iQOO 16 will reportedly be launched with a higher price tag than its predecessor.
iQOO 16 is expected to succeed last year's iQOO 15
iQOO 15 Apex Edition was launched in India earlier this week, adding a third colour option to the smartphone. The standard model was unveiled in the country in November last year with Samsung's latest display, which features the company's M14 luminescent material. It is also powered by Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon 8 series chipset. Now, the Vivo sub-brand appears to have begun work on the phone's successor, as the purported iQOO 16 has reportedly been registered in China. Moreover, the handset is said to use an unreleased Snapdragon 8 series chipset. The tech firm might also source iQOO 16's display from the South Korean tech conglomerate.
In a post on Weibo, the Chinese microblogging platform, tipster Digital Chat Station (translated from Chinese) has claimed that the Vivo sub-brand has registered the rumoured iQOO 16 in China. On top of this, the leaker has shared the key specifications and features of the smartphone, including its chipset and display.
The iQOO 16 will reportedly be powered by the unreleased Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro from Qualcomm, which is rumoured to be built on a 2nm process and could be internally codenamed SM8975. The handset is claimed to offer enhanced performance over its predecessor. Moreover, the purported iQOO 16 will reportedly be equipped with an unspecified flat Samsung display, delivering “ultra-high refresh rate” (translated from Chinese) and 2K resolution.
The phone is expected to succeed last year's iQOO 15, which is equipped with a 6.85-inch 2K Samsung M14 8T LTPO AMOLED display, offering up to 144Hz of refresh rate, 508ppi pixel density, and up to 6,000 nits local peak brightness. The handset is also powered by Qualcomm's current flagship 3nm octa core Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset.
This comes soon after a report highlighted that the iQOO 16 will be launched at a higher price than its predecessor. For reference, the iQOO 15was launched in India in November 2025 at a starting price of Rs. 72,999 for the base variant with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Meanwhile, the top-of-the-line 16GB RAM + 512GB RAM and storage configuration arrived at Rs. 79,999.
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