I have had the iQOO 13 in Ace Green since the past 2 months....

...and it's been an experience, in many good ways (and some not so much!)

Despite having an objectively superior phone (in the OnePlus 13), I found myself returning to the iQOO 13 again and again.

It's because something clicked well, and today, I hope this review shows what I mean. 

(The proper detailed review will follow on my Twitter account on either the 19th or 20th September: this is a shorter Community-exclusive version.)

Design & Build 

While it is becoming generic, very few phones emulate iQOO's camera island elegantly, in my opinion, and this one even looks the worth thanks to the Monster Halo Light (more on this later). 

I like this design a lot, and it looks quite minimal too without any unnecessary text.

🛡️ The build feels very premium, with a proper flat design (encompassing an aluminium frame and a glossy glass panel), and IP68/IP69 rating for assurance.

Two (opinionated & subjective) design flaws:

1️⃣ I am personally not a huge fan of completely flat design. The frame's edges feel a bit sharp & uncomfortable.

2️⃣ The Green color looks very good, but I wish it had a matte finish. The glossy finish attracts a lot of fingerprints, which is not ideal.

(The Legend White still remains my favorite color of the iQOO 13, personally.)

Display

This is one of the highlights: not because of the 144 Hz refresh rate in gaming, but because of how sorted it is.

A 6.78-inch OLED panel, with:

✅ 1440p (2K) resolution 

✅ 1800 nits HBM (amazing!)

✅ LTPO with 1-120 Hz variables refresh rate in normal use

✅ 2160 Hz PWM dimming 

✅ Netflix HDR and HDR10 support

🤤 As expected, the display is very sharp and very bright, with excellent PWM dimming. The bezels are very slim and scream that it is a premium display indeed.

❌ However, the sole issue is with display colors. The default Standard display color profile feels very oversaturated and too warm.

Switching to the Professional display color profile with cooler tones fixes this but it is not ideal. I hope the iQOO 15 brings Natural display colors.

Audio & Haptics 

The phone has dual stereo speakers, and they sound quite loud and sufficient. However, I hope that the iQOO 15 incorporates better bass & depth in its speaker tuning.

👍 The earpiece + mics work well, and proximity sensor has no issues.

😋 The haptics, however, are easily AMONG THE BEST I have EVER TESTED on ANY phone. They are crisp, they are precise, they are tight, and they are lovely to use. PERIOD.

Performance & Gaming

This is where this phone shines the brightest.

As expected from a Snapdragon 8 Elite device: everything in the UI just flies with no hiccups or jitter whatsoever, even in the heaviest of tasks, let alone normal usage.

However, when I went to check the gaming performance, I was ABSOLUTELY SHOCKED.

See, I play a lot of Genshin Impact, and I also have access to the OnePlus 13, which does great at gaming in itself but tends to heat up very quickly to beyond 42 to 43°C.

So imagine my surprise when despite a prolonged 45+ minutes session in the current heaviest parts of Genshin Impact, on the highest settings (Natlan and Fontaine Underwater), THE PHONE DID NOT EVEN CROSS 40°C 🤯 

So not only does the iQOO 13 deliver stable gaming performance, it also delivers this without such massive temperature gain & massive power draw (unlike my OnePlus 13).

This is now my default phone for gaming (atleast until I still have it).

BGMI and Wuthering Waves also perform very well, with no major complaints.

(NOTE: BGMI, Wuthering Waves and updated Genshin stats taken on NodKrai will come in my detailed Twitter review next week.)

Battery & Charging

The phone supports 120W wired charging, with a USB-C PD charger in the box. No wireless charging support is a bummer though. 

Until I have this phone, this bundled charger is the only one I carry in my backpack: it fast charges my OnePlus 13 and Xiaomi Pad 6 just as well as the iQOO (thanks to 65W PD).

The battery life is amazing. I can squeeze the 6000 mAh cell here for easy 9+ hrs of SoT on normal non-gaming use on 5G.

If I add 45 minutes of Genshin Impact, I still get a respectable ~7 hrs 45 mins of SoT.

The battery life is the real reason I keep coming back to this phone, because my OnePlus 13 simply cannot pull such numbers: despite a 6000 mAh battery + 8 Elite in itself, that phone only gives me 7.5 hrs of SoT max with non-gaming use. 

Miscellaneous 

✅ NFC is present and accounted for, and I even use it as an access keycard to my room in the house. It's actually the 360° type which is appreciated. 

✅ No network issues at all. In fact, it is nearly flawless on Airtel's 5G network in Delhi/NCR.

✅ I loved the Monster Halo Light: while it seemed like a gimmick at first, it came in very handy on a daily basis for notifications, calls and charging status (since I put my phones the screen-side down anyways)

Software 

Enough has been said about FuntouchOS, and this is still the weakest link for iQOO's phones as a whole.

PROS: It is smooth, fluid and with no jitters or stutters; it has a lot of features in the camera app; Many lockscreen and animation customisations that I enjoy using, and everything just works in a mostly practical manner; the Gaming Mode is also very good; great for multitasking.

CONS: Lags behind in UI design, and has a lot of inconsistencies (Examples: uneven spacing in status bar icons; the Classic font doesn't adapt well to many apps; and cannot disable and remove icons of V-Appstore, Browser completely, cannot disable Jovi Home completely).

While there are major changes planned for iQOO's software with Android 16, only time will tell if those pan out well.

For now, FuntouchOS is the biggest con of the iQOO 13, hands down. While I (& most other people too) can use it just fine, I can't help but feel that a premium phone like this deserves much better software.

Cameras

The main Sony IMX921 sensor takes good photos, be it daylight or low-light. The Vivid profile has a saturated color science, but you can mostly rectify it by going for the Natural color science.

I loved using the Street Photography Mode, which is now one of my favourites, and the Ultrawide actually performs well (given the 1/2.76" sensor behind it).

However, the 2x telephoto with a 1/2.93" sensor is controversial, and it indeed is a downgrade over what the iQOO 12 had (a 3x 1/2" Periscope). 

Hence, the phone is poor at long-range zoom shots. Anything beyond 4x becomes an oil painting in most situations, and the lack of OIS on the zoom lens means that night shots from it also suffer.

That doesn't mean that I absolutely didn't use the 2x: it did very good in portraits (skin tone brightening can sometimes become an issue) and upto 4x shots in good lighting, but that's about it.

And it even managed to take some good shots of the recent Lunar Eclipse, without using the Supermoon mode and just zooming into 30x digitally. Here it is:

Videography remains average: Oversaturated colors and overbrightened skin tones. I'll put the samples in my Twitter review but iQOO needs to work harder here.

However, the video stabilization was found to be excellent.

Conclusion: Does the iQOO 13 still make sense?

The short answer: yes, despite the iQOO 15's launch being 3 months away.

This rings especially true because the iQOO 13 will likely get discounted for the festive sales season.

If you get this phone for around ₹50K-51K, or below the mark, I would say that despite its flaws (the videography, the 2x lens & the UI design), there's no better all-rounder.

I came expecting the gaming performance to be good and that's it. I just did not expect to be surprised and impressed by the rest of the phone. And that's the highest praise I can give it.

And one last thing: the next time around, please do not do this awful camera downgrade with the telephoto. It is such a huge bummer, especially since the iQOO 12 had such a great 3x lens.

I have higher expectations from the iQOO 15 after my time with this phone, and I hope that whenever it comes, it lives up to those.