Review Summary
Expert Rating
The iQOO Z9 5G is the third phone to launch in India in 2024 after the iQOO 12 (review) and iQOO Neo 9 Pro (review). Much like the other two, the iQOO Z9 5G is very much a performance-centric phone, and is backed by the MediaTek Dimensity 7200. Priced just under Rs 20,000, the iQOO Z9 5G faces stiff competition from the likes of the Realme Narzo 70 Pro, POCO X6 Neo, and Redmi Note 13 to name a few. Does the iQOO Z9 5G offer enough to be called the best phone under Rs 20,000? Let’s take a look.
Table of Contents
Verdict
The iQOO Z9 5G is easily one of the best-performing phones in the sub-Rs 20,000 right now thanks to the Dimensity 7200 chipset. Additionally, you get a bright and attractive display along with dependable battery life, making it a solid all-round device in this segment. However, the camera system lacks versatility and the company only promises two years of software updates.
Design and display
If you’ve seen the iQOO Z7 5G or the iQOO Z6 5G, you’ve seen the iQOO Z9 5G as well. The new model doesn’t stray too far away from its predecessors in terms of looks. It offers a flat frame with chamfered edges. The rear panel is flat as well, bearing a matte finish and a brushed pattern design. It’s still a solid phone weighing 188 grams, which makes it heavier than the iQOO Z7 (173 grams). The phone’s design doesn’t stand out much in a segment that has the likes of the Realme 12+. Realme Narzo 70 Pro, and Redmi Note 13, to name a few.
Coming to the display, the iQOO Z9 5G features a 6.67-inch 2,400 x 1,080 AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate. The display can deliver a peak brightness of 1800 nits, which is impressive in this price segment and is SGS-certified for Eye Care Display. The screen is protected by DragonTail-Star2 Plus glass. Suffice it to say that the screen is bright under direct sunlight and offers good viewing angles as well. You will also find plenty of sharpness while streaming on platforms like Netflix.
Cameras
The main camera of the iQOO Z9 5G is surprisingly good. It’s a 50MP Sony IMX882 sensor with OIS support, which is great to see in this segment. This camera can capture impressive daylight shots with good dynamic range and colour reproduction. There’s a 2MP secondary camera that’s used for portrait shots. The portraits captured during the review period came out pretty well, both in 1x and 2x zoom. The phone misses out on an ultra-wide shooter.
In the comparison slider below, notice the Redmi Note 13 blows out the background while the iQOO Z9 5G manages a more balanced portrait shot.
In the comparison slider below, you can see that the flower appears sharper in the photo captured by the Redmi Note 13 thanks to its 108MP primary sensor. However, the colour is more accurate in the image shot on the iQOO Z9 5G.
The primary camera performs well in low-light conditions using Night mode, although one should not expect flagship-level brightness and clarity. Low-light shots exhibit good colour accuracy and minimal noise, quite good for its price I would say. The clarity is decent largely thanks to OIS support.
The 16MP front camera delivers a good amount of sharpness and colour accuracy of skin tones. It also does well with exposure levels, ensuring the background doesn’t blow out in bright outdoor conditions.
Performance and software
The iQOO Z9 5G is easily one of the most powerful phones in the sub-Rs 20,000 segment. Powered by the 4nm MediaTek Dimesnity 7200 chipset that’s paired with 8GB of RAM, the phone delivered solid benchmark scores, beating out the competition. On AnTuTu, the iQOO Z9 5G registered a score of 728,534, higher than the Dimenity 6080-powered Redmi Note 13 (453,839) and Dimensity 7050-powered Realme Narzo 70 Pro (611,860). Similarly, the phone scored 1190 and 2680 in single-core and multi-core, respectively, on Geekbench.
Suffice it to say that the iQOO Z9 5G can breeze through daily workloads like social media browsing, checking work emails, and switching between apps frequently without noticeable lag. This is also a very good phone to game on as it delivered impressive GFXBench scores. The phone can run Call of Duty Mobile on Very High graphics, which other phones in this price range struggle to do. The Dimensity 7200 is also an efficient chipset with the battery dropping by only 6 percent after a 30-minute gaming session.
You get Android 14 out of the box with the Funtouch OS 14 custom skin on top. Apart from the usual suite of Google and Vivo apps, you get a few third-party apps like Netflix, Snapchat, Candy Crush, Agoda, and Truecaller pre-installed. So, you do get a fair bit of pre-installed apps when starting the device, but they can be uninstalled if you don’t use them.
iQOO is promising just two years of software updates for the iQOO Z9 5G, which is disappointing. This means the phone will get upgraded to Android 16 but that’s it. Phones like the Realme Narzo 70 Pro, for example, are offering 3 years of major software updates.
Battery life
The iQOO Z9 5G delivers a respectable battery life on medium to heavy usage. There’s a 5,000mAh battery that managed to last around 15 hours and 40 minutes in our PC Mark battery test, which is better than what the Redmi Note 13 delivered but slightly lower than the Realme Narzo 70 Pro.
Using the bundled 44W charger, the iQOO Z9 5G takes roughly 67 minutes to juice up from zero to 100 percent. In this price range, the Realme 12+ and Narzo 70 Pro (both are essentially the same) offer faster charging speeds (around 45 minutes on 67W charging speeds).
Final verdict
Thanks to the MediaTek Dimensity 7200 chipset, the iQOO Z9 5G is the fastest phone in the sub-Rs 20,000 segment as of March 2024. The phone performs smoothly during day-to-day usage and can run games without much lag as well. Additionally, the iQOO Z9 has a bright and attractive display, and good battery life combined with fast charging support.
While the iQOO Z9 5G gets a dependable 50MP main camera, it could have benefitted from an ultra-wide sensor. Also, the phone is only likely to get two major software updates, which is a bummer considering some of the rivals in this segment like the Realme Narzo 70 Pro will get at least three major updates. Lastly, the phone’s design doesn’t quite stand out in this segment. If these aspects bother you, you can skip the iQOO Z9 5G. However, if you’re looking for a powerful Android phone in under Rs 20,000, it doesn’t get better than the iQOO Z9 5G.
Editor’s rating: 7.5 / 10
Reasons to buy iQOO Z9 5G
- The iQOO Z9 5G is one of the fastest phones you can find right now under Rs 20,000 thanks to the MediaTek Dimensity 7200 chipset.
- You get a bright and attractive display and a solid build quality, though the design can seem dull.
- The 50MP primary camera works well in daylight conditions, capturing crisp and colour-accurate shots.
Reasons to not buy iQOO Z9 5G
- iQOO is promising only two years of major Android updates for the iQOO Z9 5G, which is disappointing considering some of the rivals promise 3 years of support.
- While the primary camera is good, the phone misses out on an ultra-wide lens for variety.
 | Rs. 19,999.00 | Go To Store |
