iQOO 15 Review: Settling the Flagship Debate

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is dominating the smartphone scene at the moment and I'm jumping on every opportunity possible to test these phones out. Now, I have with me the iQOO 15 and boy, does it stand out. Right from the moment I picked up the phone to testing it rigorously, there are quite a few surprises here. So, if you've been waiting for a serious upgrade, don't do so before reading this iQOO review!

iQOO 15 Unboxing

Being the flagship that it is, the iQOO 15 comes with everything right in the box. Alongside the iQOO 15 White Legend Edition that I got my hands on, here's everything else that I got:

With that out of the way, here's a quick rundown of the iQOO 15 specs for your reference:

iQOO 15 Design and Build

Having used the iQOO 12, iQOO 13 and now, the iQOO 15, I can easily attest to the fact that the latest iteration has the best in-hand feel of the lot. Every year, iQOO has been refining the design and the 15 just melts in your hands. Not to mention that the quality of the included case is so good that I mostly kept it on. Even without the case, the phone feels smooth in the hand with those rounded corners and the frosted glass + metal frame is super satisfying to the touch. 

Despite being a heavy boy at 220 grams, the iQOO 15 is surprisingly handy with its excellent weight distribution. However, this is one slippery phone and I would recommend using both hands when using it (can neither confirm nor deny dropping it).

My only complaint is that the volume rockers can sometimes be a little difficult to reach with one hand, although the power button placement is spot on. So, iQOO could have maybe finally placed them on the other side of the frame. However, the buttons themselves are top-tier and are highly tactile.

The camera module placement, as always, is quite ideal and keeps the phone still on a table. This time, however, instead of covering the camera deco with lighting, iQOO sneaked it underneath. While this design choice didn't make sense at first to me, I realised later how much more convenient it is.

Because of this placement, the lighting is more easily noticeable from the sides, right in your viewing angle. With the iQOO 13, the lighting was barely visible in a bright setting. However, the funny thing is, this convenience goes out of the window when you use the case, so there's that. 

The iQOO 15 also sports dual IP ratings, making the phone quite durable, although I didn't have the heart or wallet to test it out. Overall, after having used the OnePlus 15 and Realme GT 8 Pro, the iQOO 15 easily has the best design of the lot. 

iQOO 15 Display Quality

Right out of the box, you wouldn't want to peel off the pre-applied iQOO 15 screen protector, as it's an advanced anti-reflective sheet. Already, this is one bright screen and right out of the box, it's a flashbang. Our Luxmeter recorded an HDR peak brightness of almost 3,000 nits, which is more than the brand's 2,600 nits claim. Due to this, whether I was outdoors or indoors, the display was always plenty visible. 

I always prefer a more vivid colour tuning on my displays and the iQOO 15 was the right amount out of the box. There's also abundant real estate for all ages with that 6.85-inch panel and sleek bezels giving it a modern look. 

It was when I was watching Mahavatar Narasimha on Netflix, I realised how deep the blacks were and blended seamlessly with my dark room at night. No colour bled through and it was just a very immersive experience. I'm someone who always prefers watching content on my monitor, but by the time I realised, I had already watched the movie on the iQOO 15. 

Part of it also has to do with the loud but crystal-clear audio output of the flagship as well. It was good to forget my IEMs for a while and watch content on these speakers. The audio separation is also quite good and didn't ever distract me. 

iQOO 15 Performance Tested

It would be an understatement to say that this is one of the most powerful-feeling phones I have ever used. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is a monster performer and I put it through a lot more than just basic daily tasks. At one point, I had almost 40 apps running in the background and found that almost 65% of those apps resumed from right where I had left them. Even if they did reload, it was instant. 

Parallelly, I had almost a 70 Chrome tabs open, used the sidebar to have floating windows over it all and yet, the iQOO 15 didn't show any signs of slowing down. Believe me, I tried my best. The incredible performance reflects very well in synthetic benchmarks too:

With that out of the way, I decided to take my favourite games out for a spin. From Genshin Impact to CoD Mobile, it plays it all phenomenally well. Those 4D vibrations are spot on and do deliver an immersive experience.

I maxed out all settings on these games and didn't see the phone flinch even once. What's even more surprising is that, while the phone did get slightly hot when running benchmarks (about 42°C), the phone got barely warm even after an hour of gaming (around 38°C).

With that said, here's a quick rundown of the kind of settings I got in games with the iQOO 15:

iQOO 15 Software and Updates

With Funtouch OS out of the picture and OriginOS 6 headlining the experience, it's easily one of my favourite skins out there. What once felt dated and bland is now one of the most interesting and aesthetic Android skins out there. Right from the setup process, you start appreciating the modernity of it all. 

There's that Liquid Glass-inspired aesthetic, which looks so great. It's not overdone and offers just the right bit of transparency wherever it has embraced the UI, from the notification and quick settings panel to the lock screen and beyond. 

Not to mention that the animations are incredible and instant now. Every app opening and closing is consistently more satisfying than ever. The recent apps section has been moved to a stacked look by default, but you have the option to go back to the older version (but why would you do that).

Additionally, the volume slider has haptic integration now and that entire panel has shrunk to look sleeker. There's also a new Dynamic Island-inspired Origin Island now, which is seamless and lets you access every status information from music controls to calls. However, it takes intuitiveness to the next level by also acting as a hub for you to drag and drop content to copy and paste it to certain apps. Notifications no longer look cluttered and are now neatly grouped.

Then come the tons of new lockscreen styles and Flip Cards. It took me back to 3D posters and stickers that could flaunt my favourite Pokémon by simply tilting them at a different angle. Flip Cards have that exact effect and it lets you shift up to four images upon tilting. Cool, right? 

With OriginOS 6, I was also able to add a custom emoji or text as my fingerprint sensor logo. Serves no purpose but breaks the coolness factor yet again. 

Yes, there are bugs and sometimes accessing the Settings panel from the quick settings panel responded a bit late and at other times, there were very minor stutters in the UI. However, in the grander scheme of things, this is a massive improvement over the barebones Funtouch OS and I applaud Vivo for it.

iQOO 15 Camera Tested

The iQOO 15 is a little more capable at optics than its predecessor. In daylight, the main sensor delivers striking details and a balanced exposure. It handles challenging lighting like overcast skies easily, controlling highlights well and letting shadows retain depth rather than being crushed. Colours come across richer but realistic enough not to feel like a saturated mess.

The ultra-wide lens keeps pace impressively and there's little to no distortion. The dynamic range is also quite strong and colour matching with the main sensor is tight. That said, when the lighting dips, some noise creeps in around the edges. 

Where the iQOO 15 really impresses is in its zoom game. The 3x periscope doesn't feel like a gimmick and it produces genuinely useful shots. Although the phone supports up to 100x digital zoom, the sweet spot for clarity lies around 20 to 30x. Thanks to the IMX882 sensor, even far-off subjects show good texture and sharpness. However, I did notice that the focus distance is relatively long and if you get too close to the subject, the phone falls back to cropping from the main sensor. 

Portrait mode is well executed too, particularly when using the 3x periscope. The subject-background separation is strong and there's a very clean bokeh all around. However, I did notice that the colour tuning for skin tones is slightly off. Sometimes it's saturated, while other times it can surprise you with strange results (see shots below).

Low-light performance is a pleasant surprise, thanks to OIS and good image processing. The iQOO 15 produces low-light shots that maintain texture and not too much noise. In very dim conditions, the phone takes a bit longer to process but the end results have always been detailed and clean with well-managed highlights and good tonal balance. 

At the front, the 32 MP selfie camera is a bit of an inconsistent shooter. In scenes with strong backlight, it preserves facial details without flattening or washing out the background. Other times, selfies could come out washed out with strange colour tuning. As you can see in the below shots, I'm definitely appearing oddly "reddish". There's definitely some optimisation required here.

That said, the iQOO 15's cameras are a surprisingly complete package for a performance-first phone. It may not outshine the more camera-obsessed flagships but it closes the gap considerably. 

iQOO 15 Battery and Charging

The iQOO 15's colossal 7,000mAh battery is not just for show and delivers what I had expected from it. As a tech journalist at Beebom Gadgets, I'm always scrolling through X, Feedly and multiple websites/apps to stay on top of the latest trends. I'm an aggressive texter as well, spending a lot of time texting on Instagram and WhatsApp.

Meanwhile, there's music running on Spotify throughout and I barely take my IEMs off. Sprinkle a few mean 2 hours of CoD Mobile and that's my daily usage. I charged the phone to 100% on day 1 in the morning and it comfortably lasted throughout the day with a residual 25-30% of battery still left to take over to the next day.

I ran some benchmarks with the remaining juice I had and in terms of screen-on-time, with all that usage and gaming, I got at least 6.5 hours of SoT. An average user can easily manage around 9-10 hours of SoT.

However, charging was never a pain point, thanks to that beefy 100W speed and it easily topped me off from 0-100% in about half an hour. This is one combination that I started missing heavily once the phone was gone.

Bottom line: Should you buy the iQOO 15?

The iQOO 15 isn't just another Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 phone but is the one that finally brings the complete package. With top-tier performance, a beautifully refined design, a seriously stellar display, dependable cameras and battery life that just doesn't give up, this is iQOO at its peak. It may not be the absolute best camera phone in the segment, but as an all-rounder, it's one of 2025's most compelling upgrades. And, in all honesty, the iQOO 15 is my favourite and most complete Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 phone so far.