The budget 5G smartphone market has exploded, with manufacturers finally offering more than just barebones hardware and subpar cameras. These days, consumers expect features like high-refresh-rate displays, impressive performance, and a decent camera experience, all at an affordable price point. iQoo’s latest contender, the Z9x, arrives under Rs. 15,000, promising to compete with the likes of Samsung and Motorola. But can it truly measure up, and does it deliver on its promises? Having used the iQoo Z9x for several weeks, we’ve explored its strengths and weaknesses to bring you a comprehensive review, dissecting its design, performance, camera capabilities, and overall value proposition.
iQoo Z9x Review: Price in India
The iQoo Z9x is priced competitively, starting at Rs. 12,999 for the base model with 4GB RAM and 128GB storage. The 6GB RAM variant is available for Rs. 14,499, while the 8GB RAM variant sits at Rs. 15,999. The phone comes in two color options: Tornado Green and Storm Grey. For this review, we tested the 8GB RAM variant in Storm Grey.
iQoo Z9x Review: Design
While the iQoo Z9x isn’t designed to impress, its design is a blend of the mid-range Neo 9 Pro and the premium iQoo 12, featuring flat sides and a camera module shaped like a rounded square. The Storm Grey colorway offers a subtle, almost understated look. If you’re looking for brighter colors, Vivo’s T3X might be a better option, offering a similar spec sheet but with a more eye-catching aesthetic.
The iQoo Z9x’s polycarbonate rear panel, though lacking a premium feel, has an iridescent matte finish that shimmers when viewed at an angle. However, it quickly attracts smudges and dust, making it a fingerprint magnet. The phone weighs 199 grams, slightly heavier than other budget offerings, despite its slim 7.99 mm thickness.
One surprising aspect is the iQoo Z9x’s IP64 dust and water resistance certification, a feature rarely seen at this price point. This means it offers protection from dust and debris and can withstand splashes of water, making it suitable for beach outings or light drizzle. However, it’s crucial to remember that this certification doesn’t guarantee underwater use or complete immersion. iQoo, like many manufacturers, will not cover liquid or physical damage under warranty, leaving you responsible for repair costs.
iQoo Z9x Review: Specifications and Software
The iQoo Z9x is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 SoC and offers 4GB, 6GB, or 8GB of RAM with 128GB storage, expandable to 1TB via microSD card. The phone runs iQoo’s Funtouch OS 14, based on Android 14.
iQoo Z9x Specifications
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1
- RAM: 4GB/6GB/8GB
- Storage: 128GB (expandable to 1TB)
- SIM Slots: Hybrid Dual
- Connectivity: 5G, BT 5.1, Wi-Fi 5
- Battery: 6,000mAh
- Charging: 44W wired
The Funtouch OS 14 experience is typical of budget phones, featuring spammy notifications, mainly from the native browser app, and a large number of pre-installed third-party apps. Thankfully, all of these apps are uninstall-able, and you can disable notifications from the Store and other native apps.
iQoo’s custom skin offers a high degree of customization, allowing you to tinker with fonts, accent colors, themes, and even create unique dynamic effects for the touchscreen and screen on/off animations. However, the software interface has a slight learning curve, requiring some exploration of the Settings app to understand the layout.
iQoo Z9x Review: Performance
The iQoo Z9x, equipped with the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 SoC and 8GB of RAM, delivers decent performance for its price. It performs on par with other budget 5G smartphones in this price range, achieving an AnTuTu score of 5,59,900 and Geekbench scores of 940 and 2,838 in single and multi-core tests, respectively. In graphics, the phone outperforms the Moto G64 5G, its primary competitor, with scores of 92, 39, and 20 in GFXBench’s T-Rex, Manhattan 3.1, and Car Chase tests, respectively.
Gaming performance is surprisingly good for a budget 5G smartphone. iQoo has implemented optimizations, making the Z9x a solid choice for budget gamers. Call of Duty: Mobile runs smoothly with Medium graphics and High frame rate settings (default) while Asphalt 9: Legends achieves a stable 60FPS with high-quality graphics, showcasing smooth gameplay.
The phone’s 120Hz refresh rate display is capped at 90Hz in Auto Refresh Rate mode. To fully utilize the 120Hz refresh rate for smoother animations, you need to manually enable the 120Hz mode for specific or all apps. It’s worth noting that not all games support 120FPS due to hardware limitations. Despite running demanding 3D games, the Z9x only warmed up slightly and never became uncomfortably hot.
iQoo Z9x Review: Display
The iQoo Z9x features a full-HD+ display with a dynamic refresh rate, switching between 60Hz, 90Hz, and 120Hz based on content to conserve battery life. Our testing revealed that the refresh rate typically hovers around 90Hz during active use, switching to 60Hz when inactive or during video playback.
While the display is sharp enough for everyday use, it’s not the brightest in its segment. It boasts saturated colors but exhibits a noticeable yellow tint at the bottom edge, particularly apparent with white backgrounds.
The phone has Widevine L1 certification, enabling streaming of content in full-HD quality. iQoo has opted for a stereo speaker setup that offers a slightly immersive audio experience compared to single-speaker phones. The volume is loud, but the sound quality is tinny and irritating, making wired or wireless earphones a better choice for a more enjoyable listening experience.
iQoo Z9x Review: Battery & Charging
The iQoo Z9x boasts impressive battery life, easily lasting two days with casual usage (excluding camera and gaming) and comfortably exceeding a full day with heavy use involving camera, gaming, and calls. In our battery loop test, the Z9x achieved a commendable 22 hours and 35 minutes with the display refresh rate set to 120Hz/High, showcasing its long-lasting power.
When the battery eventually drains, the 44W charger provides a speedy charging experience, reaching 35 percent in 30 minutes and 71 percent in an hour. A complete charge takes 1 hour and 39 minutes, a decent time considering the phone’s larger-than-average battery capacity.
iQoo Z9x Review: Cameras
The iQoo Z9x features a seemingly dual-camera setup, but only one camera is accessible to users. The 50-megapixel primary camera captures binned 12-megapixel photos with saturated colors and decent detail. However, the photos lack sharpness and often appear soft, even in daylight. Detail quality decreases as the subject or object moves further away, resulting in soft textures and diminished quality in distant scenes. White balance consistency is a concern, leading to inconsistent color rendering from shot to shot. Focussing speed is also slow, even in daylight, contributing to occasional softness in images.
iQoo Z9x Cameras
- Primary Camera: 50MP (f/1.8), AF
- Depth Camera: 2MP (f/2.4)
- Selfie Camera: 8MP (f/2.05), FF
The camera struggles with dynamic range in brighter scenes, showcasing clipped highlights and poorly managed contrast lighting. While the Z9x lacks a dedicated macro camera and mode, it can capture objects up to 10 centimeters away, proving useful for close-up shots.
In Portrait mode, the main camera produces photos with decent detail and edge detection, particularly when sufficient light bathes the subject. However, skin tones lack accuracy, and backgrounds in high-contrast scenes suffer from severe clipping.
Low-light photos exhibit noticeable softness and low detail due to increased noise. The dedicated Night mode exacerbates this problem, delivering blurry pictures with minimal detail.
Selfies captured in daylight are decent at best, lacking the sharpness expected from the camera specifications. The selfie camera also faces issues with bright backgrounds, and low-light images are marred by excessive noise.
The iQoo Z9x offers 4K 30fps video recording only on the 8GB RAM variant. All other variants are limited to 1080p 30fps. This limitation seems a bit restrictive, given its price point. While the 1080p recording appears the best with decent detail and a stable framerate, exhibiting better stability than the 4K footage, which tends to be a bit shaky despite capturing better detail.
iQoo Z9x Review: Verdict
The iQoo Z9x stands out as a strong contender in the budget 5G smartphone market in India. However, it falls slightly short of the Moto G64 5G in some aspects, including price.
The Moto G64 5G is competitively priced at Rs. 13,999 for the 8GB + 128GB variant and offers a 12GB + 128GB variant at Rs. 15,999, the same price as the 8GB iQoo Z9x. The G64 5G also boasts an attractive design, a clean Android 14 experience, and includes a primary camera with optical image stabilization (OIS) and an ultrawide camera.
Samsung’s Galaxy M34 5G, released last year, presents a solid alternative, starting at Rs. 14,999 for the 8GB + 128GB variant. It boasts a 120Hz AMOLED display, runs on Android 14, and offers three rear cameras, including a primary camera with OIS. However, it lacks the budget gaming performance, IP rating, and fast-charging capabilities found in the iQoo Z9x and Moto G64 5G.
The iQoo Z9x shines with its IP64 rating and fast 44W wired charging. If these features are top priorities for you in a budget 5G phone, the Z9x should be high on your list. For a more well-rounded experience, Motorola’s G64 5G and Samsung’s M34 5G offer a compelling package.
