iQOO expanded the Z9 collection by introducing two ‘s’ fashions, referred to 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 photos 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 refresh fee and 4,500 nits peak brightness. It additionally has a centered punch-hole for the 16MP selfie digicam and a fingerprint reader beneath for biometric authentication.
The fingerprint scanner was quick and correct, however it may’ve been positioned barely larger for ease of attain, which may’ve provided a extra handy smartphone unlocking expertise.
Flip the cellphone round, and also you see a squircle-shaped digicam island, which reminds us of the iQOO 12. Nonetheless, it’s larger in measurement 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 obtained 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 collection. It makes the Flamboyant Orange model 5g heavier than the Luxe Marble mannequin but additionally offers 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 score. Its again cowl additionally has curved edges, and the cellphone 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 prime 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 properly 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 fee and a 300 Hz contact sampling fee. iQOO can also be promoting a 2,000 Hz immediate contact sampling fee with the Extremely Sport Mode, which “allows sooner contact response and will be achieved when the sport enters the match scene.” Video games that assist 2,000 Hz immediate contact sampling fee on the iQOO Z9s Professional embrace Garena Free Fireplace, Cell Legends, Name of Responsibility: Cell, Genshin Influence, Garena ROV, and PUBG Cell.
That mentioned, 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 expertise, which, iQOO says, “differentiates between fingers and water droplets utilizing specialised algorithms, guaranteeing that your display has a quick and correct contact response even when splashed with raindrops or when your palms are moist.”
The iQOO Z9s Professional’s display has 4,500 nits peak brightness for HDR content material. Nonetheless, the panel on our unit wasn’t legible sufficient open air below daylight, even at max brightness, making us cowl the display with a hand to learn textual content and watch photos and movies, which is not best.
It is also value 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 while you faucet the display or transfer the cellphone 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” because the show does not all the time stay on to indicate info. Nonetheless, 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 fee choices – Sensible Swap, Normal (60 Hz), and Excessive (120 Hz). You additionally get an extra “Apps operating at a excessive refresh fee” choice within the menu while you select the Excessive refresh fee, which lets you choose the apps and video games you need to run at 120 Hz.
With the display refresh fee set to Excessive and enabled for all of the apps/video games from the “Apps operating at a excessive refresh fee” choice, the refresh fee 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 Pictures or watching a video. The identical goes for YouTube movies.
With the Normal mode, every thing expectedly remained at 60 Hz, whereas the Sensible Swap mode dealt with issues in a different way than the Excessive mode. The refresh fee went from 60 Hz to 120 Hz when switching between the apps and scrolling on the house display, app drawer, Settings app, and Play Retailer. For every thing else, the refresh fee was capped at 90 Hz, apart 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 Power: 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 Power: Reloaded.
To conclude, if you need the smoothest expertise on the iQOO Z9s Professional, the Excessive refresh fee mode is your best choice.
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. Nonetheless, it hasn’t dedicated something concerning the rollout frequency of the safety updates.
The Z9s Professional additionally comes pre-installed with third-party apps, however luckily, most will be uninstalled. The general software program expertise you get with the iQOO Z9s Professional is just like that of the iQOO 12, so you possibly can learn our iQOO 12 overview to study extra about Funtouch OS 14.
That mentioned, it is value 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 does not assist some well-liked apps, together with Fb, that means while you change to Fb from one other app, it would refresh, and you will not be capable of proceed from the place you left. It is about time vivo and iQOO fastened this.
Efficiency-wise, the iQOO Z9s Professional was largely easy in on a regular basis utilization. We are saying largely as a result of it did stutter at instances 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. Nonetheless, we had no points with the Z9s Professional’s gaming efficiency because it dealt with heavy video games throughout lengthy gaming classes very properly and remained fairly cool.
Talking of, the iQOO Z9s Professional comes with 4D Sport Vibration, Movement Management, and AI Sport Voice Changer to boost the gaming expertise. Nonetheless, 4D Sport Vibration presently 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 aptitude to document 1080p movies at 30 FPS.
Across the again, you get a 50MP main digicam and an 8MP ultrawide digicam. The first digicam makes use of the Sony IMX882 1/1.95″ sensor, having OIS and f/1.79 aperture. It might probably document 720p and 1080p movies at 30 and 60 FPS, whereas 4K video recording is restricted 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 referred to 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 other people out of your photograph.
The AI Picture Improve function can be utilized by heading to the iQOO Z9s Professional’s default Album app, opening the photograph, and clicking Edit > Restore > AI Picture Improve. For AI Erase, you click on on Edit > AI Erase.
You get two choices in AI Erase – Sensible circle and Handbook smudge. The previous routinely identifies and removes folks and objects while you draw a circle on them, whereas the latter works extra like an everyday eraser because it removes the objects or folks while you draw a line on them.
The iQOO Z9s Professional’s main and ultrawide cameras had been fast to seize photos. Nonetheless, there was shutter lag at instances within the 50MP Excessive-Res mode, which has been largely fastened.
The first digicam clicked some good photos in daylight within the Picture and Excessive-Res modes, however they weren’t excellent. The identical will be mentioned for the ultrawide digicam. The digicam efficiency was inconsistent. As an illustration, the sky coloration in some photos clicked with the ultrawide digicam and the first digicam’s default Picture mode was the identical, however the Excessive-Res mode had a distinct hue.
Underneath robust daylight, photos taken with the first digicam within the Picture mode got here out good, however the ones clicked in Excessive-Res mode had boring, washed-out colours at instances with much less sharpness, particularly in shadows. The highlights and midtones had been sharp sufficient with resolved particulars, although.
In dim daylight circumstances, photographs clicked with the ultrawide digicam had noisy midtones – one thing we did not see a lot with the first digicam in Picture and Excessive-Res modes. Some ultrawide clicks additionally had noise in shadows, whereas photos captured with the first digicam in Excessive-Res had shadows with extra resolved particulars in comparison with Picture mode and ultrawide photos.
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 digicam. In addition they had a purple-ish tinge at instances. The photographs captured with the first digicam in Excessive-Res mode had extra sharpness, particularly the textual content.
Some photos 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 similar scenes had extra noise across the edges.
At instances, the sunshine sources had been additionally overexposed in photos taken with the ultrawide digicam and the first digicam’s Picture and Excessive-Res modes, with the encircling midtones being tender and missing particulars. Total, the first digicam clicked photographs at evening which needs to be ok for social media, however the ultrawide digicam was much less spectacular.
We do not have many complaints in regards to the portraits clicked with the first digicam in Portrait mode. That they had good topic separation at 1x and 2x magnification ranges. They had been really higher than we anticipated them to be.
Circling again to the AI Erase function, the Sensible circle technique labored higher than the Handbook smudge, and we completely loved utilizing it. It is not excellent, in fact, however it labored properly.
Daylight Pictures
Let’s check out the daylight photos first captured with the 8MP ultrawide digicam, adopted by photographs taken with the 50MP main digicam, which has an output of 12.6MP within the default Picture mode.
Ultrawide digicam, 8MP, 0.6x magnification (16mm).
Ultrawide digicam, 8MP, 0.6x magnification (16mm)
Major digicam, 12.6MP, 1x magnification (26mm).
Major digicam, 12.6MP, 1x magnification (26mm)
Major digicam, 50MP (Excessive decision), 1x magnification (26mm).
Major digicam, 50MP (Excessive decision), 1x magnification (26mm)
Now, listed below are some photos 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 Pictures
Now, let’s check out some low-light photographs. As soon as once more, these had been taken with the 8MP ultrawide and the 50MP main digicam.
Ultrawide digicam, 8MP, 0.6x magnification (16mm).
Ultrawide digicam, 8MP, 0.6x magnification (16mm)
Major digicam, 12.6MP, 1x magnification (26mm).
Major digicam, 12.6MP, 1x magnification (26mm)
Major digicam, 50MP (Excessive decision), 1x magnification (26mm).
Major digicam, 50MP (Excessive decision), 1x magnification (26mm)
AI Erase (AI Object Remover)
The AI Object Remover is among the key digicam options of the iQOO Z9s Professional. We used it to take away human topics from some photos; you possibly can see it in motion under.
Unique Picture • Picture with AI Object Remover used
Unique Picture • Picture with AI Object Remover used
Unique Picture • Picture with AI Object Remover used
Unique Picture • Picture with AI Object Remover used
Subsequent up, we’ve got a few 1080p movies recorded at 30FPS with Normal stabilization.
Now, we’ve got two 1080p 30FPS movies recorded with Extremely stabilization. We went with 1080p decision because the Extremely stabilization presently solely works with 1080p 30FPS movies.
Battery
The iQOO Z9s Professional has a 5,500 mAh battery below the hood with 80W wired charging and seven.5W reverse wired charging assist, permitting you to cost different gadgets with the smartphone.
We could not run our customary battery assessments on the iQOO Z9s Professional. Nonetheless, anecdotally talking, the Z9s Professional ought to simply final most individuals a day on a single cost with reasonable utilization, 120Hz refresh fee, 5G cell knowledge, and Wi-Fi hotspot turned on.
We obtained a screen-on time of about six hours with a 120Hz refresh fee, 5G cell knowledge, and Wi-Fi hotspot enabled the entire time. Our utilization consisted of net shopping, utilizing social media apps, watching YouTube movies, and about an hour of heavy gaming. There have been additionally instances once we obtained 8-9 hours of SoT once we used the cellphone 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 possibly can 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 assessments.
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 check with the 5G cell knowledge 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 differ relying in your utilization and the ambient temperature when charging the cellphone.
Conclusion
The iQOO Z9s Professional is among the finest smartphones you should buy in its phase in India proper now. It has a pleasant construct with a slim design and IP64 score. The Z9s Professional shouldn’t be the snappiest cellphone we have used, however it does provide a easy efficiency and handles video games properly.
The iQOO Z9s Professional has a formidable battery life, backed by quick charging. Furthermore, the smartphone takes good daylight photos, and portraits are good, too, however the cameras can typically be inconsistent. We might have additionally favored to see longer software program assist from iQOO.
The iQOO Z9s Professional begins at INR24,999 ($300/€275) in India and is value contemplating.
