Smart Android And Trik-Commenting on Andorid indeed never endless, because smart devices this one is often updated every certain amount of time. So that the market can always be garapnya menerinya with pleasure. And it is not denied if this device has become the lifestyle of each society. To not wonder if the 6th business information and many are turning to mobail smartphone. With Android which thoroughly dominated the mobile industry, choosing the best Android smartphone is almost identical to choose the best smartphone, period. But while Android phones have few real opponents on other platforms, internal competition is intense.
Introduction
Vivo's sub-brand iQOO is mainly known for its gaming-oriented phones, but with the Z-series, the company wants to appeal to a different audience - the Gen-Z. That's why the series is called iQOO Z.
We have the iQOO Z3 in our hands - a toned-down version of the IQOO Z3 Pro. The duo was already announced in China back in April, but the vanilla Z3 is the only one that is available internationally.
The OEM says that it wants to distance itself from the gaming label with the Z-series, and we should be assessing the Z3 as a whole package - a fairly capable all-rounder with aggressive pricing. It's also one of the first Snapdragon 768G-powered devices - it's a potent chipset, and we are talking from experience.
vivo iQOO Z3 specs at a glance:
- Body: 164.0x75.3x8.5mm, 186g; Panda Glass on the front, plastic back and frame.
- Display: 6.58" IPS LCD, HDR10, 120Hz, 1080x2408px resolution, 20.07:9 aspect ratio, 401ppi.
- Chipset: Qualcomm SDM768 Snapdragon 768G 5G (7 nm): Octa-core (1x2.8 GHz Kryo 475 Prime & 1x2.4 GHz Kryo 475 Gold & 6x1.8 GHz Kryo 475 Silver); Adreno 620.
- Memory: 128GB 6GB RAM, 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM; UFS 2.2; microSDXC (uses shared SIM slot).
- OS/Software: Android 11, Funtouch 11.1 (International), OriginOS 1.0 for iQOO (China).
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 64 MP, f/1.8, 26mm, 1/1.97", 0.7µm, PDAF; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.2, 120˚, 16mm, 1/4.0", 1.12µm; Macro: 2 MP, f/2.4.
- Front camera: 16 MP, f/2.0, (wide).
- Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps, gyro-EIS; Front camera: 1080p@30fps.
- Battery: 4400mAh; Fast charging 55W.
- Misc: Fingerprint reader (side-mounted); 3.5mm jack.
Paired with 6GB/128GB memory in the base model and running a 6.58-inch 120Hz display (although IPS), and supporting 55W charging, the iQOO Z3 sounds like a good bargain at INR 19,999 starting price. Not to mention that this is one of the few 5G-capable devices in its class, and vivo is betting big on that, relying on customer research.
And if you are lucky enough, you can get the Cyber Blue variant with a frosted glass-like finish. We can definitely see iQOO's apparent attempt to appeal to the Gen-Z audience. In case you need something less flashy, the more orthodox Ace Black and Silver colors are available for you.
Now let's take a deeper dive into the Z3 and see how it fares against the competition, too.
Design and handling
it'S not only about the looks, the phone has to feel nice in the hand. And the iQOO Z3 is kind of a mixed bag when it comes to build and handling. Since it's entirely made of plastic, it may not appeal to some. Sure, not all rivals are built out of glass, like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro, but we didn't find the Z3's finish very convincing. Vivo was perhaps going for the frosted glass-like finish and didn't exactly nailed it. We are not saying the plastic feels cheap but you can definitely tell.
The side frame is also made of plastic while the front panel is protected by Panda Glass, as opposed to the more popular Gorilla Glass solution. We can't really tell you if this is better or not as we haven't done a crash test.
On the bright side, the overall feel of the iQOO Z3 is sturdy, yet lightweight. The frame doesn't creak or bend and the chassis lies well-balanced in the hand. It's just 185g after all and isn't all that thick either, measuring 8.5mm without the camera bump.
Also, the Cyber Blue color does look awesome. Subtly changes color depending on the angle while the gradient itself looks super smooth.
From usability standpoint, the handset should have gotten a slightly curvier back but still doesn't feel as a burden in the hand. Binging TV shows or playing games is comfortable and doesn't take a toll on your palms. Mostly due to the lightweight design, though.
The camera bump is big enough to cause some wobbling when you place the device on its back, slapping the bundled case fixes that. The design of the bump, which is one of the few distinctive features in today's handsets, is in line with vivo's other phones.
We rate highly the usability of the buttons placed on the side too. They are just within thumb's reach, the power button that doubles as a fingerprint reader is easy to "feel" too. We are quite happy with the performance too - fast, accurate, reliable.
All in all, we don't have any major complaints about the build, it's just that there might be some better options build-wise. If you are in for the dazzling Cyber Blue color, though, we would understand.
Hardware overview
One of the key selling points of the Z3 is the 5G connectivity. Rocking a capable Snapdragon 768G is admirable enough so the 5G modem is just a bonus. After all, 5G deployment in India, as well as most parts of the world, is rather slow so not many people would benefit from the next-generation network. Even though vivo says this is the most sought after feature these days, hence why the opted for such chipset and name.
The Snapdragon 778G is still a capable midranger based on the 7nm manufacturing process and taking advantage of ARM's DynamIQ architecture, meaning it has a big, higher clocked core doing the hardcore number crunching in addition the the usual ones you'd find in a typical mid-range SoC. The CPU is still octa-core, though.
India gets almost all memory variants excluding the beefiest possible version - 12GB/256GB. So you can choose between 6GB/128GB, 8GB/128GB and 8GB/256GB. No matter which one you choose, you can expand the storage with a microSD card, which uses a shared SIM slot.
The display is another highlight feature as it features a 1080 x 2408px resolution and runs those pixels at 120Hz. It all fits in a 6.58-inch diagonal. This may not sound like a big issue for some, quite the opposite actually, if we can trust the comment section, but the Z3 uses a standard IPS LCD panel instead of OLED, which has become a standard in the mid-range segment in recent years. There's also a teardrop notch on the top and we really thought this design has been phased out. Punch-hole cutouts are the new thing.
On the other hand, you get some bonus features such as HDR10, HLG codecs support and the handset is Widevine L1 compliant so you can watch 1080p movies on Netflix and Amazon Prime.
The bundled 55W charger is supposed to get 50% of the charge in just 19 minutes while a full one would take 50 minutes. Given the 4,400 mAh battery, that's pretty fast. However, our testing shows 55 minutes to a full charge so there might have been some thermal throttling along the way. Still quite fast, though. Speaking of the battery, we found that it easily gets us through the day at 120Hz refresh rate and Wi-Fi most of the time.
The camera setup is lead by Samsung's budget ISOCELL GW3 64MP sensor. We say budget because it's relatively smaller than the more common 64MP, 1/1.72" units with 0.87µm pixels. This one has smaller 0.7µm pixels and measures 1/1.97" in size. The sensor is paired with f/1.8 aperture while the 8MP ultrawide gets a smaller f/2.2 opening, though with rather wide field of view - 120˚. The usual 2MP, f/2.4 macro camera is around too. And as for selfies, a 16MP, f/2.0 shooter sits inside the notch.
Performance
The Snapdragon 778G has been in our office so we know what to expect. The benchmark results seem just about within the normal margin of error. From day-to-day usability standpoint, the Z3 held up pretty well and handles those 120Hz animations with ease. Everything is smooth and snappy.
GeekBench 5 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Poco X3 Pro
2574 - vivo iQOO Z3 5G
2055 - Motorola Edge
1862 - OnePlus Nord CE 5G
1812 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
1780
GeekBench 5 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Poco X3 Pro
735 - vivo iQOO Z3 5G
721 - OnePlus Nord CE 5G
641
586
569
AnTuTu 8
Higher is better
- Poco X3 Pro
453223 - vivo iQOO Z3 5G
372800 - OnePlus Nord CE 5G
318672 - Motorola Edge
305989 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
295442
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
- Poco X3 Pro
45 - vivo iQOO Z3 5G
25 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
19 - Motorola Edge
19 - OnePlus Nord CE 5G
19
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Poco X3 Pro
38 - vivo iQOO Z3 5G
21 - Motorola Edge
18 - OnePlus Nord CE 5G
17 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
16
3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)
Higher is better
- Poco X3 Pro
3401 - vivo iQOO Z3 5G
1954 - OnePlus Nord CE 5G
1103
We even had long gaming session on Call of Duty Mobile with no issues whatsoever. The phone didn't get uncomfortably warm. However, none of the games we've tried ran at 120Hz - they were locked at 60fps, including CoD.
Software
Unlike its Chinese counterpart, the international iQOO Z3 runs on Funtouch 11.1 based on Android 11 instead of vivo's newer OriginOS. Vivo promises two years of software updates and three years of Google's security patches. Anyway, the OS isn't any different from what we've seen so far from vivo's handsets. It's aiming for simpler design, less clutter. Still, we found some third-party apps like Netflix, Snapchat , Facebook, etc. Most of those can be uninstalled except Netflix.
Home screen, notification shade, app drawer, recent apps
The Extended RAM feature is available, which allocates some of your storage space for extra RAM. This one adds 1GB of extra RAM on the base 6GB model and 4GB on the 8GB variant.
Main Settings menu
We are pleasantly surprised by the variety of HRR options. You get 60, 90, 120Hz and, of course, Smart switch. The latter doubles down to 60Hz when you are not touching the screen and also keeps it there for the gallery and apps like YouTube and Netflix. In some rare cases, there are incompatibility issues with some apps such as Quora and Twitter, for example, but the most commonly used ones ran at 120Hz. To our surprise, forcing the HRR at 120Hz made sure everything was at 120Hz.
Camera
We took a couple of samples with the main and ultrawide cameras, so you can decide on your own how well the device fares. Interestingly enough, you can't force the HDR mode - it can only be switched off or set to auto.
Camera samples: Main • Ultrawide • Main • Ultrawide
A couple of snaps with the full 64MP resolution too.
64MP main camera samples
Early verdict
Despite its aggressive pricing, the iQOO Z3 5G has some tough competition to face. We've got the considerably cheaper Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro and the Xiaomi Poco X3 Pro - both very capable and powerful midrangers. However, they are also both missing the 5G modem, which the iQOO Z3 uses as a staple.
So if you are after some future-proofing and want to be one of the first to benefit from the developing 5G network, the Z3 seems like a nice bargain as a whole package. But if you are looking for your best bang for the buck, you should probably look for it elsewhere.
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