iQOO Z9x review: An almost textbook-perfect budget 5G smartphone

Designed to look good, built to last longer

One of the few 5G smartphones with a 3.5mm headphone jack (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

The iQOO Z9x’s design reminded me of the company’s flagship iQOO 12 (review), though it’s not as premium. Despite a plastic frame and back panel, it feels solid and is one of the thinnest and lightest smartphones with a 6,000 mAh battery. The plastic back also makes it more durable compared to premium smartphones.

It features a 3.5mm headphone jack, appealing to users transitioning from older budget smartphones. The package includes a transparent case and a charger. Impressively, it has an IP64 rating for water and dust resistance, a feature typically found in high-end smartphones.

A decent display

The display offers a 120Hz refresh rate (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

The 6.72-inch screen on the iQOO Z9x is neither too small nor too big, and offers up to 120Hz refresh rate. As someone who watches a lot of videos and movies on the go, I would have preferred a low refresh rate OLED panel, but that’s a personal preference. The phone comes with a pre-installed screen protector, which effectively guards against everyday scratches from objects like keychains but provides limited protection against accidental falls.

The bezels are slightly uneven, and there is also a blue halo-like effect when the screen is fully white. The punch-hole cutout enhances the modern look and screen-to-body ratio.

As this is an LCD screen, the contrast isn’t great, and this becomes evident while watching videos. Regular users won’t find this much of an issue, but those switching from an OLED screen might see it as a downgrade.

A good-enough camera

The phone has a 50 MP primary sensor (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

The iQOO Z9x has a 50 MP primary camera with an f/1.8 aperture and a 2 MP bokeh sensor. The front houses an 8 MP selfie camera. In my testing, the main camera performed well in daylight, capturing vibrant colours and fine details. Impressively, for a budget smartphone, it supports 4K video recording, though the frame rate is capped at 30fps.

While 50 MP might seem modest compared to some 108 MP sensors, the camera is well-optimised for various conditions.

Here are some samples straight from the iQOO Z9x:

iQOO Z9x camera sample (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

iQOO Z9x camera sample (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

iQOO Z9x camera sample (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

iQOO Z9x camera sample (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

Excellent day-to-day performance

The smartphone is based on the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 SoC (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

The iQOO Z9x, priced around Rs 15,000, offers a solid user experience and impressive battery life. Powered by the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1, it handles everyday tasks like web browsing, social media, and video streaming smoothly, and supports moderate gaming with reduced graphics settings for titles like BGMI and COD: Mobile.

Available in 4/6/8 GB RAM variants with 128 GB storage, the 6 GB RAM model is recommended to avoid multitasking bottlenecks. It has a microSD card slot that allows up to 1 TB of additional storage.

The software experience is what one can expect from an iQOO smartphone. It ships with Android 14 with a bunch of bloatware. iQOO has assured two major Android OS upgrades and three years of security updates.

Its 6,000 mAh battery, coupled with 44W fast charging, ensures all-day use for heavy users and up to two days for moderate users. The fast charger is included in the box.

5G performance

5G download speed is quite low (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

The device supports both SA (standalone) and NSA (non-standalone) 5G networks, and it is compatible with Airtel 5G Plus and Jio True 5G networks.

5G performance on the iQOO Z9x was on the lower side when compared to some devices I tested recently, but the device renders good cellular connectivity, and fast internet speeds with lower latency compared to the 4G network.

The smartphone did not get hot even when I used it as a WiFi hotspot, and I was able to access the internet on my laptop for hours without any interruptions.

A well packaged affordable 5G smartphone

A good budget 5G smartphone (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

The iQOO Z9x is a phone that offers a solid core smartphone performance with exceptional battery life. It helps that it also looks good while being tough.

At less than Rs 13,000, this phone makes for a compelling product for anyone looking for their first 5G smartphone.