| Category | Specification |
| Processor | MediaTek Dimensity 7500 Turbo |
| Battery | 7,050mAh |
| Display | 6.83-inch 1.5K AMOLED, up to 144Hz |
| Camera | 50MP Sony main camera with OIS + 8MP ultra-wide |
| Durability | IP68 and IP69 dust and water resistance |
When the iQOO Z10 landed last year, it quickly became an easy phone to recommend to anyone on a tight budget. It focused on raw speed, offered ridiculously long battery life, and cost very little. But the market has moved relentlessly fast, and with the new Z11, iQOO is actively stepping out of that entry-level tier and into the proper mid-range ring.
Priced at ₹31,499 for the base 6 GB + 128 GB variant, that shift changes the game completely. Once you cross into this price bracket, buyers stop forgiving cheap plastics, washed-out displays, or sub-par cameras just because a device promises performance.
The Z11 arrives with a fresh chipset, a noticeably slimmer build, and huge battery numbers on paper, but stepping up in price means facing much stiffer competition. I spent the last week using it as my daily phone to see if it actually justifies the upgrade.
Unboxing the iQOO Z11 brings an immediate reality check: nestled inside is a 44W FlashCharge adapter. That is a noticeable step down from the snappy 90W brick shipped with last year’s Z10. The rest of the retail package is standard fare, including a USB Type-C cable, a SIM eject tool, and a clear TPU case. It looks like faster charging was sacrificed to keep the internal hardware affordable.
Pick the device up, though, and it immediately wins you back with its ergonomics. While massive batteries are practically becoming the standard across the segment, the Z11 actually dips slightly to a 7,050mAh cell compared to the massive 7,300mAh capacity inside its predecessor, the Z10. While that is a compromise of sorts, at least on paper, I am genuinely impressed by how slim and light it feels despite that hardware.
Measuring just 7.99mm thick and tipping the scales at 199g, the weight distribution is spot-on; it never feels like a bottom-heavy brick during extended gaming sessions or single-handed scrolling.
The Aurora Green unit that I have for review looks remarkably understated, swapping aggressive gamer accents for a clean, minimalist matte aesthetic. Indoors, it pulls off a calm sage-green tone, catching vibrant blue undertones under direct sunlight. The only downside is that the smooth back panel attracts smudges easily, so popping on the bundled case is practically a must. Also, if green isn’t your vibe, iQOO also offers the device in sleeker Phantom Black and Lunar Silver colourways.
Around the back, the camera module gets a major structural redesign. The old circular dial of the Z10 is gone, replaced by a horizontal pill-shaped island clearly inspired by the Vivo X300 FE or the recently launched Vivo S2. Alongside the dual lenses sits the flash, which also doubles as a mini dynamic light. It works fine as a soft fill light, though it lacks colour options, which makes it less exciting.
Rounding out the hardware is an IR blaster on top and genuinely balanced dual stereo speaker grilles at either end. As for durability, it gets IP68 and IP69 dust and water resistance ratings, and honestly, that is more than enough for most people.
The very first time I turned the Z11 over, the curved glass threw me off a bit. Pretty much every handset landing on my desk these days rocks a flat slab, so seeing the curved panel on a 6.83-inch 1.5K AMOLED panel felt slightly retro. I am usually the first person to complain about curved edges because of issues with false touches, but the taper here is subtle enough that I never dealt with annoying phantom touches while gaming or typing. The bezels are trim too, meaning the screen easily blends into the background whenever I fire up a movie.
iQOO talks up a 144Hz refresh rate on the spec sheet, but in real life, you will not see that figure running constantly. Since this is an LTPS screen rather than an LTPO unit, I noticed the system hopping mostly between 60Hz, 90Hz, and 120Hz depending on what I opened, saving the full 144Hz for just a few supported apps. Still, browsing my feeds, reading long documents, and navigating around the UI felt plenty responsive.
Streaming on this screen was easily one of my favourite parts of testing it. Out of the box, the colours look clean and grounded, avoiding that neon, oversaturated look you often get in this price bracket. Thanks to the 449 PPI density, text in PDFs stayed sharp, and HDR playback kicked in right away on Netflix, YouTube, and Prime Video, with solid shadow detail.
Outdoor visibility genuinely impressed me. Walking around under the brutal afternoon sun of Delhi’s summers, the 2,000-nit High Brightness Mode and 3,000-nit local peak brightness meant I never had to squint or shield the glass with my hand just to read a text or pull up directions. Indoors, the auto-brightness handled dark rooms without blinding me.
I also liked the in-display optical fingerprint scanner. Instead of placing it right against the bottom edge, iQOO positioned it slightly higher, so I never had to stretch my thumb awkwardly to unlock the phone.
The iQOO Z11 packs a dual-rear camera setup featuring a 50MP Sony main sensor with OIS paired with an 8MP ultra-wide lens on the back. I usually associate iQOO with raw performance rather than photography, so the Z11 surprised me. Most brands in this budget have practically given up on multi-camera setups, ditching everything in favour of a single usable sensor. Seeing a functional ultra-wide lens alongside the main shooter here was a very welcome change.
Shooting outdoors during the day, the primary camera captures plenty of sharp detail. The colours lean slightly saturated at times, but I personally prefer that vibrant look straight out of the phone without needing extra edits. Highlights are handled well, and the dynamic range holds up nicely in bright sunlight.
The front camera is another solid win. Instead of tossing in a cheap 5MP or 8MP unit meant only for video calls, iQOO packed in a 32MP selfie shooter that actually delivers crisp, usable shots. You can also take portrait selfies with it. Speaking of portraits in general, the rear camera does a decent job with subject separation, though edge detection remains hit-or-miss. I noticed odd smoothing around stray hairs and clothing borders, which clearly needs some software tuning.
For video, having 4K recording at 30fps on both the front and rear cameras is a massive perk at this price point. The rear footage stays steady enough for casual clips, but the front camera lacks decent stabilisation, resulting in noticeable jitter if you try vlogging while walking.
Overall, while it is not a dedicated camera flagship, iQOO has clearly put genuine effort into the optics this time instead of treating them as an afterthought.
The iQOO Z11 runs on the new MediaTek Dimensity 7500 Turbo. It is also one of the first phones in India to launch with this chipset. Day to day, it never felt sluggish or choked up. Opening apps was practically instantaneous, while UI transitions and jumping between half a dozen background tasks never triggered random app closures or stutters.
To see what the silicon could really do, I put it through a heavy run of benchmarks. On AnTuTu, my unit scored 1,103,367 points. Geekbench 6 posted 1,094 in single-core and 3,188 in multi-core, which comfortably edges out a good chunk of rival phones around this price. Over on 3DMark Wild Life Extreme, it logged a best loop score of 1,165 with 84.8% stability, while the CPU Throttling test held up at an impressive 94% of maximum performance.
Where the device genuinely surprised me was heat control. I fired up two back-to-back AnTuTu rounds, jumped straight into a pair of Geekbench runs without letting it rest, and then, after just ten minutes of downtime, pushed it through 3DMark before immediately loading the CPU throttling test. Even with that kind of abuse, the surface temperature never climbed past 38°C. It warmed up gently, but I never felt an uncomfortable hot patch under my fingers.
Gaming told a very similar story. I threw both BGMI and Call of Duty: Mobile at it. In BGMI, the frame rate hovered at a rock-steady 58.9 FPS on average, with 99.8% stability and roughly 3.24W of power consumption. Both games are stuck at 60 FPS for now, which honestly is a bit of a letdown since the chipset clearly has the muscle to push 90 FPS. Hopefully, iQOO pushes an update soon to unlock that headroom. Until then, you get smooth, locked-in 60 FPS gameplay paired with superb thermals.
Out of the box, the Z11 boots OriginOS 6.0 on top of Android 16. Swiping around the interface gave me that immediate, snappy responsiveness that you associate with iQOO phones. App launch animations are clean, moving between tasks feels light, and the UI never felt bogged down during my daily grind.
What really tested my patience, though, was the sheer pile of bloatware. I found myself staring at multiple random bubble-shooter games and redundant utility apps that nobody asked for. You can delete most of them manually, of course, but having to spend my first ten minutes unpicking spam from a brand-new handset always chips away at that new-phone excitement.
Once I stripped the junk away, the onboard AI tools ended up being surprisingly useful. iQOO skipped the usual marketing gimmicks and focused on features that actually help you get work done. The real-time webpage translation, quick voice-note summaries, and drafting aids inside the Notes app slotted right into my daily writing and editing routine. In fact, with great accuracy, you can also get a word-for-word transcription of a live, ongoing meeting. If you are balancing coursework or managing articles and drafts throughout the day, these shortcuts save genuine effort.
On the longevity front, iQOO promises three years of Android version updates alongside five years of security patches, backed by a 60-month smoothness guarantee. As long as you do not mind that initial clean-up chore, the software delivers a genuinely fast and dependable day-to-day experience.
The battery is easily my favourite part of using the Z11. That 7,050mAh cell inside is no joke; with regular use, I rarely had to think about plugging it in before the second night.
To see how far I could push it, I took it off the charger at 100% and put it through over three hours of non-stop torture, including multiple benchmark loops and a 30-minute gaming session. When I finally put it down, the battery was still sitting at 77%. Getting through that kind of punishment with three-quarters of the charge left tells you everything about its efficiency.
Topping it back up is just as drama-free. Plugging the bundled brick into a completely dead phone got me back to 100% in a little over an hour and ten minutes. Sure, it is not the fastest out there compared with some of the crazy high-wattage technologies available, but I never felt stuck waiting on it. Considering the battery is built for long-term health, taking roughly seventy minutes to deliver what can amount to two full days of usage feels like a totally fair trade.
At ₹31,499, the iQOO Z11 steps out of the budget zone and into cut-throat territory, and mostly pulls it off. You lose the blazing 90W fast charging of its predecessor, and having to purge bloatware on day one remains annoying. Plus, mobile gamers will rightly gripe until iQOO unlocks 90 FPS support.
Yet, what you get in return makes a compelling case. The battery endurance is ridiculously good, the Dimensity 7500 Turbo runs remarkably cool under heavy loads, and the curved 1.5K display makes media consumption a treat. Add in dependable cameras, capable 4K front video, and solid IP68/IP69 protection, and the Z11 stops being just another spec-sheet brawler.
If you want a reliable daily driver that prioritises two-day battery life, snappy productivity tools, and balanced sustained performance, the Z11 is easy to recommend.