In November last year, the iQOO 12 series was launched in China, featuring the iQOO 12 & iQOO 12 Pro with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SOC. The iQOO 12 was launched in the Indian market in December for a starting price of ₹52,999. Today, the iQOO 13 was launched in China with the all-new Snapdragon 8 Elite SOC, and the starting price is the same as its predecessor, which is quite impressive.
Speaking of the design, the iQOO 13 doesn’t look much different from its predecessor. There is a similar camera module in the top left corner, but the LED flash is now placed inside the camera module. This is also a “Ring” LED flash.
The frame is flat, as is the display on the front. The phone is IP69/68-certified and has stereo speakers.
One design change this year is the RGB light in the camera module that supports 12 color combinations and up to 72 light effects. This can also work as a notification light for things like calls, music, charging, and more.
The display is a 6.82-inch Quad-HD+ 8T LTPO panel with up to 144Hz refresh rate and 1800 nits global peak brightness. The new BOE Q10 panel offers up to 10% lower power consumption and supports up to 2592Hz PWM dimming. One of the biggest upgrades this year is the battery size. Compared to the 5,000mAh battery inside the iQOO 12, the iQOO 13 has a large 6,150mAh battery. The battery uses a third-generation silicon anode technology, and even with such a large battery, the phone is just 7.99mm thick, even slimmer than iQOO 12. As for the charging speeds, the iQOO 13 supports 120W fast wired charging.
Under the hood, the phone has the all-new Snapdragon 8 Elite SOC, built on the TSMC’s 3nm process. There is LPDDR5X “Ultra” RAM and UFS 4.0 storage. For better thermals, there is a new cooling system that has a large 7,000mm² vapor chamber, 17% larger than the previous generation.
Speaking of cameras, the iQOO 13 has a triple camera setup on the rear. The primary camera uses a 1/1.56″ 50MP Sony IMX921 sensor with OIS and an f/1.88 lens. The ultrawide camera has a 1/2.76″ 50MP Samsung JN1 sensor, and the telephoto camera has a 1/2.93″ 50MP Sony IMX816 sensor with OIS. The telephoto camera offers 2x optical zoom and up to 4x lossless zoom. For selfies, there is a 32MP sensor.
Finally, the phone runs on OriginOS 5 out of the box in China.
iQOO 13 comes in four colors, and here is the pricing –
- 12GB + 256GB – ¥3999 (~$560)
- 16GB + 256GB – ¥4299 (~$600)
- 12GB + 512GB – ¥4499 (~$630)
- 16GB + 512GB – ¥4699 (~$660)
- 16GB + 1TB – ¥5199 (~$730)