iQOO expanded the Z9 sequence by introducing two ‘s’ fashions, known as iQOO Z9s and iQOO Z9s Professional. Each smartphones are designed for younger multi-taskers, primarily school college students and younger professionals. We already shared some footage clicked with the Z9s Professional from our media tour in Baku, Azerbaijan, however we additionally used the smartphone for a couple of month to see the way it performs in different departments, and this is what we discovered.
Design
The iQOO Z9s Professional is constructed round a 6.77″ curved AMOLED show with a 120 Hz display screen refresh price and 4,500 nits peak brightness. It additionally has a centered punch-hole for the 16MP selfie digital camera and a fingerprint reader beneath for biometric authentication.
The fingerprint scanner was quick and correct, nevertheless it might’ve been positioned barely larger for ease of attain, which might’ve provided a extra handy smartphone unlocking expertise.
Flip the telephone round, and also you see a squircle-shaped digital camera island, which reminds us of the iQOO 12. Nevertheless, it’s greater in dimension and prevents the Z9s Professional from wobbling on flat surfaces. It homes a round flash and two working cameras – 50MP main and 8MP ultrawide.
The iQOO Z9s Professional is available in Luxe Marble and Flamboyant Orange colours, and it is the previous that we acquired for overview.
iQOO Z9s Professional in Flamboyant Orange and Luxe Marble colours
The Luxe Marble mannequin has a marble-like sample on its rear panel with a shiny end, whereas the Flamboyant Orange sports activities a vegan leather-based again – a primary for the Z sequence. It makes the Flamboyant Orange model 5g heavier than the Luxe Marble mannequin but additionally supplies a greater grip and is proof against smudges. The Luxe Marble picks up fingerprint smudges, however they don’t seem to be instantly seen.
No matter which model you purchase, the iQOO Z9s Professional comes with an IP64 ranking. Its again cowl additionally has curved edges, and the telephone is light-weight, making it snug for extended utilization.
The iQOO Z9s Professional sports activities shiny, reflective frames, with the right-side body that includes the quantity rocker and energy button. On the backside is the USB-C port, flanked by the SIM card slot, main mic, and a speaker grille. Up high is the secondary mic. The Z9s Professional additionally options stereo audio system.
iQOO Z9s Professional’s ports and controls
We like the general design of the iQOO Z9s Professional. It is constructed nicely and is snug for extended utilization.
Show
The iQOO Z9s Professional packs a 6.77″ curved AMOLED show of two,392×1,080-pixel decision and 387 ppi pixel density. It has a 120 Hz refresh price and a 300 Hz contact sampling price. iQOO can be promoting a 2,000 Hz prompt contact sampling price with the Extremely Sport Mode, which “allows sooner contact response and will be achieved when the sport enters the match scene.” Video games that help 2,000 Hz prompt contact sampling price on the iQOO Z9s Professional embrace Garena Free Hearth, Cell Legends, Name of Responsibility: Cell, Genshin Impression, Garena ROV, and PUBG Cell.
That stated, the iQOO Z9s Professional’s show helps 1.07 billion colours. It additionally helps HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG codecs and comes with Widevine L1 certification, permitting 1080p video streaming on appropriate apps.
The iQOO Z9s Professional’s show is protected by Schott Xensation Up glass and helps Moist Contact know-how, which, iQOO says, “differentiates between fingers and water droplets utilizing specialised algorithms, guaranteeing that your display screen has a quick and correct contact response even when splashed with raindrops or when your arms are moist.”
The iQOO Z9s Professional’s display screen has 4,500 nits peak brightness for HDR content material. Nevertheless, the panel on our unit wasn’t legible sufficient outside underneath daylight, even at max brightness, making us cowl the display screen with a hand to learn textual content and watch photos and movies, which is not supreme.
It is also price mentioning that the All the time-On Show mode on the iQOO Z9s Professional is not really all the time on because it’s solely turned on whenever you faucet the display screen or transfer the telephone barely. The choice to maintain it turned on all day or throughout particular hours is unavailable, and that is a bummer. iQOO may need to keep away from calling it an “always-on show” for the reason that show would not all the time stay on to indicate info. Nevertheless, that is one thing that may be fastened with a software program replace.
The iQOO Z9s Professional’s 120 Hz panel helps 60 Hz, 90 Hz, and 120 Hz refresh charges and has three refresh price choices – Good Change, Customary (60 Hz), and Excessive (120 Hz). You additionally get an extra “Apps operating at a excessive refresh price” choice within the menu whenever you select the Excessive refresh price, which lets you choose the apps and video games you need to run at 120 Hz.
With the display screen refresh price set to Excessive and enabled for all of the apps/video games from the “Apps operating at a excessive refresh price” choice, the refresh price bumped from 60 Hz to 120 Hz for the system menus and apps when interacting with the show. It remained at 60 Hz when viewing a picture in Google Images or watching a video. The identical goes for YouTube movies.
With the Customary mode, the whole lot expectedly remained at 60 Hz, whereas the Good Change mode dealt with issues in a different way than the Excessive mode. The refresh price went from 60 Hz to 120 Hz when switching between the apps and scrolling on the house display screen, app drawer, Settings app, and Play Retailer. For the whole lot else, the refresh price was capped at 90 Hz, aside from Quora and GSMArena’s apps, which had been restricted to 60 Hz. It was principally the Excessive Mode, which was restricted to 90 Hz for many apps.
We tried Name of Responsibility: Cell, Lifeless Set off 2, Actual Racing 3, and Sky Pressure: Reloaded on the iQOO Z9s Professional on the highest settings supported, and the one video games that ran at 120 FPS – that too in Excessive Mode – had been Actual Racing 3 and Sky Pressure: Reloaded.
To conclude, if you’d like the smoothest expertise on the iQOO Z9s Professional, the Excessive refresh price mode is your only option.
Software program and Efficiency
The iQOO Z9s Professional comes with the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 SoC, paired with as much as 12GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage. Ours is the top-end 12GB/256GB model, operating Android 14-based Funtouch OS 14 out of the field.
iOQO has promised two years of Android model upgrades and three years of Android safety updates for the Z9s Professional. Nevertheless, it hasn’t dedicated something relating to the rollout frequency of the safety updates.
The Z9s Professional additionally comes pre-installed with third-party apps, however fortuitously, most will be uninstalled. The general software program expertise you get with the iQOO Z9s Professional is much like that of the iQOO 12, so you’ll be able to learn our iQOO 12 overview to study extra about Funtouch OS 14.
That stated, it is price mentioning that App Retainer – which was launched with the Neo7 Professional and later got here to all vivo and iQOO smartphones by Funtouch OS 14 – nonetheless would not help some fashionable apps, together with Fb, which means whenever you swap to Fb from one other app, it should refresh, and you will not be capable to proceed from the place you left. It is about time vivo and iQOO fastened this.
Efficiency-wise, the iQOO Z9s Professional was principally clean in on a regular basis utilization. We are saying principally as a result of it did stutter at occasions when switching between apps and scrolling the content material. ChatGPT was additionally slower at displaying its textual responses than different telephones on the identical web connection. Nevertheless, we had no points with the Z9s Professional’s gaming efficiency because it dealt with heavy video games throughout lengthy gaming classes very nicely and remained moderately cool.
Talking of, the iQOO Z9s Professional comes with 4D Sport Vibration, Movement Management, and AI Sport Voice Changer to reinforce the gaming expertise. Nevertheless, 4D Sport Vibration at the moment solely helps PUBG Cell and BGMI.
Digicam
The iQOO Z9s Professional options three cameras – one on the entrance and two on the rear. The selfie unit on the entrance makes use of a 16MP Samsung S5K3P9SP04-FGX9 1/3.0″ sensor with an f/2.45 aperture and the potential to report 1080p movies at 30 FPS.
Across the again, you get a 50MP main digital camera and an 8MP ultrawide digital camera. The first digital camera makes use of the Sony IMX882 1/1.95″ sensor, having OIS and f/1.79 aperture. It may report 720p and 1080p movies at 30 and 60 FPS, whereas 4K video recording is proscribed to 30 FPS.
The 8MP ultrawide unit makes use of the OmniVision OV08D10-GA5A-001A sensor with an f/2.2 aperture and 120° FOV.
The iQOO Z9s Professional additionally comes with a few AI-powered options known as AI Picture Improve and AI Erase, which each require an energetic web connection to work. The previous is marketed to “swiftly repair all of the blurry photos in your gallery,” whereas the latter helps take away undesirable objects and folks out of your picture.
The AI Picture Improve characteristic can be utilized by heading to the iQOO Z9s Professional’s default Album app, opening the picture, and clicking Edit > Restore > AI Picture Improve. For AI Erase, you click on on Edit > AI Erase.
You get two choices in AI Erase – Good circle and Guide smudge. The previous mechanically identifies and removes folks and objects whenever you draw a circle on them, whereas the latter works extra like a daily eraser because it removes the objects or folks whenever you draw a line on them.
The iQOO Z9s Professional’s main and ultrawide cameras had been fast to seize photos. Nevertheless, there was shutter lag at occasions within the 50MP Excessive-Res mode, which has been principally fastened.
The first digital camera clicked some good footage in daylight within the Picture and Excessive-Res modes, however they weren’t good. The identical will be stated for the ultrawide digital camera. The digital camera efficiency was inconsistent. As an illustration, the sky coloration in some footage clicked with the ultrawide digital camera and the first digital camera’s default Picture mode was the identical, however the Excessive-Res mode had a unique hue.
Underneath sturdy daylight, footage taken with the first digital camera within the Picture mode got here out good, however the ones clicked in Excessive-Res mode had uninteresting, washed-out colours at occasions with much less sharpness, particularly in shadows. The highlights and midtones had been sharp sufficient with resolved particulars, although.
In dim daylight circumstances, pictures clicked with the ultrawide digital camera had noisy midtones – one thing we did not see a lot with the first digital camera in Picture and Excessive-Res modes. Some ultrawide clicks additionally had noise in shadows, whereas footage captured with the first digital camera in Excessive-Res had shadows with extra resolved particulars in comparison with Picture mode and ultrawide footage.
At evening, there was inconsistency in sky colours since typically these had been near the supply in Picture mode and typically in Excessive-Res mode when clicked with the first digital camera. In addition they had a purple-ish tinge at occasions. The images captured with the first digital camera in Excessive-Res mode had extra sharpness, particularly the textual content.
Some footage captured in Picture mode had extra sharpness, however their shadows had been darker and had much less element. The highlights had extra resolved particulars, although. When captured in Excessive-Res mode, these identical scenes had extra noise across the edges.
At occasions, the sunshine sources had been additionally overexposed in footage taken with the ultrawide digital camera and the first digital camera’s Picture and Excessive-Res modes, with the encircling midtones being smooth and missing particulars. General, the first digital camera clicked pictures at evening which must be adequate for social media, however the ultrawide digital camera was much less spectacular.
We do not have many complaints in regards to the portraits clicked with the first digital camera in Portrait mode. They’d good topic separation at 1x and 2x magnification ranges. They had been truly higher than we anticipated them to be.
Circling again to the AI Erase characteristic, the Good circle methodology labored higher than the Guide smudge, and we completely loved utilizing it. It is not good, after all, nevertheless it labored nicely.
Daylight Images
Let’s check out the daylight footage first captured with the 8MP ultrawide digital camera, adopted by pictures taken with the 50MP main digital camera, which has an output of 12.6MP within the default Picture mode.
Ultrawide digital camera, 8MP, 0.6x magnification (16mm).
Ultrawide digital camera, 8MP, 0.6x magnification (16mm)
Main digital camera, 12.6MP, 1x magnification (26mm).
Main digital camera, 12.6MP, 1x magnification (26mm)
Main digital camera, 50MP (Excessive decision), 1x magnification (26mm).
Main digital camera, 50MP (Excessive decision), 1x magnification (26mm)
Now, listed here are some footage clicked in Portrait Mode at 1x and 2x magnification.
Portrait Mode, 1x magnification (26mm).
Portrait Mode, 1x magnification (26mm)
Portrait Mode, 2x magnification (52mm).
Portrait Mode, 2x magnification (52mm)
Low-light Images
Now, let’s check out some low-light pictures. As soon as once more, these had been taken with the 8MP ultrawide and the 50MP main digital camera.
Ultrawide digital camera, 8MP, 0.6x magnification (16mm).
Ultrawide digital camera, 8MP, 0.6x magnification (16mm)
Main digital camera, 12.6MP, 1x magnification (26mm).
Main digital camera, 12.6MP, 1x magnification (26mm)
Main digital camera, 50MP (Excessive decision), 1x magnification (26mm).
Main digital camera, 50MP (Excessive decision), 1x magnification (26mm)
AI Erase (AI Object Remover)
The AI Object Remover is likely one of the key digital camera options of the iQOO Z9s Professional. We used it to take away human topics from some footage; you’ll be able to see it in motion under.
Authentic Picture • Picture with AI Object Remover used
Authentic Picture • Picture with AI Object Remover used
Authentic Picture • Picture with AI Object Remover used
Authentic Picture • Picture with AI Object Remover used
Subsequent up, we now have a few 1080p movies recorded at 30FPS with Customary stabilization.
Now, we now have two 1080p 30FPS movies recorded with Extremely stabilization. We went with 1080p decision for the reason that Extremely stabilization at the moment solely works with 1080p 30FPS movies.
Battery
The iQOO Z9s Professional has a 5,500 mAh battery underneath the hood with 80W wired charging and seven.5W reverse wired charging help, permitting you to cost different gadgets with the smartphone.
We could not run our normal battery checks on the iQOO Z9s Professional. Nevertheless, anecdotally talking, the Z9s Professional ought to simply final most individuals a day on a single cost with average utilization, 120Hz refresh price, 5G cellular information, and Wi-Fi hotspot turned on.
We bought a screen-on time of about six hours with a 120Hz refresh price, 5G cellular information, and Wi-Fi hotspot enabled the entire time. Our utilization consisted of net searching, utilizing social media apps, watching YouTube movies, and about an hour of heavy gaming. There have been additionally occasions once we bought 8-9 hours of SoT once we used the telephone just for watching movies and utilizing social media apps with the Wi-Fi hotspot turned on.
As soon as the iQOO Z9s Professional’s battery is drained, you’ll be able to juice it up with the bundled 80W energy adapter. It is marketed to fill the cell from 1 to 30% in 11 minutes, 50% in 21 minutes, and 100% in 46 minutes, which wasn’t the case in our charging checks.
In our testing, the iQOO Z9s Professional charged from 1% to 9% in 5 minutes, 19% in 10 minutes, 28% in quarter-hour, 38% in 20 minutes, 50% in 26 minutes, 58% in half-hour, and 100% in 52 minutes.
We ran the charging take a look at with the 5G cellular information turned on and the Wi-Fi hotspot disabled. With the Wi-Fi hotspot enabled, the iQOO Z9s Professional went from 1% to 100% in 60 minutes; therefore, your mileage will doubtless fluctuate relying in your utilization and the ambient temperature when charging the telephone.
Conclusion
The iQOO Z9s Professional is likely one of the finest smartphones you should purchase in its phase in India proper now. It has a pleasant construct with a slim design and IP64 ranking. The Z9s Professional will not be the snappiest telephone we have used, nevertheless it does supply a clean efficiency and handles video games nicely.
The iQOO Z9s Professional has a powerful battery life, backed by quick charging. Furthermore, the smartphone takes good daylight footage, and portraits are good, too, however the cameras can typically be inconsistent. We might have additionally appreciated to see longer software program help from iQOO.
The iQOO Z9s Professional begins at INR24,999 ($300/€275) in India and is price contemplating.