The iQOO Z9s Pro is the successor of last year’s iQOO Z7 Pro (review), and the manufacturer skipped a generation when naming the device, as seen with other Z-series models released this year. In India, the iQOO Z9s Pro starts at Rs 24,999 for the 8GB RAM and 128GB storage model. In this article, we’ll check out why you should and shouldn’t buy the iQOO Z9s Pro.
4 reasons to buy the iQOO Z9s Pro
Reliable build, fantastic display
The iQOO Z9s Pro has a prominent black square camera module with rounded corners and a chrome finish. Even with the plastic variant, the phone feels sturdy and comfortable to hold. The phone is IP64 certified for water and dust resistance. However, its glossy finish makes it slightly slippery.
The iQOO Z9s Pro has a 6.77-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, FHD+ resolution, and HDR10+ support. The display stands out with a peak brightness of 4,500 nits, ensuring excellent visibility outdoors, and offers vibrant colours with customisable settings. It also performs well in terms of viewing angles and touch accuracy, even when wet.
Remarkable performance
The iQOO Z9s Pro draws power from the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 SoC, paired with up to 12GB RAM and 256GB of storage. It achieved an impressive AnTuTu score of 8,03,223, with Geekbench scores of 1,131 in the single-core test and 3,074 in the multi-core test. In real-world usage, the phone offers smooth scrolling and multitasking and handles graphically demanding games like BGMI, Call of Duty, and Real Racing 3 with ease, even in high settings.
While playing BGMI in Ultra HDR graphics and Ultra frame rate settings, the phone maintained an average frame rate of 36.75. The device also features a 30 cm² VC Liquid Cooling system to keep it from overheating, along with an AI Game Voice changer, motion control, and 4D game vibration for an immersive gaming experience.
Impressive cameras
The iQOO Z9s Pro features a dual-rear camera setup, including a 50MP Sony IMX882 OIS primary sensor and an 8MP ultrawide lens. The cameras perform impressively across various conditions, with quick focus and shutter speeds. Check out our detailed iQOO Z9s Pro review to learn about its camera performance.
In summary, the camera captures detailed images with vivid, vibrant colours and an impressive dynamic range in daylight. The ultrawide lens also produces contrast-rich images with vivid colours. The iQOO Z9s Pro excels in portrait photography, offering superior facial details, accurate edge detection, and nearly accurate skin tones.
Capable battery backup, charging speed
The iQOO Z9s Pro, with its 5,500mAh battery capacity, performed exceptionally well in battery tests, lasting 14 hours and 22 minutes in the PCMark test. The phone can easily last a full day with moderate to heavy use. In a 30-minute YouTube video playback test, it consumed just 3 percent of battery life.
When gaming for 30 minutes each on BGMI, Call of Duty, and Real Racing 3, the battery level dropped by an average of 7 percent. Moreover, the device can be quickly recharged using the included 80W charger, which charged the battery from 20 percent to 100 percent in just 39 minutes during our testing.
2 reasons to skip the iQOO Z9s Pro
Underwhelming front camera
The first reason why you should skip the iQOO Z9s Pro is its underwhelming front camera. The iQOO Z9s Pro has a 16MP camera for selfies and video calls at the front. However, the selfie snapper needs improvement as It tends to smooth out facial details and make skin tones look darker than they are.
Bloatware
Another reason to skip the iQOO Z9s Pro is its overall software experience. It comes with Android 14-based FunTouchOS 14. While the software is fairly optimized, it comes with a cluttered app drawer that includes 47 pre-installed apps, seven of which are third-party. These third-party apps are popular and can be uninstalled if not needed, but the overall software experience may still feel cluttered due to the large number of pre-installed apps.
