iQOO has a very important role in VIVO’s dual-brand strategy. As you know, all major Chinese smartphone makers have their sub-brands: Huawei has Honor; Xiaomi has Redmi; OPPO has Realme; VIVO has iQOO. This helps the manufacturers run various strategies and target various groups of customers. In this regard, iQOO has been always known for its great price-over-performance ratio. Thus, it’s the direct rival to Redmi. Today, VIVO’s sub-brand quietly announced a new handset in face of the iQOO U1. It is powered by the Snapdragon 720G new-gen chip. So, there is every reason to think this handset will compete with the Redmi Note 9.
Screen
As for other features, the iQOO U1 uses a 6.53-inch hole-punch screen. Its screen-to-body ratio is 90.72%. So, there is every reason to think we are dealing with a true full-screen handset. The body thickness is 8.46mm, and it’s very comfortable to hold in hand. The power button on the side also carries a fingerprint recognition module. By the way, this is already a very common practice for smartphones from this range.
Gizchina News of the week
Hardware
As said, under the hood, it comes with the Snapdragon 720G processor. Compared with the Snapdragon 712, the CPU performance is increased by 23% and the GPU is increased by 15%. We also know that the iQOO U1 comes with an UFS 2.1 storage and a LPDDR4X memory. There are several variants of storage combinations. But the top version comes with an 8GB of RAM and a 128GB storage.
The iQOO U1 smartphone has a 4500mAh battery, which supports an 18W charging. There was a time when such a charging speed was considered as fast charging. But on the background of the current fast charging technologies of OPPO and VIVO, it can’t be regarded as a fast charging Anymore. Anyways, there is an 18W flash charger included in the box.
Appearance
The iQOO U1 adopts a streamlined one-piece body. There are also three color variants to choose from – secret black, sunny frost white, and star blue.
Camera
On the back, this handset carries a 48MP AI ultra-clear main camera. There are also a 2MP 4cm macro lens and a 2MP portrait depth-of-field lens.
Price
As said above, the iQOO U1 has a few variants: the 6GB+64GB version costs 1198 yuan ($171); the 6GB+128GB is at 1398 yuan ($200); the 8GB+128GB comes at 1598 yuan ($228). Pre-sales on all platforms have started today. And they will go on sale on July 23.
