Vivo iQOO Z1 Smartphone Review
Vivo this year already came out with two iQOO models, in February with the iQOO 3 and in April with the iQOO 3 Neo. The new Vivo iQOO Z1 Smartphone is a more affordable approach from the company.
Entitled as a gaming phone Vivo iQOO Z1 received the new Dimensity 1000+ chipset from Mediatek resulting in an astonishing gaming performance.
The gaming phone market is dominated by the Snapdragon processors, and it is interesting to see that new chipset manufacturers will also try to get closer.
MediaTek, first with the Helio G series, tried to get into the race in the gaming phone market; then with the Dimensity series, it appears that they get really close to the Qualcomm Snapdragons.
MediaTek Dimensity processors are famously providing great performance rates at a much lower price than the competition.
Along with MediaTek Huawei wanted to position itself on the gaming phone market with its Kirin processors. They got good performance numbers, but sadly these chipsets are exclusive only for Huawei smartphones.
The new Vivo iQOO Z1 features this great Dimensity 1000+ processor, an outstanding 144 Hz refresh rate screen, great battery life, gaming optimizations, 5G connectivity, enough RAM and storage for a fluid experience and many more.
Let’s see in detail what the new Vivo iQOO Z1 smartphone is capable of, and what surprises it holds.
Design
At first sight, the Vivo iQOO Z1 is almost identical to the iQOO 3 Neo. The only distinguishable piece between the two is on the back. An orange ring around the iQOO 3 Neo’s main camera is pointing that this is not the Vivo iQOO Z1.
Other than that, they are available in unique fancy colors. Vivo iQOO Z1 is available in three space colors, Space Blue, Galaxy Silver, and lastly in Symphony Meteo. This additional color came out later than previously announced.
Vivo iQOO Z1 in hand feels solid, it has a premium build quality. On the back, you immediately notice that gradient shiny colors, that just go one into another as has been reflected in the light.
The shiny chrome surface of the back part is unquestionably a fingerprint magnet. The protective TPU case that comes in the box may be a help for that.
On the right side, you get the fingerprint sensor along with the power button which works really snappy and the non-split volume rocker.
Moving down, you have an USB C port, one piece of the stereo speakers -the other one is up above the screen – and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. This is an important factor, while on Bluetooth headphones there is some latency while playing games, the old school wired ones do not have.
On the other side, there is a dual SIM tray, sadly, no expandability option, but 128 GB and 256 GB internal storage can be enough.
Display
The front panel is 6.57 inches IPS LCD, with 2408 x 1080 pixel resolution and a 20:9 ratio. The screen to body ratio is approximately 83.9%, which is good enough, there is a little bezel on the bottom, but overall it is thin.
This IPS display has an extraordinary 144 Hz refresh rate. Viewing angles are good. This panel is capable of HDR10 and has FHD+ resolution.
We know that AMOLED panels are much valued, and IPS displays do not bring that deep dark, but you can tweak the white balance from cooler to warmer color reproduction in the settings.
In the settings also we can set the screen refresh rate manually. It has five different setting mode which I never met yet on other smartphones, more exactly 60, 90, 120, and 144 Hz, along with a Smart Switch mode
Undoubtedly Vivo iQOO Z1 was conceived for gaming. Let’s see some under the hood specifications.
Performance
This phone as I mentioned before has a 7nm Mediatek Dimensity 1000+ processor with eight cores that can run up to around 2500 MHz. Along with the Mali-G77 MC9, and 6 or 8 GB of ram, you will get a gaming beast.
You probably won’t notice the difference between the Snapdragon 865 and the Dimensity 1000+ because most of the games have limited frame rates at around 30 and 60 frames per second.
Although I tested with games that have no limits on frame rates and I achieved even 120 fps, going fluently. Even though I observed sudden drops on frame rates, that is probably doing the AI maintaining a healthy balance between game performance and overheating.
Using the Monster mode which is a high-performance mode, you can fully immerse in your gaming experience, along with superb sounding stereo audio, you get not only visual entertainment.
Vivo iQOO Z1 runs on almost stock Android 10 with iQOO UI (User Interface) 1.0. This gadget is not fully gaming-oriented, which is a good characteristic.
Battery and Features
Vivo iQOO Z1 has a huge Li-Po 4500 mAh battery. Along with the 44W Super Fast Charger, you can get up to 50% juice in around 23 minutes, and 60 minutes takes to a full charge.
Battery drainage along with gaming is not too much. For example, a one-hour PUBG session reduces the battery down by around 16%.
Vivo iQOO Z1 is a dual SIM capable smartphone supporting dual 5G connectivity.
NTC support is also available on this one, although I don’t know if it is available in Europe, because this phone does not come out yet in this part of the world, only in China.
Cameras
Vivo iQOO Z1 has a triple camera setup on the back and a hole punch cut for the selfie camera in the front panel within the display.
The main camera has 48 MP with an f/1.8 aperture value and a 26mm wide sensor.
The next in the row is an 8 MP, 112 degrees ultrawide lens, with an aperture value of f/2.2.
The macro sensor, the last one, has 2 MP with an f/2.4 aperture value.
The selfie camera on the front panel has a 16 MP wide lens with f/2.0 aperture value.
The overall performance of the cameras is just average, nothing special, although it shots great photos in good conditions. They are pretty sharp with details and have an excellent color reproduction.
You can record videos at 4K at 30 fps and 1080p at 30 fps with the back cameras. There is an electronic stabilization here. With the selfie camera, you can shoot videos at 1080p at 30fps, no EIS, but HDR mode is available.
Verdict
Vivo iQOO Z1 is a great value for the price you get. Although It doesn’t come out yet in the European U.S. and neither in the Asian market, it is only available in China.
Although this phone has multilingual support and receives Google updates, you can use it outside of China, too. Not the perfect experience because not every word can be translated, but usable.
Don’t forget to check out the network frequencies of your country and if it’s compatible with the Vivo iQOO Z1 to use it fully.
The global version probably will be at a higher price, but still will remain an affordable phone.
With the Vivo iQOO Z1 package, you will get an affordable smartphone with flagship performance, perfect for gaming.
The 144 Hz refresh rate panel just boosts your gaming experience to a higher level.
With Vivo iQOO Z1 you also got 5G connectivity, fast charging, NFC, triple camera, and an overall super-fast phone, at a price range much lower than the competition.
At around $350, you can get the basic 6GB/128 GB version at AliExpress, Banggood, or Gizmochina.
