iQOO Z6 5G Review: A good choice for gamers!

Name: iQOO Z6 5G
Item: iQOO Z6 5G
Author: Priya Kumari

iQOO Z6 5G is very much similar to Vivo T1 5G in terms of its looks and specifications. But is it worthy enough to buy? Check out the review here.

By: PRIYA KUMARI
| Updated on: Aug 22 2022, 11:08 IST

iQOO Z6 5G is available at a starting price of Rs. 15,499. (Priya/HT Tech)

High performance smartphones on a budget are always exciting. However, not everything you want falls in place when the budget is low -- there are always some compromises. But, to prove this statement wrong, iQOO, a subsidiary brand of Vivo, has come up with iQOO Z6 5G, expanding its Z series portfolio in India. Starting at Rs. 15,499, iQOO Z6 5G not only promises to deliver an ultra-gaming performance but also tends to offer a good battery life with decent camera functioning. But that's all in the saying! And to see if it excels in all the segments, we have put it on to the test for around two weeks now. And here is what I have observed.

iQOO Z6 5G Design

A shimmery, gradient look with a matte finish and boxy design seems to be the trend in early 2022. iQOO Z6 5G is another one following the same. At first glance, you may confuse the phone with Vivo T1 5G since these phones look almost identical and share very similar specifications. The iQOO Z6 gets a plastic back and frame that does not allow your fingerprint or dust to grab the phone. The back panel also holds a big rectangular camera hump.

Coming to the front, there lies a 6.58-inch display with a front camera resting in the center on top. The phone is slim at 8.25 mm and is quite lightweight at 186 grams, making it comfortable as well as easy to hold and carry. Overall, you won't find anything new in the design but yes, the phone looks decent and pretty in the hands.

iQOO Z6 5G Display

image caption — iQOO Z6 5G (Priya/HT Tech)

The iQOO Z6 5G comes with a 6.58-inch full HD+ display along with a 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate. The screen delivers good colours, decent contrast, and brightness for an LCD panel, although the end experience is no match for the lively AMOLED displays you get in phones such as the Redmi Note 11S and Moto G31. I have been using the phone with auto-brightness on and it worked adequately. However, you can also adjust the brightness of the screen manually according to your comfort. Also, with a 120Hz refresh rate, the screen is quick in response. Though you don't get an AMOLED display, the high refresh and touch sampling rate at this price range is praise worthy.

iQOO Z6 5G Performance

The iQOO Z6 5G runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 chipset paired with Android 12 based on Vivo's Funtouch OS 12. It also gets 8GB+4GB extended RAM 2.0 and comes with a 5-layer liquid cooling system to keep the phone cool and lag-free while gaming. Based on the daily activities, the phone easily handles any app and any game with proficiency and ease. From switching apps to watching movies, listening to songs, playing games, browsing social media, everything seemed flawless as I did not witness any incidents of glitches or app crashes.

The phone also provides the option to select screen refresh rate manually. You can go for 60Hz, 90Hz, and 120 Hz. While you also get an option of a smart switch where the screen refresh rate automatically gets selected according to the usage and system power consumption. And I have been using the same.

When it comes to gaming, the iQOO Z6 5G promises to offer an ultra-gaming experience. From regular games like Subway Surfers, Temple Run, Magic Tiles 3 to high-end games like Call of Duty, I played them all and the experience was impressive considering the price. Accompanied with a 240Hz touch sampling rate and a large display, gaming is certainly fun on this phone. Also, since the Z6 5G is equipped with a unique 5-Layer Liquid Cooling System, the phone did not heat up and lost its cool even after long gaming hours.

The audio quality is decent and pretty loud. The calling experience has also been fairly good. Coming to the user interface, you will get certain pre-installed apps on the phone, but these are not going to bother you much. Also, you can simply uninstall them if not in use. You will also not get disturbed by any unnecessary advertisements and notifications, apart from the apps you have allowed for. On a whole, the performance of iQOO Z6 5G is very satisfactory for the price range it is being offered.

iQOO Z6 5G Cameras

Phones under the affordable segment do tend to lack camera performance. But to my surprise, the pictures clicked by iQOO Z6 did impress me with the image quality. The phone sports a triple rear camera setup with a 50MP main camera along with a 2MP macro camera and a 2MP bokeh camera. In front, it gets a 16MP selfie camera.

Pictures clicked from the main camera and portrait camera offered good clicks with decent colours. Though the phone did whiten the images a bit, it looked okay to me. You also need to take care of auto beautification if you prefer natural looking photos. The pictures clicked using the night mode seemed to capture things decently.

For people who love clicking pictures with the bokeh effect, the iQOO Z6 gives them the option to select the patterns of bokeh- from circle to heart, stars, pentagon, and more, you can try whichever effect you want. Personally, I liked the circle and heart bokeh effect.

Check out the samples here...

Though the phone supports only a 2MP macro camera, the end result was satisfactory as the detailing seemed to be aptly captured. Coming to video recording, it did impress me with its stability, despite lacking OIS and EIS -- it is fine for a phone of this price. You also get options like panorama, slow motion, time-lapse, live photo, among others to click pictures with.

iQOO Z6 5G Battery

The iQOO Z6 5G is equipped with a 5000mAh battery along with an 18W charger. The battery backup is commendable, as even with extensive usage the phone (long hours of gaming, watching movies, among others) can easily survive a day and a half. While with light usage, the battery can survive for around 2 days.

However, the phone took lots of time to get fully charged. You will have to wait for almost 2 hours to get the battery fully fueled up from 10 percent to 100 percent.

iQOO Z6 5G Verdict

iQOO Z6 5G is certainly an impressive phone, trying to fit in all the boxes right. A phone supporting 5G technology, running on Android 12, and offering decent performance, good battery life, and cameras that too at an affordable price is something worth considering. Especially if you love gaming, iQOO Z6 5G is something you can definitely go for.

However, if you are looking for some other alternatives under Rs. 15000, you can check out phones like the Vivo T1 Motorola Moto G51 5G, Realme 9 5G, both of which have slower chips in comparison. If you are ready to pay a bit more, you can look at the Realme 9 5G SE and Motorola G71 5G.

Rating

3.5 out of 5

Price

INR 15,499/-

Product Name

iQOO Z6 5G

Brand Name

iQOO

Pros