iQoo 11 5G First Impressions: Setting A Performance Benchmark for 2023 Flagships

iQoo 11 5G has been officially launched and it is the first flagship Android smartphone in India this year. The device arrives as a successor to the iQoo 9T, which launched last year in India. Compared to its predecessor, the new iQoo 11 5G has received some upgrades, which according to the company, makes it an all-round performer. The iQoo 11 5G is the first smartphone to feature Qualcomm's latest and fastest Snapdragon SoC in India. It also gets the new V2 co-processor from Vivo, support for super-fast charging, and a smooth display.

The iQoo 11 5G has launched in two colour options. The variant that the company sent us is called Legend, which has the iconic BMW Motorsport racing stripes on the back. This variant uses a faux-leather material and has a textured back. I also held the Alpha variant, which has a glass back. Between the two, I liked the Alpha variant more as it felt more modern, while offering a premium in-hand feel.

Since it is a tall phone and the weight is well distributed, the iQoo 11 5G does not feel as heavy in the hand, even though it weighs 205g on paper. The metal frame houses the power and volume buttons on the right, whereas the bottom edge has the USB Type-C port, sandwiched between the SIM tray and the primary speaker grille.

The iQoo 11 5G comes with a tall 6.78-inch 2K AMOLED display. iQoo has bumped up the refresh rate to 144Hz and the resolution to 2K, compared to its predecessor. The screen is still flat and has fairly thin bezels around it. It is also an E6 AMOLED panel, which according to the company, amps up the peak brightness up to 1800 nits while promising up to 13 percent better power efficiency. Lastly, there is a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass Victus for protection against accidental drops and scratches.

The iQoo 11 5G comes with 2K flat AMOLED display

The screen refreshes smartly as per the content on the screen. Further, with the addition of the new Vivo V2 Image Signal Processor (ISP), iQoo says that phone can perform frame interpolation in games to achieve a higher and smoother framerate up to 144fps, even if the game doesn't officially support it. This will be particularly useful for gamers who play resource-intensive games such as Genshin Impact.

Under the hood, there is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, with up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.0 internal storage. To keep thermals under check, there is a new vapour chamber liquid cooling system. iQoo claims that the 11 5G is capable of achieving impressive scores in AnTuTu, although this alone shouldn't be considered as any measure of real-world performance. We will, of course, test the claim to see if the phone can deliver sustained performance in apps and games in our full review.

The iQoo 11 5G gets a new camera module design compared to its predecessor in India.

The iQoo 11 5G has an in-display fingerprint scanner and a dual-speaker setup. It also sports a triple-camera setup on the back. There is a 50-megapixel Samsung GN5 primary camera sensor with support for optical image stabilisation (OIS). It also features an 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera and a 13-megapixel telephoto camera with 2X optical zoom.

Compared to the iQoo 9T's 13-megapixel sensor, the ultra-wide camera has received a downgrade, at least on paper. For selfies, the iQoo 11 has a 16-megapixel front camera. The V2 ISP is said to help unlock some new features, including “flagship-level” 4K video recording in low light. We will test the camera performance in the full review.

The iQoo 11 5G packs a 5000mAh battery and supports 120W fast charging out of the box. The company claims that the phone can charge up to 50 percent in eight minutes. Lastly, in terms of software, the iQoo 11 5G runs on the Android 13-based Funtouch OS 13. It is promised to get three major Android updates and four years of security updates. The phone comes pre-loaded with very limited bloatware apps, which includes the likes of Spotify, Snapchat, etc.

With a starting price of Rs. 59,999, the iQoo 11 5G offers 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The variant we have has 16GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage, and is priced at Rs. 64,999. The smartphone has some promising hardware, some of which are first in India. Is this the next premium smartphone that you should buy? Stay tuned for our iQoo 11 5G review, coming soon on Gadgets 360.