iQOO Z11 hands-on

iQOO today unveiled the iQOO Z11 in India after weeks of promo campaigns. However, the Z11 introduced in India has a design and specs different from the Z11 available in China and Malaysia. We spent some time with the Indian version of the iQOO Z11, and here are our first impressions.

The Indian iQOO Z11 comes in a black retail box, including a transparent protective case, some documents, a SIM ejector tool, a charging cable, and a 44W power adapter.

The Indian iQOO Z11 is built around a 6.83" curved AMOLED display, protected by Schott Xensation Up glass. The panel has a 2,800x1,260-pixel resolution, 449 ppi pixel density, and 3,000 nits local peak brightness. We had no issues reading text under strong sunlight at maximum brightness, but one-handed use may not be possible for everyone given the screen size.

That said, the Z11's display also has Widevine L1 certification - enabling 1080p video streaming in supported apps - and supports HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG codecs.

Furthermore, the Z11's screen supports 30Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz, and 144Hz refresh rates and offers three refresh rate options in the Settings menu: Standard (60Hz), Smart adaptation, and High (144Hz).

When you select High mode, you get an “Apps running at a high refresh rate” option in that menu, which lets you select the apps and games you want to run at 144Hz. In our experience with High mode, the screen refresh rate stayed at 60Hz when viewing images or playing videos and increased to 120Hz when interacting with the display.

Smart adaptation mode is basically High mode, except the maximum refresh rate was 90Hz instead of 120Hz. Standard mode kept everything at 60Hz.

We never saw the display refresh at 30Hz, and iQOO said the 144Hz refresh rate is only for gaming. Clash Royale is currently the only game with 144Hz support on the Z11, but it didn't work on our unit, so we couldn't verify that claim.

However, we played Call of Duty: Mobile, Dead Trigger 2, and Sky Force: Reloaded on the Z11, and only Call of Duty: Mobile ran at 60Hz and 60FPS in Smart adaptation and High modes. We were able to play Dead Trigger 2 and Sky Force: Reloaded at 120Hz and 120FPS in High mode.

It's also worth noting that the iQOO Z11 supports Always-On Display, but it cannot remain always on like the more expensive iQOO 15 and iQOO 15R displays, as the Z11's Display mode is missing the "Scheduled" and "All day" options. You only get two options: "Tap screen or raise" and "Move phone slightly." We asked iQOO whether it plans to add the missing options to the Z11 in a future OTA, but we are yet to receive confirmation.

Moving on, the iQOO Z11's display also has a centered punch-hole for the selfie camera using the 32MP GalaxyCore GC32E1-WA1XA sensor. It has an f/2.0 aperture, an 84° FOV, and can record 4K videos at 30 FPS.

The Z11's display also has an optical fingerprint scanner embedded, which is accurate and worked reliably in the short time we spent with the smartphone. However, given the display size, we'd have liked it placed higher for a more comfortable phone-unlocking experience.

Flip the iQOO Z11 around, and you see a horizontally aligned camera module reminiscent of the one we have seen on some Google Pixel smartphones. iQOO calls this Skyline Design, and it helps prevent the Z11 from wobbling when used on a flat surface.

The camera module houses a primary camera, an ultrawide camera, and a circular flash.

The primary camera uses the 50MP Sony IMX882 sensor. It has an f/1.79 aperture, OIS, and can record 4K@30FPS videos. The ultrawide camera uses the 8MP OmniVision OV08F10-GA5H-001B sensor, sitting behind a lens with an f/2.2 aperture and 115° FOV.

The Indian iQOO Z11 is 7.99mm thick, weighs 199g, and comes in two colors - Aurora Green and Celestial Blue. The subject of this hands-on is the Aurora Green model, which looks blue in certain lighting conditions.

Regardless of the color model you pick, you get the smartphone with a plastic back, leading to a not-so-premium in-hand experience, which is expected considering the price and target audience - college students. On the upside, the back cover does a nice job of resisting fingerprint smudges.

iQOO Z11 Aurora Green model

The Z11's flat plastic frame has a matte finish, with the right frame featuring the power button and volume rocker. At the bottom is the USB-C port, flanked by a microphone, a speaker grille, and a SIM card slot. Up top is the IR blaster along with another speaker outlet and a microphone.

Ports and controls

The Indian iQOO Z11 is powered by MediaTek's Dimensity 7500 Turbo SoC, making it the first smartphone in India to have that chip at the helm. It comes with up to 12GB of LPDDR4X RAM and up to 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage.

Our unit is the top-end model with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage onboard. It runs Android 16-based OriginOS 6 out of the box and comes with the promise of three years of OS upgrades and five years of security updates. iQOO told us the Z11 will receive monthly security updates only for the first two years, then security updates every three months in the third and fourth year, with a security update every six months in the fifth year.

The Z11 comes pre-loaded with nine third-party apps and games, and you can uninstall them if you wish.

The overall software experience on the iQOO Z11's Indian model running OriginOS 6 is similar to what you get from the more expensive iQOO 15 and iQOO 15R running the same OS. We can't say the same about performance, though.

The iQOO Z11 isn't as snappy as the iQOO 15 and iQOO 15R, which is expected considering the chipsets powering it. It also stuttered during everyday use, although not enough to hamper the user experience. We would still like to see performance optimizations from iQOO with future software updates.

The gaming experience on the iQOO Z11 was good enough, and the smartphone remained reasonably cool even after prolonged gaming sessions. But again, don't expect it to match the iQOO 15 or iQOO 15R's gaming experience.

You can check the charts below to see how the iQOO Z11 performed in synthetic benchmarks.

We also have a couple of screenshots showing the iQOO Z11's sustained performance in CPU and GPU stress tests.

CPU test • GPU test

Fueling the iQOO Z11 is a 7,050 mAh battery, which is 1,970 mAh smaller than the Chinese and Malaysian Z11's batteries. Charging speed is slow, too: 44W vs. 90W. On the upside, the Indian Z11 supports all-scenario bypass charging.

iQOO says the Z11's battery can go from 1% to 17% in 10 minutes, 44% in 30 minutes, 50% in 33 minutes, and 100% in 1 hour and 6 minutes with the bundled 44W FlashCharger.

In our testing, the iQOO Z11 charged from 1% to 20% in 15 minutes, 39% in 30 minutes, 50% in 39 minutes, 76% in 1 hour, and 100% in 1 hour and 20 minutes. It took another 5 minutes for the battery full status to appear on the screen. Note that your mileage will likely vary depending on the usage and the ambient temperature when charging the phone.

Other features of the Indian iQOO Z11 include IP68 and IP69 ratings, MIL-STD-810H certification, dual stereo speakers, 3,800 mm² VC cooling area, and wet touch support, which allows the smartphone display to be operated even with wet hands. The smartphone also comes with some AI-powered features, including AI Captions, AI Creation, and AI Transcript Assist.

The iQOO Z11 comes in four memory configurations in India - 6GB/128GB, 8GB/128GB, 8GB/256GB, and 12GB/256GB, priced at INR34,999, INR39,999, INR44,999, and INR49,999, respectively.

The iQOO Z11 will go on sale in India starting August 25 through iQOO's official website, Amazon.in, vivo exclusive stores, and other select retail stores.

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