iQOO Z6 Pro 5G Review: Performance is the name of the game

iQOO made a big splash in 2020, introducing several new smartphones at different price points. However, the one consistency with all its smartphone launches last year was value.

Whether it was the top-end iQOO 7 Legend (Review) or the sub-20K iQOO Z3 (Review), every device in the brand’s arsenal delivered excellent performance for its price, while also offering solid overall specifications across the board. Fast forward to the present and the recently launched iQOO Z6 Pro 5G certainly follows last year’s value-added formula on paper. But what about the real world? Stick around for our full iQOO Z6 Pro 5G review to see if this is indeed the best smartphone under Rs 25,000 in India.

Design and Build

The iQOO Z5 (Review) has a few inches on the Z6 Pro 5G, while the latter trades the hole-punch cutout for a waterdrop notch. The other big difference here is the in-display optical fingerprint sensor, which has replaced the side-mounted fingerprint scanner from the iQOO Z5. On the back, the square camera island doesn’t protrude too far outside and is almost in line with the back panel. The three cameras are housed in two large camera rings. The back panel itself is made of plastic as opposed to glass, while the frame is also made of plastic.

Despite the new VC cooling system inside, the Z6 Pro isn't that heavy and is actually lighter than its predecessor, weighing 180 grams and measuring 8.5mm thick. The iQOO Z6 Pro 5G is available in Phantom Dusk or Legion Sky colours, we arrived in the latter. Both colours opt for a smooth matte finish and an anti-glare coating, which is quite resistant to fingerprint smudges. There is Gorilla Glass protection on the front, although the waterdrop notch is something we’ve come to see on budget phones and not sub-25K smartphones.

The iQOO Z6 Pro has the standard button layout with a power and volume button on the right. There’s a speaker grille on the bottom with the USB-C port and SIM tray. However, there’s a lack of a headphone jack and microSD card slot on the Z6 Pro, the former of which was found on the iQOO Z5. While the build of the iQOO Z6 Pro is pretty solid, it does feel like we’ve gone one step back with the dated waterdrop notch.

Display

iQOO has updated the screen of the Z6 Pro 5G, opting for an OLED panel instead of an LCD screen and the difference is quite noticeable. The Z6 Pro 5G sports a 6.44-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with vivid colours and good levels of saturation, which is a major step-up from the LCD panel on the iQOO Z5. Additionally, the screen also offers 1,300 nits of peak brightness, which is sufficiently bright to use the handset under direct sunlight. The Z6 Pro 5G also supports HDR10+, although certain apps like Netflix and Prime Video do not support it.

Otherwise, viewing content on the screen is quite good. As compared to the LCD screen on the Z5, you also get good contrast ratios and colour accuracy. The screen also has excellent viewing angles. You also get a 90Hz refresh rate, which is smooth and offers a fast and fluid UI navigation experience. While the 90Hz refresh rate is a step down from the 120Hz on the Z5, I didn’t notice much of a difference between the two and the Z6 Pro 5G’s OLED panel is far superior in every other scenario.

Performance

Not much has changed on the performance front as the Z6 Pro 5G continues to use the Snapdragon 778G SoC, which is one of the best chipsets in the segment, so no complaints there. The chip is paired with up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage. There’s no storage expansion but the Extended RAM 2.0 feature allows the phone to use up to 4GB of unused storage as virtual RAM to further improve performance.

We also tested a few titles on the Z6 Pro 5G, including Call of Duty: Mobile, Raid: Shadow Legends, Star Wars: Hunters, and Apex Legends Mobile. While Raid ran with the settings to the max, the rest of the titles ran smoothly on high settings with the frame rate set to high as well. The phone did get hot after 30 straight minutes of gaming, I did notice a bit of throttling 20 minutes in, but the phone stabilised after the initial hiccup. This is in big part thanks to the new and improved cooling system with a massive vapour cooling that is capable of reducing temperatures by 12 degrees.

In Geekbench, the iQOO Z6 Pro managed a single-core score of 782 points and a multi-core of 2911 points, which was quite impressive. I ran 10 straight tests, but the scores remained consistent without dropping. In the Compute test, the GPU managed a 2491 Vulkan score and a 2335 OpenCL score. After our tests and gaming on the iQOO Z6 Pro, there’s no doubt that it is one of the best, if not the best, performing smartphones in the segment.

Camera

The cameras on the iQOO Z6 Pro opts for the same camera setup as its predecessor. It gets a 64 MP primary sensor paired with an 8 MP ultrawide unit, and a 2 MP macro camera. The waterdrop notch on the front houses a 16 MP selfie camera. The iQOO Z6 Pro can record 4K video at 30fps and 1080p video at 60fps.

The main 64 MP camera on the Z6 Pro 5G takes excellent shots in daylight. These shots have good dynamic range, punchy colours, and strong detail. The camera also doesn’t overexpose images or overblow highlights, while HDR was quite effective on most occasions. I also found the shutter speed on the Z6 Pro to be quite quick while taking photos during the day. While the main camera is pretty strong in daylight, results change as the light fades away.

In the late evening, I saw the main camera push out softer images with less detail. At night, you can get slightly better results using night mode. Using night mode can clean up some of the noise and brighten up scenes and increase the level of detail. However, to get usable results on night mode, you’ll need sufficient ambient light and still objects. In many cases, the mode didn’t quite handle shadows well, while images were visibly softer. Photos taken using the night mode on the ultrawide were mostly unusable. Portrait mode on the iQOO Z6 Pro was also good with accurate edge detection and motion blur.

The 8 MP ultrawide unit on the Z6 Pro 5G can push out consistent colours with the main camera in daylight. For a mid-range smartphone, the ultrawide does a decent job of maintaining detail during the day. However, the images are noticeably softer with visible distortion on the edges. Additionally, when pinched, the detail in images tends to fall apart, while the camera doesn’t quite handle shadows very well. The macro unit didn’t do quite well and, in most scenes, captured inaccurate colours.

The 16 MP selfie camera on the Z6 Pro 5G was pretty decent, pushing out good detail and sharpness. Portrait selfies also had accurate edge detection, while skin tones looked natural. You can also record 4K video on the main camera at 30fps with solid results in daylight, although video tends to fall apart in more complex lighting scenarios or indoors. The camera system has some electronic stabilisation that works well, while the Ultra Stabilisation mode works on 1080p video at 60fps. You can take 1080p video on the front camera at 30fps and there’s a Dual View mode to record video on both the front camera and main rear camera simultaneously.

The camera system here also comes with a Pro mode, a Document mode, Live Photos, Slo-mo mode, and more. Overall, the cameras on the iQOO Z6 Pro 5G are pretty similar to that on the iQOO Z5. I found the cameras to be quite reliable in daylight but not so much at night or even in more complex lighting scenarios. While the cameras here are pretty good, they still fall short against some of the competition, particularly the Realme 9 Pro+ 5G (Review).

Software

On the software side, the iQOO Z6 Pro runs on Android 12 based on Funtouch OS 12, which is nice considering some OEMs have been releasing mid-range and affordable handsets with Android 11. The Z6 Pro also features an Ultra Game mode that can push the CPU and GPU to their limits, delivering optimal performance. And since the phone runs Android 12, you get all of the privacy-focused features.

Funtouch also comes with a ton of customisations but the downfall here is the pre-installed bloatware. I was able to uninstall most of the pre-loaded apps, although there are still a few apps that cannot be uninstalled. iQOO has also pledged two major Android updates and three years of security updates, which is pretty solid for a mid-range smartphone.

Battery

The iQOO Z6 Pro 5G packs a 4,700 mAh battery that easily gets you through an entire day. While using the phone, the battery lasted well into the next day under average use, although that changed under heavy use. However, the phone still lasted an entire day after a long gaming session, messaging on WhatsApp and Instagram, watching videos on YouTube, and browsing Chrome.

But excellent battery life isn’t the only good thing about the Z6 Pro, it also comes with 66W fast-charging support that can deliver a full charge in less than 60 minutes. The 66W charging is another upgrade over the 44W charging on the iQOO Z5. When it comes to battery and charging support, the iQOO Z6 Pro gets an ‘A’.

Verdict

At a starting price of Rs 24,999, the iQOO Z6 Pro 5G offers a ton of value. It is also the best-performing smartphone under Rs 25,000 in India. The phone’s Snapdragon 778G comes out on top of the rest of the competition, which opts for MediaTek chips. Additionally, the improved cooling system also makes the Z6 Pro 5G the best smartphone for gaming in the sub-25K space.

Apart from the performance, the Z6 Pro also brings a smooth and vibrant display, a sizeable battery with super-fast charging, a reliable camera setup, and good software support. On paper, the iQOO Z6 Pro is an excellent smartphone and it also performs like one. But is it enough of an upgrade over the iQOO Z5? I’d say, ‘just about so’! Sure, the chipset is the same, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Snapdragon 778G is the best mobile platform in the segment.

Additionally, I prefer the Z6 Pro’s 90Hz OLED panel to the Z5’s 120Hz LCD screen. And charging speed has also gone up, while the battery hasn’t shrunk to an extent that you have to worry about battery life. There is definitely room for improvement in the camera system and software, but on balance, the Z6 Pro 5G is another excellent offering from iQOO and gets an easy recommendation, especially if you are looking for a gaming-oriented smartphone under Rs 25,000.