iQOO 15 Unboxing Leaked Ahead of October 20 China Launch; Confirms Design and More

iQOO 15 is all set to be launched in China on October 20. But ahead of the launch, the company has shared more details about the natively developed Q3 chipset, which is a smartphone-focused GPU, that will power the gaming experience on the smartphone. A separate unboxing video has also showcased the iQOO 15 Legend Edition's design. The video shows a flatter back panel compared to the predecessor, and the LEDs on the rear camera panel is now placed around the island ring.

Q3 Chip to Debut Alongside iQOO 15

AnTuTu posted on Weibo to showcase the unboxing of the Legend Edition, which features the "Monster Inside" text as well as the blue-red design to highlight iQOO's ongoing partnership with BMW. The unboxing video also shows a punch-hole display on the front and metallic edges. The power button and the volume rockers are placed on the right side, and the bottom sports the USB-C port, microphone, a speaker grille, and a SIM card slot.

The speaker of the video can be heard saying (translated from Chinese) that the tactile experience is really good and that there is a three-dimensional texture at the back (referring to the iQOO and BMW logo). He also highlighted that the device comes with a 100W charging support.

In a separate Weibo post, the official handle of iQOO, stated that the company has built the “world's first self-developed gaming chip.” It is coupled with the company's QNSS super rendering engine, the combination of which is claimed to offer “console-like” visuals and performance.

While the architecture or the fabrication process was not detailed by the company, it is said to be built on an “ultra-low power process” technology that allows it to bring “super resolution, ultra-frame, and ray tracing capabilities.”

The first two are just a fancy way of saying that Q3 can upscale lower-resolution rendering to higher resolutions (2K resolution support) and maintain very high frame rates (up to 144fps) at that resolution. However, this will only work in compatible games.

iQOO also shared that the display chip or GPU, alongside the main processor, will boost the device's performance by 60 percent, power efficiency by 40 percent, memory optimisation by 50 percent, and AI compute by 400 percent.

Coming to the QNSS super rendering engine, which appears to be a graphics acceleration tool, the company said that it will power real-time ray tracing support on the device for a more immersive gaming experience. One key claim by the company is that in large open-world games, it will enable “full-scene ray tracing,” meaning lighting and reflection effects across entire scenes will be enhanced, instead of small portions of the area.

The company also claims that the gaming experience is sustainable during competitive gaming. iQOO tested the chipset's performance with CrossFire: Gunfight King, and claimed to find that the iQOO 15 was able to achieve 143.76fps as the average frame rate, 1.54 frame variance, and 43.6 degrees Celsius device temperature after one hour of playtime.