iQOO 9 and iQOO 9 Pro get official with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, BMW M versions
Today vivo sub-brand iQOO finally made its latest flagship smartphone duo official, following many weeks of leaks, rumors, and speculation. Both the iQOO 9 and iQOO 9 Pro can be had with BMW M stripes on the back in a special version.
iQOO 9
The 'vanilla' phone comes with a flat screen - a 6.78" 1080x2400 AMOLED panel with 120 Hz refresh rate and 1,500 nit peak brightness, more specifically. On the rear it has Samsung's ISOCELL GN5 1/1.57" sensor for its main 50 MP camera with f/1.75 aperture and OIS, alongside a 13 MP 120-degree ultrawide, and a 12 MP 2x zoom lens. Selfies are taken care of by a 16 MP snapper with f/2.45 aperture.
Running the show is Qualcomm's latest and greatest, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, paired with 8/12GB of RAM and 256/512GB of UFS 3.1 storage. The 4,700 mAh battery charges at 120W, with a promised time from zero to 100% of just 19 minutes. The phone runs OriginOS Ocean based on Android 12.
The iQOO 9 is offered in the three colorways you can see above and starts at CNY 3,999 (approximately $629 or â¬556 at the current exchange rates) with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The next step up keeps the same storage amount but bumps up the RAM to 12GB, and this version can be yours for CNY 4,399 ($692 or â¬611), while the top of the line iteration has 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage for CNY 4,799 ($755 or â¬667).
As you can tell from the currencies used, this was a China-only launch. For now it's unclear when the iQOO 9 will make it to other countries.
iQOO 9 Pro
The Pro model keeps the same screen size of its sibling but makes it curved and hikes the resolution all the way up to 1440x3200. The refresh rate is the same at 120 Hz but this is an LTPO 2.0 panel, which means it should be able to vary it from 1 Hz to 120 Hz dynamically.
The SoC at the helm is unchanged too, as is the main rear camera. However, the ultrawide here is a 50 MP one with a 150-degree field-of-view (which would be record-breaking had the Realme GT 2 Pro not been announced first). As for the tele, that's a 16 MP unit with 2.5x optical zoom. The selfie snapper stays the same though.
Also unchanged is the 4,700 mAh battery with 120W wired charging, but the iQOO 9 Pro also gets 50W wireless charging and 10W reverse wireless charging support. Like its sibling, it too runs OriginOS Ocean based on Android 12. Weirdly enough, the Pro loses one color option and, as you can see, settles for two instead of three.
This model can be yours for CNY 4,999 ($786 or â¬695) with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, CNY 5,499 ($865 or â¬763) with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and finally if you want to go all in for the 12/512GB model you'll have to pay CNY 5,999 ($943 or â¬834). Sales for both devices start in China on January 12.