iQOO Z6 5G Review – Worthy Budget Gaming Phone

More and more affordable 5G smartphones are being launched each week. iQOO has also joined the trend and launched a 5G phone in its Z series. This smartphone was launched as an affordable mid-range option by the company. This smartphone not only promises to offer good gaming performance, but it also has a long battery life and a decent set of cameras.

Even though the iQOO Z6 appears to be a great value, how does it perform in the real world? Let’s go into the gritty details of whether or not you should shell out almost Rs. 16,000 for the iQOO Z6 5G.

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The starting price of the iQOO Z6 5G in India is Rs. 15,499 for the variant with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. There is also an 8GB option for Rs. 17,999, as well as a 6GB option for Rs. 16,999.

Chromatic Blue and Dynamo Black are the two colour options available for the iQoo Z6 5G. The phone will go on sale on Amazon and the iQoo India online store on March 22.

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The stylish box of iQOO Z6 5G packs the following items inside the box:

• iQOO Z6 5G
• Charger
• Type-C USB Cable
• Warranty Card and Quick Start Guide
• SIM Eject Tool
• Phone Protective Case

Before we talk in detail about the iQOO Z6 5G, let’s see what the on-paper specs look like:

• Display: 6.58 inches IPS LCD
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 695
• RAM & ROM: 8GB 128GB, 6GB 128GB, 4GB 128GB
• Software: Android v12
• Rear camera: 50MP + 2MP + 2MP
• Selfie camera: 16 MP
• Battery: 5000 mAh
• Weight: 185 grams
• Dimensions: 164 x 75.8 x 8.2 mm

The matte surface and sharp edges of the iQOO Z6 5G make it look amazing. This phone has a plastic back, but it looks like it’s made of glass. I like it because it has a simple, boxy look that is in trend right now. It’s not a little phone, and the battery inside is a large one, but it’s still light and sleek. We have the blue-to-pink gradient finish with us, which has been popular in recent years.

The phone’s back and frame are made of plastic, so it doesn’t really attract your fingerprints or dust. It’s good to have everything looking neat and tidy. In the upper left corner of the back, there is a three-camera setup that includes two large and one little lens. The camera island labels a 5G sign whereas the bottom side has the iQOO logo.

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The top of the phone houses a sim card tray and a microphone. Whereas the bottom of the phone has a 3.5 mm audio jack, a secondary microphone, a Type-C charging port and a single speaker grille.

The right side of the phone has a power button which has an inbuilt fingerprint scanner along with the volume rockers above it. The left side is totally clean.   

Although its design isn’t particularly unique, the phone’s look is quite good.

The iQOO Z6 5G has a triple back camera layout. The primary 50-megapixel camera has an aperture of f/1.8. This is in addition to the 2-megapixel macro sensor and a 2-megapixel bokeh sensor. The 16-megapixel selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture can be seen at the front.

The 50-megapixel eye focusing feature helps to capture the photographs that are clear and crisp. Using the eye focusing feature, you can take pictures even while running or walking around.    

When shooting in daylight, the main camera delivers average results that are often lacking in detail. Many of the photos I took turned out softer than I had expected. Focusing and shutter speeds were good, however, the dynamic range was lacking.

Although the images appeared a little washed out, I thought they looked OK. If you want your photos to look more natural, you’ll also need to turn off auto-beautification. Photos taken in night mode appear to have captured the scene well.

In terms of quality, the macro and depth shots were only average. Do not expect much from them because they are pointless.

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The quality of the front-facing camera wasn’t anything special, but the skin tones were nice.

The 50 MP camera has a slew of features, including a night mode, portrait mode, AI mode, Live Photo, beauty mode, AI mode, Slo-mo, Pro mode, AR Stickers, and filters, among others.

Cameras on both the front and back of the phone can record videos at 1080p@30fps, but there is no OIS, so it uses EIS instead. The video quality isn’t very good. iQOO tries to make the colours brighter, but in the process, it loses out on a lot of small details.

The iQOO Z6 5G will disappoint first-time iQOO smartphone buyers and those looking for a great camera performance under Rs. 20k.

The iQOO Z6 5G features a beefy 5,000 mAh battery with 18W fast charging support, which isn’t really fast. I found the battery backup to be really good. It easily gave me two days of backup with casual use. It included taking some shots, browsing the internet, scrolling through social media and some light gaming.

A heavy user can still expect to get a full day out of it. There are some battery saving features on the phone which can further increase the battery backup.

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Now talking about the charging, the 18W charger takes a little more than an hour to fully charge the device from 0 to 100 per cent. Although this isn’t the best in its category, it’s okay enough for most of us.

iQOO Z6 5G has a 6.58-inch full HD+ LCD display and a 120Hz refresh rate. It also has a 240Hz touch sampling rate. Considering that it’s an LCD panel, the display has decent colour accuracy, nice contrast, and ample brightness. However, it doesn’t stand any close to the AMOLED display seen on its competitors.

It features a peak brightness of 460 nits which I found to be enough for both indoor and outdoor use. The display gets bright enough to easily read texts in bright sunlight. 

Widevine L1 support ensures that FHD+ content can be viewed on OTT apps. Watching moves and web series was a good experience on the iQOO Z6 5G.     

If you want, you can set the refresh rate to Smart Switch or keep it at 60, 90, or 120Hz. It was rare that the display stuttered or jittered when set to 120Hz during my use of the device. The high refresh rate really helped while playing the online multiplayer games.

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I believe that iQOO should have chosen an AMOLED display rather than an LCD panel; even a 90Hz AMOLED display would have been a better experience.

The iQOO Z6 5G boasts a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 octa-core processor, which is coupled with an Adreno 619 GPU for gaming and other graphics-intensive apps. It has 8GB RAM + 4GB extended RAM 2.0 with up to 128GB of internal storage. It is possible to add more storage by using a micro SD card. Moreover, it has a 5-layer liquid cooling technology to keep it cool when gaming.

You can play most mobile games on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 SoC without having any issues. You won’t face any issues in using general apps and performing day-to-day tasks. There were no issues or app crashes during my time using the device, which included switching between different apps, streaming movies, listening to music, playing games, and surfing social media.

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The iQOO Z6 5G claims to offer an ultra-gaming experience when it comes to gaming. I tried everything, from simple games like Candy Crush and Subway Surfers to high-end titles like BGMI, Asphalt 9 and Call of Duty. The overall experience was excellent, especially considering the low price. 

The highest possible frame rate for BGMI gameplay was Ultra (45fps) with Balanced graphics. It’s expected for the phone to get a little warm while playing games.

The iQOO Z6 5G runs on Funtouch OS 12 which is based on Android 12. It was good to see the iQOO Z6 launch with Android 12 at a point when affordable and mid-range smartphones are still lunching with Android 11 on the market. The UI looks and feels a lot similar to Stock Android.

The user interface is pretty simple and smooth. The 120Hz refresh rate plays a big role here. The app drawer glides with a simple touch. There are some modes like Monster Mode and ultra game mode which will help you to get some extra frames while gaming.

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However, you get a lot of bloatware pre-installed on the phone like ok Moj, Josh, MX TakaTak, Facebook, Byju’s and a few more. I got tons of notifications throughout the day from these apps which were really irritating. Thankfully you can remove all of these apps from the phone if they are not needed as I did.

The sound quality of the iQOO Z6 5G is actually quite good and loud. The quality of the phone calls has also been good. Stereo speakers would have been a welcome addition to the iQOO Z6, which is marketed as a gaming phone. The single speaker on the device is good but not the best, and your palms can easily wrap around it when playing games.

iQOO Z6 5G has only 2 5G Bands which include N77 and N78, which is somewhat disappointing to see. There are 13 5G bands available on the Moto G71 5G (review), which uses the same SoC. Other connectivity options available with this phone are 4G VoLTE networks, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v5.1, Vivoshare, smart mirroring, OTG and A-GPS.

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The fingerprint scanner on the phone is quick, although it isn’t the fastest in its segment. It is reliable and accurate and unlocked the phone every time I tapped on it. You also get an option for facial recognition, although I don’t recommend it as it struggles at th night.