate

The iQoo 9 Pro debuts the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC in India. It is manufactured using a 4nm fabrication process and has a maximum CPU clock speed of 3.0GHz. iQoo claims that it offers several performance improvements over the Snapdragon 888 SoC, which was used by many popular premium smartphones last year. iQoo has also included what it calls an Independent Display Chip (IDC) that it claims offers several benefits when it comes to gaming and imaging. Communications standards include Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, and the usual satellite navigation systems. There is also dual-5G standby and the phone supports fourteen 5G bands.

Compared to the iQoo 7 Legend, the cameras have gotten the biggest upgrade. The iQoo 9 Pro has a 50-megapixel primary camera with optical image stabilisation (OIS) and gimbal stabilisation, similar to the Vivo X70 Pro+ (Review). There's also a 50-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera with a 150 degree field of view and autofocus, and a 16-megapixel telephoto camera with 2.5X optical zoom and OIS. Selfies are handled by a 16-megapixel front camera.

The iQoo 9 Pro has three rear cameras which includes a 50-megapixel primary camera with gimbal stabilisation

The iQoo 9 Pro has a 4,700mAh battery which is an upgrade over the iQoo 7 Legend's 4,000mAh capacity. Wired charging speed has been bumped up to 120W, and this phone also allows 50W wireless charging with the company's own dock that you'll have to buy separately. The smartphone runs Funtouch OS 12 which is based on Android 12.

The iQoo 9 Pro certainly seems to have checked all the boxes when it comes to hardware for a premium smartphone in early 2022. From the looks of it, this is also potentially a capable gaming smartphone. In fact, iQoo has even launched a new gaming accessory called the iQoo Gamepad that adds physical buttons for gamers. So how well does it perform in the real world, and is the iQoo 9 Pro worth buying now or should you wait to see what the competition comes up with? Stay tuned for our detailed review, which should be out soon on Gadgets360.com.

Can Realme 9 Pro and 9 Pro+ win their respective segments? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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iQOO 9 Pro

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Design
Display
Software
Performance
Battery Life
Camera
Value for Money

Good
Sharp, colour-accurate AMOLED display
Good stereo speakers
Excellent fingerprint reader
Powerful SoC
120W fast charging
Android 12
Impressive still camera performance

Bad
No official IP rating
Low-light video recording could be better

Read detailed iQOO 9 Pro review

Display 6.78-inch

Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1

Front Camera 16-megapixel

Rear Camera 50-megapixel + 50-megapixel + 16-megapixel

RAM 8GB, 12GB

Storage 256GB

Battery Capacity 4700mAh

OS Android 12

Resolution 1440x3200 pixels

More iQOO mobiles iQOO mobiles price in India

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Further reading: iQoo 9 Pro, iQoo, iQoo 9 Pro India Specifications, iQoo 9 Pro Design, iQoo 9 Pro price in India

Sheldon Pinto

Email Sheldon Pinto

Sheldon Pinto is based in Mumbai, and has several years of experience in reviewing smartphones and gadgets. As a Senior Reviewer at Gadgets 360, you will always find him deeply immersed in his reviews, switching from one phone to another. When the battery dies out, Sheldon is always browsing the web for a good sci-fi movie or reading up on cars and bikes. He also loves creating lists of interesting places to eat and travel. Sheldon is available on Twitter at @shellshocd, and you can mail him at ...More