iQOO Z9 Review – The Star Of the 4 Countries iQOO Fans Festival

Recently, iQOO Malaysia hosted the first-ever 4-Country iQOO Fans Festival in Southeast Asia on June 18, 2024, in Kuala Lumpur. This international event brought together gaming enthusiasts and professional players from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and India, featuring over 100 participants in a tournament held at REXKL Malaysia.

iQOO Fans Festival

The teams competed against each other with the iQOO Z9 being the highlight. Any brand could tell you how good their smartphone is but iQOO Malaysia went above and beyond to let gamers try it first hand and see how well it performs. Powered by the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chip, it features a 6043mm² Vapor Chamber to ensure consistent performance throughout with no thermal throttling whatsoever.

It also has a 144Hz AMOLED display which is ideal for competitive gaming and to ensure that it runs long, it’s juiced up by a monstrous 6,000mAh battery. Of course, it won’t take long to charge either as it has an 80W FlashCharge support to get you going as quickly as possible. This is the device that we will be reviewing today so without further ado, let’s dive right into it.

Unboxing the iQOO Z9

Starting off the iQOO Z9 review with the unboxing, the packaging is a black box with iQOO Z in the center in a simplistic manner. You can learn a little bit about the device on the rear. Inside the box, you can find the following items:

• 80W FlashCharge charging brick
• USB-C cable
• Documentations
• SIM ejector pin
• Clear protective case
• The iQOO Z9 smartphone itself

Specifications

SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, 4nm Adreno 720 GPU
RAM	12GB LPDDR4X + 12GB Extended RAM
Storage	256GB UFS 2.2
Display	6.78″ 1.5K (2800 x 1260) 144 Hz Ultra-Smooth AMOLED Display 4,500 nits (peak), HDR 3840Hz Ultra-High PWM Dimming
Rear Camera	50MP Sony IMX882 AF Camera + 2MP Bokeh Camera LED Flash
Selfie Camera	16 MP HD Front Camera
Battery	6,000mAh Ultra-Thin Graphite Battery 80W FlashCharge
Ingress Protection	IP64
Software	Funtouch OS 14 based on Android 14
Colours	Breeze Green and Phantom Black

Performance

Starting off our benchmark suite with Antutu v10, the iQOO Z9 managed to perform better than expected. I honestly expected it to be around the same level as the vivo V29, especially given the similar price range, but I suppose this is what we should expect from a newer chip; the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3. It’s not too far off from last year’s flagship chips, which is what we’d want from a performance-oriented smartphone, albeit in a budget.

In Geekbench 6, we can see that the iQOO Z9 performs at an upper-midrange level, being not too far off from flagships but definitely a cut above entry-level devices. It seems to match up with the Exynos 1480, an SoC that is getting rave reviews and powering devices that are pricier.

Moving on to 3DMark, the iQOO Z9 performed just as we’d expect in Wild Life Extreme Unlimited as that benchmark test is quite painful to run but the standard Wild Life Unlimited ran pretty well. I find it interesting that it seems to match up with the flagship-level HUAWEI Pura 70 Pro in both tests. One major positive note is its stability rating of 98.9%, meaning it ran pretty much the same throughout a stress test with no thermal throttling whatsoever. I’d attribute this success to its 6,043mm² vapor chamber, keeping it relatively cool so it can run consistently while plenty of other devices will see it plummet due to overheating.

Lastly on PCMark Work 3.0, the iQOO Z9 performed where we’d expected it to be, with it breaking the 10,000 mark albeit barely. Basically, it should be able to handle real world use just fine along with running most mobile games. Multi-tasking might be a hit or miss at times as it might require a bit more CPU power to operate seamlessly in this manner but you have plenty of memory here to aid with that as its 12GB RAM that can be further extended by an additional 12GB.

For those of you wondering about its battery life, the iQOO Z9 has an excellent endurance score as it lasted 15 hours and 1 minutes (901 minutes) in PCMark’s Work 3.0 endurance test. It bested the vivo V27, which we’ve praised as being the longest-running non-gaming smartphone in this test, and it’s only beaten by the ROG Phone 6 Pro and 7 Ultimate. This is largely thanks to its whopping 6,000mAh battery capacity.

As for charging speed, this is what I managed to get using the included 80W FlashCharge charger:

• 15 minutes = 52% battery life
• 30 minutes = 83% battery life
• 44 minutes = 100% battery life

Camera

The iQOO Z9 has a pretty decent main camera. It is capable of capturing surprisingly good detail with decent dynamic range but the exposure can be wildly different at times. It could be completely cranked up and look like you have brightness set to 100% and then perfectly fine in the next shot despite being in the same scenario. The selfie camera is more consistent on that end, and it’s surprisingly good too, though it’s more dependent on light for good results, so no low-light selfies here. Zoom shots usually end up being poor and pixelated but that’s because this one lacks a dedicated telephoto camera so it’s just digital zoom.

The iQOO Z9 doesn’t come with an ultrawide camera nor a telephoto camera. You do get a pretty decent main camera and a 2MP bokeh camera, but the lack of the aforementioned two cameras mean that it lacks versatility in taking your shots. Sure, you can still zoom in but the quality is horrendous given that it’s digital zoom. If you simply need something to capture simple things for social media like food or occasional selfies, this will work just fine for as long as you temper your expectations.

The Good

There are a number of good reasons to consider getting the iQOO Z9. For starters, it has a display that is clearly above its price range. It;s a 6.78-inch AMOLED display with 144Hz adaptive refresh rate and 1.5K resolution. It can get so bright, it peaks out at 4,500 nits but for general use, we’re looking at about 1,500 nits, which is still more than enough. To top it all off, it has 3,840Hz Ultra-High PWM Dimming, which controls brightness in a finer nature, making it easier to see especially after staring at the screen for long periods of time.

Furthermore, it comes with a surprisingly powerful dual speaker setup consisting of a front-firing one (earpiece) and a bottom-firing one. It can get really loud without any cracks or distortions and sounds like something you’d expect from a standard flagship device. This, coupled with the screen, makes it quite a multimedia beast that would be enjoyable for music, videos, and mobile gaming. The 4D Game Vibration is meant to add another layer of immersion, especially for games like Genshin Impact that the feature is tailored for, but your mileage might vary here as I personally didn’t enjoy it much.

The build quality of the iQOO Z9 is decent given the price. The rear cover is plastic but the chassis itself appears to be metal as it’s a lot more solidly built. Furthermore, it has an IP54 water and dust resistance rating, which is always a plus as it gives peace of mind in case anything happens. Sure, it’s not IP68 like plenty of other phones but keep in this is an affordable device and it can still take some level of water just fine.

Speaking of affordable, this has an insane level of value given its price. The iQOO Z9 is priced at RM1,499 for the 12GB RAM / 256GB storage variant and RM1,399 for the 8GB RAM / 256GB storage variant. Furthermore, there is a Mid-Year Flash Sale by iQOO Malaysia from 25th to 30th June 2024 where you can get it for an even lower price:

Shopee:

• iQOO Z9 8GB+256GB = RM1,113 (RM286 discount)
• iQOO Z9x 8GB+256GB = RM833 (RM266 discount)
• iQOO Z9x 8GB+128GB = RM750 (RM249 discount)

Lazada:

• iQOO Z9 8GB+256GB = RM1,141 (RM258 discount)
• iQOO Z9x 8GB+256GB = RM877 (RM222 discount)
• iQOO Z9x 8GB+128GB  = RM789 (RM210 discount)

If you’re looking for a more affordable option, check out our vivo Y78 5G review by clicking right here.

The Bad

As we mentioned before, there are some drawbacks you need to be privy to. For starters, the design is rather bland. There’s nothing much going around apart from the iQOO logo in the rear. I believe given its affordable pricing, they focused on function over aesthetics, and they did well in that regard so honestly, just slap a nice case on it and I’m sure most people would have no issues with it.

While it’s great that that it has ample storage space, it is utilizing UFS 2.2 in a day and age where UFS 4.0 is the new standard and UFS 3.0 feels outdated. I believe this is a needed measure to keep costs low as otherwise, it would be difficult to sell it at such an affordable price unless they cut the storage capacity. If you gave me the choice between a 256GB UFS 2.2 storage over a 128GB UFS 4.0 storage, I’d pick the bigger capacity anytime. If we’re talking eMMC storage, that would be a different story as that is abysmally slow.

Lastly, the bloatware situation in the iQOO Z9 is tolerable if I’m being completely honest. However, I don’t like the fact that it tries to recommend a whole bunch of apps to you from time to time. Moreover, they even have a dedicated section in the app drawer labeled “Hot Apps” and “Hot Games” with all these apps being recommended for you to download. While some of these apps are vital, most of them are pointless.

iQOO Z9 Verdict

The iQOO Z9 embodies function over aesthetics in the best way possible, and it makes sense given the price range as it targets the price-conscious consumers. This isn’t even a matter of getting a simple smartphone that can barely do anything as it performs well enough and some features like the display and speakers feel like a luxury to have. The 4D Game Vibration feature is an interesting addition but I personally didn’t really enjoy it so everyone’s mileage might vary for that one. Regardless, if you don’t plan on splurging on a smartphone and you don’t mind its bland looks, it’s hard to overlook this.

At the end of our iQOO Z9 review, I award this smartphone with our Silver Pokdeward.

You can get the iQOO Z9, as well as the Z9x, for a special price from 25th to 30th June 2024 via iQOO Malaysia’s official stores on Shopee and Lazada. This is part of their Mid-Year Flash Sale, and the special prices are listed below here:

Shopee:

• iQOO Z9 8GB+256GB = RM1,113 (RM286 discount)
• iQOO Z9x 8GB+256GB = RM833 (RM266 discount)
• iQOO Z9x 8GB+128GB = RM750 (RM249 discount)

Lazada:

• iQOO Z9 8GB+256GB = RM1,141 (RM258 discount)
• iQOO Z9x 8GB+256GB = RM877 (RM222 discount)
• iQOO Z9x 8GB+128GB  = RM789 (RM210 discount)

Head over to Shopee or Lazada from 25th to 30th June and upgrade your mobile gaming experience with the iQOO Z9 Series.

Big thanks to vivo Malaysia for sending us this smartphone for the purpose of this review.