After placing out its flagship smartphone in late 2025, iQOO has added an ‘R’ mannequin to the lineup. The iQOO 15R is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 SoC, which is positioned slightly below the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset in Qualcomm’s hierarchy of cellular processors. Its AMOLED show refreshes at 144Hz and may attain a peak brightness of 5,000 nits. Under the hood, the smartphone packs an enormous 7,600mAh Si/C battery pack. Priced just below Rs 45,000, this smartphone calls for the ‘flagship killer’ title. Of course, it makes some tradeoffs to maintain its price in verify, the most notable one being the lack of a telephoto lens in the rear digicam array. We used the system for every week to seek out out if it may well tackle the heavyweights. Here is our evaluation of the iQOO 15R.
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iQOO 15R Review: Design and Display
Before we speak about the iQOO 15R’s design, let’s check out what you get inside its retail field:
- Smartphone
- 100W energy adapter
- USB-C to USB-C cable
- Clear plastic case
- SIM ejector
- Warranty card
The iQOO 15R retains the fundamental kind issue of its flagship sibling (our evaluation right here). Its flat glass again panel has a easy end that exudes a pleasant in-hand really feel. It doesn’t register smudges and fingerprints simply. The chequered sample on the ‘Triumph Silver’ color scheme shines when gentle falls on it. We like the dose of persona it injects into the system, however of us who discover it garish can go for the muted ‘Dark Knight’ color variant. The sq. digicam island has rounded corners. The LED flash is positioned simply exterior this island.
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The aluminium body brings energy and sturdiness to the system. It homes the quantity rocker and the facet key on its proper edge. The SIM tray, microphone, USB-C port, and first speaker grille are positioned at the backside. Up prime lie the secondary speaker and the noise-cancelling microphone. The smartphone is rated IP68/IP69 for mud and water resistance. It can stand up to being submerged as much as 1.5 metres in water for as much as half-hour.
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The good 6.59-inch AMOLED show leaves no room for complaints. It has a 144Hz refresh price and may attain a peak brightness of 5,000 nits. It was simply capable of overcome the shiny pure gentle falling on it in sunny out of doors situations to take care of wonderful legibility. The smoothness and fluidity of the show are on par with a few of the finest flagship telephones on the market. The presence of the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor is the cherry on the cake. It is good to see iQOO go all out on this entrance, when most producers accept an optical unit.
During the evaluation interval, we used the iQOO 15R as our main media streaming system, viewing content material throughout OTT platforms like Netflix, JioHotstar, and Prime Video. The 1.5K AMOLED show curated a tremendous viewing expertise, with the signature deep blacks and thrilling distinction bringing each body to life. The slim and uniform bezels round the show made certain there have been no distractions whereas watching motion pictures and TV exhibits. The stereo speaker setup produces a great audio output, however we’d have most well-liked a barely stronger low finish.
iQOO 15R Review: Performance and Cameras
A tenacious processor is what separates a ‘flagship killer’ from its higher midrange counterparts. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 SoC beneath the hood of the iQOO 15 fingers it the energy that not many telephones in its price bracket can boast about. But it doesn’t cease there. Accompanying Qualcomm’s formidable chipset on this system is iQOO’s in-house Supercomputing Chip Q2.
The smartphone is available in 3 RAM (LPDDR5X Ultra) and storage (UFS 4.1) variants:
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- 8GB + 256GB: Rs 44,999
- 12GB + 256GB: Rs 47,999
- 12GB + 512GB: Rs 52,999
We ran a few benchmark checks on this system. Here is the way it carried out:
- AnTuTu 3D: 3,142,884
- Geekbench 6: 2,810 (single-core) | 9,138 (multi-core)
The iQOO 15R doesn’t depart you hanging for energy beneath any circumstance. It goes by means of routine duties like calling, on the spot messaging, net searching, media streaming, and GPS navigation like a sizzling knife by means of butter. Equipped with UFS 4.1 storage, the smartphone wastes no time in opening apps. The LPDDR5X Ultra RAM juggles a dozen apps prefer it’s nothing. In on a regular basis use, the smartphone barely will get out of first gear. You get a style of its potential while you perform demanding duties like picture and video enhancing.
Speaking of demanding duties, the iQOO 15R can run gaming titles like Call of Duty Mobile and BGMI at their highest settings. The Supercomputing Chip Q2 delivers clear graphics and interpolates the body price to 144fps. These settings may be accessed from the recreation bar. However, the body price in the native settings in gaming titles peaks at 90fps. This isn’t a giant disadvantage, quite an fascinating element. The 6500 mm² VC cooling system does an honest job of dissipating the warmth generated by the system. We felt slight heat on the again panel after the 20-minute mark, but it surely didn’t end in any undesirable body drops. The gameplay remained easy and constant all through.
Software duties on this system are dealt with by the Android 16-based OriginOS 6 out of the field. It has been promised 4 main OS upgrades and 6 years of safety patches. Apart from a few bloatware apps, the software program expertise supplied by OriginOS 6 on this system could be very clear. The OS is correctly optimised for a easy searching expertise. The catchy app opening/closing animations and sliding web page/panel results make the expertise much more pleasant.
There are loads of customisation choices accessible for the lockscreen and homepage. Our favorite is the ‘Flip card’ simulation, which provides a bit movement impact to the lockscreen wallpaper upon gently tilting the cellphone. We additionally like that the smartphone provides an enormous library of native AOD faces. On prime of that, you may customise parts like the fingerprint icon, charging animation, lighting results, and extra.
OriginOS 6’s AI suite isn’t the most complete one on the market, but it surely consists of the fundamental instruments that one wants for on a regular basis duties. The native picture editor has AI instruments to take away undesirable objects, enhance particulars, alter colors, and increase the picture. The Smart Sidebar provides you fast entry to the AI caption generator and display translator. Additionally, you get Google’s Circle to Search and Gemini Assistant.
The 7,600mAh battery beneath the hood of this smartphone is bigger than the one on its flagship counterpart. You can push the system to its limits without exhausting the battery at the finish of the day. If you restrict your self to routine duties, you will get 2 days of battery life on a single cost. With a mean display time of 4-5 hours, we have been left with ~30% cost in the tank at the finish of every day. The 100W energy adapter offered in the field took just below an hour to completely cost the cellphone.
Moving on, iQOO 15R’s rear digicam island homes a 50MP Sony LYT-700V main shooter and an 8MP ultrawide lens. The lack of a telephoto lens is an affordable tradeoff, particularly for the power-enthusiast demographic for this cellphone. The punch-hole cutout on the show homes a 32MP front-facing digicam. The major and selfie cameras can report 4K footage at 30 and 60fps. Meanwhile, the recording chops of the ultrawide lens are restricted to 1,080p decision at 30fps.
The 50MP main shooter takes detailed and tasteful pictures in out of doors daylight situations. The photos sport balanced colors and exude a pure look. We like that the smartphone doesn’t overprocess the photos. The distinction and dynamic vary depart no room for complaints both. In restricted lighting situations, the major digicam depends on Night Mode to do away with the grain and assign acceptable colors to the photos.
Images taken from the 8MP ultrawide lens are a bit cooler in comparison with the ones taken from the major digicam. The tonal shift isn’t a giant situation for us, particularly when you think about that the photos nonetheless handle to pack lots of element. The ultrawide pictures don’t seem smooth by any stretch of the creativeness. However, in restricted lighting situations, some grain creeps into the photos, however they’re nonetheless satisfactory.
Portrait pictures taken by the iQOO 15R are vibrant and well-focused. The native digicam app provides 3 focal size choices for portraits – 23mm, 35mm, and 50mm. This helps you to take a step again and incorporate extra of the background into the shot. The digicam does a great job of detecting the topic’s boundaries. However, the background blur impact leaves extra to be desired. A extra intense blur would’ve been splendid. If you’re searching for DSLR-like pictures, there are different camera-centric telephones on this section for you. Lastly, the 32MP front-facing digicam takes clear and detailed selfies without making use of over-the-top texture and tone correction results.
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Verdict
The iQOO 15R is a cracking deal for gaming lovers and energy customers who need a system that may crush any activity that’s thrown its method. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 has confirmed itself to be a colossal processor that’s solely bested by Qualcomm’s flagship chipset. To sweeten the deal, iQOO has geared up its flagship killer with top-of-the-line {hardware}. The 1.5K AMOLED show holds up effectively in shiny out of doors situations, whereas the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor beneath this panel outperforms its optical counterparts by a protracted shot. The 7,600mAh battery pack can final for as much as 2 days on a full cost.
Granted, the digicam island could be higher off with a telephoto lens in it, however the main and ultrawide shooters do a fantastic job in quite a lot of lighting situations. The portraits depart extra to be desired, however it’s a honest tradeoff for extra energy. If you’re a pictures fanatic, we’d suggest the V70 from iQOO’s sister model, Vivo.
Buy on Amazon for Rs 44,998
Pros
- Bright show
- Powerful processor
- Big battery
- Good major digicam
- Ultrasonic fingerprint sensor
